New Chicks!

Our chicks finally hatched!  It took 21 days, but the chicks are out and running around.  Only two out of six eggs  hatched, so I got four more chicks from the farm and put them under her.  She has taken to all of them, except the smallest.  That one is named Cookie, and is younger than the rest.  Cookie runs around behind all the other chicks trying to keep up.  The mama will tolerate Cookie to sit under her to keep warm, so we don't need the heat lamp.  They are out foraging in the yard and digging for grubs. The mama digs up dirt and shows them how to get food.  They are really cute and we are having a great time watching them and playing with them.

Goats!

My sister Tanara is living the dream life in an old farmhouse on a 7 acre apple orchard in Winthrop, WA.  She recently got some baby goats, and calls frequently to give updates on the babies.  I haven't met them yet, but the goats seem to have great personalities.  She says that they are like dogs in that they follow you around and want to be near their people.

Since I can't have goats here in the city where I live, I have to live vicariously through her pictures and updates.

 This is her son, Hawke bottle feeding his goat.

Tanara's husband Zach bottle feeding his goat.

More bottle feeding:

Ear nibbles!

A boy and his goat

It all looks like a lot of fun to me.  Also, it looks like a lot of work.  I think that I need to make plans to go visit them this summer while the goats are still babies.  

Squash and Zucchini

I got to planting 3 Zucchini's and a Carnival Squash (from the Proctor Farmer's Market) yesterday amidst intermittent sprinkles.  We will be full of squash this year!  I ended up planting them in the ground, rather than in pots as I had originally planned. They are right outside the chicken yard and the chickens were eying them greedily.  I sectioned off the squash plants and I might let the chickens in there to eat the weeds, if I can keep them from eating the crops.   That requires standing there and watching them so we will have to see if time permits.

I would like to grow pumpkins but I am not sure about this, because they take up so much room.  They are fun to grow, but I need to find a place for them to run.  I have always wanted to grow one of the giant varieties that you see at the fair, but I really don't have room for that!

Memorial Day Weekend Plantings...Just Need Soil

Over the weekend we went to the Farmer's Market.  It was a beautiful sunny day and I was inspired by the plant prices as compared to Home Depot or Lowe's, so I bought a bunch of veggie starts.  When we got home, I planted the two varieties of broccoli and cabbage in the bed in the henyard, but ran out of soil for the rest.  I need to get the tomatoes (heirloom of course) into their containers, but I have no soil to put in the pots!  Greg is taking his truck to work this week, so unless I want to pay a premium for individual bags of soil, I have to wait until the weekend when we can take the truck to get a load of Tagro.  Boo hoo.  Hopefully, I remember to keep the little 4" pots watered all week so they make it.

Photos of the Ol' Homestead

This is what we call the "circle".   In the background you can see the hen yard and the coop is over to the left.  If the far background, in red shorts, is my husband toiling away at waxing his boat (no, that is not a euphemism).

The hens and their coop.  Notice that they are running toward me around the vegetable bed.  They think that I have food.  Nope.  Just a camera.

This is our broody hen named Oreo. We call her Mamacita now that she is broody.  When they go broody, they just want to sit on eggs and wait for them to hatch.  We have no rooster, but we got some fertilized Delaware chicken eggs and put them under her.  We are anxiously awaiting our hatchlings.  We will surely be posting about our new babies when they come!

The patio.  Yes, I lugged those columns here myself!  Sculpture on the table by Trisha Johannessen.

I will post more photos when I get some.   Meanwhile, I have to get back to work.  I can hear the weeds growing out there.

A Beehive, at Last

I finally got my hands on an affordable beehive from Craigslist.  My friend lives in Woodinville, where it was located, and she picked it up from the seller for me.  For $10 I think that I got a good deal.  The only work needed is to paint it on the outside and wire some plastic honeycomb foundation into the frames (this will be were the babies will be made to populate the hive) and get some bees.  It already into the bee season though, so I might have to wait until March to get bees, when the season starts again.   You have to give the bees sufficient time to build up their stores in their new hive to tide them over through the winter.  Otherwise you have to feed them sugar water, and they can go through 10 gallons of this a week! Yikes!

I am excited to start as a novice beekeeper.  I took a Master Beekeeping class at the Pierce County Extension about 2 years ago.   I need to take it again, though, to refresh my memory.  There is also a hands-on component to this class that I missed last time that would be helpful to take.  Also, I am keeping my eyes and ears open for a fellow beekeeper who needs help so that I can learn by helping.  For further information, I have been checking out the numerous books and websites on the subject , and viewing an amazing library of informational beekeeping videos on YouTube.

Hopefully in the next couple years we can have some honey.  Mmmm.  I can't wait!

Broccoli in November!

So what is today, November 12?  I went out in the garden to admire the vegetables that I was able to keep the chickens out of (before they massacred them) and lo and behold, there were 2 giant heads of broccoli! I planted them late (end of August) from starts. I was hoping that they would be hardy enough for a November or December harvest.  Here we are tonight eating broccoli from the garden in November, with salad greens also harvested today.  Hooray for a mild fall!