Fall is Here

My Spookie organic pumpkins (grown from seed) are almost ready!

Even though the temps here are in the 70's, the pumpkins are turning orange and the leaves are starting to fall.  I guess that means fall is officially here.  This is my favorite part of the year, so I'm happy that we finally made it.  But I'm sad to see the garden go and I have so much to do to get ready for next year ... order seeds, plan next year's garden, get the beds cleaned up, etc.  No rest for the wicked, they say.  But it's such a beautiful day that I think all that can wait one more day.

Finally! A Perfect Egg

Okay, so this one was in the corner of the coop and not in the nesting box but we're all trying to work out the kinks with this egg-layin' thing, aren't we?

With a big grin on my face,

A Cozy Place to Nest

Finding the first egg meant I needed to get my butt in gear and stop procrastinating over finishing out the nesting boxes.  I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd come up with the idea of using plastic bins as inserts in the boxes.  The idea is that they will make it easier to grab the eggs and clean the boxes, since the bins can just slide out the back.  I filled the bottom of the bins with shredded junk mail, so it's a great way to recycle also!

Gosh darn, these chooks are so useful....

First egg!

After J. and I finished canning up a batch of taco sauce from the Romas that we got for free from Hy-vee (with coupons), I headed out to check on the girls.  They were almost out of water and food, so I filled both.  When I went back in with the filled food container, I felt this weird crunch under my foot and thought "what the heck could that be" and then realized exactly what it was.  It was a tiny, perfect little brown egg - just a little over an inch long with a bright yellow yolk.  It had been covered by shavings, so I didn't see it when I was in there the first time.

One of my babies finally laid their much-anticipated first egg and I broke it!  *sigh*  I still can't believe it.

Dejected,

Awesome Auction Deals

It's a misty, ugly day today so J. and I headed to a huge building materials auction to see if we could find any good deals:  he's always looking for tools and I'm planning for the house we're going to build on our 40 acres.  Too bad we don't have a warehouse, because they couldn't give away huge pallets of beautiful wide-plank Brazilian Cherry flooring.  I think it ended up going for just $1.50 per foot.  You can't even buy oak at that price!

We did get some pretty good deals, though.  The last time they had this auction last year, I was lusting over these beautiful turned, fluted oak spindles but I had to stop bidding when they went over $5.00 each.  So I was happy to have a second chance at 72 of them.  The same guy that bid against me at the last auction was there and sitting next to them ALL DAY, so I was certain he would bid it up again. Turns out he only needed 24 of them and he dropped out early, so I got them for just $1.40 each.  These retail for over $10!

We also picked up the really cool lawn cart in the pic above.  It's 12 cu. ft and that puppy retails for $261.99 at Sears right now.  We were happy to get it for just $75 even if it did require assembly.   Plus we got a huge stainless steel cabinet for just $10 (J.'s planning on putting it in the shed), some wrenches for 1/2 price, and an entire box full of cords for our generator for just $8.00.

Score!   What goodies have you found at auctions lately?

Miserable Day? No Way!

Well, I've just come inside from what some folks might call a miserable rainy, cool fall day.  Our plans to pickup the new countertop from Lowes for our laundry room is on hold since it's raining outside.  So I have spent the morning listening to a cacophony of snoring dogs while reading the latest edition of Mother Earth News that showed up in my email and looking at online heirloom\organic seed stores.  The only thing that is missing is a hot cup of cocoa.  And maybe some cinnamon muffins. 

Anyways....my perusing was interrupted by some very excited noises coming from the hen house, so hubby Jim and I put on tennies and hooded rain gear and headed out there thinking we were about to find our very first egg.  But we were only to be disappointed, as there were no eggs to be found.  Good grief...I feel like an expectant grandparent!

While we were out there, I grabbed the plastic bins that I'm going to put in the nesting boxes.  (I'll do another post on that project tomorrow).  I need to cut them down because they're a little too long to fit.  And they turned out to be a convenient box to put some jalapenos, red peppers and tomatoes in - while were out there, we noticed that we had a ton of stuff that could be harvested.  Harvest in the middle of a downpour?  Not gonna stop us.  And a neighbor even stopped by to ask what the heck we were doing out there looking like demented monks with our hoodies up, so we gave him some tomatoes for braving the rain. 

I hope all this rain is drowning those d*mn squash bugs on my pumpkin vines.

Swimmingly yours,

Knock Knock

"Who's there?"
"Fiona and my peeps.  Do you have any treats for us today?"

In case you weren't aware, chickens are nosy creatures.  If I'm in the yard doing something, they want to know what it is.  If I'm filling their food or water, they want to come with me and help.  Or, if I'm cleaning the coop, they want to supervise.  Everybody's a critic...

Please Don't Eat Me!

Imagine our surprise when we walked out this morning to find this HUGE preying mantis guarding our front porch.  This is my favorite bug, so I'm considering it good luck that he's hanging out at our house.  (Not to mention they're great at eating other non-beneficial bugs.)

Next Project: Raised Garden Beds

Last year, we tried a tilled-in garden and didn't have alot of luck for several reasons:  (1) we didn't plant enough - especially the corn, (2) we got busy and didn't keep it weeded, (3) we planted in the wrong location, and (4) our soil is really crappy.  It doesn't help that the soil is compacted from where they bulldozed the house that used to sit on the lot.

So, after reading Square Foot Gardening and doing much research,  I decided early this year that we would try raised bed gardening instead.   The obvious benefits are that you can better control the soil content (new dirt and compost!) and the height of the beds saves your back from bending over so much. 

I'd read that you shouldn't use CCA- or pressure-treated wood for your beds because the chemicals can leech into the soil and your plants.  Some folks use cedar but it will turn grey from weathering and I wanted something a little cuter.  So I came up with the hair-brained idea of using PVC fencing panels and posts.  These are normally $49 per 6'x6' panel from Home Depot or Lowes, but I caught them on sale for just $37 from HD:

The only thing holding these panels are together is PVC glue where the individual slats meet the top, middle and bottom rails.  We used our Sonicrafter oscillating tool to easily cut these apart at the rails every other slat to create foot high panels (2 slats per panel).  You could use a jigsaw or hand saw to do this also.  Then we cut the 4"x4" vinyl posts to 18" each (getting 3 usable posts out of each one).  And, finally, we cut out rectangles in the posts where the panels would fit into them.

I wanted two beds in front of the chicken coop, with a path between them leading to the door.  Both beds would be identical at just over 5 feet wide by 11 feet long, so we did cut a couple of inches off of each panel.  We then leveled out the ground and set the posts in place.  Then we hammered rebar down into the ground to keep them in place.  No digging to set the posts (although you could, I guess).   

It took a 3 pallets of 20 lb bags of compost\dirt to fill both these beds.    We did get some slight bulging of the panels, but it was minor. Time will tell if we have a problem with the weight of the dirt pushing the "panels" out. 

Then we added the post toppers. (The one in the lower right hand corner is a solar light).

I hope you think the finished product looks as nice as I do!  Next project:  replacing the plywood path to the coop with something nicer.

Til later, I am one tired and....

Coop is finished!

Finally, after many months of hard work and rained-out weekends, the coop is finished.  *sigh*  And J and I are taking well-deserved time off to rest.  In the meantime, some pics for you...

From the run looking into the coop.  I love the large windows (that ended up being FREE from Craigslist!).  If you look closely, you can see Kermie the Austrolorp peeking out to see what's going on.

I'm hoping that the climbing rose will eventually grow up over this trellis. 

Here's the mural on the back of the coop wall inside.  J. says this is incredibly nerdy, but I think the girls need something pretty to look at when they're inside.  Or maybe I do.   :-)

Gotta have plenty of storage for chicken stuff - grit, treats, egg baskets, etc.  When you walk in the front door, there are these shelves on either side. 

And here are the girls waiting for me to finish the photo shoot and fill their empty feeder.

Exhausted and heading to bed,

Caution: Chicken Crossing

Before we put up the plywood on the inside of the coop, I wanted to come up with an inventive way to open and close the pop door that allows the chickens to get out to the "playpen".  I didn't want to spend $100+ on an expensive door opener, so we headed to Home Depot to see what we could cobble together and ended up with an expensive set of 16" drawer glides.  Think of a drawer mounted standing up with the front on the bottom sill of the wall like so (picture taken looking down at the closed door):

The glides are mounted fully extended so, when the door opens, it moves along the glides that are mounted to the wall studs.  We placed a piece of 2x4 between the studs right above where the door lands when it is open.  That will prevent critters\bugs\etc. from trying to get up into the enclosed walls.  Here's another pic from the side:

Later, we'll  put an eye bolt on the outside of the door and run a wire from it to the front of the coop so that you can manually open and close the door.  Yeah, it's not automated to open or close on a timer, but cost less then $3.  I can live with that.

Ingeniously yours,

My Babies are Growing Up!

Here are the barred rock chicks at just a little over 2 weeks old, I think (we don't know their exact hatch date).  They're starting to get their wing feather and look at those little tail feather!  I wish I could get an up-close shot of them.  They're used to us picking them up, which we do several times a day so that later on they won't mind us "inspecting" them.  I just can't believe how quickly they are growing and I'm starting to worry that we won't have the coop done in time to get them out of the kitchen!

Too Shy

I think the new chicks are camera shy.  They just couldn't stay still enough for me to get a pic of their cute little faces today.

Frustrated,

Chicken Little

 

Our order of 5 Austrolorps has arrived!

Are these little girls not just adorable little balls of fluff?  I got the call today that I had a peeping package at the Post Office and left work early to be certain I would be there to pick them up.  The ladies at the PO were begging me to open the package, but I didn't want to stress the chicks.  Luckily, I was just a couple  of blocks from home, so I didn't have to wait long to get a peek at the babies.  When I opened the cardboard box, I had to giggle at the "nest" that they were shipped in.  It looked like a real nest!  I should have taken a pic when I first opened the box, but here's a similar pic courtesy of Serene Dwelling:

Right now, they're in a clear 18 gallon storage container on my kitchen counter where I can keep a close eye on them.  I put newspaper in the bottom, covered by clean pine shavings - from what I've read, you should never leave chicks on just newspaper because it's slick and can cause them to get splayed leg syndrome.) Their water and food dishes were improvised out of Rubbermaid container lids and I've got a heat lamp clamped onto my cabinets.  It's a toasty 90 degrees in the container and they seem quite content.

Peep! Peep!



It's Official: We're Getting Chickens

I'm so excited!  I just placed an order for 5 female Austrolorp chicks from MyPetChicken.com.   After much research, I selected MyPetChicken because they don't requite that you purchase a minimum of 25 like many other hatcheries (25!  Jim would kill me.)  In fact, their minimum is a more manageable quantity of 3 for my zip code. But the closest hatch date they had available is May 23rd, so I am going to have a hard time waiting for them to get here.

How cool is it that you can order chicks over the Internet from the comfort of your own home and have them delivered via USPS Express as soon as they are a day old?