WEEK 12: Canning Jar Roadtrip

Yay Kijiji.ca. !!!

 

Put out a request for canning jars and got two responses, one for 9 dozen near Thamesville, the other for 18 dozen in Chatham. After tossing about 1 dozen unsalvageable jars into the recycling bin, there’s about 9 dozen 1000ml jars, 16 dozen 500ml jars, a dozen wide mouth 500ml jars and a dozen odd/specialty jars, perfect sizes for canning foods for the two of us. 

 

We paid ~2.69 per dozen, which beats new by 50-75%.

Next we need to find an All American 30 quart pressure canner.

A few cans on our kitchen counter...lol

WEEK 11: Chicken Coop Nest Boxes

Finished the nest boxes this weekend, and attached them to the side of the coop. Was happy how they came together, though the hinges Aaron had don’t work as there was some clearance issues with the window frame.  He chose to build a common nest box, that is, one without dividers. Most of the literature basically came down to how chickens don’t care what they call a nest box, and that a single common nest box can prove more flexible and a better use of space than one pre-divided into single resident condominiums.

WEEK 10: Garden Plots

According to ‘the master plan’ we have a TONNE of work to do to make our back field of grass and weeds into something that is ready for seedlings. We had some awesome weather this weekend, and its been dry and we had some company in Marianne’s sister being down for a few days; so we went out into the field and marked out where we thought three of the new garden plots should be.

 

We are also planning for a substantial part of the back field to remain somewhat natural, with large sections being left to wild grasses or planned to be supplemented with native wildflowers, and a fair sized brush pile to provide shelter for birds and other critters that decide to make our yard home.

 

With the garden plots marked out, Aaron took the riding lawn mower and knocked the grass down along the paths and in the garden plots. The deck on the riding lawn mower doesn’t go very low, so after the bulk of the cutting was done, he took the push mower with the desk set low enough to be pushing dirt with the front edge, and cut the grass down as short as it could go.

 

 

The original garden from last year in the foreground, and the new fields and the path leading to them in the back.  What a fun way to spend a nice spring like day!  Thanks Charlene for your help :)

 

Next, once the weather gets a bit more fair and some new growths shows in the field, he'll be using our backpack sprayer to kill off all the established weeds in the garden plots with some Round-up.  Rather not use commercial spray if possible, but the back field has a decade or more worth of weed and weed seed, and this is about the most effective way to give our plants a head start in the new plots.

WEEK 9: Rain Barrels

Where Aaron works he goes through a large amount of food grade chemicals, sanitizers and disinfectants that come in large 55 Gallon (200L) drums of various colours. Some of these are considered ‘non-returnable’ and some can be returned for a refund of a deposit. The non-returnable barrels, the chemical company will take back and recycle for free; he figures reusing them as rain barrels will be a better use for them, so we loaded up the truck with 8 of them and brought them home with that in mind.

 

Earlier, November 2012, he installed an eaves trough on both sides of the garden shed, which collect rain from about 256 sq ft. (36864 sq inches) of roof space. That should be enough to collect 385 Gallons (7 full barrels) of water off of just 2 inches of rain.

 

 

Behind the garden shed he is going to build a raised platform out of pressure treated 4 x 4’s with lots of bracing to support the 3200 pounds of water when they are full. The barrels will sit just below the eaves trough. Laying on their sides and hold the water suspended ~5 feet off the ground which should supply adequate water pressure AT ground level to water the gardens. The 7– 55 gallon barrels will be hooked together using the existing fill ports on the top with PVC piping to create a single 385 gallon reservoir.

 

On the upper right there will be an air vent/over flow that drains excess water away from the chicken coop/run area. The bottom right will have a standard garden hose connection/valve.

 After this is up and working, he plans on running a buried PVC pipe out to the middle of the garden plots mounted to a post so we have easy centralized access to water.