Better luck next year????

It must have been beginners luck last year, when my vegetable garden knew no bounds, and gave us such a great harvest.

This year I find I have been plagued with just about everything imaginable. I have refrained from spraying any sort of scary chemicals, but now wonder if I should have! My biggest nemesis has been the groundhog, he continues to evade me. My neighbor across the street who is very trigger happy, continues to inform me of how many of "them" he has shot.....(from across the street I might add) So far there have not been any human casualties.

Today I decided to dig up some potatoes for dinner tonight. I removed the chicken wire that surrounds the raised bed, to keep those damn critters out, stuck my pitch fork into the ground only to come up empty, a second dig revealed some half eaten beautiful golden colored potatoes. I could not believe my eyes...I cannot figure out how that groundhog is getting in there. Perhaps he is digging a tunnel outside of the raised bed and gains access that way. What should have been an abundance of potatoes turned out to be enough for a dinner or two. I stood there totally defeated and cleared the entire bed! I took down the chicken wire.....not much use now, and prepared the bed for rest. I filled 3 wheelbarrows of compost and dumped it on the bed.  I have resolved myself to the fact that I have lost the battle, and will learn from it and come back more prepared next year. I will have all winter to figure out how to keep them out!.

Meanwhile my gigantic pumpkin plant bit the dust, it rotted at the base and then the one pumpkin that survived rotted also. The only thing that IS thriving is the volunteer pumpkin that appeared in the spring and has grown and migrated all over the garden with many pumpkins! Go figure.....

I love Gino's Potatoes

Little by little

Now that the inside of the coop is finished I am redoing the outside, originally I made the run larger but did kind of a sloppy job. I have learned to think about the project, really plan it out, and take my time doing it.The only thing left to work on in that equation is while I think and plan, I should really buy enough material to finish the job;) This became evident when I ran out of supplies yesterday......

As you can see it has a nice clean look to it, and easy access to get in and pick up Diana's egg that she lays underneath the ramp! It's a good thing I have a beautiful egg nesting box for the birds inside!!!!!

Chicken coop 2.0

It has taken me an entire year to almost complete this project. But I finally finished the inside today. It's not like the birds lived in poor condition, but I wanted it to look more finished....you know like those pictures online or in glossy magazines:) Working full time and volunteering at the fire house limits time on projects. I know, excuses excuses, but it just seems hard to spend time off on things that need to be done around the house. However last week I felt defeated, everything seemed to be overwhelming. Our vegetable garden has been a disappointment this year, no matter how hard I try, I've been challenged by weevils, groundhogs and dear. Oh and some kind of grub that ate all of our zucchini plants. One day they were fine, the next day completely dead, rotten at the base. the weavels ate my tomato plants in I kid you not 1 day. Even though I have chicken wire attached around my vegetable boxes, the groundhog finds his way in and ate our purple pool bean plants and all the carrot tops. So needles to say it has been slim pickings, but I will be more prepared next year!!!!!

The coop had also been frustrating to me, all of it put together with spit and glue, all of it meant to be temporary until I found the time to address it. Weeks turned into months, I'm not sure what inspired me, but I finally got my act together and got to work.

Last week we added 2 African geese to our flock, this was on the heals of loosing Dolly our rooster. Once again the fox struck! However the girls don't seem to mind, they were starting to look a little worse for wear, from Dolly's daily attempts at mounting them. All of the girls had the same bare patch on there backs!. African geese apparently will protect the flock from any predators. This was explained to me when I asked the breeder if I should get a pair. " oh yes" he yelled! "You need the male to hold down the predator, while the female slits it's throat!" We named them Billy and Lisa.....

Poor Gwen and Josephine

I got home early from work, and had the entire evening planned out. A chance to catch up on some garden stuff. Surround the new raised beds with chicken wire to keep deer out. Plant those potatoes. I was ready to start! While I was unrolling the chicken wire, I thought about Elise, a lady we met last year on the towpath, she too has labradoodles although about twice the size of ours. She had given me the chicken wire last year to wrap the other raised beds I made. No sooner was that thought gone from my mind, and she pulled up on our driveway. Cooper our black labradoodle was with me and excited to see them. Elise let Izzy her 95 pound dog out, he ran over jumped into one of my planter boxes and peed on one of its posts. She asked me where Milton was, In the house I said as I headed towards it to let him out, so they could all play together. As I walked up the driveway I realized our chicken and ducks were out, and as I turned to say to Alese"is Izzy OK with birds" he spotted them and took off in hunting mode. I ran after him, but to no avail. He grabbed Gwen off the ground and ran around the barn with her. I chased him screaming to let her go, but I was no match for his maneuvering around the yard. He finally dropped her, but only to grab one of the ducks. I was in tears as I continued chasing him, while all the other birds dispersed around the yard trying to find cover. He quickly dropped the duck, and I lured him towards me while I held the other duck. Stupid dog, thought I was going to hand him the bird. I grabbed him by his mane, I was shaking with rage and I wanted to choke him. Alese ran over and grabbed him from me . I spotted Gwen as she laid there on the lawn unable to get up her wings flapping . I picked her up and held her close to me, her heart beating so fast. I inspected her and found a small puncture wound on her leg, and her other leg was paralyzed. The rooster was so upset and very vocal about it, he took up refuge in the blackberry bushes, I gently tried coaching him out of the bushes and back to safety, it was so chaotic. Izzy was barking relentlessly in the car, and my dogs joined in from the kitchen. I wanted everyone to just shut up so I could calm the birds down. All the other
birds had gone into the coop, except for Elizabeth. I searched and searched for about 2 hours for her while carrying Gwen under my arm. She finally appeared after the rooster called for her. She had been hiding under the car, the only place I had not looked. Finally everyone was safe in the coop and I could turn my attention to Gwen. I took her inside, and as any good parent would do, put some neosporin on her wound and a bandaid. After David came home we placed her in a laundry basket with a towel to keep her warm. We figured the paralysis was caused by the shock, and hoped it would pass. Unfortunately it has been almost a week now and she has not moved that leg. She is still laying eggs, so she must not feel to bad. I made a box for her today, for now that's her home,on the window sill.

As if matters couldn't get any worse, on Saturday I stepped out of the shower and heard all this commotion from the rooster outside. It had all the sounds of yet another catastrophe in the making, I ran outside and spotted the culprit, a fox with Josephine,one of our ducks in his mouth. I could not believe my eyes. There was nothing I could do, except gather the rest of the birds and get them inside their coop.  My neighbor who witnessed the whole thing, came over to console me and said, "I've been trying to shoot that fox for years!"
I felt bad for everyone involved. I don't want the fox shot, he was doing what a fox does. It's spring, and I'm sure he has young ones to feed. Just have to be a bit more vigilant and not let the birds out unattended. I made their outside run enclosure bigger, but they love to roam around the yard. Hopefully we can get another duck, so Diane the surviving one wont feel so lonely.

Chicks are growing up

Our babies are growing fast. Already a week old and have doubled in size and showing feather growth. I had to cover the container with chicken wire, because they are already trying to figure out how to get out. Not yet little ones.....got some more growing to do. It will be interesting to see the dynamics between them and the older birds once we introduce them.

Our new chicks arrived today!

Here we are April 7th and it has been 85 degrees for the past three days. I'm hoping this is not a sign of things to come. I want Spring back! My peas are coming up, so are my cauliflower plants, but I'm worried this warm weather will make them grow to fast and weak. Hopefully by the end of this week we will have returned to a milder temp.

I picked up our 4 chicks this afternoon, our plans changed a little from what we originally wanted I was a little late in ordering and the Araucanas were all gone. We got 2 Buff Cochins, they have feathers on their feet, and 2 Buff Minorca. They will be spending the next few weeks in our guest bathroom living in a plastic tub, heat lamp, food and water. Not a bad life. Our task now is to find names for them. I have also decided to upgrade their coop so when they are ready to join the others they will have palecious digs. Right now it's a bit white trash looking. Hopefully I'll get to that this week.

the way we eat

I have always admired Jamie Oliver for his contributions, showing how easy it is to cook using fresh ingredients. One does not have to possess a culinary degree to eat healthy. For years we have been heading down the wrong path of nutrition and how our food is grown and processed. I hope he has as much success here as he did in England with his mission to get families to eat better. If even a small percentage of people changed their habits it would send a huge message to the large food corporations who only care about how much money they can make, and feed our addictions with simple sugars, and processed foods


I eat what I want, but try to buy local as much as possible. Just doing that creates a chain reaction of positive events. I support local businesses, there is less fuel used, due to low transportation costs. I know where my food comes from. There is less risk of disease and cross contamination. I know the vendors personally, and I participate in what is becoming a growing trend, getting back to basics. I grow my own vegetables, harvest my own eggs. It is very rewarding to live this way, the way it is intended to be (at least in my view)


http://abc.go.com/shows/jamie-olivers-food-revolution

24 savvy

We contribute to this site every month, and it seemed fitting to post this on my blog

http://www.24savvy.com/articles/pennsylvania/03-24-2010/spring-has-sprung

First warm Spring weekend

It arrived with a vengeance, and was received gladly, I am speaking of course about Spring and the incredible weekend we just had. it was such a treat to be able to spend the day outside and start getting things organized for planting. of course the temptation to stick seeds into the ground to soon is ever looming, and it took some major restraint on my part to stop from running to the nearest store to pick up some packets!  Instead I started putting homemade compost on my vegetable beds, they will need to rest a little longer before I can start planting. It is a joy to see how all the waste over this past year has turned into a rich compost.

 I'm sure we will be rewarded greatly as long as all the other elements are balanced.
I just finished ordering my seeds from
http://gurneys.com/default.asp

I've had good luck with them in the past, even when living in high desert areas.

I will be planting peas in the next few days, according to our friend Gina, March 17th is the date for those, I am about a week late, but I figured we live North from her so that should work :)

Probably will be ordering a few more chicks this year to add to our flock, I've narrowed it down to the following varieties. Dominiques

Silver Spangled Hamburgs

or white orpingtons  

We also scored some old windows this weekend, that I going to use to build a greenhouse with.....that's going to be an interesting project. I'm hoping to make the whole thing out of recycled lumber etc. So, many searched on craigslist and driving around building sites looking for scraps!

a great site!

http://www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org/

Spring has Sprung

It's been a while since I posted anything, not because I'm lazy:) But winter seemed to take a toll on me. Combined with my firefighter classes it has not left a lot of time for writing. However, it seems that now the days are getting longer I am finding renewed energy to put fingers on the keypad.






Yes, I am glad winter has come to an end, even though it is a time of rest, I found myself becoming restless! I would visit websites selling seeds to see when they start shipping. Our chickens and ducks too were becoming tired of being cooped up (no pun intended). last week I detected the first signs, the snowdrops I planted last year were peeking through the ground, the daffodils we bought at the Supermarket when we first moved here and I stuck in the ground when they finished blooming also are up. I had forgotten about those, so that was a real nice surprise. The make shift pond for the ducks has defrosted, and they finally got to swim again and clean themselves. They seem so happy now! I did seed some lettuce indoors, and have been harvesting some young leaves, yummy!



This weekend, I plan on throwing some compost on our vegetable beds and layout 2 more boxes. Even though I can’t plant officially until May 15th, it's time to get things started. We are also thinking about getting some more chicks this year, perhaps some unusual varieties. But not more than 4!



It is such a beautiful morning today, the birds are singing, black cat is sitting on my desk, and the sunlight is beaming in.




I'll try to post some pictures today