Just checking in, kind of like WIP Wednesday.

We've been busy little bees as always. My parents came to visit and I had some much needed help, I was pretty productive while they played with he kids. The fence around the garden is finished! Sucks to be you chickens and rabbits! I finally went shopping alone and bought myself some new clothes, not too exciting but I so rarely do anything for myself. I haven't bought new shorts since before Mr. Lovebug was born. He'll be 5 in December if that tells you anything. I didn't get Mr. Lovebug's room painted but thats ok, I still need samples and all that jazz. Another day.

It is officially summer vacation! The weather has been crummy to say the least. It's been almost 90 and now this week barely into the 60s and rainy. This dreary weather is so draining! The kids don't want to go outside, there's no sun, it's just... bleck! Oh well.

We've been eating lots of strawberries form the yard but they're almost done for the season. Pretty soon it'll  be black and blueberries. Can't wait! The berry fields have their sound machines on, which isn't as bad as last year. They have moved the alien abduction sounds to the other side, I'm guessing out of courtesy.

Naturebaby is being especially nature-y. She's learning about bugs as per usual, which means I'm learning about bugs and when inside she's big into jigsaw puzzles. Mr. Lovebug wants to play video games all day. Obviously that's not happening. My parents brought him a learning book to learn letters and things, we bought him special super-hero pencils to use and I'm hoping we'll put a big dent in it by the end of summer. He really isn't into writing or drawing so getting him to try is a challenge. I'm hoping the special pencils and 1 letter a day helps.

And I bought an ice cream maker. Goodbye egg sales! I made strawberry ice cream the other day with berries from our patch and the chicken's eggs. I've only had a spoonful, I'm worried the eggs will make me sick. Did I mention I can't eat eggs without feeling like I wish I was dead. Yeah, there's that.  Anyways it's delicious! Next up will be an eggless base so I can eat until I wish I was dead for a completely different reason. I'm starting to think perhaps I need a dairy producing animal.

How is your summer going? I know I haven't been around but you know, life.

Cost per dozen for April

Oh boy, I'm a bit late on this one! April (and now half of May!) flew by, the girls were trouble makers as per usual. No one was broody, eaten or injured, so that's a good month. Truckee (The Rooster) continues to do his job of protecting the ladies. We have had a few eagle scares. This seems to be becoming a weekly event, but Truckee groans and the girls hide. If he isn't near them he will come running to protect them. He is a good rooster.

We had 217 eggs, 18.08 dozen. My cost for feed and straw was  $19.38, I sold $24 of eggs making $4.62 profit. Hurray! Months like these the girls are earning their keep. I can't complain about that.

They have been making a mess of the garden and now traveling into the other neighbor's yard (but they don't mind). We'll be adding a garden fence this year, I'm not sure if that should factor into the cost per dozen.

At some point in June I will be doing a deep clean of the coop and deworming the flock, that will definitely have a higher cost per dozen but you've got to do what you've got to do.

Garden 2016 let's get this thing going.

I feel like I'm really behind in terms of the garden this year. It's already May and there's NOTHING done! Well... not nothing, the compost is spread and the ground has just been tilled. Now it's time for the really hard work. Building the rows.

check out the before (top two) and after (bottom two). Huge difference!

Enjoy the garden while you can girls, you're getting fenced out. 

This year we opted for a tractor and harrow instead of just rototilling. My goodness, what a difference! The soil is so smooth! We have heavy clay, this year it was better but still very heavy. I added compost and that helped. I might add sand next year but that's not even worth thinking about yet.


Now for the hard work, building rows, then landscape fabric, planting and drip irrigation. I'm going to use straw in-between the rows. It'll break down quickly, help keep the weeds under control and it's cheap.

We've been doing a lot of work outside and with each step of each project I want to do more. More more more!We have a few more fence panels to put up. I'm like to run them out to the field, but we might just stop where the long grass starts. We'll see what happens.

In case you're wondering what our garden looked like last year, here's a few highlights (The first tilling and what it looked like by July)

I can't wait until I have more produce than I know what to do with!
Are you growing anything this year? Tell me about it! I love to know what other people are doing!

Diy self-watering planter

I have been making these self-watering planters for years. They're great! Start to finished you're looking at about 7 minutes. Whomever came up with this is a genius. Straight up, smarty-pants. Check out my super-over simplified directions after the jump.

garden kit 2 weeks

Finally, everything has germinated! I was really starting to think all the peppers were duds, but Sunday morning (13 days since planting) we finally have some signs of life. A teeny tiny little sprout and should be a leaf by the end of the day. So far that's it for the peppers, two out of ten. 

Out of the 50 pods, we have 35 that have germinated. Not terrible, I'm still hopeful for the rest of the peppers. We're still spraying them twice a day with a spray bottle, they're not ready for big drinks just yet. But soon!

I'm not sure how but nearly every tomato plant has too seedlings in there. I guess thats what happens when you plant with a two year old. 

Everything is definitely growing towards the window, I turn the whole thing every few days so they straighten up. It has been gross and rainy most of the days since planting, you definitely don't need a grow light to get the seeds started. The zucchinis are getting big and will need to be transplanted soon, I'll be putting them in self-waterers and planting some Brussel sprouts in the soon-to-be-empty pods by the end of the week. 

Seriously, 10 zucchini. What was I thinking? I'm only putting 1 plant in the garden so looks like I'll be giving a lot away. My neighbor said she'd like some and she knows some people that would like some too. She is giving me some strawberry plants, fair trade! 

So far I'm really pleased with the results, we see how it continues until transplant. Need a refresher since last week? Here it is!

Garden starter kit

Someone sent me a lovely gift for my birthday! The kids and I started the seeds on the 9th of March. The kit was super simple, straight forward, even toddlers and little kids can get right in there. The kit says there is At least 10 seeds each, heirloom tomatoes, heirloom zucchini, heirloom eggplant and let me tell you, there is much more than 10! Take a look at what's inside.

I don't know what I was thinking starting 10 zucchini seeds. I have no desire to grow 10 plants but at this rate it doesn't seem like we're going to have much of a growing season. We have rain the forecast for 13 out of the next 15 days. I'm ready for some sun, anytime now.

After a week, we have definitely made some progress! We have lots of tiny little sprouts! Very encouraging! Here's what I've done during the first week, after planting I gave each pod a good drink. It took a while for the water to absorb into the soil. I put tooth picks in and laid plastic wrap loosely on top. Doing that helps keeps the moisture and heat in. Any water that spills into the bottom adds to the humidity. After the first good soaking, I gave the pods a good spray with a spray bottle in the morning and at night. I left it beside an eastern facing window and that's it. Easy Peasy. 

There wasn't really any direction besides depth of planting, which is fine if you know what you're doing but if you're someone who has never planted before I bit more direction would have been benificial. I will say that the soil was packed pretty tightly into the little pods. I definitely needed to poke a tooth pick in a few times to get the water to saturate, otherwise most would just sit on top or run off. 

Out of the 50 pods, so far 12 have sprouted, not terrible. I'm sure in another week the rest will be out too. I didn't start the basil, it should grow quickly once the garden is ready, I'll sow it directly. I added 5 bean seeds instead, the kids and Scribs love beans. I can't wait to have fresh beans again. 

After the week we've had, I'm glad to see some progress. The second wind storm destroyed my green house. I'm going to see if I can repair it, but I'm not holding my breath. 

Have you started your garden yet? Are you in the planning phase?

2016 garden plans

This winter can end any time now. It wasn't particularly cold, we did have a few sprinkles of snow. The rain and the floods, Ugh! We had another tiny flood, just in the low spots. Someone told me that this winter we had over 2 feet of rain. That is a whole lot of rain!
I don't know what it is about this year (well ok, I do) but I am exhausted and ready for the sun to be out before 7 am. I'm starting to think about hibernating next year. Bears are onto something! Any chance I get, I've been doing small bits of work in the garden, but it really needs to dry out before I can really get working.

Our bulbs have been coming up since December, and are ready to bloom! The neighbors already have flowers. The time has come to start planning and working out what we're going to do for our garden this year. I've already started pulling up what ever is left. There is already some slugs that will be to be taken care of. I have a nice pile of compost ready to be spread. I'm guessing I'll need a few yards for top soil and manure.

I put the green house up on the deck this year, that thing is on it's last leg. It's filthy but it's doing it's job. It's 55 degrees outside and 82 degrees in the greenhouse. Thanks person who gave that to us!

In case you forgot, our garden is 60'X40', last year was our first year planting. First things first, we need to pull everything and get the add-ins in. Compost and manure. We will have our rows running north-south, not that I think it'll make much of a difference. I'm hoping for 8 to 10 rows this year, last year we had dozen or so running east-west. Each row will have weed barrier fabric around the plants and a nice thick layer of straw between the rows. Weed control is going to be top priority as last year it was out of control.

Next up is a chicken fence, the chickens discovered late in the season that the garden was full of delicious treats. Not this year, they can have the bugs. Realistically I'll end up going with just chicken wire and upgrading to something nice in a few years.

Up next, watering. Last year was dry, we went months without rain. We're putting in drip irrigation to minimize the water loss and get the most bang for our water-buck. We'll be putting gutters on the barn and getting a few rain barrels for the fall and winter. It seems silly not to collect the rain.

I'm going to try and get the kids to start some seeds with me in the next 2 weeks. It's tough to get them interested, it takes a long time to get things growing and they lose interest.

Coming soon will be selecting our plants and planning our rows.