Tag Archives: barn

Old 1880’s barn posts on Texas Homesteader’s website.

A Day At the Homestead

by Texas Homesteader~
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I’m often asked what a typical day looks like when you’re both living and working on a Homestead. Well I can say in all honesty that it’s NEVER boring!  It’s funny how it’s near impossible to plan with certainty what a day in our lives will look like. There are so many variables like weather, cattle illness, fence issues, etc.

But c’mon and tag along today & I’ll show ya what a typical day looks like for us here in our Texas paradise.

Wonder what it's like to live & work on a Texas homestead? Well c'mon down & spend the day with us! #TexasHomesteader

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Teaching Free-Range Chickens To Come HOME

Last year we tried our hand at raising chickens for the very first time.  We bought day-old chicks and raised all that fuzzy cuteness into adult chickens/roosters.  We ended up with four hens and two beautiful roosters but someone STOLE both of our roosters!  Can you even believe that??!

Aaaanyway not wanting to overwinter the hens due to predator issues we sold them last fall. But only after I had preserved many of the excess eggs by freezing  them. 

I used those frozen eggs all winter and about the time my freezer started running low on my supply we decided it was time to raise chickens again this year!

See how we get our new chickens to free range during the day yet come back to the coop each night to be locked securely from predators. #TexasHomesteader

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Once Again, We Have Chickens!

by Texas Homesteader
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Last year we dipped our toe into the raising-chickens waters.  We bought day-old chicks and raised them until fall when we sold them (we didn’t want to attempt to overwinter last year)  Oh how much fun they were to raise!  We free-ranged them and they made quite a dent in the grasshopper population and an incredible impact on the fly reduction on our cows in the barn pens.

Oh yeah, and they gave us FRESH EGGS!  We knew that as spring drew closer we’d consider again if we wanted to raise chickens.  The verdict is in: Um, YES PLEASE!

Our chicken breeder raises various breeds of chickens, so we bought laying hens. I loved raising chickens last year, here we go again! #TexasHomesteader

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Evidence Of (Another) Old Homestead

by Texas Homesteader ~ 

We purchased our piece of NE Texas paradise back in 2000. It was in pretty rough shape but I could see its potential and the property itself really spoke to my heart. Once I learned that the crumbling 1880’s barn was part of this property the deal was all but sealed! 

RancherMan & I had the barn’s exterior refurbished, leaving the interior intact. We’ve had ponds, fences & cross fences built, revitalized pastures and spend numerous days clearing these dang Honey Locust trees. (we call them Satan trees, I’m pretty sure that’s where they came from!)  It’s fun to envision the family that must have lived here, and several months ago I wrote about the Evidence Of A Past Homestead.

But in the fall of 2012 we purchased a remote pasture about 10 minutes away from our own homestead to hold our stocker cows. Again, that property was in somewhat of a shambles. But again it held an 1880’s barn, albeit in dire need of repair. RancherMan & I are determined to refurbish this old barn and property the same as we did with our first one. (I’m seeing a pattern here…)

Evidence of an old abandoned homestead. It has an 1880's barn, orchard of jujube trees & is in need of TLC! #TexasHomesteader

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Frugal Low-Waste Chicken Feeder

by Texas Homesteader~ 

This is our first year to explore raising our own chickens. They have been so much fun to raise so far, and they are doing an amazing job of severely reducing the massive load of grasshoppers in our barn pasture, as well as almost eliminating the fly load on our calves when they’re confined here near the barn. 

Truly organic pest control – I can get used to this!

Using items picked up second hand we constructed a large chicken feeder that doesn't waste feed. See how! #TexasHomesteader

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Calf Care – Trouble In Paradise

by Texas Homesteader

When we’re weaning calves we like to fenceline them when at all possible. This allows mama and baby to see each other and eases their anxiety during the weaning transition.

We typically bring the calves into the barn pen where we have pretty heavily-fortified fences to allow the mama and baby to see each other. But the fences are strong enough to keep baby separated.

An after-hours late Sunday night vet call was made to save our registered Hereford calf. Read what he found! #TexasHomesteader

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