Happy Valentine's Day

My mushroom *hearts* you.

Some Progress Towards Garden #3!

Sunday Morning

 

Sunday Afternoon!

P.S.  I'm not so bummed about losing the back lawn anymore. 

They're At It Again

  The girls normally stop laying for a period of time every winter, so  I wasn't surprised to find empty nesting boxes at this point.  However, come to find out, they really hadn't stop laying, they were just back to their old tricks again! 

 

 I came across one of those holes in the Vinca again.

Way at the back of this hole...

a half-dozen this time.

I'm afraid the girl's "range" (as in free-range!) is going to have to shrink a little.  Right now they are able to forage on almost an acre, which is great for their fitness and also for pest control... but not so great for time management.  I really don't have time to go on an acre-egg-hunt every day!  So, with plans of adding a large garden (#3) where our back lawn once was, I'm seriously considering turning Garden #1 into the new, free-range area.  While there would still be quite a lot of area to forage in Garden #1, there would be fewer hiding spots.  Hey, maybe they'd even go back to laying in their nesting boxes!

Of course, this all means yet another project. We'll have to put up a fence between Garden #1 and #2 if we want to protect our winter plants from the little foragers.  Argh... the "project list" is already totally out of control!

I'm Just Trying To Grow A Little Broccoli Here

 

This is what happened with my very first go at growing broccoli back in May '08:

The stalks were spindly... 

and the tops looked more like broccoli bouquets--not  broccoli crowns!

Needless to say, we didn't harvest a whole lot of anything from these plants. (I've since learned that maybe I should have used a shade cover on the hotter days... oops.)

 

Giving more consideration to temperatures this time around, in early October, I planted another little patch of broccoli.  

Hmmm... 

although I haven't experienced the "bouquet" problem...

I can't seem to get a meal from these plants! 

They have been growing for 3-months now; 

from what the label said, I should have had some on the table more than a month ago!  

(There is a tiny little crown forming in there... yeah!)

Do these look like 3-month(+) old plants to anyone???

 

P.S.  Anyone out there know some broccoli magic (of the natural/organic kind) they'd like to share?

Liberating The Lawns-Part 2

Bummer... 

I have been unsuccessful at coming up with the "before" pictures of our lawn out back. 

This is all I was able to come up with...

... a current picture of a halfway "liberated" (dead) backyard lawn.

 

This is actually a little depressing for me to look at. 

Even the chickens in the background can't help this view. 

I really need to get going with the raised beds...

before I have a change of heart on this one.

* Existing garden is just over and down the hill from this.

Liberating The Lawns-Part 1

It was a pretty big deal for my hubby and I to "liberate" our lawns.  

 The lawns really were beautiful.  

My dear hubby had worked so very hard to prep the soil, put in sprinkler systems, plant the grass seeds, put up temporary fencing to protect the grass as it began to grow, and then finally, keep it mowed once it was mature. 

"Before" photo of what would soon be the front lawn. 

 And then...

the front lawn... 

after a LOT of hard work... 

and water... 

lots of water.

Still,

it was beautiful and...

... lots of fun to tumble around on!

(Molly and children.)

But the little wheels in our heads were turning.

We had already begun to experience the joy and satisfaction of growing our own food in our modest little garden in the back corner of our property.

("Garden #1")

At the same time as we were so thoroughly enjoying the harvests from our garden,  we started thinking practically about the cost(s) involved with maintaining our lawns.  Along with our water bill going up and up, we also had issues with moths, molds, and weeds quickly getting the upperhand--especially in the larger backyard lawn.  Chemicals were not an option and we simply did not have the time to hand weed such  large areas of lawn.

So... we began to imagine something different.  We came to the decision that if we were going to put that much time, money, and energy into growing anything... we were going to have to enjoy more than just looking at it, or even tumbling around on it... we were going to have to be able to eat it!

Liberating The Lawns-Part 1...

was actually a compromise.  

We did fence off and save a small patch of the the front lawn; however, even this will become primarily an edible landscape.  We'll grow as many edible flowers as we possibly can--with only a little patch of lawn in the middle.  

Outside of this fence, we've let the lawn go... as in "die."  (Why does it still hurt a little to say that???)  Eventually, we hope to have many more fruit trees and other "chicken proof" plants and trees growing all around the fenced front garden.  

We have a very long way to go, but so far, we have artichokes, lavender, parsley, strawberries, lemons, and pansies  growing inside of the fence area.  Outside we have an apple tree and a pomegranate tree. 

Latest photos of our compromise. 

(The brown stuff--that was all green grass this time last year.) 

Hopefully, it won't be too terribly long before I begin to have pretty pictures again...

this time of an ever-expanding, edible front yard!

* For my tomorrow's post, I hope to dig up photos of the "liberation" of the backyard. 

Variety Is The Spice Of Life

My chickens gift me with variety:

 

Until about four years ago, I had never experienced the joy... or challenges of raising chickens.  One of the challenges for me, has been discovering what is (or is not) "normal" for chickens.  When my first four chickens began laying, I was very concerned that either I was doing something wrong (feed?) or that there was something wrong with the chickens themselves.  I was getting eggs that were half the size of what I had bought in the stores!  Also, I was periodically finding really odd looking eggs-in-a-sack... they were missing the outer (hard) shell altogether!  They looked like little alien eggs.

The good news is, both the tiny eggs and the eggs without  proper shells did NOT mean I had sick chickens.  As I learned (thank goodness for the internet!), it is very common for new layers to start out laying smaller than normal eggs.  As it turned out, after a few weeks, my girls starting gradually laying larger and larger eggs, until they reached an average size egg for their breed.  

As for the shell-less eggs, I also found out that this did not necessarily mean my girls were sick or abnormal in this case either.  I learned that a common solution for thin (or missing) shells was feeding your chickens oyster shells.  For us, this seemed to work well.  Still, I must say that I do occasionally find one of the little alien sacks in the coop now and again, but it has not been a chronic issue with any of the girls.