WEEK #15: Getting ready for spring chickens

We ordered our chicks from the TSC store this week, so Aaron quickly whipped up a brooding box with left over plywood from the chicken coop, plus a few 2 by 4s ripped in half along their length.  We picked up a heatbulb sheild plus sheet metel from Marianne's Dad (not seen in the photo below), and we bought a chick waterer and feeder at TSC store.  We get the chicks on April 16th.  We are so excited!  Our original plan was to have the chickens lay eggs and then kill them for meat in the fall, however we now learned that Rhode Island Reds don't start laying eggs for another 4 months.  Looks like we will now be keeping them over the winter.

Aaron also placed roosts in the chicken coop.  The last thing to build for the coop now is a ramp to the door.

Meanwhile in propegation, the cabbage is growing beautifully and our long awaited peppers have finally made an appearnace as well.

 

WEEK 14: Spring Cleaning

We finally got our first wave of warm weather this week (10-15 celcius), so we decided to start some spring cleaning in the yard.  We spent all Saturday afternoon outside which started with chainsawing a fallen aspen and chopping it into firewood, then we hacked, slashed and pulled grapevines out of our cedar line which, in some areas, were so bad that six cedar trees actually succumbed from being smothered.  We will have to plant some new cedar trees eventually in some areas.

Aaron also raked the garden bed on the south side of the house and spread radish seeds.  He also rototilled the original garden from last year and planted two rows of beet seeds as we expect rain all week, and beet seeds need a fair soaking to germinate. Marianne's dad is going to stop by some day in April and work up the ground in the other gardens-to-be in the back field.

Saturday night into Sunday morning the wind picked up out of the southwest and a wave of spring migrants came in including at least 50 Golden-crowned Kinglets that were not in the yard Saturday afternoon while cleaning up.  Mourning Doves, American Robins and Grackles are also starting to build nests in the cedars, and spruces.

Our seeds are already coming up in the basement.  Tomatoes are of course leading the way. Seeing how they are related to weeds like nightshade, we are not surprised how fast they came up. In the wildflower department, the New England Asters are the only one that has germinated.

ROMA TOMATOES

We did discover one other thing that we did not want to see in our seed pots.....mould!  To remedy this we mixed up a spray bottle with 2 tablespoons of 3% hydrogen peroxide to 2 cups of water sprayed the seed pots, and turned on a fan to circulate the air to help prevent the mould from reappearing. By the next day, the mould was gone. On Sunday we planted cabbage and onion in our seed pots, and this time we watered them with the same water/hydrogen peroxide solution, and will continue to do so for the next few weeks to prevent any damping off.

MOULD!!!

We also ordered our chicks from the TSC store. We ordered 15 chicks altogether. 15 seemed like a good number as we are guaranteed only 80% females (the males will be harvested when they reach adult weight) and we will most likely loose a few chicks along the way as well, aiming for an even dozen chickens in the end. They are due for delivery on the 16th of April.  However, they will be two tiny for the chicken coop, so we gotta build a little brooding pen for them with a heat bulb.....Onto Week 15

:D

Week 13: Propagation

Finally got to planting some of our seeds in our newspaper rolls. We planted 36 roma tomatoes, 24 beefstake tomatoes, 12 cherry tomatoes, 12 orange bell peppers, 12 red bell peppers and 12 Jalepeno peppers.

We also started our wildflowers for a butterfly garden in little paper cups as well.

The top 2 shelves have seeds planted.  The bottom 2 shelves still have empty rolls to use.  Notice the space heater in front of the growing shelf as well.  For soil we did 2/3 potting soil on the bottom, followed by 1/3 steril medium

Wildflowers being started in paper cups with popsicle stick labels

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.