Wet and Grey

compost chickens

The compost chickens have been doing well. We have made 25 piles of compost, each one roughly 4x4x4 ft. to start. The first two windrows are ready to plant into and the third should be ready next month when it's time to plant the potatoes.

So tomorrow they will get to move to a new area to make more compost.

sunset Jan 1, 2017

We had several days of rain to end the old year and start the new. I'm thankful for the moisture and hope this year is not as hot and dry as last.

There have been pretty sunsets but the days are kind of grey and gloomy. I have been productive on these rainy days however. I have been mucking out my office and seed starting area and getting the paperwork ready for tax time and the seeds ready for starting. Hopefully I'll be more organized this year.

gloomy Jan 2, 2017

A friend of mine decided he had too many chickens and gave me some of his. These girls look to be part silkie, judging by some of them having 5 toes and black skin. There may be a little frizzle in there too.  A couple of them may be Marans or Australorp or mixes of them. The little crested ones are really cute.

Three Month Catch Up!

Roots & Greens at Superior FM

Well oh dear it's been 3 months since I post last. I am so bad! Well here are a few highlights! In November we started doing a small farmer's market in Superior, Arizona, about 20 minutes away. A small mining town they don't have any large stores and have been buying up the produce I bring like crazy. It's hosted by a lovely lady named Willa, owner of the SunFlour Market. We started out on the patio, but when the weather got bad Willa insisted we come inside.

End of tomato season

The end of tomato season is always a bit sad, but at the same time it's a relief because by the end of the season I'm sick of picking all those little cherry tomatoes!

Trombonccino on the trellis

259 pounds!

There is a 30 foot long trellis across the back of my house. There were about 5 Trombonccino plants, a couple of birdhouse gourds, a loofah and a spaghetti squash planted along it. As the first really hard frost threatened in  Nov I picked them all. 259 pounds of Trombonccino. That doesn't count a few I picked in September and it doesn't count all the little green ones I picked during the summer. When I add that in we might be pushing 300 pounds!

BO cockerel, Reserve English

Snow on the mountains

We got a little rain in November with some snow on the Pinal Mountains to the south. Went to the Tucson poultry show where my young Buff Orpington cockerel placed Reserve English.

eggs

Seeds from Baker Creek Heirlooms

Finally the old girls are done with their molt and the younger girls are starting to lay too so egg production is picking up a little. While 2016 was crummy for hatching and growing out chicks I am very pleased with the color on my Marans eggs!  My order came in from Baker Creek Heirlooms and I'm really looking forward to the coming growing season! I'm especially looking forward to tasting those black tomatoes!

greenhouse clean up

compost chickens at work

It took some work to get all the squash vines down off the trellis and put up the plastic to turn it back into a greenhouse. Almost done with the clean up in there. On a sunny day it's 95.  The compost chickens are doing well. If there aren't enough food scraps they get a half ration of commercial feed. They find a lot of worms and grubs in the compost too. Some are still molting, but the oldest girl I have, in the bottom of the pic is laying about every other day. She'll be 4 next month.

DiCicco Broccoli

cauliflower 1 1/2 pounds!

The broccoli and cauliflower are doing amazingly well. If you didn't know, cauliflower is a once over crop. You cut the nice big head and you are done, pull the plant and plant something else. Broccoli however makes a nice head and when you cut that off it makes side shoots so you get several more pickings. And the small leaves and stems are also edible and have about the same nutritional value as the heads. 

Two More Trees in the Ground

Nanking cherry

My Nanking cherry bushes which I grew from seeds are mostly doing OK but a couple of them need some iron & nitrogen. I added an organic iron product awhile back, but so far it doesn't seem to be helping. So I loosened up the soil around them a bit with my digging fork, then added some vermicompost. I hope this helps them perk up soon.

loosening up the heavy clay soil

vermicompost

Vermicompost is the compost made with earth worms. It is very concentrated in nutrients and in plant growth hormones. I have used it to save many ailing plants. This batch I scooped up from the worm bin without bothering to seperate the worms out, so there will be worms in this area now too. Earthworms help break down organic matter, concentrate plant nutrients in a plant available form and help loosen up tough soil.

Desert Willow

Yay! I got to plant 2 more trees today! A desert willow which have really pretty lavender/purple flowers. The other one was a Mission Fig. I think Mission has some of the biggest figs I've ever seen. This gives me 6 fig trees of 5 varieties.

Mission Fig

The Compost Chickens  finished out their first week with a full dozen eggs layed with ZERO commercial feed. Check out their own page for more information!

Two More Trees in the Ground

Nanking cherry

My Nanking cherry bushes which I grew from seeds are mostly doing OK but a couple of them need some iron & nitrogen. I added an organic iron product awhile back, but so far it doesn't seem to be helping. So I loosened up the soil around them a bit with my digging fork, then added some vermicompost. I hope this helps them perk up soon.

loosening up the heavy clay soil

vermicompost

Vermicompost is the compost made with earth worms. It is very concentrated in nutrients and in plant growth hormones. I have used it to save many ailing plants. This batch I scooped up from the worm bin without bothering to seperate the worms out, so there will be worms in this area now too. Earthworms help break down organic matter, concentrate plant nutrients in a plant available form and help loosen up tough soil.

Desert Willow

Yay! I got to plant 2 more trees today! A desert willow which have really pretty lavender/purple flowers. The other one was a Mission Fig. I think Mission has some of the biggest figs I've ever seen. This gives me 6 fig trees of 5 varieties.

Mission Fig

The Compost Chickens  finished out their first week with a full dozen eggs layed with ZERO commercial feed. Check out their own page for more information!

Just Another Day on the Farm

soggy soil blocks

Ooops! My beets popped right up in a few days in their soil blocks, so I moved them outside to a part sun location before transplanting to their bed. Then it rained. Ugh, the trays are full of water and the blocks are dissolving. I drained as much water out as I could, then I put them back indoors for a few days, as more rain was expected.

yay most of the seedlings made it

mini bell peppers

green and red okra plants

I had some red okra seeds that were pretty old but a couple of plants came up. Planted some green okra from seeds my friend Glenda gave me.

red root pig weed

lambs quarters in the beet bed

The rains have put new life into things, especially the 'weeds'. Of course I leave a lot of lambs quarters and pig weed growing around the gardens. I cut them back and cut them into pieces for the chickens.

compost chickens!

compost chicken eggs!

The compost chickens are actually laying more eggs now than they were living in the barn eating expensive feed!

hay string hinges

I guess six years is a pretty good life span for a hay string hinge before it gives out.

But I haven't had time to fix it yet.

Add caption

I have planted seeds along this strip 3 times now and each time the pigs have gotten in and torn everything up trying to get to the squash inside the hoop house.

Whats here, a pathetic little dill plant, something I don't recognize and what I am hoping is Tithonia, or Mexican Sunflower.

What is this?

Of course I can't quit, so I added more compost and more seeds, this time dill, hollyhock and calendula. Hopefully they will grow!

homegrown seeds

Trombonccinno

The Trombonccino squash are getting huge! I'm leaving these to be winter squash, those big ones are about 3 feet long.  I can't hardly walk through here now. The birdhouse gourds are finally running and blooming but I don't see any gourds yet.