Apple Picking

Bug-a-boo going after the high ones.

 It has been a crazy few weeks. I thought with the start of school life would calm down into a nice routine. HA! Not so. The good thing about homeschooling is that you can take on life as it comes at you. Like caring for grandma when she is to sick to help herself. That in itself is a life lesson you cannot find in a workbook.

He found THE perfect apple.

We took an afternoon away from the craziness to pick some yummy apples at a friends apple orchard. They also took three of our hens that needed a home. Now we just need a home for our rooster Mr. Waddles. I was going to offer him for free in our local paper, till I heard he would find a home quickly, as a  cock fighter! That is not going to happen. It would be much kinder to put him in the stew pot. Not sure if we are hungry enough to do that though.

Joy Joy found a new home for 3 of her girls.

I did not get a fall garden planted. You have to be home to do that! My Honey love has been busy building us a garden shed as funds come in.
We got 4 and 1/2 pumpkins from the compost pumpkin plants. A half you say? Yes. A ground hog got the other half. He could go in the stew pot too, as far as I am concerned. I wonder what groundhog tastes like?

My Honey love building me a garden shed!

I am planning (but will it really happen?) to go out and put the garden to bed and get it ready for next year. I have some clover seeds to put in, and I should get the litter (wood chips and chicken poo) out of the hen house spread it around the garden and put fresh in the coop for the winter. Then we will have more nice litter for the spring.
The chickens have much more room in their yard with the 3 hens gone. The chickens seemed unusually subdued for a couple of days after we gave away their sisters. Thankfully they are acting like themselves again.

New Readers and The Port-A-Coop Update

I was excited (giddy actually) to find out our Port-A-Coop was featured on the Community Chicken Mother Earth E-news letter! This is a great sight that I go to all the time for information.
   So first, I want to welcome our new readers and thank those who have e-mailed asking about the port-a-coop. It has brought to my attention, some things that need to be addressed.
We have been using the prototype port-a-coop since mid May and so far it is holding up wonderfully.
 I should mention, that we picture the girls moving the coop, and they do. When it is going across the yard they pick it up and swivel it to the side, or they can move it down hill. It is heavy enough that when we are moving it up the hill, it takes Dad, or myself and my teenage son to help me move it. It would be nicer if it was lighter and easier to move, BUT that would have a down side too. After it was built in May, we had a large storm that was taking down trees and sending horizontal rain, but the Port-a-coop stood strong. You can't really tell from the pictures, but our backyard is quite a hill. Our garden is at the bottom where it it almost flat. I really believe a lighter one would have gone down the hill into the gully behind our yard and been broken or at the least tipped over. So I can't complain about the weight, as it helps it stay put when you don't want it moving.
The cost to build was roughly 300.00$ to build.
It has 4, nesting boxes, the house is 4'by 4' and the yard is 4' by 8'. It can hold 4 large hens comfortably or more of a smaller breed.  We will be keeping 5 mixed breed in ours. 4 are going to another home, as soon as he has his place for them ready... I hope it is soon.
I have added some wood chips to the inside (we use the deep litter method) but have not had to change it out yet. I will probably change it out before it gets cold so it will make it through the winter before it needs changed again, and so I can use it on my garden to help winterize it.
If you have anymore questions about it, please ask in the comment section below. I will try to answer to the best of my knowledge.
Thank you for reading!

Purslane and Other Good Weeds in the Garden.

I bought a weed for my garden. Yes. You heard that right. I bought Purslane. A friend asked me if I had any of this because it is so healthy. I couldn't find any in my yard for her. After reading about it, I kept looking for it. Never finding it, till I stopped in a nice landscaping store with my Joy Joy we had never been in before....and there it was! Potted up for 4.00$ I got it! It is small, but it won't stay that way. I am looking forward to learning to cook this lovely herb. I still want to find a wild plant to go with my cultivated one.

                                                   
I also love Plantain and am trying to learn all the uses for it. This weed, I do not have to buy! It is in many spots around my yard and since finding out about it I am not pulling it up (till I have a better spot for it).                  

Other edible weeds, that I know are edible are:
Dandelions. This is a great article about what you can do with this weed. You will no longer hate this weed but be happy to see it in your lawn. (Maybe?)

Clover. Here is a great link with some videos. (Chickens love clover.)

Wild Strawberry, Link. Tastes yummy. (Chickens love these!)

Indian Strawberry, Link. Not tasty, but still useful. (Chicken's think these are plenty tasty!)

Lambs Quarters,  Link! ( I don't know if the chickens like these.)

I am still learning about the weeds growing in my yard. Some I have seen along the road, and I want to go get and bring them home to my garden is, Evening Primrose and Mullen.

Some books that can help you are... (these are the ones we have.)
The Essential Wild Food Survival Guide and the cards are a must have too!
Common Herbs for Natural Health (Herbals of Our Foremothers) 
Nature's Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants

And of course the Internet is a wonderful source of information. 

As food prices get higher, or there in no food in the stores. For many different reasons, I think it is a wise thing to know where you can get your food from when you need it.

Quick update on the garden...many challenges! Bugs, weeds, bugs, more bugs. I spent 2 hrs pulling weeds tonight. Will spend at least that much time tomorrow doing the same.

I will post more about the garden later and maybe some updated pictures.

The chickens are happy and healthy. It is time to talk to my Joy Joy and have her find a home for 4 of them soon. Soon as in this week or the next. 

They are still having fun moving them from place to place and feeding them scraps of bread or, today they got corn cobs after lunch. Never have I seen cleaner cobs!


If you have an edible weed you use, share in the comments and let us know what it is and how you fix/use it.

Knobs, Weeds, and Zucchini

I Have had some writers block. I could not think of anything interesting to write about! I did finish painting the last board on the port-a-coop. Found these knobs for the coop. These little Roosters will not bother the neighbors. 

The chickens are doing great and are friendly. I have to watch my left hand though. They like my wedding ring and peck at it. Ow!

The girls go out and move the Port-a-coop around the yard everyday, until it's time for it to come uphill (our back yard is pretty steep). Then Frank,or Thomas and I go help. I have been very pleased, with all the big rain storms we have had, the inside of the coop has stayed nice and dry.

Cute knobs I found on Amazon for the doors on the Port-a-coop.
They are not really needed but they will add a nice touch I think. 

 We have spent a LOT of time in the gardens. We found this beautiful weed in Frank's amaranth field. I tried to find it in our edible weeds book. Not there. Finally found it online. It is a BAD weed. It is so pretty though! I thought about putting it in a pot just for looks, but decided against it when I read what it is. We pulled them all out and got rid of them before they went to seed.

Jimson weed

Pretty but deadly.

I am also still fighting Squash bugs. I hate those things. We have been letting the chickens into the garden where they love to eat them up. 

I was hoping to share a yummy gluten free zucchini bread recipe with you but it did not turn out. It was edible but not enjoyable.  This is the first year I have been able to get zucchini to grow, and zucchini bread is one of those comfort foods from my childhood I really want to make! Back to the drawing board I go.

I am off for the weekend with some of my girl friends, so I will post again next week. I am going to try to get Frank to post some too. He is full of all kinds of interesting info about our journey to self sufficient living.

Pictures From our Tiny but Happy Homestead

I can't paint, so I Photoshop.
The big squash plant in the back, is in the middle compost pile.

Henna and Alpha. See how much smaller Alpha is?
I still need to paint that board!

She is a sweet little thing. She could see if she got her hair cut!

Last night I went out and took a bunch of pictures to share with you.
Today I went and found 6 plants for $2.10. 2 tomato plants, 3 Oregano, 1 pretty yellow Marigold, and a healthy looking Impatien.
I thought the Oregano was almost worth the dime I paid for each of them but after a good watering they don't look half bad.

There were beetles eating our peaches!

Who says chickens aren't cute? Look at that face!

Purple Iris seed pods? What do I do with this?

Rosemary

Purple sage

Comfrey

The start of a Amaranth flower

Gerber Daisy

Coxcomb: Was my Mother's Day gift from my Nate.

siamese-dragon-stir-fry-mix
Something that grew in this mix.

A baby zucchini!

My Happy, volunteer Marigolds 

First tomatoes

Joy Joy's carrots and pepper plant.

Bad baby squash bug. :-(  I squashed him.

The damage done by the squash bugs. :-(

Compost pile surprise! What do you think it is?

Why add Gerber daisies to my garden? Because they make me happy!
Flowers also attract pollinators,
 but I plant them because they are pretty.

Joy Joy's 4-H garden

Bug-a-boo's 4-H garden

Nate's 4-H garden

Can you feel the love? I didn't even have to tell them to pose and be cute.
It just happened!

The Chickens in my Backyard and What They Eat

I love watching the Chickens run down the ramp first thing in the morning! It's like watching a bunch of kids running down the stars on Christmas morning as they tear into the fresh batch of weeds and grass and bugs. We will move them sometimes during the day too, and they love the fresh violet greens, dandelions, the grass that's gone to seed. I will pick them garden greens and all but Alpha will eat them.

Alpha looking for some bugs.

Alpha worries me. She was first out of the shell but she is at the very bottom of the pecking order. She is so tiny and docile. We have to pull her out at feeding time (We are feeding them chick starter still) or she gets ran right over. She gets lots of babying by our 10 yr old. The sooner we get rid of 4 of the chickens the better it will be for Alpha.
We are 90% sure 2 are boys and I am hoping my husband will try his had at butchering them, because I would really like the meat. We will get rid of the one red that bites! That leaves one more we will have to find a home for.

Moving it in the morning before letting the chickens out.

One of my past posts I talked about Amaranth and wondered if we could feed it to the chickens.
My wonderful husband found this blog post about it, Can Chickens eat Amaranth?  This Arizona Victory Garden looks like a good one to follow, there is a lot of info on it.
Frank also found this one Chicken Garden on growing a garden just for your chickens! I learned a lot from both of these articles and I hope you do too.

Be sure to feed your potato bugs (if you don't use any bug sprays on them or the plants!) to the chickens. They love those crunchy little protein packed snacks.

Update about Chicken Tractor/Port-a-Coop

 So, I am long overdue for a post. I have done some things on the blog though! On the right side of the screen you will see a button under "Grab my button". (This was hard to make!)If you have a blog, I would be pleased as peaches, if you put my button on your blog.
Also, at the bottom of this post you will see a Facebook "like" button. (This was very easy.) If you have a Facebook account please like my post and or share my blog with others. I was feeling very much like a techie having accomplished this!

More important is the fact that John has finished the plans and they are ready to sell! Woo Hoo. I made two new pages today and they are on the top right. "Why have Chickens" and "Buy Your own Port-a-coop plans here!" Click on these for more info.

Anna, about 8 weeks old now.

How are your gardens growing? Our strawberries stopped as soon as the heat hit. Our lettuce is doing pretty good but some are starting to bolt already. I am spending a good amount (okay, almost all my time) in the garden weeding, and weeding some more. We ran out of funds this year before we could get mulch. We will make it though till I can find a free or almost free source of mulch. I guess the rest of the garden is okay. I hope to do a fall planting and make some cold frames. I will be keeping an eye out for old windows.
The kids 4-H gardens are doing well. & I will have to post a picture of the mystery squash plant that is growing in the mulch bin. It is a monster!

Alpha, is part Banty and so sweet and calm.

The chickens are happy and getting bigger by the day. They love Arugula, which is a good thing!    Because it has done wonderful in our garden... we all hate it. So I am happy that they like it. Waste not want not!

Gardening, Chickens, & Strawberries

It was a beautiful day today and I spent a large part of it in the garden. I LOVE being in my garden even if I'm not being terribly productive in it. I also love volunteers. Volunteers, as in plants that reseeded and are coming up in odd places as little surprises for me. I have a tomato plant coming up in the middle of one my  lettuce patches, marigolds coming up everywhere, and bean plants that I have been digging up and replanting over by the fence. OH! and a left over potato!

Does it look like a rooster?

 We hopefully be able to tell who are roosters and who are hens soon! The pen is okay right now because they are not full size yet, but we need to thin the flock, the sooner the better.

Lettuce Mix!

 We had a thunderstorm soon after I planted my lettuce seeds and I was sure they were washed away, but thankfully they just washed together in a smaller space. So it is a little crowded, but I picked my first salad with some fresh picked strawberries today....YUM!

Mint my friend gave me last fall.

 My friend Michelle gave me a part of her mint last fall and said it will grow anywhere and will take over. So I planted it in a space between my driveway and my porch where I hope it does take over. I was sure it had died but it has popped up in three spots!

Yellow Jacket was snooping around.
 I hope it does not make a home in my strawberries!

 I hope this was not a queen looking for a place to build a nest. I wish now I had smashed it with a shovel. Frank and Thomas have been attacked by these mean things.

YUMMY!

Bug-A-Boo picking strawberries, and my sign post waiting for a name.

Okay! So my wonderful hubby built me this really cool post over my garden where I could paint it and put a name on it. I was thinking of Serenity, I really like that but it also makes me think of the show by the same name. I enjoyed the show but its not what I think of in my garden. Selah is over used. Peace is too... well, plain. I was weeding to day and thought of The Garden of Weeden! I was told that was really cheesy, but that is what I do most of all in there. I also found out that it is the name of a popular marijuana game. Yikes! I don't want to give the wrong impression of what I am growing.  I am thinking of finding a part of a Bible verse about gardens.
So what do you think I should name it?

All but one went up when it was time for bed.

We are having a major thunder, lightning and hail storm right now. I am praying for my garden and my cat Scallywag who didn't come in before the storm hit. I last saw him running in a panic through the neighbors yard, away from us and safety!
Till next time! Be safe and dry. :-)

The Port-a-Coop!!!!!!

Drum roll please........ It's done! It took quite a bit longer than we thought it would, and we ran into some back-to-the-drawing-board moments, but it's DONE. Can you tell I'm excited?
The chicks took right to it and seem happy and at home. Or as Joel Salatin would say, the chickens were expressing their chickeness. They go crazy over wild strawberries! They are so much fun watch.
We may have to do some chicken training tonight to get them to go up the ramp into the house for the night. Not sure how that is going to go.
Plans for it will be available soon. Now I must go put in some tomato plants tonight as time is passing way too fast. It is already to late for the spinach and I will have to plant that in Aug.

The Last Screw!

Victory!

Do I want to go down there?

Coming down the board walk. ;-)

Happy Chicks!

More braving the way down.

They like all the bugs and grass seeds.

Pretty Isn't it!

I will paint that last board soon.

Proud of a job well done!

Have a great weekend everyone!