Gone Paddlin'

This handsome guy is actually my brother, but you get the idea.

More late night Adventures

Please, someone tell me that having chickens is worth this kind of stress. Both of the chickens in the below pic are gone. Victims of racoons. I have now the adorable (and loud) little guy in the above pic hanging out in a box in the kitchen. One other chick hatched and didn't make it. The other 12 eggs have heat on them but I'm not feeling hopeful there. It's 2 am and I really should be sleeping. Damn. I was hours, hours away from happy healthy hatch. The damn rooster wouldn't go back to his roost so I left the door open for him. Damn.

Independence Days

I didn't post my Independence Days last week. It really didn't feel like I did much around here but the weeks seemed to whiz by.

I did get some help and nabbed the non-broody chickens one evening moving them into the chicken tractor. This has solved the problem of them dumping more eggs on the sitting hen. However, everyone is incredibly unhappy with the the set up, with the exception of the one broody hen who never notices anything! The two hens are laying a lot less in the tractor and squawking like mad, Charlie, the rooster is unhappy to be no able to get to the two hens. When they squawk, he gets stressed. It's a lot more work for me as well. They are a lot less self-sufficient in the tractor with a smaller water reservoir, smaller food and having to move the tractor every couple of days. I'm on chick watch this week though so maybe this will end soon.

In other chicken news, I lost the Chantecler to a predator last week. Fox? Coyote? I'd gotten lazy not closing everyone in for the night and the culprit got right into the coop. Completely my fault. This is the other reason Charlie is unhappy, he's shut in at night and kept in the run when I'm not around.


Plant Something: nothing new, I'm afraid I've over planted the front bed. The squash seeds I gave up on and planted over sprouted. Now, do I just pull them out as it's too late in the season or just let them go and see what happens?

Harvest Something: eggs, grass clippings for bedding and mulch

Preserve Something: I got nothing...

Reduce Waste: I've started being the crazy lady that gets sent home from the cottage with all the iffy leftovers for the chickens. Free food for the girls, who can complain?

Preparations and Storage: did some chicken tractor renos and upkeep

Build Community Food Systems: share, share, share

Eat the Food: The usual eggs, meat, jellies.

A Little Something

I've been wanting to play with some fabric flowers. This is one of the results. Now a dress is haunting me that needs these flowers. How does that happen, I make some flowers and end up making what's looking like a wedding dress?!

Independence Days

Well, I'm working on a new computer and using some new software. Typing that title took two options changes and a help check. It's not a big deal really but sometimes it's just a little easier to stall than work on something.

What a crazy week. I started back to work Monday after narrowing avoiding having to call in sick for my first day back! I was hit by a nasty but short lived flu Saturday. I recovered fast enough to lay around in the sun a bit Sunday while it lasted.

Things did get done in the garden as well. On top of that I have two broody hens sitting on clutches right now. Does anyone have any idea of how to stop the other hens from sitting on top of them and adding to the clutch short of isolating the broody hens?

Also, does anyone have any ideas about what could be happening to my apricot tree? Second year running the fruit looks like it's coming along well and then all molds off and shrivels up to nothing before it even begins to ripen. Damn disappointing. I'm thinking this is why no one realized it was a fruit tree, a harvest is a freak occurrence.

Plant something: beets, carrots and bush beans. The planting happened in compost that I spread thickly in rows on top of the composting chicken bedding that is composting. I think it's generating some heat so we'll see if things will grow there.

Harvest something: basil

Preserve something: basil

Waste not: nothing out of the ordinary I think. Right now I'm cooking dinner completely from stuff around the house.

Prep/want not: Finally got the crab apples all pruned. I know, it's out of season but I didn't do it this winter and there was quite a bit of dead stuff to come out. One small one was mostly under the snow line and the mice had a winter feast. I may have to prune it more but the branches that appear to be girdled have some great little apples on them so for now they stay. The big crab I'm a bit concerned about. I should look back in my grandparent's records and see if I can see how old it is. It had lots of blooms but the foliage seems awfully sparse. I also draped some vapour barrier over the tomato cages. It's been so cool I got inspired to create a bit of a micro climate for them. It's open at both ends so it won't get hot but should help a bit.

Have a great week everyone. Hopefully the sun will peek out a while this week and I can get some pictures.