Weather

October’s weather started out nice enough, but has now turned to crap. Rain. Fog. Wind. Typical for this time of year.

Spider Webs

The spiders have been busy lately. Lots of web making going on. And, in the right light they look super cool.
  

Power Outage

This weekend was stormy.

I had to take the long way home due to a tree being across the road. Then we came home to the power being out. Our phone was out for awhile, as well. When it was working, though, I frequently called the power company to report our outage and the line was busy every single time I called. I wonder if there phone wasn’t working either? I never did get through, but thankfully around 4:00 the next day the crew came to fix the line.

I can handle not having tv, or computer, or microwave. But, I hate being without light. And, at this time of year it’s getting dark fairly early. Darn it! However, it did give us a nice excuse to go to bed early. I snuggled with my 2 kids that were home, read them Halloween stories & they were asleep easily by 8:00, maybe earlier. I stayed up a little later and read Wildwood. It is a middle-grade fantasy based in the urban forest area outside of Portland.

I think I have mentioned it before, but it’s worth mentioning again.
Most of the year, I am not a fan of our propane stove. It is very hard to adjust the temperature. There are even special burners that are supposed to help with this problem. One is meant to boil water quickly, which is a larger burner. There is also a small burner & 2 medium sized burners. There is virtually no difference between any of them. We’ve had the stove since we moved in 6 years ago. The stove & I still fight.

On days the power is out, though, I love, love, love that we have a stove that runs on propane. It means on the cold evenings we still get warm food.

Ducks

The ducks, of course, don’t seem to mind the crummy weather. It can be pouring outside and they’ll be splashing away in the pond.

Chicken Keeping

In the Spring we hatched lots of chicks. We sold some at the Spring Swap and later sold nearly laying pullets at the Fall Swap. We didn’t purchase birds for meat purposes this year. Instead, from the chicks we hatched, the majority of the cockerels will fill our freezer next month.

Jack-o-Lantern and Chick

Our chickens are happy to eat the pumpkin guts.

I was a little nervous bringing home hatching eggs from the swap. But, we put them in the incubator and all 4 of them started developing. I was pleased! However, they did not survive the power outage.

Goats

Our oldest son wanted to build the goats a play place. So, Farmer John helped him build this. Unfortunately, the goats don’t like it. They won’t climb it. When I set them up on the top, they just jump off. I think with a few changes, though, the goats will enjoy it.

Pigs

Pig raising seems to be going well. Thankfully, Farm Kid1 is pretty good about taking care of them and they are growing. I don’t know if I can call them super cute, but I do love their personalities.

Aquaponics & Greenhouse

In the aquaponics system set up in the greenhouse, the tomatoes, tomatillos & tilapia are all doing fine.

Wildlife

Neighborhood Deer

Happy Halloween

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Flower Beds

Many of the summer perennials are past their prime & I’ve cut back a bunch of them. I do always leave some, though, for birds who enjoy the seeds. Click here to see flowers that were actually blooming on September’s Bloom Day.
  

Crafts

At the end of summer last year I painted signs on recycled pallet wood & made hypertufa mushrooms & planters. They’ve sat in our garage ever since. Recently, though, I painted the hypertufa & placed most of them in the flowerbeds.
  

Aquaponics

We have two tanks of Tilapia.

I moved the geraniums into a garden bed that is part of the aquaponics system. I’m hoping they will survive the winter in here & next spring I can move them back outside. Update: click here to see how the geraniums thrived over the winter.

The way the garden beds work is that water fills up the bed then it all drains to a lower tank. Then it refills, then drains, and the cycle continues on and on.

Ducks

One morning our neighbor called and said one of our ducks was in their yard quacking away. Weird. Our ducks have never wandered that far. However, it is the same neighbor that called us to say our Mama Turkey and babies were in their yard. Oops. They may be getting a little tired of our wandering poultry.

While looking for the ducks in our yard, I found a couple piles of horse poop & horse shoe prints all over. We don’t have horses.

Some other neighbors have horses, but they’ve never come to our house before.

The mystery still remains as to why a horse wandered to our house & why our ducks wandered to the neighbors.

After looking for, but not finding, the ducks at our house, Farmer John went to the neighbors. The ducks weren’t there by the time he arrived, though. A little while later, as I was driving down our driveway, I saw a duck waddling her way back home. But, only one duck. I have no idea where the other duck was. Two day later, though, she was back home. So miraculously, after whatever shenanigans they were up to, both ducks made it home safely.

Chicken Keeping

The chickens love this spot. I don’t love that they love this spot, though. It’s one of my flowerbeds. Chickens aren’t easy on flowerbeds. I’m sure they like it here, though, because it’s shady in the warm afternoon sun.

They knock over, stand on & poop on Mr. Gnome.

They knock the top off the bird bath, kick over mushrooms & removed this gnome from his spot on the stump. I’ve given up putting my decor back because they just knock it over again. Some how they’ve even managed to put the gnome “in the corner.”
  

Miss Sassy Pants

In the last week we’ve had a number of new mama hens.

I’m not sure how this poor little black one went flying so high, but it is slightly amusing. The chicks like to use mama as their own personal jungle gym and climb over her. I’m guessing mama must have given a shake to launch this one so far.

Goats

Since we’ve lived here the Canadian thistle have proven to be our biggest weed problem. It thrills me (a lot) to know the goats do eat them.

Wildlife

Deer in the garden area that is of course not inside the deer fence. Smart, smart deer.

The last little while the kids have been watching tadpoles in a barrel. The water has all evaporated & recently we spotted a bunch of tiny frogs. Fun!

A bat has decided Farmer John’s man shack is a nice place to rest at night. I thought they flew around at night searching for bugs.? Not this one.

Pigs

Farm Kid1, our oldest son, has been wanting a laptop for awhile. Well, I’m not going to buy him one. So, he’s decided to earn the money for one. Farmer John & him came up with the idea to raise a couple pigs and sell them to friends & family that want homegrown pork. Now we have two pigs.

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Summer weather has arrived and with it many wonderful things are happening around our farm and garden.

Gardening for Food

This time of year is when our garden really starts producing.

Lots of squash, gourds & pumpkins are flowering

My herb row isn’t as prolific as I was hoping, but it’s doing ok. I was able to make a small jar of pesto from the basil.

White-crowned Sparrow nest and babies in the mint.

Flower Beds

The flowerbeds are still full of color, but many plants are almost past their prime.

This daylily is in nearly all the flowerbeds, simply because it grows so well.

Both the bees & I love the lavender.

Farm Kid2’s flower bed near the chicken coops is full of shasta daisies.

The hummingbirds have been loving the nasturtiums.

Aquaponics

Well, we’re still working on getting the aquaponics system set up to perform at its best. There are only a couple plants left growing in the garden beds & the ph is shifting more than Farmer John would like in the water. But, the tilapia seem to be thriving.

Smaller fish in the Sump Tank
We have a dedicated tank to hold fish. We also have a sump tank. The sump tank holds water and the amount shifts based on the amount of water coming in and out of the garden beds. The fish were supposed to stay in the fish tank, since its water level doesn’t fluctuate. But, they were so small when we got them that they swam right through the pipes and into the sump tank. And, there they’ve stayed.

Bigger fish in the Fish Tank.
The tilapia seem to be growing at different speeds. Farmer John has taken the larger ones and moved them back to the fish tank, where they seem to be doing very well.

Goats

Love them!

I planted sunflowers and zinnia along the fence line. I purposely planted them out of reach (I hope) of the goats. I also have chosen not to pull any of the weeds closest to the fence in hopes that the goats will eat those instead of trying out my flowers. So far, so good. But, they’re probably a smidge too close. Sven can almost reach some of them.

The kids and the goats playing has to be one of my all time favorite things. The laughing that goes along with this playing is priceless.

Ducks

Quackin’ & Flappin’

Sitting on eggs that are not fertile.

Swimming in the new pond.

Chicken Keeping

2 year old Golden Polish hen peeking through the grass.

The Littles are growing up and spend much of their time roaming the land.

They know I’m bringing food.

Typical teenagers

Wildlife

This is a great time of year for wildlife watching.

I’m glad tadpoles are making use of this barrel.

We have a few resident deer that we see nearly everyday. This one is munching on greens right outside the garden fence.

Snakes are kind of cool, but I’m not a huge fan. Although, our kids love them. For a couple years in a row there was a huge snake hanging around. The kids named it Tiger.

Cardinal Meadowhawk
I’ve watched this guy a number of times. His favorite hang out is perched on this grass hovering above the new pond waiting for a snack to catch.

I’m certainly grateful for all these fabulous things surrounding my family & I this summer.

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I love June. The days are starting to warm up, yet usually aren’t too hot. There typically isn’t much rain, which is a nice break. It’s great weather for getting lots of yard work done

Gardening for Food

Our garden is just starting to take off now at the end of June. I’m hopeful for a lot of great produce by August.

Potatoes

Flower Beds

The weeds, flowers, & foliage are taking off, too. Some of my flower beds are getting a bit overgrown

Aquaponics

There’s definitely lots going on with the aquaponics system, but it’s a lot of trial & error. When we figure out what’s working & what’s not I’ll blog more about it. Meanwhile, the tilapia are growing rather quickly.

Goats

Ugh, the goat! Sven is a little trouble maker. Not that I’m surprised. He likes to get out of the fenced area & tries whenever he can. He had figured out how to squeeze out between the gate & the fence. But, we fixed that. Then he figured out that he could jump the fence & land on the chicken tractors. This particular time he then proceeded to jump onto the turkey/chicken hut. I know he was thinking that he was the king of the farm up there. I moved the chicken tractors away from the fence a bit & he hasn’t jumped out since. I’m just waiting to see what he’ll come up with next.

Chicken Keeping

Of course, we’re always busy with the chickens.

We’ve had eggs in the incubators.

We’ve hatched many cutie-patooties.

We’ve watched the chicks from previous hatches grow into adolescents.

And, this happened. Three French Black Copper Marans went broody & decided to all try to sit on the eggs. Click here to find out how this turned out.

A select few have been free ranging.

The New Pond

The pond is complete enough to be filled with water. But, there’s still a bunch of finishing touches that need done around the outside of it.

We are officially half way through 2014. Amazing!

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May is busy, busy, busy – mostly prepping the gardens for summer. We also have been busy with the aquaponics, installing a pond & keeping critters.

Gardening for Food

There has been lots of weed pullin’, ground tillin’ & seed plantin’ this month.

Making rows for herb seeds.

Typically Farmer John does the food type gardening, while I do the flowers. This year, though, I planted one row in the garden. It’s mostly herbs that I hope to cook with & share with the chickens.

We planted a ton of squash, gourds & pumpkins this year.

Flower Beds

The flowers are blooming & the bees and wasps are loving it.

Aquaponics

The Aquaponics system is coming along, but not quite yet at its full potential.

Farmer John plumbed the entire system, ran it for a couple weeks, then redid it all.

We received our tiny tilapia. Yippey!

Goats

I love, love watching the kids play with the goats. There are lots of laughs.

Oh Sven! Apparently creeping phlox is yummy to goats. I put him back in his fenced area right after taking this pic.

Ducks

We moved the ducks out of the garden & into the goats fenced area. I also got them a new pool to swim in.

Unfortunately, they squeeze out of the goat fence & prefer to swim in the pond.

Quail

Our quail are very low maintenance – until one day Mr. Quail got out. He had gone to a place where I couldn’t reach him to put him back. I recruited my boys to come help me, but they couldn’t reach Mr. Quail either. And, he didn’t like being out. He called & called for his lady friend. Eventually, he moved and we were able to grab him & reunite him with Mrs. Quail.

Chicken Keeping

Of all our critters, the chickens take the most time. I’m sure part of that is because of the amount of chickens we have & the number of coops. Most of the work I don’t mind doing & some of it I even enjoy – like collecting eggs. But, I don’t enjoy cleaning coops. Does anyone enjoy that chore?

More chicks hatched this month.

New Pond

I spent a bit of time in the mornings & a bit of time at night completing the new pond in the Bird Village.

Random Pic of Good Ol’ Country Living

Summer, here we come!

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Weather

There was a lot of rain this April. Not unusual for our area, but it gets depressing after awhile. Luckily, we did have a few nice days & the chickens took full advantage of it by taking fabulous dirt baths.

I’m fascinated by the moon & stars. I have a difficult time, but I continue to try to take photos of the night sky. So, when the Blood Moon was supposed to be visible there was no doubt I would try to capture it on my camera. I did get a couple shots of the beginning of the eclipse. But, by the time it was a total eclipse & the moon was supposedly red tinted the clouds hid it & I never saw it. Darn it! Maybe next time in October.

Sadness

April began with the loss of a dear part of our family.

Flower Beds

There was a lot of digging, hoeing & more digging going on this month.

I dug up what was supposed to be our strawberry patch & replaced the few berry plants with heather. I had a helper water the heather after I got them all in the ground.

This is not wowing, but I hoed & dug out a kazillion weeds from the flower bed in the Back Yard. It was a lot of work & I was exhausted. Maybe I shouldn’t let it get so overrun with weeds before attacking them.

There has always been a problem area in the Bird Village. We’re solving that problem by getting rid of the dirt, plants that won’t grow & weeds that grow too well & replacing them with a pond.

Gardening for Food

The tomato plants are off to a good start.

Farmer John rototilled the garden rows.

The kids planted peas.

The ducks were on slug & weed patrol in the garden. Although, I’m afraid they may have eaten the peas the kids planted.

Chicken Keeping

More chicks hatched this month.

A friend & I were vendors at our first chicken swap.

One of our Black Copper Marans is broody. We had to move her from her coop to keep the eggs protected. For the first few hours she was not impressed with the move & paced the fence wanting back home. Thankfully, she eventually sat on her eggs. Since then she has rarely gotten off them. As long as those few hours didn’t mess up the development of the embryos we should have chicks hatching any day.

Now this is what I call a fluffy chicken butt.

Wheelin’ chicken poop to the compost pile.

Aquaponics

Farmer John got the plumbing installed for the first garden bed, fish tank & sump tank. He’s still working on getting the ph & bacteria levels correct before adding fish.

We have lettuce started! The medium Farmer John chose for the first garden bed is clay balls.

Goats

It has been fun getting to learn the personalities of Sven & Olaf.

Olaf scratching his foot. Although it’s kind of a weird photo, I think even his teeth are cute. And, I hate teeth. I could never be a dentist.

Wild Birds

We’ve had lots of birds around lately. But, my favorite was the day an eagle flew over.

There are bald eagles living nearby. But, I never see them around our house. I was ecstatic when I peeked out the window & saw one overhead. So, I grabbed my camera & headed outside.

There were also a number of ravens doing some kind of dance. We often have 2 or 3 ravens around, but I never see this many.

Some how the eagle was a part of the raven dance party. I’m not sure what his purpose was. Was he just flying by & took part in the festivities? Or was he looking for dinner? Eventually, he continued on his way.

During all the raven excitement a couple vultures were circling.

April has been a busy month for outdoor projects! Yippey! I love this time of year.

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Weather

Not much to say except that March was a very wet month.

The door on the Rhode Island Red coop got left open one day & the chickens, of course, got out. They didn’t care that it was pouring down rain. They were just happy to be free. They were soaked to the skin, but still spent the day scrathin’ & peckin’ in the great outdoors.

One particularly stormy day lightning was directly outside our house. That was a weird feeling. We don’t typically get much lightning & certainly not so close. Lucky for us, the only thing it seemed to ruin was one port on the router. This is/was the only port with cables going outside to the satellite dish.

We did have a few nice days, though, & the chickens enjoyed taking dust baths.

Flower Beds

Thanks to a local nursery sale & Costco, one day I came home with many new plants. The next weekend I went back to the nursery & grabbed more of the heather. I have the perfect place for it.

The thistles & blackberries are making an appearance. Damn it! We’ve lived here for 6 years & the Canadian Thistle is still my nemesis.

Gardening for Food

While I do most of the work in the flower beds, Farmer John does most of the food-type gardening. His favorite method for starting seeds is mixing his own soil & creating soil blocks. These little guys were started in a tiny soil block. Once germinated Farmer John moved them to a larger soil block.

The seeds I ordered arrived!
Farmer John ordered the seeds that will eventually turn into food in our pantry. Later, I ordered some fun stuff. I ordered a variety of flowers, including sunflowers, wildflower & rudbeckia. I also ordered 5 different types of pumpkins & gourds. They will mostly be used for autumn decorating, but also to feed the chickens. And, I ordered a bunch of herb seeds. The herbs will be used for cooking, and again, also for the chickens.

Chicken Keeping

Are you going to feed us or just stand there taking our picture?

Blue Copper Marans rooster & Black Copper Marans hen enjoying a nice day in their covered run.

The Littles from our February hatch were moved from the brooder to a raised sectioned-off area in one of the coops.

Another batch of eggs were set in the incubator on March 1st. Three weeks later, we had more chicks, including our first Marans of 2014.

March 27th, I placed yet more eggs in the incubator. This round, we have for the first time this year, Rhode Island Reds. I also added in our bluest Easter Egger eggs. I have hatched these eggs before, but at the same time as all the other EE’s, so I’m not sure which chicks have come from these eggs. I want to see specifically what these chicks look like.

Aquaponics

The aquaponics system is slowly, but surely getting set up. All the tanks are in place.

And, the plastic is covering the greenhouse.

Goats

The big, unexpected news of the month is that we got 2 Nigerian Dwarf Goats. They are super cute, full of personality & have been keeping us busy.

Random Pics of Good Ol’ Country Living

Mr. Quail all fluffed up & ticked off that I’m disturbing him & his lady. He really is a grouchy little thing.

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Weather

February began with snow, wind, & freezing rain:

The month ended with almost spring-like weather & our crocus in bloom:
 

Flower Beds

Contorted Filbert Tree
Leaves are thinking about making an appearance.

My hellebore never look good at this time of year. I think they just get too saturated with water. They should be blooming soon.

The heather & grass are looking lovely next to the pond.

There’s always work to be done in the flowerbeds. One day I pulled out all the grass that had crept onto the brick edging & into the flowerbed. Hopefully come summer it will look nicer than the soggy mess that it is right now.

I pulled many weeds & old flower stems. Some of it was given to the chickens, some was added to the compost pile & some was burned.

Chicken Keeping

Black Copper Marans hen
When it snowed, the chickens enjoyed a little taste.

Later in the month they enjoyed the weeds I pulled.

This lady is broody, so she’s off by herself… w/o eggs.

Blue Marans
Love this handsome guy.

Easter Eggers

Welsummer egg front & center

February began with embryos developing.

Those eggs hatched and the chicks are already getting real wing & tail feathers. On the nicer days, I’ve been taking them outside for a short time. They seem to have a great time finding goodies to eat.

Aquaponics

The first step in setting up our aquaponics system.
It can take up to 8 weeks to get the bacteria in your water that is needed for the plants to grow. We are starting the process with goldfish & minnows in an old 50 gallon aquarium we had. You can also get the bacteria from your friends fish tank, but we opted to go with this method.

Random Pics of Good Ol’ Country Living

Welsh Harlequin duck

5 day old Easter Egger chick

Bring on Spring. I’m ready!

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Weather & Flowerbeds

Except for the freezing weather at the beginning of December, we’ve had a very mild winter unlike much of the U.S. It hasn’t even rained as much as usual.

Many mornings we wake to a bit of frost and ice in the pond, but that’s about it for our chilly days.

Even with the mild weather, I still haven’t found much time to get out & do winter maintenance on the flowerbeds. Darn it! And, my spring bulbs are already starting to poke through.

I did move a rotting log out of one of the flowerbeds and found a pile of slug eggs. Slugs have a job to do, but they eat way too many flowers, plants & veggies for me to be a fan of them.

Chicken Keeping

Unfortunately, we had a chicken get nabbed in broad daylight by a bobcat.

Our newest chicken.
He’s in quarantine for a couple weeks to make sure he doesn’t have any diseases that might spread to the rest of our flock.

Brad Pitt, our RIR rooster died this month. We’re not sure why. As luck would have it, though, a kid in town needed to get rid of his 10 month old cockerel. So, we took him & now have a new blood line for our RIR babies. I’m thinking the new guy’s name should be Brad Pitt 2.

We sold the last of our Blue Marans that hatched last spring.

One of the coops needed a little repair work.

Farm Kid2 helped Farmer John clean the coop with his 4-H chickens.

We rearranged many of the chickens, changing which coop they are in & sometimes which rooster they are with.

The ladies have been on such a weird laying pattern. Or really, it’s a lack of pattern. Some weeks they are laying well & some weeks not as well.

The ducks took a laying break for a few months, but now they’re back at it.

We put our first batch of eggs this year in the incubator. I’m only expecting about half of these to start developing, but maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised. Some of the eggs got quite cold & some are from chickens that just started laying. So, we will have to wait & see.

Growing Food

Farmer John’s trying out a new method of starting seeds – a heated germination pad.

The greenhouse is finally being built!!!

Farmer John brought home 3 275 gallon food grade totes. We will use them for our new aquaponics system. I can’t wait to try it!

Good Ol’ Country Living

This is my favorite photo from this month. It says so much about our family.

It’s been an uneventful, yet busy first month of the year. I’m excited to see which direction our chicken raising business goes & to try out all our new ways to grow food.

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