Need more days like this

I love to garden. There is nothing like spending the day outside in the garden or even inside the greenhouse. I especially love the smell that greets me as I open the greenhouse door. There is no words that can describe that earthy plant smell.

Yesterday was a bit cooler so it was the perfect weather to do some clean up. I took the string weeder out and trimmed around all the beds, around the greenhouse, around the well and finally under the picnic table.  I even moved all the clear plastic from the area I want to place the shed. In the progress I uncovered a cute garter snake. He turned upside down to show his belly (playing dead) but I could tell he was watching ever move I was making. I used the string trimmer to remove the weeds being careful not to hurt the little ( not so little) guy. He finally decided I was a little too close and took off running in the opposite direction. I recovered the now trimmed area with black plastic to help prevent the weeds from growing back and to give the snake a  place to hang out. Having a garter snake that close to the greenhouse helps to keep mice from destroying  seeds and seedlings.

We have not had a good rain for awhile so next I watered the whole garden, the bucket garden and inside the greenhouse.   The winter potatoes are just starting to come up. They will be moved into the greenhouse before the first frost. The carrots didn’t germinate as well as I hoped but there are a few growing.

I trimmed all the  dead leaves from most of the beds  and finished pulling dead plants.  One bed was almost bare – it still has three cabbage plants and the rosemary plant.  I  decided to work around those plants and prepared the bed for winter. I added organic fertilizer on top of the soil and topped that with a thick layer of year old leaves, followed by a thick layer of compost and topped that off with a layer of straw.  Once the weather turns cold I will protect the rosemary plant by placing a plastic hoop tunnel over the bed. The bed will settle during the winter but come spring I should be able to push back the straw and plant the seeds or transplant the seedling into the bed.

I turned the compost bin and finished weeding three more garden beds before calling it a day. Of course, I still had to harvest things. I picked a bunch of tomatoes, two cantaloupes, two long cucumbers, some okra and three butternut squash.

After dinner I washed the tomatoes and cantaloupe. The tomatoes will go into a freezer bag in the  morning but the two cantaloupe were opened this evening.  I froze two quarts and the rest is in the fridge for some healthy snacking. I plan on making another batch of relish from the cucumbers and the butternut squash are curing in the wire basket on the kitchen counter. They need to be in a warm area with air circulation for 10 to 14 days to cure and than they can be placed in a dark dry pantry were they will last for 3 to 4 months. If I had more I would freeze them also.

Bill and I also put up the last two long trim boards on the enclosed porch. The next step will be to clean the area and decide about the flooring.

There were still animals to be  fed, dishes to put away and three loads of  laundry to finish before I finally called it a day.   Love days like today!

How I use chicken poo

 

Raccoons and the chicken run

We have had the usual June war with the raccoons again this year. It started with the cat food. One morning a raccoon came out of the woods to eat the food I set out for the cats while they were still eating. This confirmed my suspicions that the raccoons were back. I had noticed a few things moved around during the night and the bird feeders didn’t look as full.

The next night they “attacked” the area – bird feeders were either empty or destroyed, flower pots overturned and the plants pulled out and the cat’s bowls carried off.  It was time to play “WAR”.

I removed all the bird feeders, re-potted the plants, brought in the cat bowls after they were fed and set the traps.

The first night I trapped one raccoon but there were more. The water bowls in the chicken park and the shit bucket  had been turned over and you could see were they tried to dig under the sides of the coops.  The also overturned the flower pots again. And to make it worst one came up to the back door and climbed to the top of my tiered planted and took out the basil plant while I was at the door.

Reset the traps that evening and the next morning there were two raccoons trapped. They had again turned over the flower pots and gotten the lid off the sunflower container and eaten most of them. They tore the hardware wire off the top of the one enclosed run and damaged the wire around the sides of the coops and pulled the hinges off the door to the other run.  The one run was beyond repair so I had to find something to replace it. We went to five local stores looking for either a chicken run, dog kennel or hardware wire. We found one chicken run but it was out of my price range ($600)  and finally  we  found some hardware wire. It was the last roll they had and it was priced at $60. I was hoping to  repair the enclosed run but once I pulled it away from the coop I realized  that the bottom boards were rotted. So back to looking for a replacement. I sent hours looking at all types of runs and finally found one that I liked as we were at t he restaurant eating. I ordered it as soon as we got home but they said it would take up to two weeks to get here so I had to come up with a plan to protect the chickens.  I covered the top pf the run with the missing wire with heavy boards and some rocks to keep it in place and added more rocks around the areas were they tried to dig under.

Reset the traps and the next day there was one raccoon trapped but I could still see damage that I needed to clean up. The flower pots were again dug up and all the remaining cherries on the tree were gone. In the past we saw 5 raccoons  eating the cherries so I have no doubt who ate the cherries. They had also dug up a  freshly transplanted tomato and pepper plant, trampled and ate all the green peas and dug up a cabbage plant.

Reset the trap that evening and  trapped two more raccoons for a total of 6 in less than a week. There was very little damage so I took a change and filled up one bird feeder and the two hummingbird feeders. Too my surprise the chicken run I had ordered came early!

It was easy to put together but it still took me three days before I had time to assemble it and take it out to the chicken yard. Lucky for us there has been no signs of any more raccoons and the traps have not been tripped during that time.

I really wasn’t planning on working in the chicken yard yesterday. In fact I had decided to finish cleaning the last 5 windows so I could mark that off my list. I was drinking my extra hot coffee after feeding the inside animals and decided to go take care of the outdoor animals and allow the coffee to cool a little.  I never got back to that coffee or to the windows. It was close to 3 when I did come back inside.

This is what the area looked like before all the damage:

I had taken up the T post and rolled up the green fencing the night before but the mosquitoes started biting so I came inside. The fencing wasn’t working since they were just flying over the top.  I was just planning on moving the new run next to the coop but as usually I changed my plan. I was not happy with the location of this coop since it was  on a slope and every time it rained it was a slippery mess and I had to be extra careful not to fall.  That wasn’t the only problem whenever it rained the dropping board would be full of water since the coop was on a slope with the door facing the rain.

Well, the mosquitoes were not biting and there was a slight breeze so I took the runs away from the red coop. I had to trash the one enclosed run that I had actually brought. I proved to myself that I am my father’s daughter. LOL I didn’t just trash this I took it all apart and saved the hinges, screws and hardware wire. He would have been proud of me.  No nails or screws in the fire.

Bill and I moved the coop so that the egg door can be opened from the gravel path ( not finished yet) and the side door can be accessed from the new shed.  (Also not finished but the post are in place).  I moved the new run so that the two doors line up and the chickens can get into the coop to lay eggs. First problem – the doors do not line up completely so I can not open and close them without pulling the run away from the coop. I’ll have to remove the coop door and turn it so that it opens from inside the coop. That will be a project for another day since I run out of time before having to go to a meeting.

The longer run that I had build myself was repairable. I  stapled the hardware wire back into place, added new screws to the corners and replaced the screws in the hinges. I opened the side door of the new wire run and lined up the doors opening. It worked wonderfully and now the chickens have  almost twice as much area to play in.

I removed all the plastic from around the coop. This was used for winter protection. Once the plastic was removed I noticed a few things that needed to be repaired on the red coop.  One of the bottom boards was rotted and needed to be fixed, the ramp needs to be replaced and I still have that door to deal with.

I didn’t have a treated 2 x 4 on hand so I used some of that reclaimed hardware wire and stapled it on the outside of the coop all around the bottom openings. The wire was longer so I bent it at ground level and  laid pavers over the extended wire. This will deter the raccoons from digging under the coop.

I finished the day by painting all the red parts of the coop and runs.  I didn’t get a photo because I was running out of time and it was too dark when we got back home. Next on the list – reinforce that bottom board, replace the ramp, reposition the  front door and paint the white trim. Life on the homestead – you have to love it to live it.

Spring time gardening

The peach tree is in full bloom. So is the little plum tree and the others are starting to bud. I need to spray them but have not had a chance  yet with clearing, weeding and planting the garden.

This week I have finally cleared all 17 raised beds and started planting again. I still have not seen any pea sprouts from the sowing last week. Monday I planted Tokyo cross turnips and Scarlet nantes  carrots in the bed with the chives. I filled another bed with yellow Stuttgarter onions, Cherry Belle radishes, Bull’s blood beets, black seeded Simpson lettuce, mesclum mix lettuce, Bibb lettiuce, Dwarf blue curled kale and white Russian kale seeds. That took care of the cool crops that I had planned on planting this week.

The rest of the week was devoted to cleaning the beds and preparing  them for planting.  Once that was finished  I removed the plastic cover from the blueberries since they were budding up nicely and the strawberries were growing like weeds. The cover was to protect the blueberries from wind damage and super cold temperatures during winter. I do not expect any below freezing weather in the near future so the covers were removed and the netting was put in place. The netting is used to keep the birds from eating the berries before we do.  I have covered three of the five strawberry beds so far.

The next thing I wanted to finish this week was getting the greenhouse cleaned out and planted. That was not a simple chore since all the stuff that is suppose to go into the new shed was still in the greenhouse.  The weather just has not cooperated with us on getting the little shed built.  Last fall we replaced the greenhouse cover but I  never got around to cleaning up everything from last season –  dead plants needed to be removed, overwintered plants needed to be transplanted into the main garden and pots needed to be washed. Plus this little guy had to be given an eviction notice.

He wasn’t too upset about that  as he didn’t take off quickly when I released him. Such a sweet face! I bet I will be seeing him again this summer.

This is my first greenhouse and it has been a learning experience but I have finally learned what works best for me. The first year I tried to grow in pots on shelves made from milk crates.  That didn’t work out to well because as the soil got saturated from the rain the crates fell over and then the  shelves buckled  with the weight of the pots.

Then I scored some hollow core doors that were being tossed out due to damage. I placed these doors on cement blocks and placed the pots on top. This worked a little better but I still had to keep adjusting the blocks as they moved during the season. The ants and wasps soon found the damaged areas and sit up housekeeping.  The doors didn’t last long with the dampness from those plants so that was another fail.

At this point I had almost given up on pots and shelves and decided to just plant in the ground. That was a big success but I missed the shelves for starting seeds. I needed a shelf that was secure and not that wide so I designed my own. I gathered the material earlier this year but due to the weather I  had to paint everything inside the garage. The painting got put on hold when one of my chickens needed to be inside for a week due to a prolapsed vent. (She is doing well and back out in the chicken park.)

This week everything was ready to put together.  All the boards  were cut to size, painted and varnished for outdoor use. Bill and I assembled the shelves and cemented them in place. These will not shift when the ground get soaked! I used wire shelving on the top so no buckling due to dampness.

We placed the shelves on the short end of the greenhouse  so that I can still plant along the long sides.  I have all the seed trays cleaned and waiting to be planted. I was planning on doing that but ran out of energy.  Once we get the little shed up I will get the rest of the stuff cleared out and will lay pavers down the center for a safe dry path that will divide the two planting beds. I grow tomatoes, eggplants, basil,  cucumbers  and peppers in the longer beds during the summer.  They will be replaced this fall with kale, Swiss chard, leeks, spinach and lettuce for winter.

I have not given up on growing in pots however just not inside the greenhouse.  I have set up an area just for them.  I had some luck with  potatoes in buckets last year so will try that again using the  white buckets. I grew them inside the greenhouse last year  but they took over the area so this year they will be here with a plastic cover on cold nights. I will give that grew bag another try this year also. I plan on lining the milk crates with landscape fabric and planting  broccoli and cauliflower in them. The green pot will be planted with  zucchini squash later in the season. I have a plan for getting these up off the ground but that will have to wait until later because I am not going to town just to get lumber and screws!

It’s been a long day and now it’s time to sit on the front porch with Shoes and enjoy the freshly mowed grass before fixing dinner.

Morning Zen

Keeping Busy – gardening

Yesterday turned into a wonderful day to work outside.  I got the peas ( maestro and miragreen) and hybrid  Olympians spinach planted on St. Patrick’s Day but did’t get the rest of the cool crops planted because of the rain storms.   I have to admit I was more than ready to get my hands into the garden soil but I had a few things to do before I could go into the garden.

The main thing was to get Shimmer the chicken  out of the hospital (aka garage) and back into the chicken park. A week ago on Friday the 13th I found her with an prolapsed vent and had to “operate” on her to reinsert it.  She required  a quite stress- free dimly lit area with little food and lots of water so she spent 10 days inside. The first attempt of putting her back into the park on Saturday night did not go well so she stayed in the garage until the weather warmed up again. I took her back out before releasing the other chickens and tossed extra grain around the park so they would have something to distract them from her. It worked for awhile but  being chickens they had to fight it out to see who was boss. They did calm down and she remained in the park. Note: I did leave her  locked in a separate area  when they went up for the night since they were still picking on her a little.  Watching over her took most of the morning but I spent the afternoon working in the garden.

I weeded one of the strawberry beds and planted two  more beds. I  planted Tokyo cross turnips, scarlet nantes  carrots, yellow Stuttgarter  onions, cherry belle radishes, bull’s blood beets, black seeded Simpson lettuce, mesclun mix lettuce, Bibb lettuce, dwarf blue curled kale and white russian kale.  That takes care of the first round of cool weather plants. In another week I plan on planting another bed of peas, more radishes, beets and turnips.

Today (Tuesday ) is a no garden day  so hopefully I can start organizing the greenhouse.  Later this week I plan on planting the potatoes  and some carrots in buckets.

What a month!

I haven’t posted anything for the last month because  I was busy trying to keep things going while I had a miserable head cold.  I still have a cough in the evening but otherwise I am doing much better. I only missed two complete workouts at the gym but I did do very light workouts the week before and after  being sick.

Just a quick update of what I did get finished last month. I brought a wind spinner at the local Home Show and sprayed it with Rust oleum color shift paints.

I liked the way it shimmered in the sun but decided it was way too dark and plain.  My solution was to paint the butterflies. I got one side finished and was getting ready to do the back side when the back of the head headache hit hard. The project was put on hold for the next two weeks! I finally finished hand painting each butterfly with my original designs.

I waited until we had a nice warm windless day and sprayed the finished project with some clear iridescent color shift paint from Rust oleum.

I love the way it turned out!

The daffodils I planted on New Year’s Day and placed on the enclosed porch for forcing in February actually bloomed on schedule. It was a wonderful pick me up when I was feeling too sick to go outside. I am not kidding even my wonderful husband fed and took care of all my animals while I was sick. I don’t think he is a big fan of the chickens since they were not super friendly towards him.

I spent lots of time at the window taking pictures of our outside visitors.

Gardening in January 2020

Yesterday was a good day to work in the garden and since Bill was doing other things I headed to the garden. Of course it was too early to plant any seeds outside but it was a great for turning and spreading some  compost. The area around the greenhouse and bins was a bit of a mess so I cleaned all around the greenhouse, compost bins and the flower garden next to the greenhouse.  The area between the greenhouse and the compost bins had turned into a dump pile. I ended up with two bags of trash after cleaning everything up and raking the area level. The old tarps that covered the compost bins were looking worn but I hate to toss anything until it falls apart so I used them in this area. I covered the ground with  cardboard and placed the old tarps over the cardboard. This should help keep the weeds away from the greenhouse and I can now use this area for the “bucket” garden. I experimented with growing potatoes , carrots, and tomatoes in bucket last year inside the greenhouse. The potatoes and tomatoes turned out well but the carrots did not fair as well as I hoped. Also all those buckets took up a lot of greenhouse space so this year I plan on using the buckets but not inside the greenhouse.  I now have room to add more buckets if I want and I can easily cover the buckets with plastic to act as a mini greenhouse until the plants get large enough to discourage the cats from digging.

This is the first year that I have had a rosemary plant live this long in the season so I decided to place a rose cone over it  to protect it from the cold temperatures that usually arrive in February and March. I read were some people trim them down to within 3 inches from the ground and pile mulch on top  while others just place wind blocks  around without trimming. I did not trim mine and it poked up out of the top of the cone but I just did not feel right cutting that much off of a plant. It would be over 2/3 of the plant and I never trim more than 1/3 from any plant.

The next big job was to turn the compost and spreading what was ready. There was very little that needed to be turned in these bins as most was ready to spread.  I did have to re-stack a few of the blocks after I was finished.

I had enough fresh compost to cover half of one garden bed. I really need to get busy and make a lot more compost for the other beds.  I have another batch of compost heating up near the chicken park but it isn’t ready yet. The more I make the less I need to buy! I finally got around to covering the one blueberry/ strawberry bed. I meant to cover the other blueberry bed but need to buy more plastic since the other piece was  torn.

With the compost bins turned and one side  empty  it was time for a new tarp. I hope this tarp last as long if not longer than the last ones.

And start making more compost! I recently got a shredder but had not had time to use it. I read the directions and started it up.  It works!  However, the leaves need to be dry unless you went to stop every five minutes and clean out the chute! I filled a wheelbarrow full of leaves and have them on the side porch out of the weather, so hopefully they will dry soon and I can chop up a lot more leaves. The chopped leaves should help speed up the time from leaves to compost. I would have chopped more but it was starting to get dark and I had animals to take care of and feed.

Just because it was dark did not mean I was finished for the day. I had a bunch of herbs to plant and put on the heating mat. I planted some oregano, chives, thyme, lavender, spearmint and rosemary. I started these on the heating mat and under the grow lights.  These plants can take a little cooler weather so once they germinate I will remove them from the mat. I can also place them in the greenhouse sooner than most crops. That will allow more room on the heating mat for the next bunch of seeds. The lights will be on for 16 hours per day until the plants are about 3 weeks old, then I hope to pot them up and raise the lights higher.

I was almost done for the day! i just needed to get something to eat and  clean  the refrigerator.

Good times and hard times

Last week was very busy with lots of traveling  which meant I had a lot of time to read. I finished the book I was reading and started another one while Bill drove us to Indianapolis twice , Franklin twice and a bunch of trips to Seymour.  Last Monday we had a great time at the Indianapolis Home Show. and played “hooky” from the gym.

On Tuesday we traveled to Franklin to have lunch with some old friends Rick and Sheila, and our oldest son, Shawn.  Bill grew up with these two and I met them while we were dating so we had plenty of “old” stories to entertain Shawn. Some he had heard before but I am sure he heard some new stories.

We must have sit and talked at least 3 hours if not more!.

On Thursday we met these two fun and crazy friends, Nancy and Dan for lunch. It has been a long time since I have laughed that hard – no doubt about it I need this girl in my life to keep me from taking myself too seriously.

Wednesday and Friday we headed to the gym for our workouts. While home I worked on the jigsaw puzzle and start my “yarn” project for the winter.  When it get too bad, either too cold or too wet, to work outdoors I do at least one  jigsaw puzzle and a yarn project. We finished the puzzle this week which was interesting. It was 1000 pieces but unusually easy since it was so familiar. It was a puzzle of our home county. I actually learned a few things about the area and I have lived here my whole life! There were places on this map that I had never heard of before.

I usually make a new afghan each winter.  However,  I have so many that I can’t even have them all out at the same time so I decided to make a triangle shawl this year. I love capes and shawls so this will get lots of use this spring. It is a simple design which means no pattern to follow step by step. This is a great pattern for traveling. Simply chain four,  slip stick to make a loop.  Chain 3, turn. 3 Dc, chain 2, 3 Dc into the circle made by the starting chain. Then repeat the following  row until it is the size you want:  Ch3, 3 dc into first stitch, dc in each st until you reach the ch2 space, (dc, ch2, dc in ch2 space), dc in each stitch remaining except the last stitch. 3 dc in the last stitch. 

Saturday was the hard time as we had to say our final goodbye to our brother-in -law, Ronald Lynch. Ron was married to Bill’s sister, Gloria who passed a year ago. It was wonderful seeing everyone but I wished it had been under different circumstances.

I am hoping this week will allow me to spend more time outside working but so far I have not gotten much done. Every time I start working outside the cats start climbing up my pants legs and I end up playing with them. These two are the ones that think they need to be carried and played with whenever I go outside.

Fall Cleaning

I have been  busy  getting the chickens, cats and gardens ready for winter this month. I still have a few garden beds to clean up but they will have to wait until after Thanksgiving.  The Thanksgiving “count down” has begun.

I had originally planned on cleaning the upstairs yesterday since those rooms only need a quick dusting and the carpets swept. I was going to  save the downstairs for closer to Thanksgiving. That all changed on Wednesday night when Shoes’ stomach decided to get rid of it’s contents. Yeah, Gross. Poor pup had to go outside while I cleaned up the mess.  I didn’t do the best job of cleaning  because I kept checking on her (she was acting normal.)  Her old bed took most of the damage and it got  placed outside on the back porch for the night. This was her settle by the TV bed and not her sleeping at night bed. I figure I would remove the cover from the old bed in the morning and wash it outside in the utility sink.

Of course I checked on Shoes during the night and she was okay. I thought I had cleaned the “soiled” area well but come Thursday morning there was a dark spot on the carpet so time to do some cleaning.  Bill cleaned all the downstairs ceiling fans since he did not want me climbing up on a chair. We decided that Shoes’ old bed really had seen better days and she could use a new one.  He had some things to do in town so he said he would look for one.

I started by gathering all the washable rugs from downstairs and started washing them before deep cleaning both bird cages. I really need to start treating them the same as the chickens and wiping the cage floors down each morning!  It took almost two hours to clean the cages and all the accessories that goes with birds. I cleaned all Shoes dishes and toys and her crate. I  had just washed her bed cover month so I left it this time. I got out the Pledge and dusted the living room and the office.

Next I had to move that huge crate and anything else that was smaller out of the living room and into the foyer before I could vacuum. The area behind the sofa was a dusty mess! For the last six years I have been reaching over and behind the sofa because I actually believed the two delivery guys. When they brought it into the house they asked me two times if I was sure that was were I wanted it because it was super heavy and needed two guys to move it. Bill had already left for town but I really wanted to clean behind the sofa and under it so I decided to try to move it. LOL  Either all that gym training is working or they lied to me  because I moved that sucker with one hand. Talk about happy girl – I even cleaned the air return vent behind the sofa!

It was now time to really get to work – out came the carpet cleaner. You know that huge heavy workhorse that scrubs the carpet clean and sucks up the water afterwards.  I decided to do a really good job and went over each area five times with the wash and seven times to suck up the water. I wanted it to dry as quickly as possible since it was pouring outside and poor Shoes was in her crate in the foyer. It is just stupid to drag that machine out and not do all the downstairs carpets so onto the office to clean that carpet. While waiting for the carpets to dry I washed the front room windows inside and out and even used the upholstery  tool and cleaned the recliners and the sofa.  I had moved all three recliners and the Thanksgiving tree so I could clean under them so the rooms (foyer, living room and office) were rearranged completely when Bill got home. He asked if I was going to leave it like that.   I think he liked  the arrangement because after vacuuming the dried carpets  we tried placing Shoes’ crate in another position. It never worked so I moved the recliners back to their original places.

Shoes had to stay in her crate most of the evening because I wanted the floor to be dry so she would not lick it and I was still worried about her getting sick again and did not want to drag the shampooer out again.  I heated up some chicken pot pies and guess I was in a cleaning mood because I swept the rest of the downstairs floors , the stairway going upstairs and cleaned all the kitchen counter after cleaning up the dishes.

It was getting late so decide to leave Shoes out so she could inspect her new bed that Bill got her. It is a SertaPedic Orthopedic quilted couch dog bed. It was the largest one he could find and at first we didn’t think she liked it  because she grabbed her freshly washed blanket and curled up on it. Later we found her on the new bed snoring away.

Long day but very rewarding. Today I plan on cleaning the chandeliers, the rest of the downstairs floors and the downstairs bath and then go to the gym. I got to build up those muscles so I can move more furniture. LOL