The garden continues to grow.

I have been lazy about lots of things that have to do with the garden. Along with the veggies weeds have found a welcome well watered home. The veggies don't mind so neither do I! I had big plans to weigh out everything and keep track but that has fallen by the wayside and I am just enjoying the garden as things come along.. maybe next year I will be more organized. We have had great beet, carrot and cucumber harvests. We have picked more cucumbers than I care to admit. It has been fun though and we will never have to buy grocery store pickles again! We have picked some beets but mainly eat them as they come along. I thought I didn't grow enough carrots but there are still lots in the garden and I can't remember the last time I bought them. Celery still seems to be plugging along. We have more kale than we know what to do with and the same with lettuce. Tomatos in the garden are HUGE. They are taller than me and have hundreds and hundreds (it feels like) of tomatoes.. they are just all green! We have been having lots of marine clouds every morning leaving little ripening time. I am hoping this week of sunny mild temps will do the trick. We have gotten a few though and they were beautiful and super tasty.
My dill has died and my parsley has gone to seed. A project to be dealt with. I forgot to water some catnip and some chamomile so their corpses are hanging out on my deck making it look oh so pretty.
The chickens are laying some great eggs. We get at least one or two a day. This weekend they were laying 2 each a day!

Our first Egg! Thanks Helen!

Alice doesn't care so much.

"Yes, I know, I found it," says Joe.

Check it out I am so excited!

Meet the new chicks.

This is Camilla

and here is Esther

Is my She a He?

We have been increasingly wondering if Betsy is a rooster. We started noticing a week or so ago that we can hear her calling (for lack of a better word) when we pull the truck into the driveway. She has started to call, quite loudly at other times as well. It doesn't sound like a cock-a-doodle-do... nor any sound I can replicate. She doesn't have spurs.. but her facial stuff is getting sorta big.. but since we have never had chickens before have nothing to compare it to. We shall see how this turns out.

All Fenced in.

aha- this picture makes me want to hang out with the chickens all the time.

Of course we choose the hottest day of the year to go ahead and build a fence. We have been talking about it all along but have been lazy getting to it's construction. We put the chicken coop on the side of our house. It created three walls to hold them, two being existing fences and the other is out house. We have been meaning to pen them in so that we don't have to worry about keeping an eye on them in the backyard where wondering cats often end up. Neither Joe or I had built a fence before. We bought those green metal poles and some hardware cloth. It took us a while to get the polls in the ground.. then to get the cloth attached.. then to figure out an easy solution to the door. Well we jumped all those hurdles and things looked great! Joe herded the chickens in while I started cooking up some dinner. He came in and told me to take a look.... and all the chickens were outside the fence! So it was back to the drawing board and we realized there was a big enough gap on the house side (it was where we had to move the poll a few inches further from the house than we wanted because of some buried cement) and there was a gap on the ground where there was a natural dip. With a piece of wood and some chicken wire we took care of it. The chicks should be happy being let out of their coop everyday not just a few days a week.
Besty is saying "Help Henrietta! I am trapped!" Or they are planning her escape from both sides.

There is the fence in its almost finished glory. The piece of wood swing around and meets the green pole by the house. It attaches there with some bungees.

Chicken Update.

My little babies are so big now. They are actually starting to look like chickens! I still can't believe it. We put them outside around April 1st. They were about 5 weeks old and I needed their room for human company. I mothered them though and insisted that the heat lamp go in there with them.. We left it on for a while but the nights have really begun to warm up and they always sleep tucked away under a their roost (they don't quite get it yet). We keep them upstairs when we are not home and give them free reign of the full coop when we are. When we are hanging out in the backyard we let them wander and eat bugs. They are pretty amazing. They can spot a bug, chase it, and pick it out of the air. Betsy is kind of stupid we think. When we let them out she just stays upstairs and stares. When I let them wonder the yard I have to phycially move her or she won't wander around. Helen is the clear leader and Henrietta is her little side kick. I wanted them in my site the other day so I have to move them one by one from the side of the house to the back yards. I moved Henrietta first and went back to get Helen. By the time I turned around, Helen in my arms Henrietta was making a b-line for me freaking out for Helen. I put Helen down and Henrietta ran straight into her. I guess it is her sign of affection. I brought Betsy over last, she got a lesser welcome. They have outgrouwn their waterer but I haven't made it to the Urban Farm Store yet to pick up a new one. That means I have to change their chick waterer like 3-4 times a day. It could be done more but I have work. So they have to deal.

The cat came back.

Yesterday I brought the girls out into the yard for a field trip. They peeped around enjoying some bug snacks. Then came the neighbor's cat. I could see the cat stalking them from under the fence which divides our yards. I shooed the chicks closer to me and away from the fence and resumed my reading. When I looked up again the cat was in the yard giving my chicks the stare down. I was so torn. I watch my cats stalk things all the time. They are so cute attacking their toy mice or bottle caps or whatever happens to fall on the floor. It was hard to watch a cat do what comes naturally when it was doing it to my chicks! I couldn't be mad but I was extremely uncomfortable. Of course all I had to do was stand up and take one step toward the kitty and it was off like a flash of lightening. I wonder if the cat will pose a problem with the chickens are full grown. With no rooster will they be able to defend themselves? Will I have have to be on edge the entire time they are in my backyard. Being a chick mom can be so stressful.

Outside Adventures.

Helen was obsessed with eating the pear tree blossoms.

Helen never wanted Henrietta to get any blossoms.

She would run up and steal then right from her beak.

They will have lots of outdoor trips this week as temps are expected to peak at 68!

They grow up so fast.

Betsy and Helen going on a ride.

Betsy loves being lifted up.

Look how pretty!

Henrietta is shy and doesn't like to be held all that much.

Helen is soooo big now.

They are 17 Days old now.

The Chicks

Henrietta - Helen - Betsy

They are to cute for words. I could watch them peep around all day.

Coop Construction Continues.

The roof is on. This week will be filled with staining, painting and waterproofing the best we can. After that we will build the run. Can't wait to see what the chickens think. 9 Days till the chicks come home.

Today it was 56 and sunny! We ate our lunch outside. Those are two things I can't imagine happening at our old home on the east coast.

Garden Planning.

I have made lists. Mapped our our small plot on graph-paper. Thought about it some more. I think it is time to get some seeds. We are mostly going to plant greens. We eat lots and lots of greens. Currently we eat a head of lettuce and a bunch of spinach a week. This could be much more. Every morning at least a cup of spinach goes into our smoothies. I could easily add sauteed greens as a side to many of our dinners. The plan is spinach, arugula, devils tongue lettuce, kale, and swiss chard. In the summer we generally spent 5 dollars a week on Farmers Market greens. The other big component is going to be beets. We love beets. Farmers market beets are the best but usually we can't justify the expense to eat them as often as we like. Bunches of beets are usually about 3 dollars and only come with 3 small to medium beets! So I plan on 2-3 varieties if there are extra I will try my hand at pickling. Carrots are anther big thing that we eat. We went through 5 lbs in the last two weeks! I don't want to plant orange carrots instead I am going to do a purple variety and a white one. Then there will be scallions, bunching onions, and celery to round out our food staples. We are excited about the idea of canning and pickling so I am going to grow some pickling cucumbers as well. We are also going to plant at least 7 if not more tomato plants.
I am looking to get seeds from Uprising Seeds and Territorial Seed. I will check some racks this weekend so I don't have to pay for shipping and can support some local stores.
13 Days til our Chicks arrive!

Chickens! 20 Days!

This lady is a Black Australorp. She is 'very good' and producing brown eggs.
Should have a sweet temperament.

This Lady is a Buff Orpington. Joe and I already call her Fat Chicken. (affectionately of course.) She is 'good' at laying brown eggs.

And last but not least is this lady a Rhode Island Red. She, I imagine, will be the ring leader as she is the most aggressive breed in the brood. They are described as prolific layers of brown eggs!

Ok. These are not mine. I ordered these three breeds on the phone today! Woo! It feels a little funny to buy animals on the phone but it saved me some gas by not driving to the store just to have them run my credit card. Soooo the chicken count down begins! 20 Days til the chickens come home to roost! (or you know.. be cute chicks in a box)

Coop Raising

With no garage at the house our work areas are the beds of two pickum up trucks.
Murph has all the plans, cuts, and measurements in his head. Impressive.

Here you can see how it will look inside. The ramp can be raised and lowered with a pulley. The ramp leads to the living quarters and nesting box and above that is the roost.

The Beginning

This will mark the first summer that my husband Joe and I will spend in our new home on Briggs St. We saved for a couple years to afford this house and are excited to realize our dreams of spending summers sweating in the garden and lounging enjoying the fruits of our labor. Our previous apartments lacked the outdoor experience we had been craving. I want this blog to track progress in our garden, showcase our chickens and talk about each new batch of beer we brew.

I have been looking forward to having a garden for years. We dug a 14 x 18' foot plot for our first year to keep things simple and manageable. We also have a 10 x 3 plot where I plan to start an herb garden and an 22 x 10' ornamental plot that we planted this past fall. There are some berries and herbs in that plot which I hope will add to my garden harvest totals. Besides this we have three huge containers, two big containers and a handful of smaller pots. I am currently awaiting the arrival of this years seed catalog and hope to have everything plotted out within the next couple of weeks.

We plan on getting three chicks this spring. First we have to build a coop and a run and then hopefully take a class of raising chickens. I think they are going to be so much fun to own. We love eggs from the farmers market but have a hard time justifying the 6-7 dollar dozens.. I am hoping that the birds will cut down that cost. They will also be eating our garden scraps and contributing to our compost pile.

Brewing beer is our new hobby. I am hoping the garden can contribute some hops. And if nothing else the grains and hops are already in our compost pile, already contributing to our non existent garden.

I hope to join in a blog community. I have been voyeuristicly reading some garden/ canning blogs and hope to start conversations with these people to A. have friends who won't mind me being excited about harvesting spinach and B) to have have friends with experience whom I can ask questions.

Looking ahead - The first batch of beer and I dream of harvest Monday's.