Our roosters will be gone after today. Our ladies, with their two gents (Brett & Jemaine), will finally exit the cloister of their coop, and take over the hillside.
The meat chicken experiment will be over, a lesson learned, and then some.
The winner of the giveaway is Roberta, who said,
"We were born broke-ass. A little over 2 yrs ago my husband and I knocked on our new neighbors door asking of they intended on using the chicken coop that came with their house. They said we could have it! We disassembled it in 105 degree weather while I was having serious side affects from antibiotics and carried it board by board to our house. We have since been able to build a very nice compost pile from chicken manure for the vegetable garden."
Roberta has a super-cool blog, Mulish & Co., and I love this! Thanks for playing, everyone, and Roberta, email your information so I can get this book off to you right away!
Now that our roosters are nearly gone, my focus is redirected to the garden. What can I say about it right now? It doesn't look too pretty, and it's still small, but it's coming along.
We have four 4x8 beds built and filled, and two more turned, fertilized with rabbit shit...
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| Two weeks' worth of manure, which can be applied directly to the garden. |
...and covered with tarps for weed suppression.
Turning the soil has become a monumental endeavor. The grass and wild plants are growing so thickly, the garden fork gets stuck with every second turn. Jeremy's idea, after witnessing yet another fork-throwing temper tantrum by yours truly, was to suppress the weeds for a week or two before turning the soil, which sounds ever so much better than what I was doing.
We are harvesting things, finally. Just a few radishes, which popped out of the soil after a heavy rain, and lots of lettuce, which is growing happily. Luckily our children love vegetables, and seem to have a real appreciation for the growing process. Planting, weeding, harvesting, and eating are still enough of a novelty that they rarely complain.
I'm concerned about the broccoli, which is being chewed down to nothing. I've never had to deal with garden pests before. This will be a new and, I'm sure, quite interesting challenge.
I've also spotted gopher holes -- just in the chicken yard, so far.
This season should be a wild ride.
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| Who's been eating my broccoli? What, the other seventeen billion plants in the immediate vicinity can't satisfy the insect population? Psh!!! |
The ladies are laying 18 eggs a day. We have no fewer than 12 dozen egg cartons, fully filled, in our kitchen at any time. Jeremy is asking for pickled eggs, the kids eat half a dozen hard-boiled eggs a day, and our carton situation is dire. I just made a deal with a friend: I give her 2 dozen eggs a week, she takes my bones and makes 24-hour bone broth, the good stuff, which I can't manage with minimal propane and solar power. The friend who housed our chicks gets another 2 dozen a week, and still, not even a dent in the egg storage.
I'm going to have to get creative, or else find buyers.
Spring Break is almost over, but summer is coming, oh yes. Even through the rain I can taste it.
4 comments:
Chandelle, thank you. No wait, THANK YOU! I am looking forward to the gardening book. It will come at just the right time for us. We have sowed our garden and are seeing a few seedlings emerge here and there. But the bugs, the bugs! So much competition for vegetables. Everyone wants a crispy treat from the garden - me, the chickens, the caterpillars, the birds. Hopefully, we will all get to enjoy a bit before the Texas sun takes it all!
last year, something (well okay, a groundhog) got to our broccoli and brussel sprouts and left them worse than yours look now - they were just little nubbins in the dirt. we were really annoyed that the gopher had used the garden as his own personal salad bar, but still, dont underestimate the strength of brassicas! they came right back again, but the broccoli, having lost its main shoots, didn't grow a single broccoli head but just many, many tiny ones. still, the yield by the end was about the same. the brussels were just fine. both took a super long to recover so their growing seasons were set back, but they still made it.
Hey Chandelle---I'd take your eggs off your hands, but they wouldn't travel well, ha ha. I can't seem to find a good source for decent eggs around here.
I hate gophers---I do hope you all don't have issues with them in your garden. I have to line my gardens with hardware cloth to keep them away, pesky buggers.
That made ma laugh, all that rabbit poop! Seriously, I totally believe that is two weeks' worth. We have three rabbits and get half an 18 gallon tub per week. I'm thankful for it though! No more buying bags of manure for us, and my compost heap is getting huge.
Have a great day, girl!
Sorry this comment is so late, but why not dry and powder the eggs? It's a lot of processing, but then you'd have a shelf-stable stash of them for leaner times. I'm sure in most baked goods (or pancakes, etc.) they'll work as well as fresh.
I make cultured mayo (Nourishing Traditions) when I'm loaded with eggs, but I'm nearly certain that only keeps in a fridge. But hardboiled eggs go much faster in an egg salad sandwich!
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