Updates

Okay so this working full time and trying to do the chicken...garden thing...and life thing is making this girl tired. I love all these things, but my almost 52 year old body and mind are a little tired.

The Chickens

First experience with compost

In April we started with 10 little ones, Jersey Giants,  that were one week old. As they grew and we started figuring out which were roosters (5 total) we ended up adding 6 more little ones...

These little girls were 4 weeks on May 15

Last week there was a casualty. We aren't sure what happened, but one of the Jersey Giant's carcass was found in the chick mobile. While I am sad that we lost a chick - my first question after Tom found the body was "How many roosters do you see?" As it turns out, it was one of the little roos. Not 100% sad about this. However, we invested 7 weeks worth of feed into that little dude and the hope was initially that we would determine which rooster we would keep and then process the others at the appropriate time.

Oh well.

Other than that all of the others have been very healthy and spry. Still trying to figure out which of the 4 roos we'll keep.

Last night one of the little girls was  being  quite elusive and didn't want to be caught and go in with her sisters for the night. We finally got tired of trying to catch her so she was left out for the night.

Here she is hiding out underneath the chick mobile. I thought if she survived the night fine, but if she didn't whatever - we don't want defiant chickens...hahaha...This morning she was still okay and was reunited with the rest of her brood.

The Goose and the Duck

Lenny is a very proud goose

The boys are 6 weeks old!! It's hard to believe that we have had them since the end of April! They have grown so much and seem to change every single day. As I mentioned before I wanted them to be a protector of the flock, but they have definitely bonded with the humans - both of us, but mainly me. I'm so glad that we have them, but they are destructive little dudes and stinky too! Despite their stinkiness and their desire to eat all new growth (in the garden) they are a lot of fun and Mr. Lenny (goose) is very sweet. He likes to talk to me a lot and tug on my clothing and "chew" on my garden shoes. He'll also follow me all over the place. So I have to be careful when planning my garden work. On the weekend they don't mind hanging with the chickens most of the day, because that is what they are used to, so that makes doing my garden chores less of a chore. In the evenings I like to have them out and roaming around before they get put to bed, so I either have to be stealthy with my watering and other stuff or wait until they are in for the night. 

The Garden

The weather only improved a couple of weeks ago, so pretty much EVERYTHING has been planted/direct sowed since then. I am hoping that this growing season will go longer since we had rain for most of the first 5 months of this year. The other thing that I am hoping for is that there the heat will not be unbearable which makes for an unhappy gardener in me.

All thirteen of the raised beds have been planted and we are in waiting mode. The peas and carrot seeds that were sown a month ago(?) have been doing great and we'll have a nice crop in a few weeks. Everything else is just plugging along right now. This year I direct sowed most of the seeds and I have a couple more items that need to go in. I spied a potato sprout in one of the laundry baskets and some green onions in one of the tomato beds. Hoping for a lot of squash, beans and tomatoes this year. I'll be experimenting with the Three Sisters method just to experiment...corn has been planted, need to wait for something to happen with that before the two other items go in. It's possible that this will only be two sisters...haha.

Antoher thing that we are adding are rollerhooks those on order through Johnny's Seeds. This item will make the vining/climbing veggies happy and maybe even a little more productive. Can't wait for those to be delivered!

Changing Focus?

For the past couple of weeks I have been thinking that maybe I should go back to my original dream of being a flower farmer and doing vegetable garden as the secondary biz.

The gardens from pre-brain cancer were planted with a lot of flowers for cutting and dahlias and favorite veggies. In fact, there was a year that a random person driving by stopped and asked if they could clip some of the cosmos for an upcoming wedding. Of course - YES...Help yourself! That was a pretty cool thing that happened!

Another thought - grow a neighborhood pumpkin patch. With so many kiddos in the subdivision across the street I think it would be fun to have something available for these families without having to travel so far away. Far away would be the Brush Prairie area or Sauvie Island or even Woodland. I think that the farm in Woodland will no longer have a pumpkin patch. We know that pumpkins grow well on our property based on past parties we hosted the first few years we lived in this house. The last party was in 2003. We always had so many pumpkins to offer to our guests and everyone had a great time carving!!

Slowly but surely I decided that I wanted to grow a garden again and then things took off in my brain. I've been thinking that it's time to get some sort of business happening on our property. So many ideas, but no clear vision really. My main reason for doing something more with our property would be because of the people that live across the street from us, an easy market, but also a way to connect to people that we wouldn't normally connect with since we are not a part of any neighborhood.

While I continue to move forward with learning through experimentation I trust that the Lord will reveal the way that I should go in - even if that way is not what I'm dreaming.

Dreaming Big...