August 26, 2019
This past week the bunny has been escaping the field. We have now fixed three holes in the fence she helped us discover, and put latches on both the fences. I hope the great bunny escape is now over...
September 6, 2019
No more bunny escapes lately so I think we are ok now.
Monday, August 26, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Swinging
August 18, 2019
Our daughters favorite swing broke. This week my brother and I, with help from the other children, made her a new swing set. Well mostly my brother made it and I tried not to get in the way too much as I tried to help.
Our daughters favorite swing broke. This week my brother and I, with help from the other children, made her a new swing set. Well mostly my brother made it and I tried not to get in the way too much as I tried to help.
It has a glider swing, a nest swing, a belt swing and a sit/stand board swing and a "disk", well really more of a semi-hexagon shape...
Tuesday, August 13, 2019
One Chicken over the Coop Fence
August 13, 2019
We have had to accept one of our chickens may have left. "Dark Meat" seems to have vanished with no signs. Many wild animals would leave evidence. It is possible a large predictor bird got her, but I suspect she got out and may have been injured or eaten. Chickens will typically head back to the coop at night and we have not seen her for two nights now. That leaves us 8 hens, one rooster and two chicks.
We have had to accept one of our chickens may have left. "Dark Meat" seems to have vanished with no signs. Many wild animals would leave evidence. It is possible a large predictor bird got her, but I suspect she got out and may have been injured or eaten. Chickens will typically head back to the coop at night and we have not seen her for two nights now. That leaves us 8 hens, one rooster and two chicks.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
August
August 11, 2019
Baby chicks picture updates.
We have named the yellow one Honey mustard and the black one Soy Sauce.
The Honey Mustard is still bigger than Soy Sauce. We are not sure if the two days head start are still in play or if perhaps it is a breed thing or if Honey Mustard will turn out to be a rooster. We shall see.
Baby chicks picture updates.
We have named the yellow one Honey mustard and the black one Soy Sauce.
The Honey Mustard is still bigger than Soy Sauce. We are not sure if the two days head start are still in play or if perhaps it is a breed thing or if Honey Mustard will turn out to be a rooster. We shall see.
My Husband has labeled himself a wood horder. We salvage wood. There is a dump/pit that has wood separated from the rest of the trash. building materials are also separated from branches, mulch is separated from that... We have wood in the shop to build with, but the wood shed currently looks like this
If I had to guess this is 2-3 times what we had last winter.
That is great because last winter around February we were running out and cutting up our building supplies to burn. It wasn't hard to resupply in the spring but even as the snow cleared it was still cold enough at times the girls and I made a couple runs to pick up stuff to burn from the dump/pit.
It is great that he is so dedicated to keeping us warm.
We expanded and improved to hastily built beds from last year for our raspberries and
ran wire on the north side to give them some support from the wind.
I hope to build 1-2 more.
Hopefully get some canes for Yellow "Anne" raspberries for a September raspberry harvest.
We have also built several boxed between our west Pine trees.
I am hoping to build some more by the "pasture" as well.
We hope to add several plants in the spring:
Gooseberries on the North of the house,
Serviceberries/Juneberries/Saskatoonberries bush type, Goji bush and a Siberian Pea bush on the West of the field
Pink Champange, Rovada, and a Jonkheer Van Tets Currant bush on the west of the garden area, also a continue a sunflower patch for our daughter.
I don't know if we will get to it next year or not but we would also like to add:
Grapes, hardy Kiwi, possible persimmon and quince trees.
I plan to use the old metal swing set as a frame to grow grapes on, likely in our garden area.
I have considered building beds and a trellis by my brothers Miny house to grow the Kiwi.
We have a North west corner that gets plenty of light for one fruit tree and a couple gaps on the North side of our property with plenty of southern exposure for a few more fruit trees,
and maybe some bushes.
I prefer to mostly plant potential food for us. Even if we don't eat or harvest it all. Long ago my husband and I agreed that we would prefer to use water on food plants.
We plan to fill most our beds with foods, many with perennials or self sewing annuals.
I have to admit I do really want a bleeding heart plant though, and I did buy some Hollyhock seeds because I really like them :)
My wonderful brother has agreed to help me build beehives and a swing set for our daughter
Her favorite glider swing broke.
I think it is the single most human used outdoor item on our whole property.
I ordered a glider and a nest/saucer swing and we plan to build a couple others like a disk swing and a wooden sit/stand swing. We have picked out some wood to build a big A frame for it. I hope from here we can also build an "adult" swing for me to sit on when she wants me to come out with her.
Lots of big building plans. We will see how far we get :)
I love it here!
Sunday, August 4, 2019
August 4, 2019
Definitely have 2 baby chicks. The first golden one and one little black one.
We have been surprised how quickly the Mom brought the babies out of the coop. They were only a couple days old.
We learned the first day out, that even though there are bars to clutch on the ramp into the coop that are placed about the same distance as a base bar the chicks will not return to the coop themselves. Each night we have to place Stir-Fry in the coop, then quickly grab the babies and put them in with her. Stir-Fry seems to try to teach the babies to come up the ramp, she goes up and calls them, back down talks to them, then back up and calls again... the babies just wander around looking lost and don't even attempt the ramp. We have had a couple traumatic nights for the chicks and their Mom as we learned the best way to do this. We tried putting a chick up but the chick cries from the coop and Stir-fry wanders around lost and the other chick stays too close for us to grab her. I got pecked one night trying. One night we were able to show Stir-Fry that we put the chick in the coop but most nights it is easiest to wait until she settles under the coop with them, as if to sleep there for the night, then grab her and stick her in and grab the babies quickly and stick them in with her before she leaves the coop. Our two daughters are great chick catchers but neither wants to mess with the Mama. One night when we were out later our daughter recruited her brother to help. They were both a little exasperated at us when we pulled up just after they had gotten the chicks in.
It is warm enough out we just let the chicks stay outside all day with their Mom and put their food and water out. They have shade under the coop and some wind protection there too.
I have read all about baby chicks needing a heat lamp for weeks but these babies don't spend much time under their Mom and seem fine.
The girls were eating raspberries by the coop and Kylo our rooster came over and asked for some. Funny because he has never asked for food before and doesn't even always come running like the hens when we bring scraps out. He will tell his ladies if he finds a tasty treat though. We gave him some raspberries and though he shared some, he ate more than he often will. I guess they are his favorite food?
Stir-Fry will break up and feed the raspberries to her chicks too. She makes a similar call to Kylo's that says "yummy food here, come and get it" and the chicks will come. At first she rejected the chick crumbles we were trying to feed for her babies, we put in grain for her that she is used to, but worried the chicks were not getting enough so for a couple days we gave them scrambled eggs. They have decided the crumbles are ok now and will eat them, but definitely prefer scrambled eggs and raspberries.
I tossed some bolting lettuce to the hens. The bunny in the field came to steal some from them and rammed into one of the hens and stole her lettuce. She pecked the bunny back, for a few minutes it looked like there would be a stand off until the hen backed off.
We have been surprised how quickly the Mom brought the babies out of the coop. They were only a couple days old.
We learned the first day out, that even though there are bars to clutch on the ramp into the coop that are placed about the same distance as a base bar the chicks will not return to the coop themselves. Each night we have to place Stir-Fry in the coop, then quickly grab the babies and put them in with her. Stir-Fry seems to try to teach the babies to come up the ramp, she goes up and calls them, back down talks to them, then back up and calls again... the babies just wander around looking lost and don't even attempt the ramp. We have had a couple traumatic nights for the chicks and their Mom as we learned the best way to do this. We tried putting a chick up but the chick cries from the coop and Stir-fry wanders around lost and the other chick stays too close for us to grab her. I got pecked one night trying. One night we were able to show Stir-Fry that we put the chick in the coop but most nights it is easiest to wait until she settles under the coop with them, as if to sleep there for the night, then grab her and stick her in and grab the babies quickly and stick them in with her before she leaves the coop. Our two daughters are great chick catchers but neither wants to mess with the Mama. One night when we were out later our daughter recruited her brother to help. They were both a little exasperated at us when we pulled up just after they had gotten the chicks in.
It is warm enough out we just let the chicks stay outside all day with their Mom and put their food and water out. They have shade under the coop and some wind protection there too.
I have read all about baby chicks needing a heat lamp for weeks but these babies don't spend much time under their Mom and seem fine.
The girls were eating raspberries by the coop and Kylo our rooster came over and asked for some. Funny because he has never asked for food before and doesn't even always come running like the hens when we bring scraps out. He will tell his ladies if he finds a tasty treat though. We gave him some raspberries and though he shared some, he ate more than he often will. I guess they are his favorite food?
Stir-Fry will break up and feed the raspberries to her chicks too. She makes a similar call to Kylo's that says "yummy food here, come and get it" and the chicks will come. At first she rejected the chick crumbles we were trying to feed for her babies, we put in grain for her that she is used to, but worried the chicks were not getting enough so for a couple days we gave them scrambled eggs. They have decided the crumbles are ok now and will eat them, but definitely prefer scrambled eggs and raspberries.
I tossed some bolting lettuce to the hens. The bunny in the field came to steal some from them and rammed into one of the hens and stole her lettuce. She pecked the bunny back, for a few minutes it looked like there would be a stand off until the hen backed off.
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