We have our first eggs!

Learning to take the farm life on the chin

There is a chicken in my small flock that I've become particularly fond of.  This sweet chicken started as a tiny little yellow chick and has grown to be large and the most beautiful gentle bird.  I've had a sneaking suspiscion that this was not the hen I hoped it was, but was woken by his crow just this morning.  Since I live in the city and I'm not allowed to have chickens at all, he will surely give the rest of us away with his alarm clock voice.  I'm so sad that he'll need to find a new home.  I have a prospect or two, but no one who would consider this sweet gentleman for dinner.

The Coop

I laugh as I write this. "The Coop" was once a place where the Frenchman and I (and most of our families and friends) used to go to dance on Saturday nights when we were dating and living in Maine. It was a barn with picnic tables lining the inside and the house band was the Ritcher family who owned the place. Strictly BYOB. They played for our wedding reception. It was quite a party!

The coop that we are installing is not as fun, but it's definately as creative. The Frenchman has built this chicken tractor (movable coop) from recycled PVC pipe and recycled PVC fence material. The only thin we bought was the wire and a few latches. 1/2" wire is suggested to keep snakes and things out, so here we go.

Here it is!

I'm proud that this talented carpenter has always been interested in reusing every scrap and has made some beautiful furniture from it in the past. We rescued a side table today from the landfill. I'll post that project as we get it underway along with the raise beds, and maybe a salad growing table. (He's sucha good sport).

The Dogs approve, too!

The fastest growing animal on earth?

Ok, I felt bad when my two children grew up right before my eyes, it's even more amazing to watch my baby grandson turn into a toddler, but I've never seen anything grow as fast as a chick! They are now 18 days old. These little buggers are changing daily. They obviously weigh more everyday and are more curious all the time, just like our grandson. They're starting to roost on nealy alnything and they are eating a ton! Here are a few pictures of "the girls"; Cocoa (Brown Easter Egger), Bella (Buff Orpington), and Daisy(soon to be a white Delaware).

By the way, our grandson has accidentally squeezed Daisy a couple of times, but she's still our most relaxed and friendly chick!

Today I got to spend time caring for my grandson after dinner which meant poop, came home and cleanned the chickens (more poop), and let the dogs out (you guessed it). The moral of this story is: the more people and pets you love, the more of thier poop you have to put up with.

Late Summer in the Deep South

It's mid August and the subtropical weather has been seasonably hot and humid. The heat on our shady back porch has been at 100 at 4:00pm two days in a row. The humidity is at 95-100% every morning and usually levels out to 35% by afternoon.

The Frenchman and I got way to the beach for a couple of days to celebrate our 27th wedding anniversary. We day dreamed about a little beach house, but we'd miss our veggie patch. The 30 miles that seperates up from the ocean is just fine, besides, if we lived there, where would we go to get away?

The early mornings and evenings are my favorite times now. On a cooler morning I find it hard to stay out of the garden when I'm supposed to be getting ready for work. I'm craving a cool Maine day and a cold night a the county fair. I'll settle for a cooling rain shower and our local hot county fair in early November. I suppose this is a perfect time of year to rear some baby chicks since they love the heat, so that's my next big adventure. They arrive in 7 days!

The Frenchman and I have begun to talk about our dream of building a small eco-friendly home with big front and back porches and a bit more room to expand and explore. We have a good amount of planning and even more financial buckling down to do if we want to accomplish this dream, but the planning is part of the fun.

Meanwhile, we're constantly puttering around our little cottage, especially in the back yard. Our anniversary present ot ourselves was a papaya tree. I'm so happy we enjoy the same things!

Late summer planting began last week & my zucchini already has it's first leaves. I've also sown some okra, chocolate mint coleus, Big Max pumpkin, summer squash, and cherry tomatoes. It's all an experiment at this oint, but my goal for fall/winter planting is a container garden full of herbs. I've have to wait for cooler weather and besides, I need to help build the "stealth" chicken coop first (city limits and chickens don't jell). The coop has a planting area on top, so maybe it will be my new herb garden!

The sedums have been loving the weather. I've just potted an Autumn Joy in honor of my grandson's mother (her namesake) and it's one of the few potted plants that are thriving in this weather.

The watermelon is being attacked by stink beetles, but it's hanging in there. I've just planted some sweet potato vines, but probably too early since they look very droopy, so I've been hand watering them daily along with my green peppers.

Some recent flops has been carrots that seemed to like the sandy soil, but looked terrible malnourished. My tomatoes have died off and I fear my Cecile Bruner rose is not responding well to the organic liquid fertilizer, so I think I'll try a teaspoon of Epsom salts. It's all a big experiment that I hope to learn from.

I sometimes feel like a mad scientist with my little assistant(19 month old Logan). He likes to throw rocks in the tiny pond, so it may be a rock garden soon - poor fish :(

Stay cool and enjoy what's left of the summer!

Chickens?

For years I've day dreamed about having a few laying hens. We do already have 1 1 3/4 jobs between the two fo us, a couple of tripical birds, a couple of spoiled dogs, a couple of sometimes-almost-grown adult children and a rambunctious 1 year old grandson who visits the garden daily. My Frenchman has always said that since we live within city limits, that the neighbors would complain (never stopped the neighbors who once has peacocks). Well, the landscape protects our home from all but one neighbor, a long empty foreclosed home. I suppose the next person buying it will make their purchase depending on if they can stand my curious dogs (only sometimes noisey)our backyard garden (chickens & all?).
I have to get past the fact that the very handy Frenchman would have to build a small coop. I'm working on researching my explaination of the permaculture benefits of chickens and the idea of a dozen fresh eggs a week for his breakfast. I'll let you know how far I get with my request :)
Happy Sunday!