Foolish Chickens

How stupid are my chickens? My chickens are so stupid that.... So I've been leaving their little door open to their fenced in yard the past week or so to get them used to it. By the weekend they were venturing out onto the top of the ramp, but no further. I tried placing food all the way up and down the ramp with a bunch at the bottom to try to coax them down, but to no avail. So over the weekend I tossed 8-10 of 'em out through the door and into the yard. The problem was that they went off over the side of the ramp and not down it normally. So to answer my original question, my chickens are so stupid that they couldn't find the pile of food at the bottom of the ramp or figure out any other way to get back into the coop. If I hadn't caught each one and tossed 'em back in the coop, they probably would've died of dehydration out there. Stupid chickens.

Good Times are Brewing

The good times are a brewin' at the Kuhlman house. Well, actually, they're fermenting at the Albright house around the corner. On Monday I helped brew my first batch of beer with brewmeister's Pratt & Albright, and had an excellent time. With any luck, in about 3-5 weeks we'll be enjoying some nice frothy mugs of our homebrew British bitter. And as an added bonus, I've found yet another use for my turkey fryer. I think I'm hooked, now, and am gonna have to start acquiring the necessary equipment to start a brewing operation on the Kuhlman farm. Let the good times roll.

Hops are Hoppin'

The Hops that we planted a couple weeks ago are all sprouting now! That's pretty exciting giving the mixed success of the rest of the garden plantings. Its also kinda fun because I noticed the hop sprouts right after returning from my first trip to Listermann's, the well-known homebrewers supply store in Cincinnati. With any luck I'll be helping to brew my first batch with Stephen Albright sometime later this weekend. I think I might have to go enjoy a frothy mug of suds right now to celebrate.

Another Kuhlman Farm

Just out of curiousity this morning I did a Google search on "Kuhlman Farm" and found another, apparently more famous, one in Oklahoma. Kinda interesting how many Kuhlman folk are out there. I guess its a slow news day around our place or something.

Mowing Time

Why is it that a fresh cut lawn looks so good and is so satisfying for the mower to behold. Is it just the sense of completeness for having finished a job? Or is it maybe the sense of triumph over having beaten back nature, if even for only a short time, giving us that illusion of control over our surroundings? Or maybe its just the sheer aesthetic pleasure of that wonderful, vibrant-green carpet. I suppose its probably some combination of the three that's maybe a little different for every person. Whatever it is, I'm lacking it 'cause I only got about 2/3 done yesterday due to lack of fuel. Darn it all...I guess ya'll know what I'll be workin' on this afternooon.

Houston, We Have Sprouts

We planted corn and various bean seeds in the garden almost 2 weeks ago now and were starting to think we weren't going to see any fruits from our labor at all. With that first week they were in the ground being almost constant rain I figured they wouldn't make it. But yesterday afternoon we noticed 2 of the rows of beans had shot up from below the ground to almost an inch tall overnight. The last row of beans and the corn were still showing no signs of life yesterday, but at least we'll get a little something out of the garden this year. And I'm yet hopeful that, with another couple days of warm sun in the forecast, we might yet see some corn sprouting through the dirt. Now if I can just get a fence up to keep the varmints out....

PJ Dental Update

It appears Paul is recovering well from his collision with the coffee table. His teeth look pretty much normal as far as we can tell now, and only if he bumps them or bites on something hard with them does he complain about those front teeth hurting. Of course, his significant sleep deficit during the day Sunday made him less than a complete joy to be around. But at least he's feeling better and there doesn't appear to be any lasting effects from the dental damage. He gets to see the dentist for the first time 2 weeks from today so we'll know more then.

Weekend doin's

So the bottom line is, 30 tons is indeed a lot of gravel, even if they are mostly spreading it for you. It took 2 large dump trucks to bring it all and, fortunately, they were able to spread the bulk of it for me. However, there was still a good 20' of driveway closest to the road, and everything past the garage and in front of the barn that I had to do myself. The box blade on the tractor, while being more efficient than a rake or shovel, isn't nearly as efficient as a front-loader (e.g., bobcat) would be. And even with the box blade, there's still a lot of raking that needs to be done to make it right. So by supper time Saturday, it was pretty well spread from the road all the way to the barn. But there's still a good size pile in front of the barn, and most of the turn-around in front of the barn still needs to be covered. I was pretty beat so I took Sunday off and didn't move any gravel, but I'm gonna try to move some more tonight and get the pile knocked down some more. Good times. If you're bored or looking for some good honest exercise outside, c'mon over and grab a rake.

The Gravel Man Cometh

30 Tons of limestone gravel. Does that seem like a lot? It seems like a lot to me. But that's apparently about what it will take to cover our driveway. They'll be delivering it tomorrow morning and, hopefully, spreading it for us over most of the driveway. I'll still have to work a couple areas with the tractor and box blade, but having them spread most of it oughta save me a ton of time. I tell ya, weekends at the Kuhlman Farm are just a barrell of fun. Rock on!

Happy Birthday Mom!

In a tumultuous year that saw the end of WWII, the beginning of the Cleveland Browns, and the patenting of the microwave oven, and on the very same day that rock guitar phenom Pete Townshend of The Who was born, the world was introduced to my Mom. Who would have guessed that this baby girl from Cincinnati, Ohio, would go on to such greatness and honor as she attained with the birth of her only son some 30 years later?! Thanks for all you've done for me over the years, Mom, and for all you continue to do!

'Nother Coon

In my never-ending quest to rid my land, and especially my barn, of groundhogs, I've trapped yet another raccoon. Unfortunately for these poor animals, they're almost as troublesome as the groundhogs, and therefore meet the same demise. So the current tally is: Groundhogs - 6, Raccoons - 3, Possums - 3. But since I know there still at least one groundhog still roaming around the barn, the traps will stay set & baited a little longer. Maybe one of these days I'll learn how to make a coonskin cap rather than letting the vultures have the whole carcass.

Poor Little Guy

As several of you have already heard, Paul took a nasty fall Fri. night and landed his top front teeth on the coffee table. It appeared the teeth were driven up into the gums a little, although they were still sticking out plenty, but there was a fair amount of blood along the gum line and he was pretty upset. Thankfully, it now looks as if the teeth have come back down, at least most of the way, on their own, and he seems to be doing much better with them. There was a chance the teeth might die and fall out from the trauma, but we have fortunately seen no signs of that, so we're hoping its pretty much behind us now. And amazingly, he wasn't really hurt from the fall in any other way. So it looks like, once again, God has kept him relatively safe and healthy so he can make more mischief around the 'ol farm.

Big Ringer

So finally, more than a year after Sarah received this great, rusty, antique bell for Christmas, its cleaned-up, painted and set on a post outside our door. Its a little hard to tell, but the rim of the bell is about 16" in diameter, and boy can it make a good loud tone. And now that Paul has figured out how to pull the rope, the poor neighbors have little hope for peace and quiet again. But at least it'll be easier for Sarah to call me to dinner when I'm out working in the barn.

Congratulations Cousin Don!

Congratulations to my cousin, Don Wittrock, on his recent engagement to Brenda. Best wishes as ya'll prepare for the big day and work to combine your households! And might I be so bold as to suggest a sumptious pig roast for your reception? 'Cause after all, nothing says romance and lovin like a large roast pig, stuffed with a few finely roasted chickens, washed down with a fine lager, and consumed while tossing a few horshoes.

New Brown House

Congratulations to our friends, Silas & Tyson Brown, on their successful closing and moving into their new house in Nevada City, CA! We look forward to getting out there again sometime to visit ya'll and checking out your hop vines and chicken coop.

Hops Next Summer

Starting this year, the Kuhlman Farm is gonna start growing hops for homebrewing. We'll be planting 4 varieties in the garden and training them up a trellis on the barn. For those homebrewers out there that might be interested, the 4 varieties are Cascade, Nugget, Sterling, & Williamette. Depending on how these do we might try to add a few more in the future. Apparently, when starting hops from rhizomes like we are, they don't really produce much until the second year. So by next summer if everything goes well, we should be harvesting a bunch of hops. I guess I'm gonna have to start homebrewing now so I can get the hang of it before switching to homegrown hops next year. Let me know if you're interested in getting hops from me next year, or if you've got any input on other varieties to try.

Rock Farmer

Well after many hours of sweat, toil, & cursing we've managed to harvest our first real bumper crop of rocks out of the garden. There's still a good bit in there that aren't quite ripe enough yet, but we'll worry about those after we get these to market. Now I guess we'll just have to raise vegetables in that little plot of ground to console ourselves until the rocks grow back there again.

$#@! Carpenter Bees!

So, once again, this spring we've been battling the carpenter bees (aka, borer bees) around the back of the barn and side of the house. I've managed to find some good foaming spray stuff for wasps, yellow jackets, etc., that works pretty well for these little buggers and is very good at filling their holes and killing the ones hiding inside. But, of course, they keep coming back every year. So I found these couple of web pages with info about these nasty little critters that suggest that I try filling the holes in with wooden dowel & caulk in the fall and painting the surfaces of the affected wood to prevent re-infestation. If you're interested in reading more, here's the couple of links: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology//entfacts/struct/ef611.htm, http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2074.html.

New Home

Well, we finally finished getting the chicken coop cleaned out, sanitized, and put back together yesterday, so we decided to go ahead and move the chicks over to their new home. They're almost exactly 4 weeks old now, so the timing is just about perfect. That coupled with the fact that they were becoming very good at escaping the brooder while I was changing their paper and restocking their food & water, and the decision was an easy one. I'll try to get some pictures of these silly adolescent chickens in their new home posted up here soon for ya'll to enjoy. Update: Here's a picture of them a few days after moving into the coop.

Processing Party -- Pictures

If you're interested in seeing the pictures from the big event, Joe (who's in many of the pictures with me) has them up on his website. Here's a link directly to the chicken picture page: http://photos.rocklinfamily.com/v/misc/chicken06/. Enjoy!

Congratulations Sarah!

Many congratulations to my lovely and talented wife, Sarah, who graduated with her Masters in Materials Engineering this past Sunday from the University of Dayton! She's worked pretty hard over the past several years taking classes while working full time at first, and then 3/4 time after Paul came along. And she finished just in time, too, with our second farm hand due at the end of June. I'm very proud of you, Sarah!

Pig Roast Anyone?

Most folks that know me are probably already aware, but my buddy David Pratt & I do pig roasts in our spare time. The two of us built this pig roaster several years ago out of an old oil tank in the basement of my previous house. It can handle up to a 200 lbs. pig which feeds 100-150 people. We typically do smaller functions, though, with a ~120 lbs. pig. That'll easily feed 50-60 folks with plenty of leftovers. Also, you might notice from the one picture, there are a couple of chickens peaking out of the inside of the pig. That's some of the best chicken you'll ever taste, right there! If you're interested in having us do a pig roast for an event you might be having (e.g., graduations, family reunions, church picnics, etc.) e-mail myself or David for current pricing, etc.

Raising Chickens?

So I've had several folks ask me about all aspects raising chickens in the year that I've been doing it. And while I certainly don't claim to be an expert from this short bit of experience, I am pretty comfortable with the whole process. That confidence is entirely due to one book that I've read, dog-eared, and referred to countless times in the past year: Storey's Guide to Raising Chickens. Any of you folks that might be interested in any aspect of raising chickens, I can't recommend this book highly enough. Enjoy!

Farm Hand Update

So here's a fun picture of our #1 farm hand "helping" with the new flock. For the folks that don't live so close and would like an update, here's a short list of some of the new tasks our little farm hand, Paul, has learned:

• Climbing out of his crib
• Learning to sleep in his toddler bed
• Climbing back into his crib
• Throwing fist sized rocks (sometimes at the chicks)
• Kicking the soccer ball
• Walking in sandals

With all this work to do, its no wonder he's so tired at the end of a day. Fortunately he'll have some help soon when the new farm hand arrives on June 26th. The excitement never ends at the Kuhlman Farm!

Congratulations Sven!

Congratulations to my longtime friend and the best man at my wedding, Sven Hoerschgens, as he landed a new job at Valero Energy Corp. in San Antonio, TX! Best wishes on your move out to Texas from Tampa and I hope your home sells quickly. We look forward to visiting your new ranch this winter sometime!

New Flock

So here's a look at the new batch of Rhode Island Red hens we picked up a few weeks ago. At this point they're nearly 3 weeks old and you can see a nice distinction between the leftover down and the new feathers coming in. With any luck the coop will be cleaned out this weekend so we can move these little ladies in next week.

Processing Party

Thanks to all of you wonderful folks who came out to the Kuhlman Farm and helped with the springtime chicken processing. We successfully processed the 18 remaining hens (1 year old New Hampshire Reds) in our flock in order to make room for the new flock of Rhode Island Reds growing quickly in the brooder. I'll post pictures of the event here soon for all to enjoy.

Piano Fun

Here's my first crack at uploading a picture to this blog. BTW, I'm the big one.