Harvest Monday 5.6.13

Monday - Already? You've got to be kidding me! This weekend went SO fast!

I worked on a project for the chickens. I forgot to take pictures while I was working because i was by myself, but now that it is almost finished I have to go back and take photos. It's worth it. I turned the door around to their pen. I always hated the door leading to their run. I still do, but I hate it a little less now. LOL.At least I can OPEN the door now. See, it used to open in, and the little chooks always seemed to toss all the shavings wood chips and anything else they could find right in the path of the door. I fixed that! It did impede on their space a little, but there is only 3 of them and they do have a good sized run for just a couple of them. I have a few other things up my sleeve for them this summer, too. Just a couple things to help in the way of boredom and keeping them occupied during our seasonal rains. :-)

Ah, but that isn't why you are here is it? It's not just Monday... it's HARVEST MONDAY! Of course! This weeks harvests included the first potatoes and zucchini of the year. I threw those on the grill with some pork chops Friday night. I love it when a meal comes almost entirely from the garden, and ALL local. :-)

Also harvested more carrots, another cauliflower. This one topped out at a decent 2lbs 9oz. a few strawberries a pound of blueberries (not all pictured) and ... well... Oh yeah! One H.O.T. radish. I'm guessing that the weather is just getting too warm for them now.

The zucchini are full bore now. I've got a good 6 on the 2 bushes/vines? Hmm... Anyway We'll be swimming in them the next couple weeks which is good. They tend to only last a few weeks now as we get into May and June so we will be sure to take advantage while we can!

The potatoes I pulled up are the ones that are planted around the blueberry bushes. I didn't like the idea of leaving them to grow to full size under the blueberries and damaging the bushes roots. I knew the longer I let them grow the more likely I'd have a hard time digging them out and end up hurting the bushes. Since they flowered almost 3 weeks ago I've been keeping a close eye on them. Turned out to be the perfect time to pull this little bush we each got a small potato perfectly proportioned for us!

I would love to show off to you my first blackberries of the season as well, but my lovely daughter decided that she wanted to pick me a bouquet of flowers... (Can you see where this is going?) Just so you know when you cut a blackberry flower it only last a few hours in a vase. Also, just so you know it's REALLY hard not to cry when you realize just  WHAT the flowers are that your well intending child handed you with a smile on her face. 'Happy Mother's Day' she says. Happy Mother's Day, indeed. What a gem she is. Every. Single. Bud. And from the thornless canes no less. LMBO.

Ah, well. I suppose it wouldn't be gardening without trials and tribulations, now would it?

 

OH! Guess what else weird just happened? My blueberries REbloomed! Check it!

How Weird it this? I talked to a local blueberry farmer about it and more than half of his crop re-bloomed as well. He thinks it is because of the really late weird frost/freeze we had a few weeks ago. We had another weird cool spell just Saturday night - it actually got down to 59*. For us in May... that is just freaky. The blooms this time aren't as pretty and I'll assume they won't be as large of fruit, but so far on the bushes that have re-bloomed I have about half again as much fruit. That is good because I didn't get as much fruit this year because we didn't get but about 40 chill hours total. The bush in the picture is only a second year cutting so the fruit wont be kept. It's too small to support it yet. Next spring I'll allow it a small crop.

I'm rambling now. Off to work.

 

See you soon!

 

Barbie~ 

 

 

A little something.

My little hens. They are such good girls. Their pen always seemed to be in need of something.  It kind of echoed in there. What with a 6' fence on one side, and the wall of the house on the other. I suppose it just didn't leave much to help absorb some of the sound.

It also looked rather... Uh, well - boring and bland.

Chickens have a tendency to destroy any grasses that they come into contact with. It is there scratching insect as they search for things to hunt and peck at that destroys the roots of the plants.

I also felt that they needed some more places to get shade. Florida isn't known as the 'Sunshine State" for nothing. Even on our rainy days it's usually sunny and hot at least during the warmest (noon-3) time of the day. Combining the sun with our extreme humidity and it's cause for concern if critters don't have a place to rest away from the intense heat.

About a month ago I switched the side of the pen that the girls used to enter, and gave them a new roof. The roof is no longer tin and so it stays a little cooler in the summer and is not as loud when it's raining either. As a result the trio are happier to hang out under the coop in inclement weather.

To give them more shade I decided to mount a piece of lattice from last years garden along the fence and support it on the far side with 2x4's. I also planted 3 strawberry guava shrubs in the run that are happy to finally be out of their pots.

I think the hens are happier now. I know I am. It looks nicer, and feels better in there. Not like the stark and completely barren pen that it was.

I also changed out their feeder giving them a much larger feeder. Now that daylight savings time has ended I'm simply not able to get out to them in the evenings any more. So filling a feeder each night is impossible. I needed something that could hold enough food for the week (or longer!) Besides, I also needed to know that if the pet sitter didn't make it for a day or two (teenager after all) that my flock would be OK physically.

So now they have something that I find much more pleasing to look at and I'm not embarrassed to show people. They have a feeder that doesn't need tended to every day, and they have 2 water sources that should also last a week if necessary.

Thankfully I can go out to the run each night and make sure that they have food and water, but actually changing and filling them in the dark is not fun. So having the ability to simply top off the water buckets and rinse them on the weekends is so much better for us. Because they are taller and the hens have to step up to use the water it eliminates all the gunk that gets into most waterers as well.

I'll post soon about how I made this feeder for only $4. I probably could have gotten by even cheaper if I'd looked around the garage or the barn. Perhaps if could have been free!

Be back soon!

Barbie~



Harvest Monday 9.17.12

This week brought a rather large amount of disappointment for me. I continued to pull the peanut patch. It was all for naught. The peanuts are riddled with nematode damage. Pounds of them - ruined. The chickens are enjoying the heck out of helping, but they are the only ones. :-( I'm nearly done clearing the patch. Too bad I chose the wrong area to plant them. Seems they WOULD have been a good, productive variety after all. *pout*

What I did bring to the table isn't much. But, I'll brag that my 'pet' hen Dusty is finally laying again. I got eggs from her this week! It brought my normal dozen eggs for the week up to 17!

Hers are the lightest colored eggs there. They are also the smallest as she has laid the fewest eggs of all. I'm just so happy that all three hens are finally laying at the same time for once. YIPPEE!

Unfortunately I also had 2 visitors to the coop this week. A feral cat and an opossum.  >:-( I'm not happy. I don't know what, if anything I can do to keep them out. I took away the ladder from the coop. That should keep the opossum out of the coop. I think it only comes after the food. I do know that if it is truly starving it will eat a chicken, but I'm reinforcing the wires under the gate (where it came in at) as well to try to keep it out. The d*mn cat came in from over the fence. Most cats won't actually attack a chicken, but I don't trust that. Not for a nanosecond. This is the THIRD time I've seen this cat come in and that tells me it's only a matter of time until it is brazen enough to try. I just hope it tries during the day when they can defend themselves. If it does that it won't try again if it gets torn up by chicken claws. :-D

 I guess I'll be looking for some sort of way to turn the coop around and then another way to open and close the coop from inside the house in the morning. If anyone has ideas - I'm all ears.

Also harvested 2 more handfuls each of black beans, zipper peas and pink eye purple hulls. A few black eyes thrown in just for fun and a mess of chocolate mint (after drying I still need to take the leaves off here)

The picture is horrible, but my cell will have to do. Once again my memory card was where my camera wasn't. Sorry.

Linking in to Daphne's Dandelions for Harvest Monday! Thanks Daphne for being such a great hostess.

Till next time.

Barbie~

Hen pen redoux

The hen pen is done.
There is still a couple things that need to be done to make it a little bit easier for me to clean the coop, and a little more comfy for the little flock. But the major overhaul is done. They've settled in here for the last 3 weeks and suffered through a tropical storm fairly well. This is actually just after the first storm band passed through.

It is still raining out. Not non-stop. But the sun is not shining, either. So the run is very moist. Not wet mind you. No puddles at all but it's not drying out either. It makes for, well... it's kinda stinky. Not crazy smelly, but there is an odor about. I don't like it. I do pick up their waste. So it's not a matter of sanitation. The coop is cleaned daily, as is the run. Actually the coop smells light, and MMMmmm The smell of fresh cut wood is somewhat intoxicating to me. *swoon* I don't know why. 2x4's or tree limbs it doesn't seem to make a difference it's all good to me. ;-)

Anyway - I need to create a second small shaded area for them to go. Under the coop shouldn't be the only area. I also would like to have a (small) compost pile there in the run for them to dig through when the mood hits them. I need to replace the roost in the coop. They don't like the one in there. I've not once seen them on it. I have the perfect branch, I just need to figure a way to get it in and attach it. One side would be easy enough, but the back side I may have to think about.

At any rate, here is the new and improved hen pen. Tonight we finally will be done tying the gate shut. I'm getting the latch finished. It was supposed to be done before the storm, but I was panicking over getting the chicken wire out from  the overhead lean to's. I didn't want one of them tangled up in it, or it collapsed on top of everything possibly cutting open one of them - a VERY likely scenario. Besides, it's really nice to be able to walk upright in there now. It's so nice not to have to crouch down the whole way through anymore. Now, if I just didn't have to stick my whole body into that little hole to clean the coop...

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Henboggled.

Yes, I am henboggled.

This week my lovely little trio went from living quarters like this:

Sweet, but - let us get a closer look...just over 6 ft long.... 39" across? This is no way for 3 hens to live 22 or 23 hours a day. I mean I was letting them out on Saturday's and Sunday's as long as we were home, but - that just did not seem enough. Not in my mind. Could they survive? Sure they could. But, I simply didn't know if they could thrive. If I was going into it KNOWING that they were going to stay in those hours I would have gone for smaller breeds. Ah, but one of these birds is an extremely large bird, indeed. A gentle giant if you please. And I do please. She is my sweetheart and when and if I get that dreaded letter form the HOA I will do everything in my power to keep her and rid myself of the other two.

Oh, I believe I got sidetracked there. Anyhow. This last weekend my itty bitty flock went from their tiny coop to what is now known in my home as 'The Hen Pen' LOL. It's still in transition. We got rained out. Big time - and have every evening since starting the project. So my gals haven't gotten any real attention since getting the new space. Poor critters.

Anyhow, behold the transtion:

They now live in 35' x 4'. It's not much to brag about yet... and it may never be a huge bragging right. But it beats the heck out of barely enough room to pace a cirlce, huh?

The roof remains unfinished for now. Hopefully this weekend the rain will break some and I can get that finished. Those poles are leaning all the way across and are in the way. For now they are holding up the wire, but they need to go. The idea I have is that there will be a furring strip along the wall of the house and the wire will be attached to that via screw eyes and 'S' hooks. For now this temporary solutions has kept the gals safe, but it won't forever. The storms we get will take down the loose wire quickly. I've left the grass long and it's unsightly but I know it will only take a couple weeks before the girls have it mowed down to the right height. The sprinkler heads will be taken out this weekend as well.

That coop needs work, too. We forgot to turn it sideways before moving it in. We actually like it better this way, but can't open it to clean it so the front will have to be restructured. I have no unearthly idea yet just how I'll make that panel a lift off - but I will do it. No doubt about that. I'm thinking about something like putting a door hinge on it and a lock to keep it closed...Then the area that used to be a door needs to be addressed. It now goes all the way to the ground and needs to be cut out. I may need to borrow someones jig saw to open that up. Then I can use that wood to build a new nest box and the entire coop needs to be centered in the back there so that the roof can over hang and protect all the way around.

Weather permitting - of course. *sigh* It's been nice to have so much rain again. Florida hasn't seen a year like this in ages, but it's been hard to get any work done.

As for my gal who lays 2 eggs? So far we are still laying 2, and they are still broken each day. On the ground. But, at least they are no longer at the foot of the ladder. I'm thinking of putting in a ground nest to see if she will try that. Maybe a kitty litter box or some other covered thing out of the way. She's earned herself a new name as well. This name is permanent. Campbell. She flew the coop (literally) a good dozen times while we were trying to get them set up in here and I'll be darned if she ever tried before. Try to give her space and nicer digs and how does she repay me? Hurumph! She'd better stay put in the yard or she will live up to her new name and be soup. She's the loud one after all so I don't know as I'd feel all that bad for it. They aren't supposed to be here, so I can't very well let her antics get me caught. I may seperate her for a day and make sure she's the culprit of the double eggs/soft eggs. If it's true and shes double trouble with the noise and eggs then I'll have to weigh my options soon.

Hopefully I'll be back next week with the scoop on the coop update. That should be easier than this upgrade. Less work, but more frustration. I'll also be looking at ways to solve the old what to do with the chicken poop problem. Well, I know WHAT to do with it. I want to compost it, but inside the coop it's a problem, and until I get enough to take it to the composter.

'Till next time!

Barbie~

Thursday blues...

Thought I'd lighten my mood a little.

Literally.

These balloons are an every day occurrence for us during the summers here. But now that the days are getting shorter we see less and less of them. They lift off just about dawn in the pastures around my home. The kids love watching them floating around and it always seems that the balloons catch their eyes at the same time that they catch mine.

'Air Balloon, Momma - Air Balloon!!!' the whole "hot air" part seems to elude them. The kids have also never realized that there are PEOPLE attached to the bottoms of these balloons. I'm kinda glad for that. I don't think I could stomach such a ride, and I know full well my loving husband would not tolerate such things. He hates ladders, much less something that far off the ground. LOL.


This brings me to other things that lighten my mood. Food!

Have I shared this with you yet? I just adore this creation. It's mozzarella cheese on the inside (though I think ricotta mixed in would be a little better) and guava jelly/syrup on the outside... a combination I assure you that I was unaware could be, would be fantabulous together. But, but.... it is - OH so much so. MMMMmmmm. I just couldn't resist that first bite before I took the picture for you all. :-D It was so yummy.
So remember when you are thinking about new ways to prepare your favorite foods. Or for that matter ways to prepare foods that are overrunning your cupboards. I don't seem to have that problem  in the heat of the summer, but I get low in the heat with my gardens not producing much, experimenting is a good way to kick the doldrums. This sweet and savory crepe was a great way to do just that. It made my day, for sure!

This weekend I'm off to Ocala for a little extra family time on Saturday and Sunday it's chicken coop re-coup day! We'll tear up the old on and make it new. Hopefully I'll remember to take pictures along the way! Can't wait to share the new digs for my fine feathered friends with ya, I just know they are going to LOVE having room to stretch their wings.

'Till next time!

Barbie~