A new roo in town

(Arizona, my Golden Cuckoo Maran rooster)

    The unfortunate passing of my first rooster, Aztec, coincided with my mother-in-law needing to re-home her rooster. Arizona is a beautiful 18-month old Golden Cuckoo Maran, one who I've fawned over since she got him. I was happy to take him, along with his two girlfriends, who we've decided to name Xena and Gabriella. All three are purebred Golden Cuckoo Marans, and the girls lay lovely dark terracotta eggs.
    My ladies had never seen anything like Arizona, who is huge and handsome. They took to him immediately, and the flocks merged without a single issue. Arizona has dethroned King Midas' Silver, but he has not been violent towards him. I suspect Silver might one day challenge him for control, but for now, everyone is getting along great.

(Xena, my Golden Cuckoo Maran hen)

Sickness in the flock

   
    Our flock was struck by illness about three weeks ago, and now that the worst seems to be behind us, I wanted to share my experience. Our first sign that something was wrong happened abruptly. Our beloved Hexen (pictured below) did not go in to the coop at night with all the other chickens, which has never happened before. I was doing a headcount when I realized, for the first time in a year, we were short one. Matt and I searched the backyard and found Hexen under the table on the back patio. I noticed immediately that her eyes were dilated and she seemed disoriented. I held her for a few minutes and she seemed to go back to her usual self, so I put her up on the roost and watched her for a few minutes. She chatted with the other ladies and moved to her usual spot, looking fine.

(Hexen giving me a hug)

    The next morning, she was gone. I found her lying at the bottom of the coop, no outward signs of distress at all. I know chickens have a variety of health issues that can impact them quickly, and the whole flock seemed healthy, so we mourned her death but didn't think anything unusual might be happening. Three days later, our mighty, handsome Aztec, and our first rooster we've ever had, died. His death had no warning; he was walking around, healthy and looking virulent as ever, and then he was dead in the same hour. I knew at this point something was seriously wrong with the flock. 

    I tried locating an avian vet in my area, but couldn't find one. Ultimately, after coming up without a lot of answers, I decided to treat a variety of possible causes. I would normally NOT recommend treating illness blindly, but with few resources in the area and not a lot of time, I decided to get antibiotics started immediately. Matt and I ran down to our local feed store and purchased penicillin and needles, which I'll admit, are pretty terrifying. I'm comfortable with needles, having grown up with a Diabetic sister, but penicillin requires a higher gauge needle because it has chunks in it. We did research online, which came up with a variety of answers, about how much to administer, and then gave shots in the breast to each of my chickens. This was much more difficult than I anticipated, because chicks don't have a lot of meat in the breast. I read differing opinions about whether or not it was safe to give it in the thigh, but many forums seemed to indicate chickens can go lame/struggle to walk afterward. We settled on the breast. The first night went by without any issue. We also added vitamins into the chicken's water, as well as a dose of Corid, as I suspected Coccidiosis may be to blame. 

    For three days, we gave penicillin shots and Corid. We only had one issue with the shots; one of our chicks seemed to have a negative reaction on the last day, and was very disoriented afterward and had trouble walking. We immediately brought her inside and made her drink sugar water, then isolated her in her own kennel until she looked better. It took about an hour for her to perk up, and after that she was fine. 

    We haven't had any other issues since. I still don't know what caused the two deaths, and we probably over-treated our chickens, but two deaths of healthy chickens in three days is unusual. The flock seems to be doing fine now, and in fact, one of the chickens who we'd been worried about because she wasn't growing started to rapidly grow and gain weight following the round of antibiotics. Whatever the culprit, we seem to have killed it. For good measure, we did a very deep cleaning of the coop, and also expanded the run so wild birds no longer have access to my chickens' food. Much of my research indicated the wild birds carrying various bacteria, lice, and diseases likely had something to do with it. We're moving forward with a stronger focus on bio-security, and will keep our fingers crossed. 

(Aztec, my first rooster and our favorite chicken)

Monkey Butter

    My mom and I decided we were going to try to can as much as we can this year to preserve some of our harvest. We also wanted to try some different recipes to stockpile some food storage and awesome recipes. One of the first we tried was "Monkey Butter". There are numerous recipes for this online, but nearly every blog post and recipe have disclaimers stating that there is a great deal of debate about how safe Monkey Butter is to can.

    We did research and found that the debate comes from the fact that bananas have such low acidity that there is danger of spoilage. However, the pineapple is supposed to counteract that. To be on the safe side, my mom and I also added some citric acid and lemon juice, and we feel pretty confident between that and our research that our monkey butter will be just fine. We made several batches and tweaked it slightly each time based on different things we read. Ultimately, we liked it best with a higher amount of banana than most recipes suggested, because the pineapple is very overpowering. I made some for the freezer and some for canning, but used the same recipe:

    - 6 medium-sized ripe bananas
    - 20 oz. can of crushed pineapple (keep the juice, don't drain it)
    - 1/4 cup coconut (I used unsweetened ground coconut that I got from WinCo's bulk bins)
    - 3 cups white sugar
    - 3 tablespoons of bottled lemon juice
    - 1 tablespoon of powdered citric acid

 

(All ingredients combined in a pot above to begin cooking to a boil)

     I peeled and sliced the bananas and threw everything into a large pot, then brought it to a boil. I then turned it down and let it simmer on lower heat to let it thicken, added it into sterilized jars, and let the ones for the refrigerator cool and the ones for canning go into a boiling bath. We left them in for 15 minutes before taking them out and letting them cool, as well. I've heard that canned Monkey Butter turns pink after a while, but so far that hasn't happened.
 

(What the ingredients look like once they're cooking together)

     One batch made about 12 half-pint jars of monkey butter. I liked it when I tasted it, but I LOVED it after it had settled for a week. Let me know what you guys think!

Our Flock

 

  It's time for you to meet my flock! I post a lot of pictures of them on my Instagram, so some of you may already be familiar with them. I have three "groups" of chickens that all live together; the older ladies, the chicks, and the newcomers. I had chickens prior to these, but we had a few disasters. My brother's dog killed one of my chickens (she'd been raised with them, so we didn't expect this). Our dogs killed two of our chickens after they'd been getting along for months without a problem. We had a respiratory illness hit our flock that killed two of them. Two of our recent chicks didn't survive because of genetic defects. Those were all harsh lessons we had to learn about the reality of having chickens, of having the right protection, medicines, and general ability to react. There are no avian vets nearby us, so we've learned everything from the online homesteading community and from my mother-in-law, who has had chickens for about 2 years longer than us. Now we have our current flock, who is healthy and doing better than any we've had before. 

Meet the older crew/dominant ladies:

Morrigan, the queen bee. We got her as a teenager so we aren't exactly sure of her age, but she was born in the spring of 2015. Morrigan is an Australorp, and she lays about 5-6 large, light-brown eggs a week. Morrigan is aloof and doesn't like to be touched, but is perfectly friendly. She likes to announce loudly to us each time she lays an egg.  

Blondie, the Buff Orpington. We received Blondie as a teenager, so we only know she was born around summer of 2015. Blondie was very mean when we first got her, but the day she started laying eggs, she started acknowledging us as roosters and is friendly as can be now. She likes to be held, and will talk to us the whole time we talk to her. She lays about 4-5 medium, light-brown eggs a week. 

Zion, the Speckled Sussex, named after the beautiful snow-capped red rocks of Zion National Park. We know Zion was born around winter of 2015, and we received her as a teenager. She was very mean when we first got her, and now she is the most social, friendly chicken we have. Zion enjoys being talked to and loves scratches. She lays about 5 small, khaki-colored eggs per week. 

Meet my chicks. This was our first time ever raising babies, all born March, 2016:

Aztec, my first rooster, named so because he looks like a mighty tribal warrior. Aztec came from a batch of chicks that should have all been mixed breeds, but we suspecting he's actually an Americauna. We weren't expecting roosters. He has been standoffish and aloof since we got him at about a week old, and he reminds me of a teenage boy. He was clearly a roo from the time he was about two months old. He's getting more handsome by the week, and the girls have finally started to notice him. Since he has been allowed to...umm...hook up with a few of them, he's calmed down a lot. Today was his first day crowing. 

This is King Midas' Silver (it's a joke from the movie Dodgeball). Silver was a very large, very feisty female...until he started growing tail feathers and a large comb. Surprise...two out of five chicks were roos! Silver started crowing yesterday and thinks he's a big tough guy. He's currently vying for dominance with Aztec, and if it continues, he's going to my sister's house. Silver is aloof, but is becoming protective of his ladies. 

Moonshine, one of my two female chicks. Moonshine is much smaller than the others, so we're hoping everything is all right. She is very friendly and likes to make sure everyone is included. Unfortunately, both Aztec and Silver have a crush on her, so she's getting more attention that she'd like. Hopefully she'll begin laying eggs by fall. 

Hexen, my second female chick. Hexen is a lady of extremes. She loves to follow us around the yard and chat, constantly chirping at us with her musical voice. She likes to be held and falls asleep in my arms within seconds. She also likes to peck, and has pecked both my dog and I in the eye. We're hoping she is being afflicted by the pre-egg-laying attitude, and that she'll stop pecking when she's more mature. She is gorgeous and has the prettiest voice. 

The newcomers, who we received about a month ago because we had some surprise roosters:

Phoenix, the Bantam Menace. Phoenix was born approximately in February of 2016. She is very shy and is having difficulty fitting in with the chicks and older ladies, but the other two (below) hang out with her. Phoenix loves dust bathing more than anything else. 

Hennifer, the Orpington. Hennifer came with Phoenix and Belle, and she was born approximately March, 2016. Hennifer is the nicest chicken I have ever met. She walks right up to us and looks up with a chicken-smile, waiting to be held. She'll snuggle in and fall asleep in our arms within seconds. Hennifer is our resident sweetheart. 

Southern Bell, our proper little lady. She's becoming fuzzier by the day, her whiskers growing so she looks like she's wearing fancy furs. Bell was born in April, 2016, and she likes to hang out with her sisters who came at the same time as her. She doesn't like to be held, but she does like to hang out with everyone, and she goes crazy for meal worms. 

Our Story

Matt and Angela in the London Eye (2013) 

    Today I want to introduce the Johnson Homestead crew and share our backstory. At the helm are my husband and I. Matt and I met at a birthday party and never looked back. We were married in 2009, right after I graduated with a Bachelor's in Sociology from the University of Utah. College graduation was the only thing on my horizon for a long time growing up, so we spent a few years "floating" afterward. Matt joined the Army Reserves within a year of us being married, a mutual decision between us to help him get through college. I started working at a call center that paid decently enough to get us by, but I knew from the start I couldn't stay there forever. I stayed there while Matt finished boot camp and found a job that wasn't for him, and we rented a house that wasn't ours.
    Matt was deployed to the Middle East, and that launched us into the next phase of our life. I knew I needed to stay busy while he was gone, and my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, so a few changes happened rapidly. I moved back home with my mom within a month of Matt being deployed (I had no way to contact him first - this happened pretty rapidly and pretty spontaneously). I also enrolled in school to complete my Master's Degree, with the goal of finishing within the 12 months Matt was gone. That was a tremendous workload; I was working from 6-2:30 every day, then doing homework until about 8 or 9, but it paid off. Matt returned home safely a year later, and I graduated with my Master's Degree in Management and Human Resources shortly after.
     My degree opened up new doors and a better job, and Matt was able to afford the pay cut to take an entry-level job in Psychology while studying behavior health. This opened new doors for him, too. We were able to buy our own house in 2014 right as the housing market started getting crazy in Utah, and although we only had a .20 acre lot, we knew we wanted to maximize it. We'd been together through financial trouble while in school, through deployment to a harsh and hostile environment, through my mother's illness and subsequent recovery, and through a series of temporary living arrangements that never let us set down roots. Each of those left an impression.
    Our first year in our house, it was too late in the growing season to do much, and we were too broke from moving to change a lot. We began doing a few updates in the house and grew some things in planters, but we didn't have a successful harvest. The second year, we got chickens, which led to better fertilizer, which led to better gardens. That's where it all started.

Welcome to our homestead!

Welcome to the Johnson Homestead! My name is Angela Johnson, and step one to building a homestead was finding my husband, Matthew. He is my partner as we journey through life together, checking things off our bucket list, traveling, experiencing new cultures and possibilities, and then returning to life in urban Salt Lake City.

I follow a lot of amazing homesteading blogs of people who have acres and acres of land. Many work part time jobs or have the ability to have one spouse stay home. We have neither. We live on .20 acres in Salt Lake City, where large plots of land are becoming increasingly rare and are very expensive. We will eventually buy more land, but we aren't going to wait around for that day; we're going to learn to use and cultivate the .20 acres that we have before we move to a larger plot.

Matt and I both work full-time jobs; I am an HR Supervisor and have my Master's Degree in Management and Human Resources. Matt is a student, about 6 months from graduating with his Bachelor's Degree in Psychology. He is currently working in a behavior health position for experience while he goes to school. We don't have kids yet, but we do have 2 dogs, a cat, and 8 chickens. We don't have large incomes, we don't have large plots of land, and we don't have a lot of homesteading experience. If you're in a similar situation, this is the blog for you!

Join us as we build our homestead, one project at a time (that usually has to wait for the weekend!). Our goals are to use every inch of our .20 acres to be as efficient as possible, to build skills that we'll be able to bring with us one day to a larger plot of land, and to learn to be more self-sufficient and leave less of an environmental footprint. We care about animal welfare and it matters to us where our food comes from. We also care about being prepared for the worst, being able to survive and thrive as independently as possible, honoring our heritage and learning skills our grandparents had, and fostering a relationship with nature and our land.