March 31,2019 the day’s work

Some flat leaf parsley volunteers. 

A purple iris. 

The apple trees are blooming. I actually forgot to take pictures of today’s work. I got some birds moved over from moms house.  I unloaded chain link panels and set up another pen in the front yard. It still needs wire over the top and some tarps. I’m working a full day tomorrow so won’t get a lot done then. 

March 29, 2019 the day’s work

I cleared out part of the bed of bolting kale while salvaging as many leaves as possible. 

I picked even more Purple Sprouting Broccoli than last week. 

Discovered some huge gnarly beets hiding under the row cover. 

Put a set of nest boxes in the upper hoophouse and added more straw. 

Delivered eggs and ran errands.  Moved Giotto back up on the hill. He’s been down by the big chicken house since the first snow collapsed this hoop house. Now I can get some things planted in the area he was in.  

The Days Work

Here you can see how bad the lower hoophouse is leaning.  What you can’t really tell is that the Tposts on the upside are also leaning and that the upper hoophouse crept 4-6” down hill so it is now sitting on the bottom of those Tposts.  What to do?

Well I added some boards a few inches below the bottom hoophouse to help build up some support. I’m going to uncover it, reset the Tposts and put in some end walls. 

In the meantime in the upper hoophouse I added some scrap metal to fill in gaps on the uphill side. 

I put in a couple of roosts. I also added a board to help hold dirt and make a more level area. 

And I started hauling in some straw for the chickens to scratch through. 

And in the house I managed to get a couple of shelves put up to corral egg cartons on. I even managed to wash some dishes and a load of laundry. 

Chicken Work

Worked a little on the hoophouse.  Put the tarp back on. It’s ripped a bit but will work for now. Also seeded some lettuce and snapdragons in the house. 

Spent yesterday morning filling waterers, putting out oystershell and hauling grit for the girls out of the creek.  Like all birds chickens must eat small rocks because they don’t have teeth. The grit goes to the gizzard which is a strong muscle and that’s where their food is ground up. 

Spring

So we went from a huge snow storm on Feb 22 to Spring in a month. 

The peach and plum trees have bloomed and the apple trees are budding out. 

The girls are laying in high gear these days. 

And I just spotted the first iris.  Lots of things to do in the garden, I’m behind getting seeds planted because I’ve been trying to get moved home from moms house.  But it’s a joy to be home in my own space.  

Jan 17, 2019. New Layers

I’m loving the new colors this year. 

An olive egg with brown speckles. 



A Black Copper Marans. Probably the darkest pullet egg so far. 

First egg from my 4th of July girls. 

Today’s haul. Top right silkie. Top row from the left olive eggers, Ameraucana, Leghorn. 2nd row olive eggers, Black Copper Marans. The rest are mixed layers. 

Gate greetings. This is the mixed old layers pen. Some older Ameraucana, various hatchery girls and one of my true breeding olive egger boys. Daddy of most of this years OE pullets. 

technical difficulties

Salad bowl lettuce from January 2010

Please stand by while I work out some technical difficulties. The blogging app on my phone is having a hard time uploading my last post!

Jan 7, 2019

I saw this at the grocery store a week or two ago. Capons are castrated chickens.  Removing the testes cause them to put some fat into the muscle meat instead of layering it under their skin or packing it in around their internal organs. It also means that the males can be raised together without fighting for months. A friend that grows their own says they have processed them at 18 months and they were very tender and juicy. (Intact males at that age are tough and stringy and will kill each other).  Caponizing does require going into the body cavity to remove the testes. It’s on my list of things to learn to do!

I had to work early today and will for couple of weeks. But after work worked on cleaning out moms office. Look what I excavated in there..... Do they even still make drives that can read these?

And This is Why I get Nothing Accomplished

This is a 10x10 foot dog kennel, 6 feet high with a roof kit so about 8 feet at the peak. It has weld wire over it at the 6 foot mark. The bottom of that tarp is now at my eye level and I’m not quite 5’2”. The rain and snow collapsed a couple of the roof supports. 

It took all morning to bail the water off and straighten out the tarps. Next to that kennel are several more, also covered with the big tarps. 

I was lucky it didn’t actually rain. 

Some of the pens had standing water in them that ran in when I was bailing. This one just smelled of ammonia because it was wet under the bedding. So after finally scarfing up some food I cleaned it out and turned and fluffed the bedding in some of the other pens. Then I hauled 3 bales of straw to help soak up the water and give everybody dry footing. 

Everybody loves to dig through the straw so I just dump it in there and the birds spread it around. 

Pinal Mountains, south of me. More snow and rain coming. 

A new Ameraucana joins the layers club. By the time I did afternoon chores I was stiff and sore and hungry again. 

I did discover this pretty purple cauliflower. It didn’t stay purple when I cooked it but tasted good. 

Little Bits has claimed a spot by the wood stove. He is putting more weight on his hurt foot today. 

So chores are done and dinner eaten. A toasty fire is made. . I think a splash of brandy in my tea is just the thing to ease up all my sore muscles. None of this stuff was on my agenda for today. Ah well. There’s always tomorrow. 

And On The 5th Day of January

And today I went to sell at SunFlour Market in Superior.  

I had to fix a water pipe that broke from the cold. 

It’s supposed to rain tonight and a couple more days later in the week so had to cut up some wood. I have no dry wood at the moment aside from what I can keep in the house. 

To top my day off my old Tom Bitsy came home with a hurt leg. Since he can’t get around too good at the moment I let him in the house   He promptly scarfed up some raw liver and turned his nose up at dry food.  Yes my kitchen floor looks gross. I’m still cleaning up the mess from the squirrels and 3 yrs of neglect. But I have gotten one side of the stove washed and a couple of counters so I can at least cook simple stuff.