Been a little busy with work and with home stuff, taking care of feathered creatures...getting seeds into soil blocks etc...SoWHAT has been happening?
Mottle Javas
Well, the little chickies are growing so fast! One morning this week, when I went out to do the chicken chores and went to open the tractor door up - I thought I was looking at full size chickens! They really have changed so much in 10 weeks! From the spazzy little fluff balls when we brought them home to this:
There is one in particular who has become my favorite...
A couple of them encountered the big girls one day last week after the neighbor boy was over and checking them out. And by checking them out, I mean he was walking (chasing) them toward the main flock and a couple got through the fence. Boy, oh boy...those girls didn't quite know what to do, neither did the hooligans. As it turns out, they are able to squeeze through the netting. It's a good thing the fence wasn't energized, that would have been a very surprising sensation for them. Anyway, maybe the transition won't go too bad afterall. They have be observing one another through the poultry netting, so it's not like they are unawares.
April 27 UPDATE - the feed store just called and they received the ducklings today! I got the call this afternoon and we'll be heading over there tomorrow morning to pick up the newest addition to the farm. Wahooooo!!! For some reason I took a little time to get the brooder set up a couple of days ago. We have a waterer and a pan for food...that should get them started off right.
Our Mr. Shelly duck is getting to be a bit much these past few days. Hoping that his little harem will accept him...and that he won't "love" them to death! It will still be a few months before they will be able to co-exist. This should be interesting. Once the girls arrive, maybe Mr. Lenny will get some peace.
The Duck and The Goose
This week the dudes turned 1 year old!
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| Helping in the garden! |
It's amazing to think that we have had these two goofballs for nearly a year. We brought them home when they were only three days old...
Gardens & Seeds
Since vacation time I have been getting seeds into soil blocks. Sometimes this time of year is frustrating for me. We'll have weeks of mediocre and coolish weather which keeps the hoop house on the cooler side of warm. Then because the weather can be wacky here we get ONE warm day which means the hoop house is HOT and my seedlings - complete with plastic domes get FRIED! I've had to get more soil blocks made and sow more seeds. So far so good. I've been keeping track of the weather this week and the seedlings are looking good. This weekend I will transplant some into plastic planters.
The garden boxes have been cleaned out and I have seeds in all of them. So far I've got radishes, spinach and arugula coming up. Beets in another box and a couple of green beans have germinated. I do like to start stuff from seed and my hope is that I will not have to buy any plants at the store to put into the garden. As easy as that would be I really don't want to spend money on stuff that I can grow. How am I ever going to figure out what I can grow and what I can't?
Once the free range garden is ready to plant I'll be getting more beans planted, this year will be the year that we process veggies for the winter and things that will store well through the season. However, before we can get anything planted out there we need to broadfork it and then add some sand and compost to fortify the soil. The chickens did a pretty good job with keeping things all cleaned up, but it will need more work. My hope is that this garden will be MUCH better than last year.
Fruit Trees
At the beginning of my vacation in March we purchased three apple trees to start a mini orchard/food forest.
I didn't do a very good job with researching varieties, but we are all about experimenting.
After we chopped off more than half of these apple trees, I was a little worried - what if they don't survive?! So for several weeks all we had were sticks in the ground with all three of them sporting two or three branches. After awhile I noticed that the leaves were coming on and then the blossom buds were forming. This week we have actual blossoms! All three of the trees have leaves, but only two have blossoms. There is hope afterall and also relief that they aren't going to die - this year anyway.
American Guinea Hogs
Now that the weather has improved and has been mostly dry we are going to get an area ready for the pigs! We'll be adding a breeding pair next weekend and I am so excited! So far I have been able to keep all sorts of other outside creatures alive...this makes me confident that we'll be able to deal with a couple of pigs as well.
I feel like I'm an "all-in" type of person. We can educate ourselves to the end of time, but I'm definitely a hands-on learner. So, with all that we have already learned from books, the interwebs and from the Mother Earth News fair our adventure into raising pigs will be fun! We'll spend the next few days getting supplies, making a shelter and looking for an appropriately sized pet carrier that will fit in my car. Yep - we are taking the Kia to pick up these pigs! There WILL be an update when that happens!
So, my work week is nearly done and I'm looking forward to doing more stuff in the hoop house this week, more prep work in the big garden and running errands tomorrow. We have a short list of things that need to be done and a long list of items that we need to pick up at the feed store and ducklings to bring home...
Farm life is the BEST life...
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