What kind of chickens and ducks will we have on the farm?

ReMARKable Eggs

Recently, we made a big decision regarding the chickens that we will have on the farm.  For many years, we were planning to use heritage breeds of chickens.  Heritage chicken breeds have slow growth rate, can mate naturally, and live long, productive lives.  At first, I thought we would have Dominique chickens.  Then, I got excited about Speckled Sussex.  Lastly, I started learning more about "sex linking" and I decided we would want Delaware hens and Speckled Sussex roosters to produce eggs that hatched out sex linked chicks.

I got really excited about sex linked chicks.  Chicken sexer's must go to school for 3 years to learn the trade.  BUT if you cross a "white" Delaware hen with a "reddish" Rhode Island Red rooster, the females (pullets) are red, while the males (cockerels) are yellow at hatching so you can separate the chicks.  Therefore, we could separate out the roosters and raise them up for meat.

The heritage chickens that we chose are "dual" purpose breeds.  These are breeds that are good for eggs and meat.  There are also certain breeds of chickens that are just raised for meat (mostly Cornish Cross) and breeds of chickens that are egg laying (like a Leghorn).  The dual purpose breeds fall in the middle for egg production and meat production.

Then, as we started working with Vocational Rehabilitation, I started crunching the numbers.  I spent 3 hours last week updating the business plan.  I am meeting with someone from the Small Business Administration on Tuesday to review the business plan.

It's expensive to start a business from the ground up.  We want our farm to be sustainable but we won't be here long if we can't pay for our start up costs.  I was looking at incubators and hatchers that cost several hundred dollars each.  In addition, we would need extra pens/housing to raise the roosters.  Trying to find a processors is about non-existent so we would probably have to do it ourselves and you don't even want to know how much a plucker and a scalder costs...

This is an egg business and what will make us successful is selling a lot of eggs.  We started looking at hybrid egg laying chickens and ducks.  Delaware chickens may produce anywhere from 200-280 eggs/year.  A Red Star hybrid chicken can produce 280-300 eggs/year.  Can you see the difference?  Egg = money.  My calculations in the business plan is based on poultry producing 260 eggs/year.

Red Star hybrid chickens

I started looking and found that there is really only 2 hybrid ducks that produce about 300 eggs a year.  They are basically the same but one breed is pure white and one is colored...we will go with the Golden (colored) ducks.

Golden 300 Hybrid Layer ducks

We are not permanently giving up on the idea of raising heritage poultry breeds.  I know that some "lines" of certain breeds have been developed to be better egg layers and we will take more time to explore this.  BUT to start, it is more important to get the business profitable and that means keeping costs down (no incubators, no hatchers, no processing equipment, etc...) and selling more eggs.  According to my predictions, Mark will not actually make a profit until the 4th year.  IF Mark's Coop Construction Campaign is successful, we will probably see profits on the 3rd year.

Of course, the breed of poultry is only one part of running the egg business.  We are also committed to providing high quality feed and forage opportunities to the poultry to make sure them have healthy, active lives.

Mark's graduation is 12 days away!

~Denise

Mark's Coop Construction Campaign - Your Help Needed!

ReMARKable Eggs

First, I want to thank everyone for the encouraging words, thoughts, and prayers for Joshua.  We had our family therapy time last Thursday and I was much more hopeful that he is starting to calm down and "work" the program at Benchmark.  Thank you!  

Second, Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  We are going morel hunting this afternoon and I can't wait!

Third, Mark is graduating from high school next month!  We have started Mark's Coop Construction Campaign on a GoFundMe page to help get his business up and running.

We need your help!  Any donation would be greatly appreciated.  Share Mark's Coop Construction Campaign with any of your friends that might be willing to help "Fund a Farmer" and support local food.  

ReMARKable Eggs Mission:  

To provide flexible employment for Mark while using sustainable farming practices to produce pastured eggs for our family, friends, and community. 

I am keeping this post short (call your mom!) but there is lots more information about the Campaign at the Mark's Coop Construction Campaign GoFundMe site and on ReMARKable Eggs website.  

As always, we will be posting on our ReMARKable Farms Facebook page so "like" us and watch us grow!

If you have any questions about the Campaign or the egg business, don't hesitate to reach out to Denise at denise@remarkablefarms.com

Thank you!

~Denise

Where's Joshua?

Consider this another late Autism Awareness post (April is Autism Awareness month).  This post is not going to be anything about the farm.  It is about our youngest son, Joshua.  He is also diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (which is a developmental disability) but I have suspected for a while that he also deals with some mental health issues.  He is 14 (will be 15 on May 14th).  In January 2018, I could tell that Joshua was starting to have a lot of anxiety.  I got him set up with some mental health counseling.  He was in 8th grade at the time and was worried about the transition to high school.

His anxiety and behavior continued to escalate until we ended up in the Emergency Room in March 2018.  He was admitted to Kootenai Behavior Health (KBH) in Coeur d'Alene.  Usually, individuals stay there for 7-10 days.  Joshua was there for 3 weeks and they said that he would actually need to go to a more long-term treatment place.  We refused this and brought him home.  We tried more medication management.  I was working with Department of Health and Welfare Crisis Prevention to try and find supports to help Joshua (but there were none available).

We ended up back into the ER 3 more times over the next 3 months.  KBH seemed to be refusing to take him back so he would just have to come back home to us.  One time, he was waiting in the ER for 2 days for placement and we got to meet with a social worker.  I was hopeful that maybe she would have access to some resources that I did not know about.  However, we were just told that Joshua was fine and that we needed parenting classes...this was VERY upsetting.

Finally, in late July, we tried a new medication that really helped to mellow out the behaviors.  We made it to school in August and things took a good turn at this point.  He seemed to really like the high school and had a great support system there.  We finally found a Habilitative Interventionist (HI - this is a fancy way of saying "someone who works with kids with behaviors" to work with Joshua in September.  We had a couple of good months.

In November 2018, I could see that things were taking a turn again.  I had a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) completed on Joshua.  This assessment basically said that all Joshua's behaviors are a result of his lack of executive functioning skills.  I was given a book to read, Smart but Scattered.  I did read the book and it was a great resource.  BUT...I felt like I had already done about 90% of the suggested activities to help Joshua.  The behaviorist that did the FBA had moved out of state so he was no longer available to help us.

Also, in November, I was working with Liberty Healthcare.  This organization determines eligibility for developmental disability (DD) services.  For example, the HI services that we were getting are a DD service.  They asked if Joshua had a mental health diagnosis.  I gave them a copy of some testing we had completed when Joshua was 7 years old stating that he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).  He looked at it and said he could not use this testing because the person doing the testing did not have the correct credentials.  So, I started calling around to see how we could pursue better mental health testing for Joshua.

In December, Joshua decided that he did not want to go to school anymore and would run away from school.  This involved me calling the police several times to try and track him down and it was just a big mess.  His behaviors at home were getting more aggressive too.

The Christmas break went well and I thought we had a good amount of time to "reset" and get back on track.  Unfortunately, the behaviors just ramped back up when school started again.  He ended up assaulting a teacher and we were told that the school district was going to pursue prosecution.

The next week, Joshua assaulted a student at school and was sent home (out of school suspension).  When I was home with him that afternoon, Joshua tried to assault me in our home with a knife.  I had to call 911 and the sheriff came out and took Joshua to the Detention Center in Lewiston.

It is so difficult to determine what is autism and what is puberty and what is hormones and what might be a mental health issue.  I finally did find that the WSU Psychology Clinic could do the mental health testing that we needed.  However, Joshua was already "locked up" so we could not get him there to do the assessment.

The prosecuting attorney ordered some testing for Joshua to determine if he really understood the consequences of his actions.  Basically, we were trying to determine if his developmental disability limited his understanding of his behaviors and their consequences.  It is all just so confusing.

At the end of January, I was talking more with Children's Mental Health and was told about a program that I could apply to for residential treatment.  I didn't want to do this but things were not safe in our home and Joshua needed some intensive treatment that we just could not provide.  The HI that had been working with him since September said he had tried everything he knew to do and just couldn't make any progress.

I applied and Joshua was accepted for residential treatment.  Now, we needed to find a placement.  Idaho does not really have this type of resource available (I think I was told that there is one residential treatment center in Idaho and it is always full and would not be appropriate for Joshua).  The Department of Health and Welfare sent out 3 applications and Joshua was accepted to Copper Hills Youth Center near Salt Lake City, Utah.  They specialize in working with adolescents with Autism and Mental Health issues.  I had actually heard from 2 different people that this facility has a great reputation.

On March 18, I flew with Joshua down to Salt Lake and he was admitted to Copper Hills.  Do I even need to state that this was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do?  Dropping my child off at some facility 600 miles away from home?  I know this is the best thing for Joshua and our family at this time but that doesn't make it any easier.

Joshua hanging out at hotel the night before we went to Copper Hills for admission.

Unfortunately, Joshua continued with poor behaviors and he was kicked out of this facility.  Luckily, they have a "sister" facility in the same area that works specifically with kids with more severe behaviors.  Joshua has been at Benchmark for just over two weeks now.  He had a lot of behaviors again the first week but seems to have calmed down now.  We have weekly family counseling via the phone.  The average stay is 12-18 months. We already have plans to go and visit him.  He has to earn this privilege and it will probably take several months before we are allowed to visit.

The million dollar question for me is "Why?".  I don't understand why he feels the need to attack us but mental health disorders are often irrational.  Let me say how grateful we are for this intervention.  We are SO happy that he was been approved for residential treatment and that he was accepted into the Copper Hills/Benchmark program.  This kind of feels like our last ditch effort to get help for him.  I just wanted to put this out there so people understand what we have been dealing with.  I know we are not alone.  We had a really rough patch with Mark a couple of years ago and I just met with a good friend last week for coffee and she is having similar issues with her teenage son.  If you are the praying type, please, say a prayer or send some positive energy to Joshua.  I just have hope that he will get the treatment he needs so he can be successful and come home.

~Denise

ReMARKable Farms website is up!

On the Farm

Head over to www.remarkablefarms.com and check out our new website!  You can click on the tabs at the top of the page to read some background about the me (Denise), Mark and the Farm.

Any editing suggestions to the website would be appreciated.  I will probably change the design in the future.  Right now, it's getting busy with the garden and getting Mark's business going.  Lately, my mind is going about 100 miles an hour lately.  So excited to get the farm started this year but also so anxious that we might do something wrong!

This is also a time of big transition for our family.  Mark will be graduating from high school IN 2 MONTHS and living with us full time.  This adds a new dimension to our lives.  You may be thinking..."What's the big deal?"  Well, it's kind of hard for me to put into words but for the last 15 years, Mark has gone to school most days for several hours.  Now, he will be home all the time.  I want him to continue to learn and have a fulfilling life.  I am probably putting too much pressure on myself.  I read this in Proverbs last week and it just reminds me to take it one day at a time...

Speaking of taking it one day at a time, this week the fencing is going in!  We are trying to get a perimeter fence around the property. The good news is that about 3/4 of the property is already fenced!  The bad news is that there is still a significant part to fence in and it's expensive (isn't everything...)

Next, we are extending a water line out into the area where the chicken coops will be so we don't have to carry water long distances.

After the fencing and water lines, it may be time to work on the coops!

~Denise

Winter 2019 farm update...

Here is an update of what we did over Winter 2019:

First, if you don't live locally (Moscow, ID), it is important to let you know that we had a record amount of snow this year.  Most of it came in February.  I think I heard estimates of up to 50 inches of snow over the winter.  Here are the water trough raised beds to show the depth of the snow.

This picture was taken on March 1st...

This picture was taken yesterday (March 24th)...things are melting nicely...

I took the covers off the large round water trough and the spinach that I planted last fall looks amazing!  It looks almost exactly like it did last fall before I put the covers on.  The walking onion is starting to take off too (back center of picture).  The weather has really warmed up so I expect that we will be able to start harvesting spinach soon!

I experimented with growing lettuce inside.  I started some in December.  It worked really well!

We made some time to go snow tubing at Silver Mountain! We also did some tubing in our own front yard due to all the great snow we got!

Mark and Henry getting ready to "tube" down the hill.

I experimented with making my own soap.  This is an olive oil based soap.  I used oil infused with calendula flowers (that is why it is kind of an orange color).  It just finished curing and I got to use some for the first time right before I started working on this blog!

We continue to work on diet and exercise.  I have been taking Mark swimming and he really enjoys it.  I thought I took a short video of Mark swimming but I must have deleted it by accident.  

It looks like we are on the right track with the weight loss.  Yes, there are some ups and downs and we plateaued for a little bit but we seem to be back on track now...I would say he has lost about 15 pounds at this point.  Still would like to see him lose another 55 pounds...I know that seems like a lot but with warmer weather coming, we should be able to get out and exercise a little more.

Sad news...the bees did not make it.  Yes, these are all dead bees that were at the bottom of the Langstroth hive.  My top bar hive did not make it either.  I cleaned out the hives yesterday and have already ordered new bees (hopefully, they will be available on April 13th!).  I will harvest some honey from the top bar hive so that is a nice thing to look forward to.

Lastly, I spent some time yesterday measuring and flagging our "front" yard where we are going to be building our poultry coops.  

Here is a low area of the property where some water has accumulated.  I have marked it so it can become a small duck pond.

I also had someone out last week to get an estimate on fencing and extending a water line out to the coop areas.  It is both exciting and super scary to move forward with the poultry egg business.

Looking forward to warmer temperatures!
~Denise

New apple jelly and sunflower for Farmer's Market

In the Kitchen

I am starting to think ahead to the Farmer’s Market this summer.  I just received a packet in the mail from the City of Moscow sent out to all potential vendors each winter. There’s a mandatory orientation in April and they are also doing site visits. I don’t know if this is a new thing. I’ve never had a site visit before. Something to look forward to, I guess.

 Last fall I was able to collect enough apples to make apple cider jelly and apple pie jam which I’m planning to take to market. Here’s a picture of the different apples that we have on the property. The last apple is a type of crab apple which is completely inedible. Crab apples are used in orchards because they have a long bloom time. Most apple varieties need to be cross-pollinated so having a long bloom time is a bonus for getting good fruit set. 

Here is a picture of the different apples that we have on the property.  The majority of the apples are Ben Davis apples. That is the first apple in the line up (far left).

The other apples, I am not sure about.  The last apple is a type of crab apple and is completely inedible.  Crab apples are used a lot in orchards because they have a long bloom time.  Most apple varieties need to be cross pollinated so having a long bloom time is a bonus for getting good fruit set.

The majority of apples are Ben Davis –the first apple in the line-up on the far left. The Ben Davis was one of the most popular apples in the United States in the late 1800’s and “one  of if not the most important commercial apple at the time.” (Mother Earth News). The world’s most famous apple producer of the time, Frederick Wellhouse of Leavenworth, Kansas, (they called him “The Apple King), stated that the Ben Davis was his most profitable apple. This was high praise from a man who dominated the industry for 30 years. The Ben Davis did not win such high regard for taste, which was usually described as “cotton-like” or tasteless. When it comes right down to it this was an apple that fit a certain need at the time. Fruit lovers required an apple that would put up with rough handling and be able to be stored without refrigeration until cherry season in June. Who would want to peel and can hundreds of pounds of fruit if they could simply store the whole lot in a barrel in the cellar?  In fairness to the Ben, it does get much better in storage. By  January the Ben Davis Apple had softened from a rock-¬like state to something resembling a Jonathan apple. Its taste had mellowed and it made a decent pie

Our neighbor told me that this orchard was planted to have apples to make apple cider vinegar.  I guess there used to be a processing plant for this in the area at one time.

In the Field

 I placed my sunflower seed order a couple of weeks ago. I opted to try White Lite seed this year which is the only new one I ordered. It has a white petal and white center.  I tried White Nite last year. That one has while petals and a brown center.

The only thing I did not order was more of is the PorCut Peach.  It looked beautiful but the bugs loved it and ruined it by chewing little holes in the petals.  I still have seed left over from last year and I plan to go ahead and plant it to be used as a trap crop to keep the bugs off the other flowers.

~Denise

Seed saving and giving...

In the Garden

There are many benefits to saving your own seed.  Of course, there is the obvious benefit of saving money!  The seeds you save will be better adapted to grow in your region/environment.  Growing heritage seeds allows for more diversity in our food supply.

Here is a nice blog article:  40 Reasons to Save Seeds.

Do your research.  Some seeds require certain protocols for saving i.e. fermenting tomato seeds.  Also, you cannot keep seeds of hybrid plants because they were made by crossing two plants and so the seed will not be true to the parent.  

I didn't get around to saving as many seeds as I had hoped but it was also my first big year of gardening so I had lots of things to monitor.  

Here is a list of things I did keep: 

potatoes

arugula

a flowering tobacco plant that I just LOVE the color of

dill (I also shook the plant really good to try and get it to self seed)

calendula

feverfew

marigold

broccoli (although I did buy a new broccoli so I am not sure I will actually grow these)

a green frilly lettuce (I need to do a better job of labeling things too)

peas

cilantro

Our library in Moscow started a seed library last year.  I finally got around to checking it out this winter.  

The idea is that you can take some seeds and leave some seeds.  I took some lemon balm and Cinderella pumpkin seeds.  I left some arugula and calendula seed.  They have very nice directions on how the library works.

I have already placed one seed order and it was about $50.  I still have more seeds to order!  It is just way too much fun to sit and look at the seed catalogs and dream about the garden...

~Denise