restoring the roost

North Carolina Country Living and Farmhouse Style

North Carolina Country Living and Farmhouse Style
since 2010

Chicken First Aid Kit

· chickens

If you raise chickens, chances are you may have unfortunately lost a chicken or two to predators or disease. Rather than scrambling to find supplies to administer First Aid treatment to an injured hen or rooster, it’s helpful to have them all in one place in the form of a poultry First Aid Kit.

Gather all your supplies and store them in a container. I used an old box, but you can use a Tupperware, basket or whatever you like. I stored mine in our shed with our chicken feed, but now that it is getting warmer I moved it to a closet inside our house. You can certainly include more supplies to tailor to your specific needs, but here’s what I have in mine: 
Topical ointments, antiseptics, wound dressings
Gauze pads for wounds
Oral antibiotics and a package of vitamins and electrolytes
A syringe to administer the oral medications (just dribble a little on their 
beak and they will drink the rest of it)
You can’t forget the treats!! (I usually cave in and give mine their 
favorite: shredded cheese, grapes, or bread)
You will also need to have on hand old towels, washcloths, and Q-tips and/or cotton balls. You may also consider keeping in your kit a needle and thread as well as supplies for broken limbs.  Hopefully you won’t ever have to utilized your First Aid kit, but if your flock were to be attacked or suffer some illnesses, it’s better to be prepared. Chickens can be surprisingly resilient, and it’s amazing the wonders a little bit of nursing can do.

Chicken First Aid Kit

· chickens

If you raise chickens, chances are you may have unfortunately lost a chicken or two to predators or disease. Rather than scrambling to find supplies to administer First Aid treatment to an injured hen or rooster, it’s helpful to have them all in one place in the form of a poultry First Aid Kit.

Gather all your supplies and store them in a container. I used an old box, but you can use a Tupperware, basket or whatever you like. I stored mine in our shed with our chicken feed, but now that it is getting warmer I moved it to a closet inside our house. You can certainly include more supplies to tailor to your specific needs, but here’s what I have in mine: 
Topical ointments, antiseptics, wound dressings
Gauze pads for wounds
Oral antibiotics and a package of vitamins and electrolytes
A syringe to administer the oral medications (just dribble a little on their 
beak and they will drink the rest of it)
You can’t forget the treats!! (I usually cave in and give mine their 
favorite: shredded cheese, grapes, or bread)
You will also need to have on hand old towels, washcloths, and Q-tips and/or cotton balls. You may also consider keeping in your kit a needle and thread as well as supplies for broken limbs.  Hopefully you won’t ever have to utilized your First Aid kit, but if your flock were to be attacked or suffer some illnesses, it’s better to be prepared. Chickens can be surprisingly resilient, and it’s amazing the wonders a little bit of nursing can do.

Do you know your roost’s history?

· architectural history, DIY tutorials

Are you curious about the history of your old house? What story would your home tell if its walls could talk? Perhaps someone lived there that later went on to become famous, a juicy scandal could have taken place, or the house may have been designed by a well-known architect.

If you are willing to put a little time and energy into research, below are some steps to discovering your historic home’s history:

  • Is your house in a historic district? Check with your local SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) to see if your house has been surveyed either in a municipal or county-wide comprehensive architectural survey. If so, ask for access to a copy of the survey to see if you house has been included in the inventory.
  • Check your county’s GIS website or tax records (possibly located at your courthouse or government administration facility) for basic information. Ask the staff to help you navigate the website or online records database if you need help. Sometimes these records will include the date in which the house was constructed.
  • Check with your local historical society, archives, or public library for basic research resources like local histories, geneologies, architectural history publications, photographic histories and old postcards. Explain to the archivist or person on staff what you are looking for- these people are a great help and often a wealth of information regarding sources pertinent to your research.
a small piece from a 1907 Sanborn Insurance map 
  • Utilize Sanborn Insurance maps. (image at right) These were created starting in the last quarter of the 19th century by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company for many cities and towns. You can glean key bits of information from them about the buildings themselves, street patterns, and the building’s use.  A good library or university archives should have these maps available in digital or sometimes hard-copy format. Some originals are even in color.
  •  Check with your local newspaper’s archives to see if they have any old photographs or articles that might mention your neighborhood. If you are lucky, your local library might have newspaper articles indexed by year and separated by subject. You can usually access them on microfilm. 
  • If you know the previous owners, ask them what they know about the property. Try to locate and talk to “old-timers,” or folks who have been in the area a long time, who may remember previous owners of your house.
  • Check old City Directories (usually kept at your local library or university). 

If you don’t live in a historic home, try out these research methods on a historic building in your community that speaks to you. Most importantly, have fun! 

Linking to:

Do you know your roost’s history?

· architectural history, DIY tutorials

Are you curious about the history of your old house? What story would your home tell if its walls could talk? Perhaps someone lived there that later went on to become famous, a juicy scandal could have taken place, or the house may have been designed by a well-known architect.

If you are willing to put a little time and energy into research, below are some steps to discovering your historic home’s history:

  • Is your house in a historic district? Check with your local SHPO (State Historic Preservation Office) to see if your house has been surveyed either in a municipal or county-wide comprehensive architectural survey. If so, ask for access to a copy of the survey to see if you house has been included in the inventory.
  • Check your county’s GIS website or tax records (possibly located at your courthouse or government administration facility) for basic information. Ask the staff to help you navigate the website or online records database if you need help. Sometimes these records will include the date in which the house was constructed.
  • Check with your local historical society, archives, or public library for basic research resources like local histories, geneologies, architectural history publications, photographic histories and old postcards. Explain to the archivist or person on staff what you are looking for- these people are a great help and often a wealth of information regarding sources pertinent to your research.
a small piece from a 1907 Sanborn Insurance map 
  • Utilize Sanborn Insurance maps. (image at right) These were created starting in the last quarter of the 19th century by the Sanborn Fire Insurance Company for many cities and towns. You can glean key bits of information from them about the buildings themselves, street patterns, and the building’s use.  A good library or university archives should have these maps available in digital or sometimes hard-copy format. Some originals are even in color.
  •  Check with your local newspaper’s archives to see if they have any old photographs or articles that might mention your neighborhood. If you are lucky, your local library might have newspaper articles indexed by year and separated by subject. You can usually access them on microfilm. 
  • If you know the previous owners, ask them what they know about the property. Try to locate and talk to “old-timers,” or folks who have been in the area a long time, who may remember previous owners of your house.
  • Check old City Directories (usually kept at your local library or university). 

If you don’t live in a historic home, try out these research methods on a historic building in your community that speaks to you. Most importantly, have fun! 

Linking to:

Homesteading at the Roost

· Homesteading

our very first egg

Here at Restoring the Roost I haven’t focused as much on our homesteading activities (oh, right… except the chickens, of course…I am kind of obsessed with talking about my chickies).

Even though I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a homesteader, all of the various arts involved in homesteading are very important to me–and I cannot shake my deep longing to become more self-sufficient and connected to the land that God blessed us with. I love gardening and cooking with the fruits of my labor, my husband brews his own beer, and we raise backyard chickens. In the future we hope to grow a lot more of our own food than we currently do, and perhaps have a small vineyard. I also love to fix up my roost. Does that make me a homesteader, too? Perhaps.

Mr. Rue thinks he’s hot stuff

My journey of restoring the roost, wherever that may be, includes not just my physical home and its historic fabric, but also the health of our homestead, spiritually, emotionally, and physically.

Below are some goals for healthy living I’ve made for this year similar to Amy’s “Food Journey” over at Homestead Revival.  These will result in BIG but needed lifestyle changes for our family:

Goal # 1- pray more and be more diligent in daily Bible study.

Goal # 2- eliminate processed foods

Goal # 3- cut way back on consumption of sugar, especially anything with refined sugars

Goal # 4- switch to buying organic produce or local farmer’s market produce as much as possible, particularly for the “dirty dozen”

Goal # 5- switch to antibiotic and hormone-free meats if possible or available

Goal # 6-  become more organized at home, devoting a set time for chores and housekeeping each day (instead of letting it all pile up for the weekend)

Goal # 7- try raw goat’s milk (if available) and consider eventually keeping goats. If I can’t stomach it, then at least switch to hormone-free organic milk

Goal # 8- be able to bake my own bread with local grown/milled whole grains

Goal # 9- switch to all-natural or green cleaning products (we already use green products for some things, but need some alternatives to bleach and regular detergents)

Goal # 10- put extra effort into making our vegetable garden more productive

Quite a list, huh? I am planning to gradually make these changes so that it’s not so overwhelming all at once. So, any thoughts or advice? I’d love to hear stories about your own homesteading goals!