Weekend wrap-up

WOW, I got a lot done this weekend. Sorry for no pictures but I honestly didn’t have the time to stop and get the camera, an unusual thing for me, I assure you. Here’s the breakdown for what got done:

 

• Turned over and hoed all vegetable garden beds and parts of the front yard beds adding compost where needed.

• Planted 150 onion sets.

• Planted multiple rows of carrots.

• Planted Norland Red and Yukon Gold Potatoes in planter buckets.

• Pulled and transplanted four Italian flat-leaf parley plants from last years garden into the front-yard beds.

• Placed 2 recycled concrete Pavers into garden beds.

• Ripped recycled 2x4’s into 2x2’s for use with the chicken coop.

• Completed rough framing of the coop, and cut the purchased ¼” OSB sheets into size for the hen house.

• And of course never wanting to neglect the family time, we managed to squeeze in a Grizzlies Hockey game on Friday and a trip to the community center on Saturday for some swimming for the boys and a little workout for Mom and Dad. Good Times!

 

Geez, I got a little tired just writing that list. Needless to say it was a very busy and productive weekend. At least I get to come to work today for 9 hrs and relax a little. LOL. If the weather holds, which is questionable, I’ll try to get some pictures up of the progress for those of you who may be interested. Otherwise, I will definitely have a post tonight about a potential Chick killer that I learned about while raising my first batch of little ones and that has reared its head again. So check in tomorrow morning for that, particularly if you’re thinking of getting some chicks in the near future.

Have a great day all.

P~

 

Web Ringers.

I just wanted to take a second and say hello and welcome to all the new readers that have been popping in from the Urban Homesteading web-Ring. I am so happy to have you here. I hope you're able to learn something from what I do, and more than that even, I hope you'll share with me so that I can learn from you.

For one reason or another, we've all started walking down an uncommon path. Let us be company to each other as we walk it and talk and share and see where we end up.

Take a look around, leave a comment if you like and please, hurry back.

Namaste.

P~

Ooops, I did it again.

Yep, we got more birds.

It wasn't really as spontaneous as it sounds though. The ordinance that I have been pushing for, and that I am still imminently confident will pass (hopefully this month!) will allow us to keep up to 5 hens. Although we currently have 7, only three of those are confirmed pullets. The other four should be males; I am still questioning whether or not that's the case though, there's a couple that just look "feminine" for lack of a better description. So anyway, we've been planning on going to the local farm store today for their advertised "Chick Day" and I'm glad we did. It was absolute mayhem there this afternoon, I can only imagine a Saturday afternoon.

The new chicks are Brown Leghorns, and will grow up to be very nice additions to the others. I currently have them in the basement, in the same type of box brooder that I used for the older chickens that we have. Speaking of which, this weekend I'll be re-purposing some discarded 2x4's into a new home for the chooks. They need a bigger feeder, and more room to... sorry for this... "spread their wings". Watch for a post on the building of it later this weekend.

As far as my other plans, there's prepping and planting potatoes, planting second beets, and prepping the other beds for future planting, weather permitting. I hope you all are expecting better weather than we are. I love the rain and the gloom, but it kills us when it always comes on Sat-Sun. Geez! Some people have to work all week you know?

Have a great weekend all.

P~

2008 Garden Update - Potted Potatoes

I've been planing to plant potatoes like this for a couple of years now, but have never gotten ahead of things early enough to do it. This year, thanks to a little planning and some good luck, I will get it done.

You can see the pots that I'll be using. They're approximately 18-20" in diameter, and about that deep. I was at a local small family nursery late last week, and asked the owner if he had any old large sized planters that I might be able to buy from him. As luck would have it, he directed me to the back of one of their workshops and told me I could have whatever I wanted from there. SCORE, recycled pot's for free!! Rule number one for effective scroung... er... um... acquisition of otherwise unused materials... (much better) is that you never know unless you ask. And please, ask before you take.

Anyway, so I got the pots. Now I needed some fill. I was able to get some fairly decent topsoil from a construction site that was in the neighborhood, and supplemented it with a nearly equal portion of compost. I also turned in a little vermiculite, and some straw to add to the tilth of the soil, and help with drainage.
Here you can see what I did at the bottom of the pots. I lined the drain holes with, and a placed a thin layer of straw at the bottom of the pot again to help with drainage. Soggy potato plants make for disease and poor harvest from what I've read.


Here you have a couple of the finished pots, filled halfway with the potting mix. I don't think I should need more soil than this, at least to start with. As the plants begin to grow, I will add more straw/soil mix on top to help to boost production, eventually adding a mesh frame to allow me to pack straw around the plants and continue growing up.

All together I have 9 pots to plant in. Here's my question for you; how many plants would you put in each one? I was initially thinking I could support three seed pieces, but is that too much? Any experience with planting taters in pots anyone? Comments are appreciated.

Till next time..

P~

Small-Scale Coop-Care

I've been reading this book, "Chicken Tractor: The permaculture guide to happy hens and healthy soil.", a little here and a little there, over the last couple of weeks. One of the concepts that I've picked up from it I've been using on a modified, smaller scale in the "Cardboard Chicken Condo"; the "Deep Mulch" technique. This method was conveyed in the book as a way of building garden beds through a deep mulching of one area with successive layers of manure and straw leaving, after some weeks, a deep mattress of well mixed compost with a solid ratio of nitrogen to carbon. (The essential elements of any good compost pile.)I've tweaked the idea a little to suit my needs, and have been very pleased with it.

Basically, what I've been doing, is rather than having to clean out my small temporary coop every couple of days, I started with a thin (approx 1") layer of sawdust. This was covered by a pretty consistent layer of manure within a couple of days, the time when I would have had to clean the coop. I know it's a bit gross, but the picture to the right was taken this afternoon, while the birds were on the other end of the coop feeding, and illustrates what I'm talking about. It's at this time that I take the opportunity to apply a layer to the deep mulch.

What I do is, rather than remove and replace the sawdust, I just add a thin layer over the top of it. It really doesn't need to be heavy, in fact I've found that thinner is better. If I put the new layer on too thick, it really doesn't make it any better, and all that does is fill up the coop faster, negating my effort at reducing the frequency of cleanings. Better to add a thin layer once a day that to try to go a few days with a thicker one, it just doesn't mix together as well. A thin cover of the saw dust is very effective at keeping down any odor, and the birds are happy with it. They will immediately begin to lay around on the sawdust, something they don't do when it's covered with manure. The birds also have a natural tendency to scratch around in the mulch which mixes it up, further incorporating the two elements and keeping the smell down.

The one other thing that I do when maintaining the coop is to break up the mulch before adding a new layer. After the mulch gets a couple of inches thick, I find that the birds have scratched it up into corners or mounds and have compacted the rest to a certain degree. I break this up and redistribute it evenly around the coop before adding the thin layer of new dust.

Now what I'm left with, is a well mixed bed of sawdust and manure that is just begging to go in the compost pile. Some of this I'll be experimenting with trying to make a high nitrogen, dilutable, manure tea for the lawn. ( I'll be testing it in a small area before doing the whole lawn.) I'll let you know when that experiment begins.

Hope this tidbit helps with some of you aspiring small scale urban chicken keepers.

P~

2008 Garden update

The sprouts have been sprouting slowly over the last week. Here we have a tray with a few cabbage, broccoli, and some cucumber stouts. The brassicas (cabbage and broccoli will go into the garden probably in another week or two at most. The cuc's not until near to mothers day.)

Things aren't coming up as fast as I had hoped; some of the other trays we have aren't nearly as full of sprouts as these, but I do have some tomato's coming up and some of our annual flowers have sprouted as well.

As I was saying the other day about never mastering gardening... well there you go. We get a little better every year. I just keep waiting for the year to come when I don't have anything to do in the late winter / early spring besides plant sprouts. Next year right? Always next year!

Glad to see so many of you are doing well with your sprouts this year. Looking forward to more updates.
P~

Persistance

Phelan over at “A homesteading Neophyte” tagged me yesterday for a blogger award. “The Persistence Award” (See lower right-hand sidebar.) for my ongoing struggle with my local City Planning Commission to get a law amended to allow the keeping of “Urban Fowl”.
Timing is everything I guess. I have no idea how she knew it, but somehow Phelan, by her powers of perception, must have seen in advance that the planning commission was going to table the vote on this issue for yet another two weeks. (They only meet every other week.) So persistence is in fact the order of the day. I do have to say in their defense though that I wrote to the Commission Chair this morning and am pleased to say that I received a very nice response very quickly; like less than an hour. He is sorry for the delay, but the draft was unable to be completed in time to make the agenda before public notice was due. They will be discussing the issue in their work session tonight, but will not be able to vote on it until next meeting. He assures me that they have made it a goal to have the entire amendment passed this month. I let him know I’ll be there to hold them to that!

Persistence defined: Holding firmly and steadfastly to a purpose, state, or undertaking despite obstacles, warnings, or setbacks.

 

Life’s about obstacles, warning and setbacks. Persisting through them is what allows us to prosper. It tests our mettle and makes us who we are. Take this quote into consideration.

 

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.

Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)

Thanks for the nod Phelan, I won’t let this one die here. (I’m bad about that. Sorry to the few who have given me credits in the past that I haven’t had time to reply to.) I’m passing this to:

One Straw: Be the Change - For his persistence and optimism in making the changes that he wants to see in the world, right at home where it counts.

(Not So) Urban Hennery - For her persistence in selling her urban home and realizing her dream of a home in the country.

The Tiny Farm Blog – For their persistence in establishing a profitable “Tiny” organic market farm, and for rolling with the weather patters as they mess with the best laid plans.

 

P~