Rainy Days Don't Keep Us Down

All our rain left us with a huge mud puddle all along the way to the coop. Thank goodness for Wellies! This year we knew it would need a solution- a well drained path. So Mike dug some more dirt (to the delight of the girls who quickly lapped up the worms and frequently got in the way) and we laid down some gravel. Voila- one path completed. Look to the right for a grey gravel path and not to be left out we included a photo of the front yard herb garden.

Out next project was a more permanent fence to keep those sneaky chickens away from the garden. They kept kicking out the shells and we knew when the veggies started they would decimate them. So up went a fence.


Last week Mike went out of town and Nicole put the eight week old chicks outside. Another gate keeps the little chickens in the back part of the yard and the older girls get the side yard. They are both arms full at night when they want to love and preen with the humans. Check out the partridge penedesenca in a pear tree (no kidding).

Most of the time the young chickens hide in the raspberry bushes. Why do they call them bushes when they are really canes? In any case, they are turning ripe and giving a lovely snack while we work in the yard. And there is always work: no one ever talks about the endless weed pulling and slug hunting. The hazelnut shells have deterred many slugs but not all so Mike has captured several with cans of beer. Nicole opted for sluggo (organic of course). The few strawberries that have managed to turn red despite our endless cloudy rainy weather have been spared slug death. Not so lucky- cucumbers and okra.

Since the cucumbers are getting replanted anyway and as Father's day approaches it was time to get tomatoes in the ground and think about trellises. After much research and several "failed" experiments in past years we think this just may be the winner. It's rebar hammered into the ground about 2 feet and twine. We connected the rebar with 3/4" plastic plumbing elbows. The cucumbers are in a tepee shape, melons in a ladder, and tomatoes got the full cage grid. Parr lumber was very kind to assist us in cutting the rebar to size (it was the only place in town that has a cutting option on site) and we saved some money buying 20' lengths and dividing them into 8 and 4 foot lengths for out 8x4' beds.

The garden is slow going in general this year. Late planting and a late start to summer weather has made it a challenge but it did make growing celery outside from seed a success. Rumor has it that celery is notoriously difficult to grow so I am very proud we were able to have about 20 seeds germinate and begin to grow. We even were able to harvest 20 heads of garlic this weekend! Is there a dance that has the opposite effect of a snow-dance? Come-on its time for movies in the back yard and to fire up the bbq!!!!

The Patient Farmer

Four or five weeks ago I took stock of the herb garden and was convinced our lone week of below freezing temps had killed off several plants. Well, with my thesis near completion (woohoo, sigh) I was able to look up from my computer and see that everything except for two rosemary bushes had come back and flourished. Maybe being a lazy farmer can pay off afterall. Turns out tarragon, mint, and chives completely die and return in the spring. Who knew. The tulips have sprung and the orchard has blossomed. Soon we'll be drinking lemonade watching our new expanded flock run around. We fell in love with the Silkie chicken breed when we had Muppet and decided to raise a few from chicks. They are incredibly difficult to sex so we got four thinking we will need to re-home two roos. For those of you who were privy to the discussion of how many chicken can we really get, we were slated to also get a Favorelle breed chick but they just never came in to the feed store before the silkie chicks became to old and feisty to accept new girls to their flock.

The fuzzy girls have quadrupled in size but they still have about four more weeks inside. They need extra time to get their adult feathers and for nighttime temperatures to rise before they can be outside. And they are not all girls. We even picked out names: Stuffy, Razzle, Beaker (our definite roo), and Petri (not sure yet). They like to be petted, sit in our hands, and the typical chicken activities of eating, scratching, and sleeping. Their feathers are missing a stiffening barb on the end which makes them fluffy downy soft. I think they look more like stuffed animals than chickens. This is likely the reason they all got fanciful character names.

Well (much to my sister's concern) here are the new little ones. We sadly were required to re-home both silky roos which made room for more. As luch would have it this was the same time that those elusive favorelles came in to the store along with a new very rare breed to the US called penedesenca which lay almost black eggs (we shall see . . .) So we got two each knowing we would sell half and we did to a very nice couple living on a farm. Then mike went to get more feed and found new arrivals of polish chickens and came home with a last chick. And that is how we came to have 9 chickens (including our original four adult hens). If you're keeping up with all this that means we have 1 black silkie, 1 white silkie, 1 ameraucana, 1 buff oprington, 1 welsummer, 1 australorp, 1 polish, 1 salmon favorelle, and 1 partidge penedesenca.

The new wee ones took quite well to the older silkies. As a general rule it is disastrous to blend chicks after 2-3 weeks of age. We were concerned despite being told that silkies are the most gentle and maternal of all breeds. Turns out, once again, we should listen- if you look closely your will spot a four day old polish chick sleeping soundly under the wing of our black silkie. Current names are: Lulu (polish), Tilla (favorelle), and Penelope (penedesenca).

Shells

We've been talking about it. We've been wanting to do it. The first time we saw them we thought they were soooo cool. The chickens really dig them (literally & figuratively). The Mayor of Kenton hates them ("...don't get those damn things in my yard..."). They never decompose. But Best of all, the bazillion slugs in our yard are gonna hate them and will now stay away from our fruits & veggies because we now have them (hopefully the slugs slime over to the mayors yard). Can you say 2 pickup bed full of 100% Oregon Grown Hazelnut shells from one our favorite new places, Boring Bark. Bring on the slug free Strawberries!!