Chicken House Update

Progress on the chicken house has been great! I feel like we are almost done now and that is a huge relief. We began trimming it and have two sides done, two to go. We still have to build the pop doors but the holes are framed and ready. We also have to put gravel in the run on top of the hardware cloth bottom. And then we need to lay the linoleum and build the roosts and droppings table. The coop is wired for electricity and so close to done. I will still need to paint but the siding came pre-primed and the fresh milled trim and battons can wait a while too.

 

My husband has admitted daily that he hates to build things of this magnitude. I suppose we won't be building a new home anytime soon. But I must say that for folks with no building experience at all, we have done a decent job and it should stand for a long time.

 

This is the enclosed run. The winters here can be pretty snowy so we wanted a place they could stay outside without slogging through the snow. We will add gravel over the hardware cloth bottom. Nothing should ever be able to dig into this coop or run. I am still thinking some kind of playground would be fun for them too!

 

And finally- an update photo on the meat chicks. They were 3 weeks old this past Tuesday and they are at least 6x bigger than when we got them. They eat a ton but we take their food at night so that they don't eat themselves to death. Very gluttonous birds. I am still hoping they become less cute so that eating them isn't so awful. All 50 are still alive and kicking and so far no spontaneous deaths have occurred. Thank goodness. I don't want to be the one to find one in the morning.  The laying hen chicks will be here on Wednesday and I am happy to say we will be totally ready for them. It was a race but Doyle has been a building fool for the last few weeks and so much progress has been made.

Progress In The New Garden

So far so good in the new garden. The wide rows have been shaped and the hills for cucumbers have been mounded. Corn rows are planted and everything is going well. We added 3 inches of wood shavings to the permanent walkways and will add more to finish is the next few days. Already that has made a tremendous difference in how muddy my feet get when I am out there. The corn, tomatoes, peppers, onions and cucumbers have all been planted and I will finish planting squash, zuccini, beans and melons tomorrow. This garden is primarily for the warm weather plantings and the raised bed garden has been fully planted with all the cool season crops this year.

These are the planting areas to the east of the main north/south walkway. The picture above this is to the west of that same path. I still need to add wood shavings to my paths on this side, but you get the general idea. I can already tell this garden is going to be labor intensive as it has been constructed in our north field. I am just worried about grass growing off of bits of root still in the dirt. But the highlight is that the soil seems happy and healthy. The worms are amazing in this ground and I hope they continue to be happy here. I need their help.

We're Getting There!

We are finally getting there! Whoohoo! Some things on this building project seem to not make much difference, but getting the framework up for the enclosed covered run helped. There will be a door to access the run here too, but I took pictures before we framed it in. On the main roof we were short one 12'6" piece of tin and will need to reorder all the tin for the run. Somehow what we got was only 6'3" and we need 8'3". Not knowing who's mistake it was, we will just order more and have some extra for the next old roof that needs repair. I was already trying to figure out what we could build next. I think Doyle is on builder's vacation after this project is complete. He is not a fan of the construction gambit.

I think this will look remarkably better when it is all trimmed out. Right now the windows look funny and it just looks incomplete. I suppose that makes sense since it is not done. The wiring will be completed this weekend which will include a BBQ to pay the boys for the work. I think I got the better end of the deal on that one. We also only had one roll of 1/2" hardware cloth so we will need more (lots more) to finish enclosing the run.The whole floor of the run will have the wire bottom and we will pile gravel and then dirt on top of that. This way nothing can burrow in from any angle. I hear weasels are heck on chickens. This thing really ought to be Fort Knox as far as critter control goes. So, I just thought I would share our progress to date. The chicks for this house should be here on June 3rd. It would be so nice to have them in the coop instead of the house.

New Bed In Progress

I have finally started on step two of my new garden room planting bed. I dug the goofy trench a few weeks ago but really didn't know where to go from there. So I decided to do something, anything to get this project going because I just don't ever have enough on my plate at any given time. I went "down below" (as we call it around here) yesterday and picked up a yard and a half of compost from the landfill about an hour away. They make very nice compost and our landfill doesn't. I am using a method I read about to get rid of the lawn in the planting area. I layed down cardboard, wet it and then started piling the compost on top of it to weight it down. In theory the cardboard will smother the lawn beneath it and eventually break down. The worms will love it and I will be able to plant through it until it finishes composting itself. I also plan to add more dirt and more compost until the height of the mounded planting bed is where I like it. This is a low spot in my garden and it should stay moist enough.

 

This is what it looked like with the little trench to define the planting area. Not very pretty but it made the project seem real to ruin my lawn. No turning back now!

 

Here is the bed in progress. I will build the area around the spigot into a roundish rock area because the spigot is access to a spring and that means free water! The compost I added did not fill the whole area but we go shopping in the valley at least every week and a half or so and I will get more compost then. It did however raise it up six inches towards the fence in back and it will look nice when it is done. I hope!

 

Not a very technical dirt piling project but I hope it will work. It will seriously stink to have to dig all this out and start over removing the grass. Newspaper works so I really think this will, time will tell. I decided I need my own personal sod cutter, not a rental. Doyle doesn't think I do. He may be the smarter one here. I would have planting beds everywhere. I still might if this is effective.

 

And last but not least, this is the rough plan. I never work with a drawn out plan so this is a first for me. I hope it will help me to stay focused on the main goal. The plan has already changed a bit but the basic design is the same. My very A.D.D. brain needs a plan, it works like a list does for me. Neat and orderly.

It Won't Win the County Fair

As the title of this post implies, my newly canned pickled asparagus will not be winning any County Fair prizes. Which is fine as the County Fair is two months away. I have plenty of time to pickle some prettier stuff. There is tons of this stuff grown semi-locally that can be picked up on the day it is cut. This particular harvest was "Starting At $.75/ lb". I should have known there was a reason it was so cheap and not just because they cut out the middle man. When I arrived at the packing plant, this was the stuff they couldn't sell to the stores. Still nice looking but not completely uniform. I had planned to can 75 lbs and a friend was to help us and split the bounty. After I saw the "sale" stuff, I settled on 30 lbs. and will do more later. My husband can't stand the idea of tossing out so much good stuff and used the tender stems too. I don't eat a ton of pickled asparagus but he does. If he is willing to eat the stems too, then stems it is. I have to agree, there is an amazing amount of waste if you only go for the pretty tops. We added lots of sliced jalepeno and fresh garlic cloves to the bottom of each jar before we filled them with asparagus spears (and stems). I obviously wasn't the one filling the jars with brine or the one on the right would be full to the proper level. I think my husband was on that duty. It took 3 of us about 2.5 hours to can 18 quarts of this stuff. I sure hope it tastes good.

CHICKEN HOUSE UPDATE

Our chicken house is coming along. Not as quickly as I would like but then nothing ever does. We put up the siding last weekend and still need to trim it out and build the attached enclosed and roofed run. That will be the length of this side you see now. The roof for it will begin below the window at the top. This side faces the south and should get some extra sunlight in the morning. Chickens need 14 hours of sunlight per day to lay in the winter. I will need to augment this as our days are short in the winter. The third pop door on the left will not be used initially as it opens to the ante room where I will store the food and supplies. I just wanted to plan for the possibility of a brooder if we ever hatch out our own chicks. Pre-planning for things makes implementing them easier later. We will add batons and trim, then paint it. I haven't fully figured out the color yet but something will come to me. I would like it to blend in so maybe the same color as the house. We will see, I just figured the lighter the color... the cooler it will stay in the summer. My brother will be wiring it for electricity this next weekend. I love my brother he always does this kind of nice stuff for us.

And The Winner Is.................

The GiveAway for the canning book, garden labels and Mini-Seedmaster has come to a close! We had lots of entries and I enjoyed reading all about the greatest things going on in your gardens this week. It is fun for me to see how far along everyone else is compared to us. Our spring has really just begun, so people eating veggies already is exciting!

We used a very scientific method to pick the winner. A bowl with all the names written on labels. High end, huh? But hey- it worked.

So without further fuss.......... THE WINNER IS..........

Isn't this suspenseful? We really should do this more often.

We could extend it for one more week. That could be fun too.

Just kidding!

So Maggie- You just won! This has been really fun and I thank each and every one of you who entered and left comments. You all make blogging fun!

New Intimidating Row Garden

When we decided to put in a new garden in the north field, we expected to have so much space that we would have to plant cover crops in some of it. Well guess what? I am out of space and all the area not yet planted is slated for planting with seeds that I have stacked up all over the place. I honestly didn't see that one coming. This garden has intimidated me from the beginning. My husband wanted to weed with a rototiller and I wanted a no-till garden with permanent planting areas accessible by paths around them. That way, once established, there would be no walking in the wide rows and no need to till and disturb the microbial underworld of the dirt. We compromised. His corn rows he could do with as he pleased. My area I could try my new method. We have worked very hard on this area in the last few days. We installed fencing (farm fencing) around the perimeter and electrified it. There are 50 or more cows on our place as of this past week and I don't want deer helping themselves. So far, so good.

 

Later today or tomorrow we are picking up some wood shavings to put in all the permanent paths to keep our feet out of the mud and further define the planting beds from the walkways. I think that will make it look very nice. You can also see my Aquadomes at work in the garden. They are filled with water and are protecting 20 of the tomato plants so far. The others are just going to have to tough it out without them. 24 was the max the budget could handle this year. Maybe more next year. The long rows towards the top of the picture are 70 foot long rows for Doyle's corn. I hope to have that planted later today or tomorrow. I have a little more space to the east of the main walkway that you can't see in this picture. I need to define those areas before I show them to you. I am planting as much from seed as possible this year and only bought tomato and pepper plants. Next year I will start those from seed too.

MEAT CHICKEN UPDATE

  

Things are going well with the meat chickens we have growing in the barn. They hatched on the 5th of May and journeyed from Madison, Nebraska to rural Idaho. They all showed up alive and I am happy to say we have yet to lose one. Knock on wood! This type of chicken is hybridized to grow lightening fast and therefor  have a high mortality rate. This bothers me so, to maximize the health of these guys, we take their food from them 12 hours each night and give it back in the morning. That should help to keep them from eating themselves to death. I am still coming to terms with raising my own meat but I do still feel that they have a better life here with us than in a huge farm for factory use and subsequent grocery store sale. Healthier eating too! That is really the main goal here, to provide safe and healthy food for my family.

I WON! I WON! I WON!

I am so excited! I won a $100 Home Depot Gift Card on Dave's blog, The Home Garden. I never win anything so I was truly ecstatic to win this. In case you don't know, Dave has been involved with a building project through Better Homes and Gardens and Home Depot to build a project in a 48 hour time period, using materials from Home Depot for $500 dollars or less. He built a beautiful arbor as an entry way to a garden on his property and he did an amazing job! Since this was a contest for Dave too, he has asked that we all log into BHG and vote for his project. He may win an additional $5,000. You can vote daily! Think of all the great things you could do with a spare 5 grand! I know I could happily spend it! I haven't decided quite how to spend my new found wealth but I have a feeling I will likely be painting the new chicken house with the funds! Thanks Dave! (and the chickens thank you!)

Also, I have a GIVE AWAY on my blog too! If you just leave me a comment at the end of that post, telling me what the greatest thing going in your garden is now,  I will enter your name in a hat on Sunday evening and the winner will be announced on Monday morning. Please add a way I can get in touch with you too! You have the opportunity to win the latest and greates Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving and a couple little extras. So head on over and add your entry!

 

GIVE AWAY!!!!

 

When I first started this blog I thought only my family would read it. You know, family from far that wants to know what we are up to here in Idaho. Well that didn't happen. I have an aunt in Texas (Hi Aunt Robin!) who reads. Both of our daughters read it and our moms too. But that is about it for family as far as I know.  My grandparents "don't want to buy anything" and that's OK since I am not selling anything. But a huge surprise to me was that so many other people read this blog. I am thankful for all of you who stop by and for those who leave comments. I have learned so much just by starting this blog/journal. I have 'met' some amazing people and discovered a wealth of fabulous information just by reading other garden blogs and links to great stuff. 

So, to celebrate the turning of 10,000 hits (I know I am a little late:-) my daughter and I thought a GiveAway would be fun! So here is the latest and greatest edition of the Ball Blue Book Guide to Preserving 2009 as well as a seed planter and some great little plant markers! All you have to do is add a comment to this post and tell me what the greatest thing happening in your garden is this week. It can be flowers or veggies, in my book a garden is a garden. You don't have to be a canner to enjoy reading the Blue Book. It will make you want to preserve the harvest, guaranteed. Books like this are how I became hooked! I will add all your names in a hat on Sunday evening and draw randomly then. I will post on Monday morning who the lucky winner is! Please leave me a way to get in touch with you when you post. Email will be fine. If you aren't comfortable adding your email address to the comment, just drop me a private mail through the Contact Me link in the top right corner of my blog, Ollie the Goat is the picture to click. Good luck!

Gotta Love Old Houses

 

Normally when I ask for help digging a hole, I would like to be planting a tree or two. Not accessing plumbing and sewer pipes. That raised bed all askew behind my husband used to house some onions. Notice he did not dig up my flowers? He really is a nice guy. I am absolutely positive this is not how he planned to spend mother's day and the day after.

 

He carefully dug down and only destroyed as much as necessary. His mom even moved all my onions to a new bed! Very sweet. I have a great family and good friends. Doyle replaced the sewer line to the septic system and hopefully fixed the problem. Our home was the old RR Depot that they moved to it's current location many years ago using logs and chains. Then they began adding onto it and raising 5 kids. Our home is mishmash to say the least and our fixer upper projects are never small and cheap. They are always big and expensive. The family before us lived here 60+ years and died here. They are wholly responsible for the wonderful soil and good bones of the gardens. I just expand on or remodel what they started.

 

Ouch, huh? I worked so hard to hand dig out every dandelion last year so as not to have any this year. And guess what? I didn't. But all bets are off now as the soil has once again been disturbed. But I have a working bathroom again. Yep, in a very old house, there is usually only one bathroom as is the case with ours. So having it non-com was really an issue. Doyle put all the sod back in place and hopefully in a few weeks you won't even be able to tell this fun trench was even here at all. One can dream!

All Dressed Up

 

Here is a little before and after for you~ I love before and afters. This is the island bed on April 29 of this year. I was wanting to edge it and top dress it with pretty bark mulch. Last year when I built this bed, the store where I buy my special bark mulch was out. So I was forced to use some of what I like and a whole bunch of really junky stuff from the big box store. This year I started stocking up on my favorite kind and tonight I used most of it. Time to reload!

  

I edged this whole bed and removed the sod layer to use as filler in another project I have going. It should compost down in that area and I did not want it here. Then I backfilled the area between the lawn and the rocks. I toted tons of this mulch from my garden shed to this bed and started top dressing the inside of the bed around all the plantings. Now it looks so pretty and clean. My edges are somewhat wobbly but they should straiten out soon, some parts the lawn were not as grown in from last years tilling of this area so I seeded those spots and it ought to look great soon.

 

I was thinking of planting some kind of specimen tree in this bed, maybe more than one. I really like dogwood trees but was not sure it would stay alive here. I need to do some research. I also love the American Redbud and with proper pruning it should not overpower this area. Another thing I thought would look nice would be a topiary style dwarf spruce. I do not have a formal garden but those trees are so fun and they don't grow too big for the space. One of my other project plans is to begin perimeter planting but that will require a massive bed outlining this entire yard. I need to finish all the other things we have in progress before I start that one. It will likely have to be one of the only things I have going when that one starts. I am so thankful to all the great folks who commented on how to do this. Even with all the gardening I have done, that is one thing I never knew how to do. Edging is a lot of work but the result is so worth it.

Garden Helpers

This is Emma, my niece. She and her identical twin Elle, helped me in the yard and garden all day yesterday. They are three years old and so fun to be around. When they were born they weighed in at 2 lb 12 oz., and 1 lb 15 oz., but you would never know that now! They have never experienced delays or holdbacks that some children experience after such prematurity. They were true miracles and I love them dearly. I decided to show their pictures today as my daughter is 13 years old and rolls her eyes whenever the camera angles her direction. These two are easier to capture with a smile. Emma watered for a solid hour with only minimal interference from me about raising the hose higher so she didn't bore holes around new seedlings. She did a fabulous job!

 

This is Elle, and she seemed more interested in helping with chicken house construction. She got too cold watering and wanted another job. She got to help me stuff straw mulch around the already growing plants in the raised be veggie garden. She is equally helpful just with different interests. These two work tirelessly. I hope they will have a love of the dirt and gardens too! We are going to try watering less this year and I believe the key to that lies squarely with mulch. We will see.

  

And finally, a little progress on the chicken house. So far no one has turned us into the building inspector. I figure my excuse will be to remind him I still pay taxes for the last several years on the chicken house that used to be here. Can you really need a permit for a chicken coop? Surely not. I am hoping that today we can get the roof up over the chicken house. The framing is almost complete, and we had help. Yeah for progress! (And for good friends who will help you out with building projects!)

I Would Build A Picnic Table

Two days ago, Dave of the The Home Garden blog, offered up a $100 Home Depot Gift Card if you commented on his blog and possibly wrote a post about a project you would build or create in a weekend with a spare $100 bucks. I decided I would build a picnic table to be placed near my new Intimidating Row Garden so that I could ponder (in the shade) how much still needed to be weeded. Or better yet, how little weeding still needed to be done. I like that version more. 

 

Actually, this is the one I really liked. Built-in shade just in case I had to weed at the wrong time of the day! There is a little more lumber involved with this one but I should have some scrap left over from the chicken house project. Isn't this a fun plan? The plans for this can be found here.  I think this could be done in a weekend or less and stained or painted on another.

So thank you, Dave. I enjoyed researching picnic benches and have now added another item to my "To-Do" list. But it should provide much enjoyment over many years so I deem it completely worthwhile.

We Are Officially Chicken Farmers!

 

I ordered our meat chickens, a white cornish cross, from a Central Hatchery in Nebraska and they shipped them evening before last via USPS. The idea that these newly hatched chicks can actually survive a trip from Nebraska to Idaho, alive, is amazing to me. The post office called us at 8:43 this morning to tell us they were there, which we knew would happen any minute, literally. We were ready for them, right down to the proper temperature under the heat lamps (95 degrees). We carefully opened the box, hoping like heck they would all be alive and...... Yeah, we are chicken farmers!

 

I gently took each chick out and dipped their beaks in water so they knew it was available to them and unloaded all 50 of the little cuties. They all arrived safe and sound. Chicks hatch out fed and watered for the first 3 days of life. They absorb the yolk during the hatching phase and can ship immediately as long as they are kept warm. Some hatcheries even ship extras as "packing peanuts" but I ordered the right amount for safe shipping and only got the ones I ordered.

 

They all found the water and food in short order and should double in size by the beginning of next week. These birds are a super fast growing hybrid bird that are bred specifically for eating. They should be ready to process in 6-10 weeks depending on your method of feeding and whether they are male or female. Your size preference also plays into the time frame. I am letting my husband take most care of these little guys as I don't want to become attached to the fuzzy little things. I am still struggling with raising my own chickens for eating so as little contact with them as possible is necessary for me. I do realize their life will be so much better than at Foster Farms but it still bothers me. We are doing this to raise as much healthy and unmedicated food for our family as possible. I know I cannot name them but just a few came to mind as I unpacked them. Darn it!

Birthday Bounty

 

I must say as I age, the longer my birthday week lasts! I was fortunate enough to be born on Cinco 'de Mayo and have always liked that day! Leading up to my 21st birthday, it was great because there were countdowns all over the place. My dad even brought me a life size stand up person holding a tear-off pad of days counting down to the big one! Fun. Well, now on the downhill side of my 30's I am not so in love with the passing of years but I do still like the week. My day started with a ton of wishes from my friends and family on Facebook and on Blotanical! My in-laws called and sang to me. My brother and sister called and my neices sang and life was good. The girls I work with and my boss all took me out to lunch. I got a sombrero to help celebrate. (and a Home Depot gift card which will likely be spent on more wire, or maybe paint!) Good times. I even got to have a wonderful dinner that I did not make or have to clean up. That is wonderful.

 

I am sure my chicken craziness has not escaped anyone who reads this blogs attention. The meat chicks should be here on Friday. I am so nervous. Hope they all show up live. My mom and my in-laws all got me chicken feeders and waterers. In total I got 4 water founts and 2 feeders. These were exactly what I wanted so that mold inside was not an issue. I plan to hang them to help keep them cleaner. That is another post.

 

I got canning jars from our oldest daughter and her family. I love canning jars. They get me so excited about this season to come. Nichole chose several sizes and I must say they made my stash look ready for business!

 

  

Our younger daughter, Maecy, got me this great edger. Isn't she clever since it happens to be exactly what I wanted. I even started edging the Island bed but it is so soggy I need to wait a day or two after rain to get the job done.

My sister and her girls got me a roll of hardware cloth wire to help with the outdoor run on the chicken house. From all my reading, I learned that chicken wire is like plastic to another animals that really want in. Hardware cloth is strong and if installed properly won't allow marauding creatures to enter the coop.

So, I must admit I had a good day in spite of the fact that it marks the passing of another year. That just means it is another year to garden and play in the dirt. And another year to enjoy my family and friends. Thank you all for making my day a wonderful one!

Edging- Idaho Style

Many posts back I asked How on Earth you make a bed look like this one. Not so much the peonies but the edge itself. Clean and neat. I have done everything but this until just recently. Several people commented on how to get this done. Anna from from Flower Garden Girl blog suggested cutting in strait down from the lawn side and angling the cut towards that cut from the bed side. I drew you a picture to illustrate what I think she meant by that. And no, when I say I drew you a picture, I am not being a smart alleck. I really did draw you a picture with the paint program on my computer. Someone really ought to come up with a better program for all my garden drawings, that program is junk. But for today's lesson it will suffice.

The dark black lines indicate the angles of the shovel or edger you use to cut into this area. I did this on several of my beds so far and it works like a dream. It looks nice and clean and I can't wait to see how it holds up and how often I will have to redo it. I also plan to back fill the area a little with my super fine bark mulch just to give it a completed look. I did some research today on edgers themselves. Flowrgirl1 from Live To Garden suggested a tool she found at Kmart several years back. It is a half-moon shaped edger with a T-bar handle that she says works very well. The one she uses is made my Martha Stewart. I also found a huge assortment of them on Amazon and the one I think I will order has a foot shaped top that you step on with your whole foot and not just your toes.Kind of like taking a big step with a built in spine on the sole. It seems less likely I will hurt myself with that kind than the traditional. You can also cut your main edge with a power edger and go back for your second, angled cut with a shovel. I used a shovel for the whole thing. It worked fine. I still have the island bed to do but the rain won't seem to let up long enough to get that done. Maybe tomorrow morning.

This is similar to what I mean by a step-on edger. This one was sold by Gardener's Supply but is no longer available. Don't know why but I like the idea. I will have to go in search of just the right one and let you all know what I find.

This one is an example of a Half-Moon shaped edger. I thing it looks wide enough to do the job without breaking the arch of your foot if your lawn is like mine. Very dense and hard to dig in. This one has a round handle as opposed to a T-bar handle but it ought to work the same way. Funny how garden tools are finally starting to be designed with ergonomics in mind. Took them long enough.

Island Bed- Year Two

Last year I decided that the south side of my yard around the house was a problem area. No matter how much water I poured on this spot, it never looked as good as the grass around it. So I thought I would add a small island bed to this part of my yard. See THIS post. I used hose to outline it and after a week of playing with the shape I outlined it with marking paint an begged my husband to till it up for me. I removed all the sod pieces and started adding compost. Lots of compost. I then added rocks to the border, weed cloth and bark mulch.

 

Then, because I can never wait to do things at the appropriate time, I started planting it. I found that a lot of mail order catalog companies also sell on Ebay under a different name for a lot less. A lot less. I also found that lots of people with big gardens also will sell their divisions on Ebay for pennies on the dollar. I started ordering and planting in the heat of the summer. I figured that if I could get 75% of it to come back this year I was golden. 

 

I would say 'Mission Accomplished'. I think I lost a few things. A Honeycomb Butterfly Bush, which blooms yellow and I am sorry about that. A rose bush and a few others. I planted so many things I will have to consult my planting map to be sure of what did not make it. I had put all the hoses away in the fall and then it dried out long before it ever got wet again, I am pretty sure most of the casualties were my fault. I just know I have some holes where there is nothing and I will plant these from seed.  I planted more shrubby type things in the middle of the bed and tried to graduate the sizes to the edges all the way around. As soon as the rain lets up for a minute I will head out and edge this bed with the technique you all suggested. I have already done this to several other beds and it looks very nice. Wish I had known this sooner. Live and learn!