Homestead Braindump

...because I'm too lazy to make multiple posts outta this stuff.

• When we got home from vacation, we noticed Kung Pao was spending a lot of her time in the nest box. Eventually, we realized she was spending ALL of her time in the nest box.  She got all puffy when you got near (good thing she wasn't a RIR, or we'd never have been able to get to the eggs!), she had plucked all of her tummy feathers and was VERY warm.  From what I've read, the 2 best ways to discourage broodiness are to lower their body temperature and to make them as uncomfortable as possible on the nest.  First, I hoped stealing her eggs would work, then I moved her off her nest several times a day, then I put an ice pack in the nest box, then we started dumping her in buckets of cool hose-water.  Nothing.  She is now quarantined in an elevated dog crate in the yard.  It's drafty, uncomfy and at the very least will hopefully keep the broodiness from spreading.  Although, nick said he spotted another of the girls without tummy feathers.  ugh.  This is definitely affecting egg production.  

Get away from my nest!

Do I look comfortable to you?!?

Summer Garden

The spring portion of our garden had been in for about a month and a half and is thriving and even producing for us already but I have just been itchin' to get the real growing started.  Typically we wait for Memorial Day weekend to put our warm weather stuff in, but I will have my toes in the sand by then, our tomato plants were starting to outgrow their starter dish and it's been nice and warm lately, no fear of frost.  

Swimming in Greens

Spring is leaf time, in the world of vegetannual.  (Which btw, if you haven't checked out this site or Animal, Vegetable, Mineral I highly recommend them) And let me tell you, we are swimming in leaves!  Mostly arugula, but some spinach too.  This is the first year that we've been able to successfully grow spinach.

The Last Day of "Winter"

Well, Ikea let me down...again... (raise you hand if you're surprised!) They now say that the counters I'm waiting for will be in on Thursday.  I hope it's true, but I'm not holding my breath.

Ikea aside, the last day of winter was a productive and shockingly summer-like kind of day.

I did indeed make an eggs for sale sign, and it worked too! Not 2 hours after hanging it, someone who had never bought eggs from us before knocked on the door and said "If that sign's for real, I've got $2".

Sorry about the glare, I said it was sunny yesterday!

Halushki

Our poor garden only produced two (rather puny) cabbages, bless it.  Thankfully they were both ready at the same time and equally thankfully, right before we leave town.

This'n'at

Our tomatoes are having the best year they've ever had despite a little more neglect than i'd personally like to own up to.  We never got around to buying cages and they were in some serious need of both weeding and staking.  Nick fed the weeds to the chickens, he called it a salad.  They loved them tho!

Aren't they gonna be tasty when they ripen?

Zesty Zucchini Pickles

...you know, for when freezing and pies and breads and casseroles just aren't enough to use up all of that zucchini.

Preserving: Blueberry Raspberry Jam

I'll tell you what: Our garden had one heck of a growth spurt over the long weekend.  Tonight, I picked 5 zucchini, 3 cucumbers (the first ones!) and quite the handful of snow peas, sweet peas, green beans and raspberries.  Last night I was so surprised by the amount of raspberries, I took a picture:

Between all of those raspberries (combined with tonight's) and the pint of blueberries the in-laws sent us home with from their bushes, I was ready to make something jellied.  Personally, I'm not a huge jelly person, but Nick has it just about every morning.  That makes it worth my time to make.  

Preserving: Freezing Zucchini & Snow Peas

Before we get on to garden things, I would like to point out it's my Blogiversary! (and post #120)  It's been a crazy year, but i seem to have picked up a handful of followers along the way and I just wanna say thanks for stopping by and i'm glad you're here.  I'd love to say thank you with a giveaway like the big blogs, but this here is a low (aka: no) budget operation.  Deal with it.  In the mean time, feel free to reminisce and check out my first post.  Warning: The refrigerator pickles are a good idea but i really should have followed up on my attempt at fermenting pickles.  It was a moldy mess of fail.  I don't recommend it.

On to garden stuffs.  Food is beginning to roll in from the garden.  Mainly snow peas and zucchini at the moment, but also a few bush beans and raspberries.  (I think the birds are getting to them before we can tho, more on that later).  Anyways, it's about time to kick my resolution to try and preserve a year's worth of veggies from our garden into action.  It's no doubt a lofty goal, but shoot for the moon, even if you miss you'll land among the stars.

The State of the Garden Address

It's been a rough couple weeks and I haven't posted in a while, but it's high time I did.  I promise that, unlike it's distant cousin (The State of the Union Address), this address will be quite positive and minimally frustrating.

Ugh... Potato Beetles

Last Year, our potato plants became covered in beetles.  This is how it played out:

We put out a beetle bag, figuring that was a good way to not have to spray our plants.
It did no good.
Our pants disappeared at an alarming rate.
I researched: they're Colorado Potato Beetles.
Colorado Potato Beetles are very hard to kill, go through many life cycles in a growing season and burrow in the ground to survive the winter.
Never fear!  There is an organic biopesticide that fungally kills almost exclusively this bug and is totally safe for people.
But you have to spend a ton for even the smallest ammount, which will treat many acres.  Its for farmers.
Don't my 10 potato plants deserve to be bug and chemical free?
Nick found an "approved for organic production" mix at Agway.
The chemical is hard to find info on.
There is nothing left of our potato plants anyways.
*Defeat*

Garden Progress... Big Time

Last Wednesday, my hubbs rented a mini-tiller (the tiller we usually borrow is out of comission) on his way home and set out to till our garden.  I have to admit, I had serious doubts that that itty bitty tiller (unfortunately, the only rentable one that would fit in either of our cars) could make much of a dent in our huge garden.  I was POSITIVE we'd have to rent it another day.

I've Been a Real Bum

Really and truly I have, but now is not the time for explanations.

Yesterday, I realized that a week from tomorrow AT THE LATEST, my chicks would be here.  Yes, sometime next week my post office will call at o'dark thirty for me to pick up my chicks and not only have we not started a coop (which they probably wouldn't be able to use for a few months) but I haven't even started on the brooder.  Oops.

This afternoon, I gathered the heat lamp & feeder bases I bought a while ago and set to work.  I took the tub we used to store our inflatable kayak (which I donated to our neighbors, it's not a purchase I recommend) and cut the lid in half.  That's it.  Can you believe people pay for these?  I need to buy some non-cedar hamster bedding (as a kid we always got some  made from recycled paper, ill prolly use that) for mess absorbency and I've already got organic chick feed hanging out in the basement.

The big thing when it comes to brooders is keeping the chicks warm, but not too warm.  Ideally, the temperature should not be consistent throughout so they can find where they like best.  If the chicks are too cold, they'll be noisy and huddled under the lamp.  If they're warm they'll be far from the lamp and each other.  Too warm is actually more of a concern than too cold.

Oh, and just to catch you up on what has been up elsewhere around here, the wainscoting & shoe moulding are about done in the livingroom and we're nearing paint time.  Also, Nick has been turning up sod for the garden expansion.  More to come on both of those projects another day.

Spring is Sprouting

My birthday was a little over a week ago and my (totally awesome) boss got me an herb garden kit and a seed starting kit.  Remember when I promised to start a small herb garden for the kitchen?  I don't think she reads Living From Scratch, so it was a particularly thoughtful gift.  I started the herb garden and nick started cabbage seeds in the other pot.  This weekend, nick also started snow peas and sugar snap peas.  It's still way too early to be starting most plants, but these guys are the frost-hardy ones that we can plant early.

Pruner's Remorse

Today was a beautiful day in my corner of the world.  58 degrees and sunny.  Blue skies with the fluffiest little clouds here and there.  It was time to prune.  It was time to break out Nick's Christmas toy for the first time.

How (big) does my garden grow?

Normal people measure their gardens in feet or yards (which i am sure Nick has because I am about to show you to-scale graphs) but I prefer to measure the garden in fence lengths.  Of course the fence lengths are uneven (usually between 4 and 8 ft), but it's a better visual for me.  Our first summer here, our garden was 2 fence lengths by 4 fence lengths.  Last summer, it was 3x5.  This coming summer, it is going to be 4x6 and that is the maximum size for that location.  Any deeper, and it'll be into the fire pit, any wider and it will envelop our fruit and nut trees (saplings, though they may be).  If I were a betting woman, I'd wager that next year Nick will be begging me for a garden annex elsewhere in the yard because I refuse to let it grow any larger in it's current position.

Why I Can't Wait For Spring

You know, on the whole I'm a Fall/Winter kinda gal.  I love the leaves and smells of autumn and the light of winter.  I know, it's odd to associate light with the darkest time of year, but there is something so cheerful about light bouncing off of the snow.  Also, as much as I like to be outside, I really HATE warm weather.

Given that, you can imagine my surprise when, staring out at the beautiful falling snow this afternoon, I found myself wishing for spring.

I want to be out in my yard.  I want to plant a garden and reap it's fruit.  I want to fix my fence.  I want to watch Nick cut the grass.  I want my chicks to get here so they can start laying eggs for me.  I want to finish painting the trim on the house green.  I want to stop struggling to find things to put on my blog.

Yup, It seems like winter is construction time here at living from scratch and summer is greenie time.  We have started to map out next year's garden so hopefully I can share that soon, but other than that I'm at a loss.  Does anyone out there in cyberland have any snowed-in greenie tips? I love feedback!

Chick or Pullet?

My Pet Chicken, the best hobby site I could find for chicks, posted their 2011 chicks for pre-order.  It's decision time folks.  When we started this venture, I was sure I wanted started pullets.  Now i'm not so sure.

"Started Pullets", or hens that are about set to start laying, were my initial preference for a number of reasons.  Mostly because chicks seem so frail and we're new at this.  Also, I can buy exactly as many hens as i'd like and, barring dog attacks or the like, thats how many I should continue to have.  Unfortunately, when I started looking into things I found no poultry farms in the area (at least that advertise well).  This leaves my only local source for hens as craigslist, but who knows what my selection will look like and if they'll be authentic?  I have a few breeds in mind, but I know that (aside from an easter egger or two) I want heritage breeds.

The chicks at agway in the spring are probably cheaper than started pullets, but for healthy chicks of a specific breed, one must order them online and shipping is costly.  Because we live so far from the city, we have to order a few more than we actually need.  On one hand, they all may well not make it (but we pay for them regardless!) but what if they all do?  and chicks need a lot of attention.  On the upside though, we can choose our breeds and know we're getting what we pay for and we know from birth how they've been handled and fed.

What would you do? I'd love to hear your feedback,

Concerning Poultry

One of the most expensive changes we've made around here int he last 6 months or so is eggs.  A dozen eggs at Aldi costs $.89.  A dozen cage-free, organic eggs costs $3.50.  A dozen from a local farmer (when available) $2.50.  Thats a 3 or 4x increase!  Seeing as we go through at least a dozen if not more every week, thats a lot of extra money on eggs.

Nick suggested it first.  "Why don't we get chickens?"  My first reaction? "Absolutely Not!  Birds are dirty and carry diseases!  Do you know how much work that'd be?"  Nick is even more of a schemer and dreamer than I am and I figured that, like so many of his ridiculous ideas, it would go away.  Discourage the truly crazy or expensive ones and humor his attempts at the less expensive ones, right?

Well, it didn't go away and to be honest it started to grow on me.  I like having control over what I eat and doing it as economically as possible.  Honestly, keeping chickens (after the start up costs) would probably mean breaking even, but there will probably be the opportunity to sell the extras.  What really sold me was the chicken tractor.  I'm not so fond of finding chicken poop on my walkways or searching for eggs all over the yard, but i kinda felt like it wasn't worth doing if I was planning on keeping them in a coop with a static run for their whole lives.  A chicken tractor is basically a movable coop/run combo with no floor.  Every day or so, you move it to a new spot in your yard.  The chickens have new weeds & bugs to pick at regularly so they don't ruin any one spot in your yard (but rather, fertilize the whole thing).  They're also protected from predators (and puppy dogs).  They'll still need to be provided with feed, but it should be much less than strictly coop-raised birds.

Once I had found a way of doing things that seemed more livable to me, we had some things to work out:

How many chickens? A Prolific laying breed hen can produce from 250-300 eggs per year.  That means 2 chickens for every dozen you would like to get each week.  Also consider that in the absence of a rooster, one hen may cease to lay and take on some rooster-like qualities and that now and again one of your hens in bound to get clucky (aka: quit laying and sit on some eggs) for a time.  We decided we want 6.  4 would meet our needs, but we wanted cushion.  Worse come to worse i'm sure we could give the eggs away.

What Breed? Where and how will we get them?  There are about a million breeds of chickens, not to mention hybrids and mutts.  To narrow it down, I set down some preferences.  Mostly, I wanted heritage breeds that were prolific brown egg layers, extremely cold hardy and fairly docile.  Other less important preferences were year-round laying, not prone to getting clucky and i kinda wanted one or two more colorful layers, something blue or green or something.  Thus far I have narrowed it down to Australorps, Rhode Island Reds and either Ameracunas or Easter Eggers.  Australorps are both prolific brown egg layers that are cold weather hardy and, being dual-purpose breeds, are also good eating.  Australorps are more docile, but prone to cluckiness.  RIRs are less prone to cluckiness, but i've found the full gambit of comments as it pertains to their temperament.  Neither Ameracunas or Easter eggers lay quite as much, but they are blue egg layers.  Ameracunas are a heritage breed but very rare, Easter Eggers are mutts and their eggs can be any number of colors, but they're fun and easy to come by and everyone raves about their personality.  I'm still up in the air about where to get them.  My first instinct was to try to purchase started pullets (about ready to lay) for our first time around, but I haven't found local poultry farms online where I could get some.  There are sometimes chickens on craigslist though, though i'll have to wait til spring to see that much.  You can order day old chicks online.  Most places require that you order at least 25 chicks, but My Pet Chicken lets you order 8.  We could deal with that many, and cook one or two if its too much.  They also carry 3 of the 4 breeds that I like.

What type of Tractor?  Below is a pic of my favorite design.  We'll settle on dimensions when we figure out how many birds we're gonna have.  

I can't wait until spring when we can put this all into action!

PS don't forget that you have to check with your municipality to make sure chickens are allowed!

My Poor Poplar Tree

We have an enormous poplar on the edge of our property. 

I've always been quite fond of it.  It's the only sizeable non-pine tree on our property and I always thought it was a cool shape.  Unfortunately, it has also always worried me.  I was just waiting for a big branch to fall off it (and probably crush my garage) during that big storm last winter.  See, it has what I thought was a rot of some sort, but my arborist assures me is some sort of "scar" from a past trauma in it's life.  Needless to say, this bad spot was supporting quite a bit of weight. 

But my tree survived our horrendous winter AND a wind storm that knocked our power out for the better part of a week... THEN this happened:

 

My neighbor's landlord had her son-in-law remove some trees that did not fare so well in that summertime wind storm, and tree #3 fell the wrong way.  This reminded me both of the power of a falling tree and the importance of having a professional handle bigger trees that are near any structure.  It was risky to cut a tree that close to a house, period, but one that tall without climbing equipment? Nuts. 

This terrible misfortune, that was very hard on the people who used to occupy that house, did at least teach my neighborhood a lesson.  There have been trees and severely damaged buildings going down all over the place.  I called Harry, good family friend & tree guy, out here last week to look at my sickly poplar.  He was up in the air as to whether or not we could just top it or it would need to come down.  This morning though, we discovered that the mid-sized branches were snapping like dead twigs.  That is the sign of an unhealthy tree. 

 

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