Coop/Garden Progress

I got the garden rows installed (a lot of topsoil) supplemented with composted leaves.  I tested the soil and it was basically dead so I put some organic Garden Tone in.  I mulched the garden paths with pine chips and shredded mulch.  I am tired of messing with the dirt and anxious to plant.  I do have some things going in the two 4 x 4 plots.  The peas are doing great but I noticed some were missing.  I replanted.  Then I noticed some holes in the plots.  Apparently we have voles.  We actually caught one the other day and let it go because it was cute.  I had no idea what it was.  Well, it's war now and I set mouse traps on top of the holes and caught one my first night over the hole that was in the pea patch area.  Here's my trophy.

Anyway, here are a few pics of the garden and the coop towards the back.

Chickens

Where does the time go?  The chicks are now 3.5 weeks old and they grow bigger everyday.  Really.  You can see it.  Seven of the eight have names.  They are:  Cindy Lu (aka Pretty Girl- enough said), Un-named (dh's hen), Anna (the emo chick, sits in the corner by herself a lot), Incarnacione (Nacho Libre homage), Stella, Bryn, Mrs. Beasley (the nosey one), and Lilo (Lindsay Lohan/Mean Girls- she's the pecker of the bunch and we think she'll be the Queen.)

Here are three pics from when we first got them.  They are not very good because they are always moving and the lighting is bad (infrared heat lamp).

Here they are two weeks old.

Here they are this week outside in their playpen.

Sloggers

The whole family got rubber boots this week.  I bought mine from Amazon and they are called Sloggers.  I wanted something fun and totally washable.  I have given them quite the workout this week and I must say they are very comfortable.  The local nursery has them in store for twice the Amazon price! 

Pre Spring Tour

I know it's spring but I took these photos before it officially began.  I am behind in my chronicles.  I won't bother putting up the photos of the square foot gardens right now. They are bare. My shed plot will now be a big herb garden. The strawberry plot is staying as is for now.


Things have been super busy here.  We have been working on the new garden area almost everyday.  The chicken coop base has been finished and the little ladies arrived today.  So far all are healthy and doing fine.  I'll take pics tomorrow.

Ok, first up are the new blueberry bushes.  I planted three in the front of the house.  They are semi dwarf Northland Blueberries.  I got them at Gurneys when they had a sale.  Look hard, it's the stick in the hole!

Next up we have the new and larger garden area.  There will be three rows here, three feet wide by thirty feet long.  I'll be doing a modified square foot garden planting in these rows.  We rented a sod cutter and exposed the clay beneath.

Here is the garden with the fence posts sunk.  The fencing is up around the posts now.  It still needs some braces and the gate. 

Here is the topsoil I had delivered - 12 yards!  That pile is almost as tall as I am.  This is being moved into the garden to make the rows and to fix some lawn areas that have eroded.  My daughter and I have moved about 1/3 of that pile.  I now need to add compost and conditioners to the rows.

That's it for now.  I'll add more pics of the seedling set up and baby chicks soon.

Off to a good start

As usual, I'm late with photos of the progress here.  These photos are a few weeks old now.  First up are the peppers.  I planted green, mini red, yellow sweet, and jalapenos.  I could be all gardener-like and tell you the variety but I'm too lazy to get up and get the envelopes. 

I used some meat trays and separated the varieties with popsicle sticks.  The tray is full now and the secondary leaves are on most of the plants.  I will transplant them into plastic cups this week.  I bought a shop light and put a warm and cool bulb in it.  We found this one on clearance for $9 at Lowe's.  I wish I'd bought two now.  You can see the plug from the heating pad on the table.  Last year I didn't get one pepper seed to germinate and this year almost all of them sprouted thanks to that old heating pad.  I also have started lots of herbs; same set up as the peppers.  They are coming up great on the pad too. 



I bought a bushel of sweet potatoes at a farm last fall and stored them over the winter in the downstairs pantry.  I enjoyed eating them in various ways so much that I decided to try growing some.  I put 5 into jars with water and set them in the window.  This is also an old photo.  They now have purple sprouts coming out of their heads.  I'm really hoping I can get these to grow well in the garden. 

In other exciting news :)  I got 3 blueberry bushes in the mail today.  I changed my mind on where I'm planting them so I have to get on that soon. 

And even more exciting news....we ordered baby chicks!  We are getting 4 Barred Plymouth Rocks and 4 Rhode Island Reds.  I'm kind of scared because I don't know much about chickens but I'm excited to take another step in my efforts towards self sufficiency.  We have a lot of work ahead of us in the next two months.  We have to make the bigger garden, build a chicken coop, and fence in some areas.  I'm including a photo of the two types of chickens we're getting.  This photo is someone else's.  We are using his coop as a prototype for ours http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=66725-wichita-cabin-coop  The chicks will be here around April 1.

Artisan Bread

This book has been making the rounds on the internet for the past year or so.  My mom was trying it and having problems so I decided to try and see if I could get it to work.  I must say it was so easy and the results impressive.  I've made three loaves and will definitely be doing this once a month or so.  Here is the basic recipe:  http://www.food.com/recipe/5-minute-artisan-bread-325571 

Dinner Tonight: Tuscan Bean Stew

I have a subscription to a great magazine Back Woods Home.  I decided to overcome my fear of dried beans with a recipe I found in a back issue.  It looked right up my alley.  Let's face it, recipes are always more appealing with a photo.  So, I soaked my beans overnight and cooked this up today.  I tweaked it a bit and I suggest you do the same.  Add what you like, you can't go wrong.  I took this picture before I added some barley.  I can't find the original recipe online but this one is darn close.  All in all, it came out pretty good.  I think it needs more spices.  I played around with them till I got it to my liking...and I added sriracha.   I used canned tomatoes from last years garden and kale that I picked from a local farm.  Next time I will try it over rice and leave the barley out.