Chicken Coop Update

Someone who reads my blog mentioned that they never saw any pictures of the chicken coop bunny barn combo we built last year. Oops. There's a couple of reason for that. One: I forgot. Two: It took us a year to get around to painting it so it was only really completed this summer. A special thanks for Derek for helping out while he was here on vacation; Kipling said it best, "You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din".

The coop is functional and the roof doesn't leak so I'm happy. We put on a high peak roof to help keep the coop cool in the summer. It doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference, if it's 28C outside, it's 28C in the coop but at least it doesn't get any higher than the outside temp. In the fall, Don lays down plywood on the rafters and we store our hay and straw up there. It's convenient and we hope it helps a little to keep warmth in during bitter cold spells. There's at least one window or windowed door on each side of the coop. The windows and doors keep it bright in the winter and hopefully a little warmer. The trees leaf up in the summer and block the sun so it doesn't absolutely bake. We can remove the windows, there's screen to keep the bugs out and hardware wire on top of the screen to keep the raccoons out. Not that I've ever seen a raccoon around, but I don't want to find out they're here by walking into a coop of dead chickens. I had a friend who lost her whole flock to raccoons, she said it was carnage. Bloody bodies everywhere and all the heads were missing. Like to avoid that, if I could. In addition to the windows, there's a few vents for air flow in the winter.

As far as being able to house the rabbits year round, the coop fails miserably. I ended up bringing the rabbits in because I needed the colonies for broody hens and raising chicks. I'm thinking...may-be...next year... of building ~gasp~ another small barn best suited for indoor colonies. Having the rabbits inside isn't a big deal. The basement has 3 north windows, is airy and bright. We run a dehumidifier in the summer so it's not damp. I use woodstove pellets as litter and there's no smell so having the rabbits inside is very workable. And it's convenient, no trucking outside in all kinds of weather. But if they were outside, I could build them a really large outside pen and that would certainly be nice for them. So I'm still thinking, may-be...next year... What's that line from the old movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid? "You just keep thinking Butch. That's what you're good at."

A Sea of Pumpkins

It's definitely going to be a bumper crop of pumpkins this year. The vines in the above picture stretch out at least 20 feet. There's absolutely no way I can wade through that, I'll wait till after the first frost to harvest. Once the leaves shrivel, it should be much easier to navigate.

All the pumpkin plants are from seeds that I collected last year from my crop. This seed collecting is turning out to be pretty good, almost a no-brainer actually. I wonder why I always thought I should by my seeds in packages?

I grew two types of pumpkins last year. 'Sugar Pies' are a smaller pumpkin, they're just the right size to feed to the chickens. Last winter, the chickens really enjoyed still warm baked pumpkins. I didn't even have to take the entrails (yes, I know that's not the right word for pumpkin innards but that's what it looks like) out, just cut the pumpkin in half, throw it in the oven and I'm done. The other type of pumpkin was the typical larger good for carving Halloween pumpkin. When I saved the seeds, I made sure to separate and label the different seeds. It turns out that it was probably not necessary. Some of the seeds would likely be hybrids of the two pumpkin types. I would imagine after a couple of years of collecting my own seeds, I will start getting just one size.

The pumpkins seem to be turning early this year. By mid August, I was seen flashes of orange already. They do well planted on the edge of the garden so the vines can stretch out over the grass instead of over-running the other plants. Mind you, I did have get a few vines off the tomato teepees and get them going the right way. All in all, I think it's a good idea to plant them on the garden border.

pumpkin taken Aug. 10

Heavy Rain

What a difference a deluge makes. The river by the end of the summer is a weary, nonchalant thing. It meanders, it pokes along, doesn't seem to take an interest in anything. Birds come and fish, tourists take pictures, fish jump and the water continues to trickle over dam much like a leaky faucet. It's uninterested and, for the most part, it's uninteresting. The dam stands solidly, dark and bored.

Then we get a heavy rain, usually it's the remnants of some post hurricane or tropical storm. That perks the dam up. All of a sudden, it's got more water than it can handle. I can hear the water thunder over it in a continuous and rhythmic drone. Under the dull roar and splashes, the rhythmic drone sounds like heartbeat. And all the dam was made to do, hold the water back, is pushed to its limit. While the water will not be held back, the dam stand firm. The river expands and a new edge is made. The pristine clear water, tinted only by the sky's reflection turns a frothy red as the river bed churns.

After two or three days, the water is spent and the creek goes back to its placid self. The dam lets a trickle of water over its edge. It has done its job, the houses and the road nearby were safe from flood water.

Before And After Hurricane Danny.

Results of the Potato Project

Last spring, I decided to try to grow potatoes in a different way than usual. I called it the potato project. That's a picture of the total harvest. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well I only need one word: Dismal.

I ended up putting on three tires, covering up the plants just so the tips, about 4 - 5 inches showed. Everything looked great. Then a week or so ago, I noticed one of the plants just wilted and died. Ominous. So I took it out and while I was all mucky anyway, decided to dig around in the dirt and see if I could feel any potatoes. I dug two tires deep, nary a tater; nada, zilch, zero, none. I started thinking this wasn't going to work out as well as hoped. A couple of days later, another plant just withered and died. OK, there's something going on. I figured I might as well pull up the plants and gather whatever potatoes there were.

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The measly amount of potatoes I found were in the bottom tire only and they were all red potatoes. Nothing in the other two. Soooo the theory needs a little work or I did something wrong. I'm guessing I did something wrong. I did plant late and I did over crowd. Maybe that had something to do with it. I think I'd like to try again because the plants were safe from the dreaded potato bug. I'm thinking may-be I'll just use two tires stacked to start and see if they'll do better. On the upside, the potatoes did taste great.

Chicks and Cukes, Mighty Cute

The chickens come in pretty handy when I have an over-abundance of cucumbers. There are only so many cucumber sandwiches, salads and sides you can serve your family before you hear rumblings of a revolt, "Cucumbers AGAIN!?!" "Why did you grow so many?" Point in fact, cucumbers are pretty finicky, some years I might get three out of the whole crop so I have a tendency to over-plant. Then I have seasons like this one where over-planting is a really bad idea because every plant and its brother flourishes and I get lots and lots and lots of cukes. So I serve them when I can and I pickle what I can then I stare at the remaining lot, overflowing in a five gallon pail. I have discovered that cucumbers are a nutritious treat for chickens. Oddly enough, my rabbits won't eat them, but the chickens love 'em. So I am getting rid of the extras and being entertained at the same time. Trust chickens to turn feeding time into dinner-theatre.

Here's three hens sharing nicely, each taking a turn to peck.

And here's Timbits [formerly known as the chicken Tiny Tim) deciding that sharing is NOT for the birds while two hens, in hot pursuit, try to convince her otherwise. Yes, that's a cucumber Timbit is carrying.

Mandellas enjoying the middles of the cukes and leaving the rinds for the chickens.

Pickles

The days are shorter and the nights are longer and both are much cooler. The green of the garden has been splashed with orange, red and yellow as the pumpkins, tomatoes and sunflowers show off their bounty. The beans and cucumbers are just about done and I have way too many. Sure signs of both a great growing season and pickling time. Whoot. Love my pickles.

I never pickled a thing before I moved here. I had to learn in self-defence or get run-over by over-ripe cucumbers moldering on the floor. With the help of a friend who not only makes pickles but jams as well, my first forays was pretty much successful ~ nobody died of botulism and things tasted like they were supposed to.

I doubt if pickling would have been as easy or accomplished if I hadn't a mentor who didn't mind me calling every 10 minutes to ask questions like "Does the brown sugar have to be packed down when I measure? Do I rinse the salt off after draining? How much water should I put in the canner?" In short I was clueless and she was very patient.

Aside from making bread and butter pickles and an awesome mustard relish, both recipes provided by the above mentioned pal, I have discovered you can pickle beans and carrots. There is one recipe I found that uses green beans, garlic and basil. Every time we are invited to a pot-luck I am asked to bring a jar of "those beans". The dilled yellow beans are pretty good and the cinnamon carrots bring an unexpected dash of colour and flavour to otherwise rather plain meals. This year I'm trying something new, dill pickles. As with all my other pickles, I'll try them first and if I don't die of food poisoning or pickle over/under flavourness, I'll serve them to others.

Pop Ups

Ah, the joys of making my own compost. The process isn't all that 'joyful', throw veggie scraps, weeds, etc. into a homemade composter and shovel it around now and then. Same process with chicken/rabbit manure. Neither, might I add, is a pleasant experience.

The end result, of course, is well worth it. Beautiful compost, rich and earthy smelling and free. Can't beat free. Now that I'm using my own exclusively, I'm getting what I call 'pop ups'. Plants that pop up in places where they have no business being. I discovered the first pop ups last year, they were all tomatoes. This year, more plants have gotten into the act. I still have the occasional tomato plant showing up but now there's the odd cucumber plant, a sunflower or two and the like.

This spring I had the idea to plant cosmos on either side of our driveway. I don't do much by the way of ornamental gardening and I would like to start doing a bit more and I thought this would be an easy way to start. Probably will be the only ornamental garden I'll do unless someone invents a day with 30 hours in it. Of course, when I put the plants in, I used my own compost. And so the most charming of the pop ups happened. A corn stalk grew right next to the cosmos. It even has a corncob. I think the effect is really cool and it does portray the essence of the DaM farm: Looks weird but it works.