Status update on life.

Life is good. Things are not on schedule, and I'm still an independent contractor, but that's ok. Our house isn't always clean, and there are always things do be done, but that doesn't really impact the concluding sentiment that life is good.

On Saturday, I became an old woman. Or, at least, that's how I felt after I rototilled part of my yard. 6 hours of labor and a gigantic swath of land is tilled, but (oy) it's rocky and (sigh) it's not all finished. And I hurt, badly. The 6 hours was preceded the night before by 2 hours of high-weed mowing, and 4 hours both days of clearing junk from the yard. I think I will have my rototilling guy come back this week (he has a rear-tine tiller-- much more sense) and give me a hand.

I finished the day on Saturday by working on one of the flower beds. I'm using a lot of those annoying rocks to build it, and I love the results. I think I'm going to repeat the idea elsewhere in the yard.

Made more homemade plant pots on Sunday, but this time, I used two stuffed-together toilet paper rolls (two together= more strudy roll). The result was about a 1.5" tall and 1.25" across little pot. Love it. I finished planting my last few peas in there last night, and put red onion sets in the rest. Quite amazing; a 1'x2' planting tray held 72 little pots. Quite a sight.

I found a new canopy for the back deck. B hated our old one, mostly because he put it together and put it up, and he didn't like the color or the fact that wind would bust apart pieces. It was really meant to be put in the ground, since the legs on the canopy would splay and we'd have to duck in order to get under the canopy (it would sag that much). This one is much nicer, and B was very happy. Tanish gray covering, metal posts, and even mosquito netting if we want it. Much higher, and we can put it in the corner of the patio and the door won't hit it when we go out on the deck. I also found B a little fire pit. He's been wanting one very badly for the deck. This one has a nice metal bottom on legs, plus a screen. I'll put it up on concrete blocks soon. B was happy.

We have a lot of firewood in the yard, but it needs to be gathered and stacked. I think I'm going to stack the firewood under the deck. It will somewhat protect it, plus it's sort of a built-in firewood holder (because the legs of the deck provide support).

Bought blood meal (yes, you read that right) at the yard store on Thursday night, and yesterday, I cleared the mulch from my garlic and side-treated each little bulb with about a tablespoon of the stuff. I also treated my roses with some. Supposedly, it will help increase bulb growth in my garlic, and roses love the stuff. Both got watered afterward.

It rained yesterday, but it was almost a tropical-type rain. Temperatures in the mid-ish 60s, so I wasn't prevented from being out in the yard a little bit. I still can't do heavy yard work due to my hands not working properly (darn rototiller), but I got some things done.

The chickens are so stinking happy that they crack me up. They twitter around their pen and are becoming ridiculous fluffballs. Two of the newbies will be able to go outside two weeks from tomorrow, with the other two following a week later. I'm going to keep them separated from the others, but they'll be able to check each other out in their pens. I'm thinking of maybe putting the newbies in the coop but in a small cage for the first two nights. I don't know... Or maybe having one chicken at a time spend a few minutes with them? I don't know. I don't want the new girls to get beaten up. Luckily, my older hens haven't established too much of a pecking order yet, so I may be ok.

B and I paid off one of his student loans last week. It's a great feeling, but it coincided with us putting money into our savings account, overpaying our mastercard (so this month was paid off and part of next month to make next month less painful), a big payment on B's other student loans, and an extra payment on my student loans on the principal. OUCH. Being responsible is pretty overrated. Oh, we're more than fine, but I'm still grumpy.

I need to work on my planting calendar. Things here are so different than places south where there is more of a window for planting. While our summers are nice, it's all about light intensity. There is a rather narrow window for when the light intensity is suitable enough to be able to grow plants like tomatoes, etc. So everything has to be researched and done on particular timetables. I THINK I need to start my tomatoes soon, keeping them indoors for a long while, until like the first or second week in May. That would be 6 weeks indoors.

I think I'm going to build some wire shelving in the laundry room. That way, I can keep my plants indoors for a while, then in the cold frame to harden them, and then into the ground. I cannot schlep my plants in and out every morning and night (just too many of them!!) so a better solution needs to be found. I think the laundry room may work, especially since I got some flourescent bulbs to aid a TAD in the light department.

Off to work I get. Sorry for the rambly post, but some days, the blog just needs tobe a spot for me to download thoughts.

Sunday to-dos....

Life works nicely when I make lists and goals, so.... to dos:

If rainy:

• Transfer food to new freezer and organize
• Plant rest of peas in the temporary paper pots (get some dirt)
• Put blood meal around the garlic (rain=good for soaking it in) and roses.
  
• Poke around at the recycling place for freezer dividers
• Create planting list for the next week
• Buy screws at Home Depot
• Plant 4 blueberry plants that have been sitting outside, sadly.
• Call tractor guy to see when available.
  
• Buy new staples for staple gun (the right size this time... sigh)
  

If only semi-rainy:

• Finish flower rock planter and plan flowers (and plant bulbs)
• Make bean trellises
• As much of the "indoor list" as possible.
• Stack firewood under the deck.

Right now though? My arms ache. More later on this, but really, you need a wickedly powerful rear-tine rototiller to handle my yard. Or a tractor. This was learned after 6 hours of pain this afternoon. Yes, I got work done, and no, I did NOT get hurt. I'm just sore as all heck and pretty beat up. Chalk up 1 point for the ancient riverbed yard.

New chicks (yes, really) and new freezer

I have four new chicks. The older hens (the ones outside) are New Hampshire/Rhode Island Cross Reds. I have raised those birds before, and I chose them because of their good nature, their size (about 7 lbs), and their productive egg-laying habits.

But, I really wanted to check out two more breeds: Silver laced wyandottes and buff orphingtons.

Based upon having 10 chicks in the laundry room and how big they got by 4 weeks, I knew I could have 4 more chicks without much hassle at all. So I got two silver laced wyandottes and two buff orphington chicks. And, they fit in a gray tub. :)

The darker chicks are the wyandottes. They will (hopefully) grow up to look like the photo below. Their combs are different; instead of standing up, they sort of look shrunken and shriveled. This makes them a good bird to have where it is cold because the comb is not as susceptible to the cold temperatures. Aren't they gorgeous??
The yellow chicks are the buff orphingtons. They will grow up to be solid gold.
All of the birds, including the older hens already outside, will eventually produce brown eggs. The older girls will hopefully start laying in May, while these guys won't produce until July or August.

Here's one of the buff orphington chicks. They are a day or two old. You can tell this because there are no wing feathers developing yet. I had hoped to find older chicks (less time in the laundry room, yay!), but no luck on the buffs.
From this perspective, you can get a good idea of all fluff and no feather development.
The wyandottes are different. They are about a week old, based upon the feathers in their wings. This means that in three weeks, they can begin to spend time out in the pen in the coop. I'll put them in a much smaller caged ring, to permit the older hens to get to know them. A week later, the buffs will join them. They will all go outside full time in about 5 weeks. So, by mid-April.

Such a glare from such a little tyke.
Yes, they really are as soft as they look. And they really like the straw a lot more than the awful pellets they were in at the store.
So here is the laundry room. It's much better now that there are only a few chicks in there. It got REALLY dirty when the older hens were in there, because the coop was not ready and they were getting big. Bigger birds need to go outside because of all their feather dust. It gets EVERYWHERE. Plus, they could escape the pen and explore. Mess mess mess. The good thing is that starting in 3 weeks (for the wyandottes), they can start going outside during the day. No lengthy laundry room stay for these chicks.
The wyandottes really like to stare down the camera. Maybe it's the huge noggins or something.
You can see their little bin there in the corner. I should add that the laundry room is really clean now. REALLY clean. So hopefully, these birds won't muss it up. And, right next to their bin? Our new freezer! Gotta love it.
Here is the old freezer. This one has done a good job, but it's time to go. I'm transferring food out of it tonight and putting it in the big freezer. Yes, both are in the same room as the chicks but, due to the good seal on both, I feel ok with that. I don't dehydrate or bake bread in here though. Those are just there temporarily. I'll use them again in the laundry room when the chicks are out.
And, the inside of the chest freezer. Oh, lovely. Now we just have to figure out how to organize it. That'll be fun.

Tales of the wandering wheelbarrow... and a new freezer.

This is my wheelbarrow. It wasn't cheap. But, a good wheelbarrow costs around $80-$100.... a cheap one will cost you less, but you'll replace it frequently. Mine is awesome too because it has a wheel that will never go flat. Yes, a solid wheel.
The lovely thing, less than a week old, went missing last week. I've been sort of resigned about the whole thing. I've had a few people look in the yard, just to assure myself I'm not seeing what's obviously in front of me. Gone.

Yesterday, I cleaned out the laundry room from chickendom. I was working on the side of the house and everything. Put a planterbox alongside the house.

Today, I went to go to work, and there, alongside the planterbox? MY WHEELBARROW, with missing leaf rake and shovel inside.

No note.
No explanation.

It's obviously been used; there are many many new scratches. But I really don't care; wheelbarrows get scratches anyway.

What kind of irks me, is who does this? Who borrows something from far back in someone's yard (this was not a wheelbarrow located 5' inside my yard... it was about 100'. Not that the distance makes it more of a theft... it just means our privacy was invaded moreso) and then returns it without explanation? Neither of my next-door neighbors had it. Obviously the person felt guilty because it was returned in the dark of night.

I'm just really glad I haven't REALLY needed a wheelbarrow in the past couple of days. Then, I would have had to go to the store and bought a new one.... meaning now I'd have two wheelbarrows. THIS IS WHY PEOPLE SHOULD ASK BEFORE BORROWING YARD EQUIPMENT!

Ack.

On other, happier news.....

Meet our new freezer:
It's a lovely 9cubic foot Frigidaire freezer. Between our American express refund this year (which we decided to use semi-splurgy, but really, we needed a new freezer, so I guess we used it responsibly), the money we'll get from selling the old freezer, and the money I got by using a 10% off coupon, the freezer only cost us about $40-$50 (depends on how much I sell the old freezer for). Happiness. It's very pretty. We're considering putting a grid system in there so it's organized instead of chaotic, stuff spilling everywhere. We'll see. Like I need a new project.

FINISHED COOP!

The chicken coop is done. My friend has dubbed it the "Ritz Chickenton." It's done in that the girls can safely live in here now. It's not done in that I need to do some painting. However, my garden's tasks are more pressing right now, so painting will wait while I get those projects tackled. Oh yes, and that's my garlic and strawberry bed in front there.
Here they are, exploring their new coop. The nesting boxes are lined up inside. There are 4 right now, but I can easily put more. They are plastic bins, super cheap, from Walmart or Target (I'm reusing old baskets, and I forget which place I got them from). I cut the front out. It will be nice because they will be easily clean-able.

Better shot of the exploring hens and their boxes. There is black electrical tape on front so they won't hurt themselves on the raw edge from where I cut the front out. I will eventually put something even more secure on, like duct tape, but I did not have duct tape last night, so.... electrical tape it was!

Another close-up of the boxes.

Little hen exploring UNDER the coop.

This is a good shot of the interior. You can see their little ramps to their roosting posts and whatnot inside. I have few more posts I need to hang. Not super critical, since right now they sleep huddled on the floor since it gets into the high 30s at night. They're fine though; warm coop, warm straw, warm sisters.

Why stand next to the feeder when you can stand on top of it?

Here's the gate to their area. I made a 1' high lip on the bottom that I have to step over, that way it's easier for me to get in without letting chicken out (they'd have to hop over the lip, adding an extra layer of difficulty to escape).

Here's an overhead shot so you can see their different areas. Under the coop and on 3 sides, there is plain dirt with mulch on it and a few big rocks. In front though, there are three grassy plots and a sandy L-shaped area. I intend on filling the sand more, but again, that can wait. The sand is there for them to dig in, but also to eat dirt (aids digestion) and to give me an area to walk on when the grass is wet. By me not walking on the grass in the winter, it will help give more life to the grass. From this perspective, you can also see the bird netting, which helps keep pests out and chicken in.

Here are the shutters on the side window. They need to be painted, but again, more pressing projects. They have two latches which keep them shut, but they can also be latched open; there's a screen over the widow opening.
The back area isn't huge, but it's pretty big for a few chicken. They like to poke around in the mulch (maple mulch, not cedar, which is poisonous to chicken).
From this perspective, you can see our back deck. The chicken are close enough that we'll hear them if something's wrong (squawk!), but otherwise, they're background noise. I wanted them closeby, but not TOO close. This was a happy location.
One of the hens, USING THE RAMP to go out of the coop.


Chicks sloooooowly beginning to explore.

Path between the garlic/strawberry bed and the chicken coop. The rocks in front are mostly for decoration, since the grass beds will keep animals from easily being able to dig under the fence. However, the rocks line the entire pen, including areas where animals could dig under. In those areas, the rocks are a bit bigger.

I love the look on this chick's face.

Happy little hens out in a yard. Eggs in 60-80 days.

Getting a little darker, but still exploring. They actually fell asleep out in their yard, 9 huddled together and 1 on top the watering can. I couldn't find a flashlight, so I had to grab a candle, go outside, and begin chucking half-asleep hens into the coop. They'll get the idea, particularly if I put a small light in the coop that goes on right at dusk. I did feel ridiculous out there, in my pajamas, hurling chicken by candlelight.

So, some project summaries....

• 6' x 1/2"x 5.5" cedar boards: 79 cents ea (home depot giving me the price of a competitor)
• Grass: $12
• Sand: $2
• Mulch: Free
• Rocks: Free
• Baskets: Free, in that I am reusing my old baskets that I otherwise would have tossed.
• Feed thus far: $12
• 2"x3"x8' studs: $1.67 each
• Cedar shingle roof: $20 (would have been at least $140 if I had bought them pre-made at the store)
• Paint: $20 (but I have a ton leftover that is earmarked for other projects)
  
• Dowels: $5
• Chicken wire: $40 (to get the 5' tall fence, I used a 2' high wire and a 3' high wire)
• Shutters: $4 (recycling place)
• Vinyl tiles: $10 (and there are many leftover)
• Screws: $20
  
• Crescent vent above door: $5
• Doors: $2 (yes, for both)

Could I have done it cheaper? Yes. But by doing it nicely, there were many benefits:

• I learned a lot about what resources are available in my town.
• I learned where to get cheap materials that would be good quality.
• I learned how to make a decent shed, for FAR FAR less money than you can get a shed from anywhere else. This will likely benefit us several times in the next few decades.
• It looks nice, which keeps the landlord happy (if he ever comes around) and us happy, since our deck is nearby.
  
• If we ever sell it, it's much more easily sell-able because it looks nice.
• By taking extra steps to make the coop easier to clean, the coop will stay cleaner (thus healthy chicken) more easily (thus happy me).
• If we ever want to add a few chicks to our flock, we can easily do so. There is a lot of room.

So that's it. That's the coop! When I finish painting (at some point this summer), I'll post a photo.

Here's to a bunch of happy little fluffy red girls and their new blue house!

Snow peas planted, self-punishing dog, and to-dos...

I LOVE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS ENDING!

Now, I can work outside until 7:30 (after getting home from work). The chicken coop should be finished today! And then, I can work inside when it gets dark. Delightful.

I started the peas on Saturday, and by last night, the first batch was ready to go. When you're planting the sprouts, you have to be really careful not to hurt the root (which is the first part to sprout). These peas call for planting of 1"-1.5", so I made the hole a little deeper, giving the root space (so I wouldn't have to squish it down). I make sure to also hold the pea by the round seed part, not the root part. There are so many teeeeeny fuzzy roots that I don't want to squish.

First up? SNOW PEAS!

I still have about 12 to plant, but I ran out of newspaper. Snow peas are great because they are YUMMY fresh in food and as a raw snack, but they also freeze well. And, they are great to give away. So, I have a lot of them. I also expect that a few won't come up, so I'm compensating. And, I should note, once you've made your first 50 newspaper plant pots, you become a real pro and fast at them!
They're being left indoors for a day, just to give them time to adjust and start working on the green sprout. A few of the seeds had a little teeny (like 1/32 or 1/16 big) sprout coming up, so I suspect it won't take too long. I'm keeping the soil moist to help encourage this. I'm making sure to keep the house 68 or lower. Peas don't particularly like heat. It works out fine because our main heater is in the other room, so this kitchen area doesn't get very warm. And yes, those are covers on the peas so the cat monster Frankie (what a turd) doesn't sit on my seedlings.


On to the self-punishing dog...
I walked into the living room this morning, and I saw this:

Yes, that's the Madster looking at me from her kennel. She normally only goes back to her kennel if she's done something bad. Her kennel is her safe place, and she goes there to sleep at night. If she goes there during the day, be on the lookout for what she did wrong.

I quickly discovered what it was:
You can't easily tell, but those are my recently-clean kitchen floors. That's her water bowl. The water looks muddy (and the floors look disgustingly muddy) because a certain self-punishing corgi was DIGGING IN HER WATER BOWL AGAIN. Sigh. She knows she is not supposed to, but she just can't help it. She went outside this morning, got dirty paws (just a little makes a lot of mud), and then came back in and kersploshed around. DARN DOG. What a nutcase.


To-do list this week:
* Finish coop (tonight!!! yay! photos tomorrow, hopefully).
* Plant second batch of snap peas tonight (get more newspaper)
* Start cleaning up the yard in preparation for mowing.
* Determine if my dear sister is visiting this weekend or not (this impacts when to rent the tiller and mower). If she is visiting, then I have to likely build my pea beds before the rest of the yard is tilled/mowed so I can plant my pea plants before they get too big and get themselves tangled together.

How to gow peas (and a muddy dog documentary)

Yummy yummy peas.
You have to get peas started so that they will produce before the temperatures are regularly over 70 degrees. Once that happens, you're doomed. The peas will get mildew, wither, and die. Such is the life of a pea. I started my peas towards the later end of the pea-planting season here, but I should still get results (knock on wood).

Here's how to get peas started gently and quickly. This works better than just planting a pea into soil, in my opinion.

Step 1: Get a bowl. I wrote the name of the pea type on the side of the bowl in dry-erase marker. I'm growing 3 types of peas, so I wanted to keep track. Fill the bowl with warm water and soak your peas in it overnight. Make sure you put at least a 5:1 water:pea ratio, so the peas will be covered in water still after

Step 2: Get moist paper towels. Put the seeds in between the towels. I wrote the name of the peas on the paper towels in pencil to keep track. I used a baking pan for this part of the project. Put at least 2 layers of towels on top the seeds and at least 1 layer underneath the seeds. This will help keep the seeds moist. Set somewhere warm (but not too warm... like 60-68 degrees. On top my coffee maker by the sunny window worked well). Pour water over the paper towels to keep moist.

And voila! After 1.5 days, you can see the little sprouts....
And after 2.5 days, the sprouts are longer and ready for planting.
You have to be VERY CAREFUL not to break the sprouts. You also have to treat the seeds delicately so you won't crush any possible teeny roots. Put the seeds in soil and water WELL.


And now for the muddy dog documentary.

Hello, my name is Maddie. I'm a Corgi, and I love the mud. I really don't know why my owners decided to get a corgi when they wanted a clean dog. I mean, I live in Oregon. I have short legs. There's a lot of mud here. Of COURSE I'm going to get muddy.

See, look at all this mud. And this is after my dad dog owner washed me with the hose. The HOSE people. I mean, talk about not getting what I'm owed. A warm water bath I still won't love, but it's better than the cold hose.
Getting muddy sure is exhausting.
See, by lying like this, you can see the full depth of my muddiness. This took skills. And, it should be noted that last week, my mom dog owner spent a good HOUR getting all the mud balls off the underside of my fur. HA! That'll teach her.
All in all? It's a good life. Especially after a day romping in the mud.

I WON!

I just won a piece of artwork by Tina Steele Lindsey. I am SOO excited! I entered the contest on her blog, and my name was pulled.

This never happens.

Here is her blog; there's a link there to her website too. Her pieces are so beautiful.

Yes, there is squealing in my cottage right now. The dog and husband are very confused. The cats are aloof, as usual.

http://tinasteelelindseyart.blogspot.com/

EEeeee!!! And yes, I will provide updates on this. So neat.

Homemade Plant Pots: Genius Moment

A few months ago, I spotted this pot maker (see photo below) in one of my seed catalogs. Newspaper is great plant material. It's easily compostable, it keeps water in without sucking up too much water from your plants, and it's readily available. Best of all, your plant roots can break through it when they need to, unlike some other products which sometimes root-bind your plants. I also don't like some because they expose the soil too much and make the soil dry.

So this product was very appealing. The size of the pot it makes (1.5") and the price tag ($15, plus shipping) was not. Plus, it's totally the type of thing I would lose by next year's gardening season.

So, I came up with my own system. VOILA!!! The pots looked prettier before the cat sat on them. But no harm really done.

Here's what an individual one looks like:
And here's how you make it:

Step 1: Find a wine bottle. I determined that Tempranillo bottles work best because they are slightly tapered/narrower at the bottom. This does not create the problem of suction that you get with other wine bottles. IF you don't drink wine, just buy a $3 bottle of cheapo stuff or bum one off a wine be-guzzlin' friend.
Tempranillo bottles are also really good because they have the 3/4"-1" dimple in the bottom, which is needed for this project. Other bottles have it too, but the tempranillo has both the dimple and the helpful contour.
Step 2: Find newspaper. I used a free weekly, and I got a stack of them just before the new weekly came out. You'll need something approximately this size, so if you have a regular paper, just cut to fit approximately a weekly size. I think a regular paper is double the weekly, so that should just be a matter of cutting in half.
Step 3: Fold the paper in half, this way, creating a narrower strip.
Step 4: Take your wine bottle, and place it 2-3" from the edge. I like to keep the folded edge of the newspaper higher up on the wine bottle, since this will be the rim of the plant pot. I like the folded edge as the rim. That means you'll be tucking the non-folded edge into the bottom of the wine bottle.
Step 5: Roll the paper around the wine bottle.
See, so you'll have a 2-3" deep tube bit at the end of the bottle.
Step 6: Fold the tube part at the end of the bottle into the dimple at the end of the wine bottle. Here's the first fold....
And here it is with all the edges tucked in. It doesn't look too pretty, but you need to smush it in.
Step 7: I like to take the bottle and smush the now-folded section on the countertop, just to really flatten the now-folded edges.
Step 8: Remove paper from bottle. You can see the raised bump on the bottom of this pot.
Pot, side-view.
Another view of the dimpled bottom.
Because you soon fill this thing with soil, You don't have to worry about it opening. It actually stayed together pretty darn well, and I made groups of 25 before filling them with dirt.
Step 9: After filling with dirt, place in a tray. I used an old seedling tray, but anything will do, even a cardboard box, though that could eventually become a little flexible as the cardboard gets wet. Pack them in tight, that way the newspaper is supported even more, and especially as the new paper gets wet. You don't have to go super-tight, just enough to provide support to each other. You could even put them all on a flat surface and just tie a rope around them all if you wanted.

ALL DONE! These little babies house my bulb/set red onions, which I'm keeping in at night and out during the day until I have my cold frame built. I will also probably do the same thing for my peas, though my peas will eventually go in the ground, not the cold frame.
And yes, it's very mucky and wet here right now. But the weekend is supposed to be much better!

Final note: I'm getting some wooden shish-kabob sticks to put in the trays to keep certain cat monsters from sitting on these again.