Thursday, April 28, 2011

Notes, thoughts, musings...

Ha ha...musings...I've always wanted to use that word, so I did.  Sounds stupid.

Anyway, I was looking back over the last couple of month's worth of posts and saw how much work we really all have done at the compound.  A few months ago, an off-duty police officer fell asleep at the wheel of his car and careened through our front yard taking out several bushes, our flag pole, and a good portion of our fence.  He's lucky he didn't die or get seriously injured, since a large piece of fence post went through the windshield of his car and exited through the passenger door.  In any case, we finally replaced the bushes and the flag pole after a few months of stuffing our dumpster full of brush and burning what we could. 


They look so small compared to the original bushes. 


Nice to see "Old Glory" waving in the wind again. 

The garden especially seems to have transformed from a disorderly weed patch into something that looks like it could just possibly be in Sunset magazine. We'll see if the veggies actually come out worthy of a magazine article.  I know that they will look much better this season due to the change in watering.  The soaker hoses seem to be just what they needed.  Even with my negligent watering, the plants seem to be doing fine and I even noticed that a couple have started growing!  This weekend's project is to take some compost out of the pile and spread it around the base of the new plants.  Hopefully give them a little extra energy to grow up healthy.

Speaking of weekend projects...they never actually end...husband is going to construct a portable home for the teenagers.  That way it doesn't have to stay permanently in our way.  They definitely need a larger home.  I came home for lunch today and as I was leaving, there was quite a ruckus in the garage.  I looked in and the little ones were having some sort of track and field event in their tub.  There was jumping, running, and hurdling going on.  Very silly.  But as a result of all these shenanigans, their food and water containers were completely full of shavings and poop.  Ew.  Time to move into a larger accommodations.

Some watering adjustments, some sprinklers since the grass is already starting to get brown, some flower planting...that should do it for the weekend. 

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Garden is in!!!!

Whew...eleven days since the last post!  Well, technically twelve, but I had too much to write about and didn't post yesterday.  It's been a busy Spring Break and I'm pretty unhappy that it's over.  I kind of enjoy the whole "not working" thing.  To be fair, I shouldn't say that we were "not working" on our days off...we were.  We just did work that had more positive personal results for us...

The most exciting news is that the vegetable garden is 90% planted and the soaker hoses are a success!  The soaker hoses were not an immediate success, but with another minor adjustment, I think they are going to be awesome.  They seem to be running effectively, provided I remember to turn the darn things off...I have issues with that.  I tend to forget that I've turned the hoses on and then come out a few hours later to a mushy mess...or as in last night, I didn't turn the little lever completely to the "off" position. After having a shower with very little water pressure this morning, I went outside and discovered my garden looked like a rice paddy. 

Well, I got a little ahead of myself there...let's see...where did we start our "not working"?  Oh, I remember.  We actually started our week by going up to husband's sister's place in Santa Rosa.  We offered to help build them a chicken coop since we have some experience in that department.  We loaded up the truck with some plywood and a bunch of the old wood that we seem to have an overabundance of (still!), thinking that we would use those materials to construct a functional yet rustic looking coop.  When we got there, we discovered that this was going to be a high falootin' sort of coop...redwood...ooooooooohhhh....aaaaahhhhh....complete with windows, doors, and a tin roof!  Very nice!!!  After a few hours of sawing, hammering, cussing, drilling, more cussing, changing plans, and fastening, the redwood mansion was complete.  It is awesome!  The boys did a fantastic job with the construction.  I have to admit, that I did very little to help in this venture, other than staying out of the way.  As a matter of fact, husband's sister, the Fish, and I ran errands, went to the doctor, as someone (HW) had a fierce case of poison oak, and did a little wine tasting.  The wine tasting definitely helped with the poison oak situation.  Dinner, more wine, then off to bed to be ready for the next day's project.

Project number two up there, was to get their garden ready to plant.  The boys got rock and soil to put in the raised planter beds that our brother-in-law had already built.  Redwood, of course.  They are really awesome as well and someday, I might need to steal some design ideas. Poison oak girl bought some wine barrels to plant tomatoes in.  I decided a wine barrel would be perfect for my herb garden and bought one as well.  In retrospect, I should have gotten a couple more, but I can get those later.  We later cooked a delicious dinner, ate, and then headed home.

So, as we drove home, I think I may have been grumbling out loud about having to finish weeding the garden area before I could get any plants put in.  Husband, who was likely tired of that song and dance routine, decided to rent a rototiller and rototill!!  Three cheers for husband!  The following morning, we rented aforementioned rototiller, went to the local nursery (less than 2 miles from the house is a fantastic nursery with really nice people) and bought a yard of planter's mix.  Good stuff the guy said...lots of nutrients and manure, etc.  Rototilled that in...amazing what 50 horses can do for your garden...and I started planning the soaker hose layout.  Yay!

This is the idea I copied from a friend's garden.  Looks like a winner...easy too...right???


All done...and yes, that is the weekend harvester (me!) casting a shadow over the garden.  Seems like this should do it.  I ended up hooking up a hose on either end to separate spigots so that the water pressure would be more evenly distributed.  Now time to test it out...but I didn't really feel like it, so I called it a day.

The next day, husband and slaves got 6 1/2 cubic yards of river rock to pretty up the front yard area.  By the way, one yard of river rock is 3,000 pounds!  I helped a bit too, but then I worked on the vegetable planting, but more on that later.  In the front yard, we had several plants that had pretty much decided to do whatever they wanted to do, and therefore, were just plain ugly.  Years of drought and neglect ceratinly didn't help their cause either.  The Blazer got a good little workout pulling those plants out.  The ground underneath was a tangled mess of some sort of ground cover that I'm pretty sure would survive a nuclear blast.  Our plan was to just cover it all up with rock and then kill the weeds and the left over ground cover that the boy didn't yank out.  There were some pieces that just weren't worth the effort.  What was worth the effort, though, was the rock itself.  The front looks amazing!!  There was even enough rock, after the last trip, to put some between the rose bushes that line the driveway and that made them really stand out.  The finished prodect is pictured below.  I love it! 



Okay, so while the others were shoveling obscene amounts of river rock, I planted my vegetables.  I ended up going to several local garden/nursery places to get pre-grown vegetables after the dog fiasco.  Not sure I covered that previously...my cute little labbie got her line untangled and was able to reach the table where I had placed my precious seedlets for some daily sunshine.  She thought that she needed more fiber in her diet??  Anyway, she pulled all the trays down and when she figured out it wasn't anything too exciting, she just left the plants there in a disappointing little heap.  I managed to salvage some peppers, but the rest were just sad looking.  Not to mention after they were spilled all over the deck, I had very little idea what was what anymore.  I'll try again next year.  The Fish came over to help me construct the trellis like fence I saw in a friend's yard to hold up my tomatoes.  Those cages you get at the store are annoying.  They work well at first, but then either collapse or I get my hands stuck in them trying to get the tomatoes out.  Not to mention, I have to throw them away every year.  The fencing we put up seems much more permanent and useful.  After planting all my plants, I decided to try out my new watering system.  It started out a little slow, but then gained momentum.  As you can see by the photo below, a little too much momentum in the corner. 



It puddled something awful...  Originally the beans were going to go there, but the flooding made the wooden trellis fall over and when I stepped into that corner, my boots disappeared.  The big bird dog thought it was a great place to play and things got temporarily out of control in that corner.  Ugh.  Plan C...or is it now D?  I don't know.  Husband to the rescue again...I'm really glad he is a good thinker.  I am too, but sometimes I just don't see the solution clearly.  He suggested splicing the end of the regular hose that is attached to the soaker hose with one of those hose things that looks like a "y".  Then taking the other end of the soaker (after rearranging it) and attaching it to the other part of the "y" thingie.  Much better!!  I now think that I need to do that on the other end as well.  Always a project...

Looking west...

Looking east...

From west to east, we have the following planted:  The first 2 rows are a variety of tomatoes, including Early Girl, Better Boy, yellow pear (like little pear shaped cherry tomatoes...yummy!), cherry, roma, and a couple of heirlooms that looked interesting.  Next row is the pepper row...mostly a variety of bells and one pepperoncini.  We aren't fans of hot peppers, so none of those, but seems like that's all the nurseries sell.  Egh.  Oh there are 2 eggplant plants there too!  Husband isn't too sure about those...actually neither am I.  I'm pretty sure that Epicurious.com will come in handy with those.   Next comes the cucumber row...munching and pickling varieties.  Squash takes up rows 5, 6 and 7.  Summer squash, zucchini, crookneck, spaghetti, and one other that I don't remember the name of.  We love squash, so we can never have enough.  The last row is an odd little mix.  At the north end are edame...still don't know how to pronounce that...also not sure why they don't just call them soy beans, which is what they are, I think.  Good munching snack and good for you.  Then I planted the pea seeds, because started pea seedlets are an elusive crop here in the Central Valley.  All the nurseries I called said they had them, but when I actually got there to buy them, they were "sold out".  Someone is a few steps ahead of me, I guess.  Then at the southern end of the row are the blue lake beans...the staple ingredient of green bean casserole. Yum!  I also have some leeks (part of the onion family), but now am unsure where to put those...the wine barrels would be ideal right now.

Then came the wine barrel of herbs.  Husband had filled up the barrel with planter's mix and I set out to plant my eight herb pots in what I discovered was now a much too small area.  Ugh...I got a little out of control with all the herb choices...good thing I saved all sorts of old clay pots!  I filled those with a mixture of potting soil and compost from our compost pile (I know this is a little weird, but the soil out of the compost pile smells soooo good!) and started planting.  Below are pictures of how the herb pots turned out.  I'm pretty darn proud of myself...now to just keep them watered and things will be good, I think.  I might see if I can rig up some drip for those...that would be sooooo much easier.  Well, as long as I don't forget to turn the water on...or off...

Clockwise from top:  basil, sage, parsley, and cilantro

Clockwise from upper left:  lavender, chives, rosemary, and dill

Now for some poultry news...the cute little peepers are definitely in their teenage years.  Gangly and funny looking with a bit of an unruly attitude to boot.  I put the smaller kids (my 2 Auraconas) in with them and the teens wasted no time bullying the little guys around.  I am proud of my tiny peepers in that they are holding their own against the mob.  This weekend's poultry project is to build the new crew a little addition to the large coop, so they can stop putting all the shavings in their water dish within seconds of me putting it in there and so they can start getting used to the big birds in the big coop.  Plus they will have ample room to move around.

Teenagers...


 The adults hens are pretty happy about their new addition...an automatic waterer!!  I think the kids (the human ones) are pretty happy about it too.  No longer do we have to brave the mad rush of poultry in the morning when we try to go and get the water container out to refill it.  They drink a lot of water!  It will be nice in summer too...wish I could set up an automatic feeder...

One last note before I retire for the day...this is Coop Mama getting ready to attack my gloved hand looking for eggs.  She makes a noise that really is unpleasant to hear, ruffles her whole hind end, and pecks at my hand .  Fish and husband prefer the pvc pipe method...she prefers neither.  But she keeps the eggs neat and organized.  Go Mama!




Friday, April 15, 2011

Spring is Here!

Just a quick note...spring appears to finally be here!  My yard is suddenly bursting with color and I'm pretty happy about it!  The first roses are blooming...this one smells especially awesome!


 Below are the lilacs that I discovered last spring.  They smell really good too.  Between the roses, the lilacs, and the wisteria, it can get a little overpowering some days...but in a good way. 

Vegetable and chickie update:

The veggies have been released into the wild...ha ha.  I put this chicken wire around them to keep the chickens out.  So far, so good.  They don't seem real interested.

The cute little chickies have entered the awkward teen years...they have new cute siblings that arrived yesterday.  They are in a different tub as I'm afraid the teenagers will pick on the little ones.  Got six, but four of them are my sister-in-law's babies.  I'm babysitting until the end of the week when they come up for the annual rodeo.  Then they will go live with her in her new coop that we will be helping to construct.  Well, duh, we are the coop experts...hahaha...

Thursday, April 7, 2011

It's Raining Again!!

Yippee!  The rain has come to visit again!  I know, this means more weeds, but it also means that things will stay greener a little bit longer.  We basically live in a desert...okay, they try to glorify it by calling it a "Mediterranean climate", but no one is fooling me with the fancy name.  It is a desert.  Once the sun stays out more than a couple of days, usually around the end of March, with no chance of rain, everything turns yellow and brown.  That's the way it stays until late fall.  The temperatures here don't help either...right now, the highest temperature we have had was somewhere in the 80's...bearable.  Soon, usually right after the rodeo (which is the last full weekend in April), the mercury gets close to 90 and it stays there or above throughout the entire summer and most of fall.  Egh.  I need to move. 

Anyway, the rain is welcome for more than just greenery.  The soil will be soft again, and the slave...I mean child, can get out there and get more weeds out.  I'm sure she'll be thrilled.  She wants to visit the new Forever 21 3-story store they just opened here...I think I can talk her in to more weeding. 

Next week is the last week of school before Spring Break.  I am hoping to get the garden completely started some time during that vacation week.  We are going to husband's sister's house to help construct a chicken coop for them and then I can dedicate the rest of the week to the garden.  I have yet to get the soaker hoses unwrapped and set out to uncurl themselves.  I also need to purchase some sort of wire thingies to hold the soaker hose down.  The bean and pea trellis needs to go up and I need to get a few large clay pots ready for the herbs.  Oh, I also need to get a cattle panel for the tomatoes to grow against...no more of those foolish wire cages that always manage to fall down halfway through the season.  Then there's the issue of keeping the chickens out of there...I researched a bit and the consensus is that the chickens will most likely stay out of the garden.  If they are given room to roam where there are lots of bugs and other smal plants etc., they will stay away from a fenced area...even if the fence is only 3 feet tall.  I guess we'll see...if it becomes a problem, I may start looking at chicken recipes. 

I took a funny picture of the seedlets...sort of a bug's eye view.  Makes it look jungle like...ha!


This is how they really look...still on top of the dryer! 

Off to go play in the rain!  Or to pull weeds...

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Inching closer...

Slowly we are getting closer to actually planting the seedlets!! I decided to send one of the kids out to do the latest arm workout...weeding the garden.  My daughter, less than cheerfully, went out and and actually got a pretty large area cleaned up!  She went out with a scowl on her face and came back huffing and puffing 30 minutes later.  Beads of sweat were forming on her face...might be she just sprinkled herself with water...actually after my workout, I believed her perspiration was the real thing.  I think she thought she'd been out there for a much longer time, because when I said it had only been 30 minutes, she had a pained look on her face.  After I reminded her that she could get paid for this...happy attitude required...she went out and did more work.  Amazing what a little monetary incentive can do for a person!  Here are her efforts below:


Pretty good since I did an hour's worth of work and didn't get nearly that much done.  Must be the advanced years of mine.  Ha!

The Bermuda grass is really awful and next year, I need to handle that before it gets too crazy.  The stuff is a menace as I mentioned before.  Great if you want a beautiful turf surface...not so great when you would like to access the soil below. 

This is the horrible Bermuda grass...

...and this is our arsenal of tools we use to get this awful stuff out.  From left to right:  the weasel, one hula hoe, rake, another hula hoe, and finally the claw.  Such a viscious assortment of garden tools...  I'm pretty sure a rototiller might have been easier...but on a positive note, we saved some money and have gotten better looking arms.

In other news, more specifically chicken news...the hens seemed to be content and are still producing a good number of eggs.  We happen to have about 40 in our refrigerator at this time.  Either we will be eating many meals featuring eggs, or we need to give some of these away.  I'm opting for the latter.  I have been scouring recipe websites and books for some good egg recipes...found a few, so hopefully I can get creative with some of these eggs.  Of course, I think my favorite meal with the eggs is an egg sandwich...toast, with cheese, a fried egg, some ham, and another slice of toast.  Yummo!!

I'm jumping around to subjects here, but I don't think I ever posted a photo of the chicken coop where you could see the whole set up.  Below is a picture of the condos where most of the egg laying takes place.  Yes, occasionally we still find an errant egg in either the garden shed or another random lacation.  Someone keeps plopping them out in the dirt by the ramp.  I guess the effort of actually going up the ramp to the condos is just too much for some.  That's fine while the weather is nice, but the ground gets pretty hot when the sun beats down on it in the summer.  The tree that grows right next to the coop is getting leaves and once summer  hits, the coop is almost completely in the shade.  We are going to install an automatic waterer, once I purchase it from the farm store, and get that hooked up.  For some reason, filling water receptacles is super hard at my house.  The dogs' is usually empty and the chickens NEVER have water.  It's funny to watch them either get drinks from the drippy spigot out front or try to get drinks from the dog water that occasionally has been filled.  (In defense of the children who are suppose to fill the water dishes...the labbies do like to go "swimming" in their water bowls and sometimes this is the reason for lack of water.)  Most of the time, it's called laziness. 


Coop Mama going to check on her brood...who were already safely tucked away in the egg carton in the refrigerator.  She squawked rather loudly when she finally got to her condo. 

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

It's beginning to look a lot like planting time!

The chickies, including the famed Lady Gaga, are doing well!  They are starting to grow a little, which always makes me a little sad.  When they get to the gangly stage, which I liken to teenagedom, they look so...well weird.  Their necks get longer and their legs get longer, making them look extremely disproportionate.  But, I am getting ahead of myself here.  Mine still look like cute fluffy chickies.  This morning, in fact, they were all lying in the shavings on their bellies asleep...then when they saw me, they started peeping loudly and running around all crazy.  Tomorrow the farm store where I work is getting new chickies in...can't wait to see what they get. 

The vegetable garden is making a slow recovery from all the rain...weeds grew back in many of the places that I removed them from...grrrrrr....  Then there is this awful grass called Bermuda grass that is anything but what the name implies.  It is an invasive grass that sends out multiple feelers, I guess you'd call them, and then the feelers send down roots every few inches and you get this tangled web of grass.  Okay, seriously, in its defense, it makes for lovely lawns and most golf courses have grass similar to this.  It mows well and is very spingy when taken care of properly.  However, it is an unwelcome guest in my vegetable garden.  Yesterday, I spent the better part of an hour taking turns with the hula hoe, the claw, and the weasel...all to see very little in the way of progress.  On a positive note, I did get a very nice arm workout.  I think that the remaining tangle will be handled by one of the children living in my house. 

I do have to get a move on, however, on getting the soil ready to go.  The seedlets are becoming rather large and I'm afraid that they will start to die due to lack of proper growing space.  The beans are really tall and are starting to lean over...the peas are doing well...the peppers are finally looking like something too.  Hurray!

A concern presented itself to me yesterday while I was doing my vigorous arm workout...the fence around the garden is designed mostly to keep out small wandering creatures.  The cats find their way in their occasionally, but the dogs are unable to get in, and we don't have much else in the way of critters, except for the chickens.  Now I have seen these girls get on top of some pretty high places...for example, the top of their coop.  So, what's to say that they won't jump the fence of the garden when there are many brightly colored temptations...ie: my tomatoes...growing in there.  Ugh!  Something else to research...how to deter the egg producers from getting into the farm goods.  Obviously, the simple solution is to keep them "cooped" up...but then they lay inferior products.  What to do??!!  I'm pretty sure a stern verbal warning will NOT be sufficient.  Well, something else to Google. 

Friday, April 1, 2011

PEEPERS!!!!

We have peepers!  Six new little tiny chickies!  Peep, peep, peep peep peep...  I went to the farm store where I am now employed and they had just arrived at the store.  The chicks are delivered by the regular mailman...really??  Really!  That day, the mailamn walked in with four large crates with 75 very loud little chicks in each.  When they let them out of the boxes into the big galvanized steel tubs, they came pouring and tumbling out, peeping very angrily.  I guess I would be angry too...it's a long flight in a dark cardboard box from Tennessee to California with nothing to do...no food or water!  After they got their little feet on the ground, they started running all over the place looking for food and water.  That might be the funniest sight I have seen in a long time.  They run as if they are the only things in the tub (well they are, but I mean they don't have any idea that there are 74 others in there)...randomly banging into each other and crashing into the sides of the tub...peeping loudly the whole time.  When the manager finally put a food and a water feeder in, the chicks attacked them.  They are naturally attracted to the color red and the chick feeders have a red base, so they make a bee line towards those...not really understanding at first how those things work.  They kept pecking the sides and the edges of the feeder.  Once in a while, one would accidently get her beak wet or get a morsel of food and then the frenzy began.  Some of them ran from the feed to the water and back again...peeping the whole time.  They look so funny just running willy nilly.  There were a couple of chicks that weren't very energetic...I imagine some just don't have that pioneering spirit.  And, there were the two chicks that the manager set the water feeder on top of...rest in peace little peepers.

So after observing this little chick circus for a few minutes, I grabbed the "to-go" box and started looking for the little feathered friends that would get to go on yet another confusing journey with no food and water.  I decided to grab 2 pale yellow chicks, which will most likely be white leghorns.  I have no white egg layers, so I thought that might be a nice change.  I also grabbed 2 of the Black Australorps.  They are very productive in the egg laying department.  I also got another Buff Orpington...also a good egg layer.  Coop Mama is a B.O.  They are the pretty solid yellow colored hens.  Big Bird is a Buff rooster...his photo was on my previous blog.  As a matter of fact, Thunder, who is a Rhode Island Red rooster was featured with a Black Australorp on the previous blog also, so you can get an idea of what they actually look like.  Anyway, that made 5 little chickies.  You can never leave with an odd number of chicks (I'm pretty sure this is a rule somewhere), so I started tryiung to decide if I should get another Buff or Leghorn.  During this time, I managed to sell some man a dozen assorted chicks and all the accoutrements that go with being a poultry owner.  That's when I saw them...some crazy looking leopard spotted chicks!  I just had to have one!  In retrospect, after I figured out what kind of chick she is, I should have gotten more, but I wasn't sure, so I got one.  I grabbed a bag of chick starter feed and took my peeping box to check out.

I ran this little errand on my lunch hour from school, so back to school I headed with my tiny charges.  When I got to school, I had to use the restroom and set my box on the counter in the workroom.  While still inside the restroom, I heard squeals of delight and giggling, and knew my recent purchases had been discovered.  I came out to find both school secretaries with chicks in their hands, just oooohing and aaaaahing over the little girls.  My vice principal, who due to being pregnant didn't want to hold one, was very concerned that the chicks were making a sad peeping sound..."crying" is what she called it.  Perhaps, but their "sad" peeping sounded very much like their "angry" peeping.  Maybe it's like human babies and their mommas...they can tell what kind of peeping it is...to me it all sounds the same!  Anyway, I rescued the chicks from the secretaries and took them to my classroom.

They sat on the floor in their little box next to my desk and peeped, much to my students' delight.  My kids were actually silent...hmmmm...maybe they need to be here more often?  I thought for sure they would be a distraction.  Not so much.  Well, for me, but not for the kids.  I watched them while the kids took a test and tried to keep my laughing to a minimum.  The chickies are so cute.  They were leap frogging over one another in the box and one kept trying to stand on the other's back.  They clumped up in the corner and looked like they were trying to make a chick chain in order to climb out.  So cute!  Finally, the day was over and it was time to take them home.  Below is a picture of them in their "to-go" box:




 When I got home, I put the box on the fireplace and the chickies just peeped as loud as they could.  Angry?  Sad?  I have no idea.  Loud?  YES!!  I decided to name the crazy leopard chick...Lady Gaga seemed like a fitting name...after all that woman arrived at some awards show in a giant egg.  You can see her hiding in the corner in the picture below.  I'm really hoping their little eyes are too sensitive as I was being super weird and taking floor level pictures of them in their box.  The results are below...



When husband came home, we set out to make their home for the next few weeks.  We took one of the old feed buckets and created a cover out of chicken wire and random pieces of wood.  After a few modifications, we got it just right.  The cover is to keep the feline friends from snacking on the little guys and to keep out other undesirables (mice, rats, etc.).  While the cover keeps them fairly safe from the cats...Ninja cat just sits on top of the tub and watches them...we have to make sure the dogs stay out of the garage, as the cover will probably not deter either labbie.  We already know that Avery has a taste for chicken!  These would be like training snacks!

The chicks survived their first night successfully.  In fact when I came out to the garage in the morning, they were all nestled together...sleeping.  They scattered when they saw me, but then were very happy when I put more feed in the feeder.  It's pretty entertaining to watch the little guys, as they do the strangest things.  They will run around in the tub and then suddenly flop down on their bellies, with their wings spread out to the side.  They look dead.  Actually, the first time I saw them do that, I got sad and started to do chick CPR...no need...they are like little kids.  They run around all crazy and then when they get tired, they just lie down and rest.  After a few minutes, they get up, get some food and water, poop and start running around again.  It's a never ending cycle of eat, drink, poop, run, collapse, sleep, and repeat.  Awesome.