End of Summer...

  Sadly for me, summer has come to an end, although the calendar states I still have a few weeks until fall truly begins.  Mother Nature certainly is not in sync with the calendar, as she is blasting our world here in the "desert" with 100 plus temperatures.

My garden has suffered greatly over the summer, especially since I last wrote a post.  The extreme heat coupled with a soaker hose blow-out that I was completely unaware of for a few days, plus the dreadful grasshoppers, have made my garden somewhat of a grand failure this year.  Oh, did I mention the crazy red ant invasion at any point?  Ugh.  I have been reduced to having a few cherry tomatoes, and a few yellow tomatoes.  Even the hardy squash I bragged about last year has fallen victim to the elements.  I'm a little upset about the whole thing too.  I had hoped all the improvements we made this year would have done the trick in producing the garden I keep envisioning in my mind.  It also does not help that several of my friends have shown me their ridiculously prolific gardens that have not suffered the same woes as mine.  Well, I see it as a learning curve.  Rather dramatic this year, but I have taken away some very important things this summer.

     1.  weed fabric is a must
     2.  raised rows might be helpful...
     3.  soaker hoses must not bend at any sharp angles ever
     4.  ant hills must be taken seriously and dealt with prior to planting
     5.  grasshoppers...well, let's just keep our fingers crossed on that one

I guess our next step is to till all of the nonsense under...maybe put a large tarp over the debris and wait until next spring.  Until then, I will be sure to post about the chickens and their silliness.

We do have an alert about the "teenagers"...the two leghorns have entered the world of productivity...thankfully for them.  We have been getting two very small white eggs every day this week.  They look kind of weird next to the giant tan eggs we have.  Hooray for them!  They may live and not become nuggets.
                 

Seriously????

I now see why the term "poultry" comes before the other words in my blog title.  I am struggling with the other portions...ugh.  Seriously??  This should not be that difficult.  So to start on a positive note, the chickens are doing great!  Everyone seems happy and well.  The "babies" are not babies anymore and the teenagers seem very grown up these days.  No egg laying from those girls yet, but the more mature mamas are producing on a daily basis.  I've been letting the girls out to graze and they are doing a great job of grasshopper wrangling.  They stay away from the Jaws of Death, also known as Avery, and have daily standoffs with the cats.  The chickens don't seem to feel threatened by the cats...more like the other way around.  Our little rooster hasn't attempted crowing lately, but he does make for great entertainment running around chasing all the girls.  The hens are all much bigger than he is, but he makes up for stature with incredible speed.  One funny note was the other day, one of the Leghorns was trying to get a drink out of the red dog tub attached to the deck.  I watched as it seemed like an opportunity for something entertaining.  I was not disappointed.  Leghorn lost footing and into the water tub she went.  The squawking and wing flapping was hilarious.  My only regret?  Not having video on at the time.

The vegetable garden, on the other hand,  is stressing me out.  It seems, while I am growing a great crop of zucchini and tomatoes, I am also growing a bumper crop of weeds.  I have been out there regularly pulling, spraying, breaking, and mostly cussing.  None of these methods is very effective.  I think my awesome watering system paired with the great soil has kind of backfired.  Ugh.  Husband spent some time with some friends that have a pretty nice vegetable garden.  They used the black weed fabric and some raised rows to combat this problem.  Definitely part of the plans for next year.  Baby steps, I guess.  I really thought this would be the year for smooth garden sailing.  At least the infestation of vermin seems to be under control.

I spoke too soon...bah.  Upon further investigation, it seems I now have an ant problem as well as a grasshopper problem.  Really????  I went over to survey the garden...I'm sitting in one of my "new to me" lounge chairs typing this on the back deck...  I saw some really pretty ripe tomatoes and reached in to pick one.  Next thing I know, I am doing the jig, also known as ow, ow, ow, red ants, red ants!!  Stupid.  They are all over the place!  Munching on the bottoms of my tomatoes.  I am not sure how to combat this latest pest.  I'm thoroughly against spraying any sort of insecticide on the vegetables.  I am not an expert, and would probably only succeed in poisoning a family member.  Moving on through the garden, it seems they also enjoy cucumbers.  Only the pickling variety...wth???

Oh well...lessons being learned every day I guess.  A little jealous of the cat that is curled up in the wicker chair next to me.  He just caught and ate a mouse, had a scoop of some delicious fish flavored kitty kibble this morning, tormented the dog for a few minutes, and now gets to nap in the sunshine.  No worries, no stress, no wondering how to get rid of weeds or ants...of course he could wander out into the road and get flattened by a car, so there's that.  Thinking positively.

Weeds...they are calling...egh.

Vegetables, Gaga, and a Rooster...sigh...

We got veggies!!  Woo hoo!!  I went out to the garden one day last week, as I have been checking every so often to see how things are progressing.  The anticipation of ripe vegetables has been killing me.  I had to look under leaves and poke through the ridiculous amount of weeds that are happily growing.  I was super thrilled to see the following:

Early Girl tomatoes...my favorite!

Some sort of squashiness...

Peas...although since this photo was taken, these have been eaten by the $%$#@! grasshoppers.

Spaghetti squash.  NO clue what to do with those.  :o)

Cucumbers...

Green peppers!

Eggplant.

Cherry tomatoes...the red one never made it to the house...he he he...

Seems the vegetables are going to be fairly prolific despite the stupid grasshoppers.  Edamame and snap peas won't be happening, but the rest seems to be weathering the blight.  I put a chicken in the garden the other day and after about five minutes, she figured out that there was a bevy of hopping protein morsels...she couldn't decide which way to go first.  Funny.

On a sadder (??) note, Lady Gaga met with an untimely demise, courtesy of you know who.  It was the teenagers third night out of their halfway house and I thought all of them had made it into the large coup the night before.  Apparently Gaga, being somewhat true to her namesake, decided to be different and spend the night out.  When I let Avery out of her kennel the next morning, she immediately sensed that there was a chew toy out and about.  Took her about 45 seconds to locate Gaga and put the death grip on her.  Sad...I liked Gaga's colors.  Down to 15...soon to be 14 though...because we have another rooster!  Aaaaarrrggghhh!!!  He was attempting a crowing session this morning, which is a lot like listening to a teenage boy when his voice changes.  Painful.  He is one of my favorites too, as far as looks go.  Boo.  But, I do not want any more roosters...they are either annoying or mean.  

 The rooster is the white & black one in the middle.  

omg...I'm sitting in the living room typing this and out of the corner of my eye, I see some sort of quick movement.  Followed by another...the teenagers are having some sort of foot race and keep sprinting past the slider.  Ha ha ha...the entire flock of adult hens just sprinted by en mass.  And now, they are all back in front of the door, just milling about, looking for snacks, as if nothing was going on a few minutes ago.  One is drinking out of the dog's water bucket...oh boy...

Vegetable Update and the Chicken Armada

Summer vacation is officially here...day three, in fact, for us.  Such a nice feeling that we don't have to go to work.  What is not a nice feeling, however, is the fact that the desert we live in has become much like a desert climate all of a sudden.  Gone are the lovely 75 degree days...hello 90's!  Bleah.  Besides meaning increasing grumpiness on my part, as I hate temperatures over 75, it also means stepping up the watering schedule.  Twice a day now.  There are so many veggies getting ready to ripen on the vine.  A couple of different squash, cucumbers, and tomatoes!  I found a few little eggplants and some little peppers.  The squash and the cucumbers are hard to find because they like to hide under the giant leaves.  Peas and beans look like they are getting ready to start producing...I think.  Flowers, but no little veggies yet. The edamame is pretty much gone (stupid grasshoppers), but that's okay.  I wasn't too excited about those anyway.  Things look healthy in the garden and I cannot wait to start eating them!  I think squash is on this weekend's menu...yummo!

Just came back from surveying the herb situation (I panicked because I forgot to water them...not on drip yet) and looks like all but three varieties made it through the grasshopper infestation...  Cilantro, parsley, rosemary, basil, chives, and dill have survived.  I think once the evil insects are under control, I will get new herbs and try again. My lack of watering didn't appear to be detrimental, so that's good.

As for the wretched grasshoppers...well, it seems the chickens, both adult and teens, have joined forces to eradicate this pest infestation.  I think of it as a chicken armada.  Yay!  They have been doing an amazing job of this too. No longer does one step out into the yard and hear crunch, crunch, crunch, every time one steps forward.  The chickens must be loving all the treats.  It's still pretty funny to watch the chickens chase the grasshoppers.  I wish I could let them out in the veggie garden, but I'm afraid they would eat the good stuff.  There are still a ton of the buggers in the garden.  I went out to pull some weeds this morning and got an air assault of the critters as I poked around under the cucumbers.  I did find that the edamame has a couple of pods hanging valiantly off each stalk, as there are no leaves at all.  They didn't look too healthy, so I don't know if they will be any good.

I really love my chickens.  Not only do they provide eggs for me to eat, but endless hours of entertainment.  I usually toss out any kitchen scraps that the chickens might like to nibble on out the back door.  It's hilarious to watch them come running from all corners of the yard when they hear the back door open.  Honestly, I didn't think they could hear that well, but apparently they do.  Yesterday, I took out some strawberries, some avocado scraps, some bread that was a little hard, and some egg shells.  Rumor has it, the egg shells are a favorite treat for chickens.  Seems a little weird to me, but they seemed to like them.  I didn't want the dog to get crazy and hurt herself trying to get the chickens, so I walked over by the coop to toss out the treats and they came sprinting from every nook and cranny in the yard.  Chickens on the run are about the funniest thing you can see...they run awkwardly, but super fast.  If that wasn't amusing enough, the teenagers came a little more cautiously into the situation...took a few looks around and after one of them came on a piece of strawberry that one of the other mommas dropped, it was game on.  Gaga chased  one of the Leghorn's in circles, trying to get a bite of the strawberry.  There was plenty for all, but apparently she only wanted that piece.  Typical kids...always want what the other has.  The only kids missing were the two youngest...the Auracanas.  Not sure if they are too dainty for such shenanigans or completely unaware.  They seem like the dumb blondes of the group.  They are very pretty with their longer neck feathers and muted colors.  Supposedly, they will lay blue-ish green eggs.  Those two are always hiding out in the shade over by the water spigot.  They are like the girls in elementary school that never want to participate in p.e.  They hang out in the back or off to the side and hope nothing ever comes their way.  When it does, they shriek and run the opposite direction.  The other teenagers pretty much ignore those two.  We have one other socially awkward teenager, who I suspect might be a rooster.  This is the smallest of all the teens...a bantam...he/she has the biggest comb on top and struts around acting quite important.  When every one else was feasting on the scraps, he (I'm just going to call him a "he" from now on) was making his way through the tall weeds like some sort of safari hunter...also funny to watch.

The longer I own chickens, the more they remind me of humans I have either known or come across.  They have so many quirky personality traits that I find funny.  Glad they are productive, because it places them higher on the list than most humans.  I'm pretty sure I like them better than most people too...family and good friends excepted, of course.  :o)

Little Things...

I went out to the garden to do my regular scouting mission and I was very happy to find a few little babies!  Little zucchinis, little green peppers, and little tomatoes.  There are signs of other "little" things growing as well.

Zucchini

Peppers

Tomatoes

While walking back from the garden, I was greeted by some unwelcome little things.  Grasshoppers!  I thought at first there were only a few here and there...nope...thousands of the vile things.  I am not exaggerating with the term "thousands" either.  There are literally grasshoppers everywhere you step.  It's pretty disgusting.  I called the Fresno County Department of Agriculture and the nerdy bug guy's comment was..."Yeah, um, oh, that's going to be a problem all season."  Awesome.  There aren't really any "over the counter" fixes he said...although he did suggest getting chickens.  Hey, we have those!  They do enjoy eating the grasshoppers and watching them chasing the little vermin is fairly entertaining.  Hopefully they will eat all those #@#$#@! bugs.  Not happy about the fact that the grasshoppers enjoy basil, cilantro, Italian parsley, edamame, and marigold leaves.  Not the flowers, just the leaves.  Ugh...how about eat all the weeds in the yard???  There are plenty of those.  Well, hopefully they will find greener pastures soon, as that's what they are drawn to.  Boo!!

Another One Bites the Dust...

It is with much sadness that I have to report that Thunder has gone on to meet his maker.  Apparently, the other day, he tangled with the dog...they need to either stay far away from Avery, run faster, or get the flying thing down.  In any case, I came home after school Friday, and he looked a bit "down".  He was hanging out near their little trough...tail feathers looking dismal.  Ran some errands, came home, and well...he was no more.  I haven't told husband yet...he is away in San Diego playing in the National Sweet 16s...Thunder was their mascot and I'm a little concerned that his demise might be bad for morale.  The awesome news is that the Thundercocks (hence the name, Thunder) won their games this weekend and earned themselves a spot in the Final Four in Colorado!  Thunder would have been so proud.

Here he is at a Fresno Rugby game.  

The Halfway House continues to have it's fair share of drama.  The babies have been left in there now for the past week.  Enough of the bullying, however, the teenagers have not been listening.  We had a stern talk...seemed like they were listening, but the babies finally took matters into their own hands...wings (??).  I came out the other morning and the scene I witnesses was hilarious.  The babies had staged a coup!  Apparently they've gotten tired of all the harassment...I had put their feed dish up on top of the boxes since they were too scared to ever go down on the floor.  They stayed either on top of the boxes or behind them.  The feed dish was now lying on the floor across the coop and the teenagers were standing in the far corner of the coop looking very surprised.  The babies were on top of the boxes flapping their wings.  I'm convinced that in a fit of exasperation with being treated like lower class citizens, the babies flung the feeder across the coop and said "enough is enough".  This was the scene:

Since that day...Thursday, I think, things have been pretty calm in the halfway house.  I wouldn't go so far as to say "harmonious", but better.  I put fresh water in and the babies ponied up to get a drink.  So proud of them.  Only two and a half more months and then they can all join the remaining hens.  I think that one of my teenagers might be a rooster though.  One of the smaller ones...some sort of bantam, has quite the comb already.  I won't be too disappointed...I miss the daily rooster crowing...

Harmony in the Halfway House...

...will be delayed.  I put the babies in with the teenagers last night.  Permanently, I hope.  Their tub in the garage is too small and smells, well, foul.  Egh.  I put them in there last night thinking that maybe they would be big enough to avoid the bullying by the larger crew.  Nope.  All those two did was cower down in the corner behind the boxes.  I went out, when it was nearly dark, to check on them and they were making the loudest, most pathetic peeping noises ever.  Both of them were on top of the boxes, while all the teenagers were in their teen sized condos.  I hesitantly I left them there, half expecting to find them dead or maimed by morning.  When I went out to feed them this morning, they had resumed their position in the corner.  I coaxed them out of there and they joined the general population.  Short-lived.  The teens started exerting their pecking order and by the time I left for work, the babies were back in the corner.  Ugh.  When I went home at lunch, this was the scene:

Really??  At some point, you'll need to come out of there.

Clearly, we will have to have a talk with the teenagers about bullying and proper manners as far as little ones are concerned.  The little ones are going to have to develop a much tougher skin as well.  Life lessons...