fuzzi's "Gardens and Chickens...and Goats? Oh My!" Journal and More Thread

[drstratton]

Weeded a couple of my raised bed gardens after work.

Carrots:
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Guess where the weeds went?
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The weeds always grow so much faster than the garden plants! Good thing you have some handy weed disposers...lol

 

[fuzzi]

From today, my Black-breasted Old English Game bird pullets:

I've come to appreciate their subtle beauty, and love their pip-pip-pip chatter!

 

[fuzzi]

At first I was unmotivated today, but I pushed myself out the door about 8:30. First I went to the farmers' market, but I was unprepared for how cold the wind was, so I didn't walk any of the shelter dogs afterwards as I was planning. I finally located some mounting screws for my new front license plate, but I had to go to a hardware store to find any. The big box stores didn't have them, tsk.

It was down to 38° last night. After I got home from errands I added a trellis to the cabbage patch bed!

I'll cover it with plastic once we get a frost warning. I planted the cabbage late, and would like to get something besides greens for the chickens.

In the left bed is arugula and three collard plants. Fern-like plants by the little white fences in the back are the yarrow plants that @canesisters gave to me. They look healthy.

Next I cleaned off my front porch, and put fresh straw in my feral cat shelters, big styrofoam boxes I brought home from work years ago.

The two shelters in the back have an entrance cut out, the one in the foreground is just a bed. Some cats like a cave shelter, others just want a dry area to curl up in.

I'll probably bring in my house plants next week.

I added straw mulch around my Rose of Sharons, and my clematis vines, too.

I came inside just after 12, feeling meh. Took it easy for a couple hours, then I got restless. I baked a frozen frangiapane, then a spaghetti squash, then cleaned out my main refrigerator. Ugh, green cheese.


I thawed some chicken drumsticks I'd bought from a local farmer, pan braised them with wine, then added mushrooms and rice. I'd forgotten about the wine. It was from 2022 when my eldest sister and her husband came, right before our father went into hospice. It added a nice flavor to the chicken.

Note: this was the first time I've eaten local farm raised chicken. The legs were smaller, and not as soft/tender as store chicken, but not tough. There was also more taste to the meat. I'm not displeased, I'm looking forward to my leftovers.

While I was looking for cooking wine I discovered unopened but extremely expired mustard that must have been Ron's. I also found some Vienna sausages that must have been his, only slightly expired. The flocks appreciated them.

I keep telling people that I won't be bored once I retire...why don't they believe me?

 

[fuzzi]

Silas' flock today, checking out a gourd

And greens

Zack's "chicks"!

You can really see the Sussex "brick" shape here, with Claudia in the middle

Claudia, Jacob, Lois

Hey there, pretty boy!

 

[fuzzi]

Supposedly we'll be getting days of rain this week...GOOD, if it happens! So, after I got home from church I focused on getting the fallen leaves mowed and placed on my gardens.

Bed #1, the scattered carrots

There's some collards growing in the other half, but as it already had been mulched with yard/grass clippings I focused elsewhere.

Bed #2, Swiss chard. I didn't mulch the other half as the crops will be pulled soon, full grown turnips and peas.

Bed #3, carrots (near) and turnips (far)

I'm planning on covering it with plastic at some point.

Bed #4, (collards, Chinese cabbage, lettuce) - no change, already mulched with clippings.

Bed #5, cabbage on one side, arugula in the other

I already have started the frost covering installation. Eventually the cabbage side will get plastic. I'll add mulch on the next opportunity.

Perennials got mulched with some chopped leaves as well.

I also mowed an area of the yard where the weeds were thick, threw green clippings in both coops. Happy chickens!

 

[SageHill]

Lookin' good!

 

[fuzzi]

Lookin' good!

Thank you!

I have grown lettuce into January with leaf mulch, and adding plastic on top of a trellis. I'm hoping to get the cabbages and carrots closer to maturity that way.

 

[fuzzi]

It's raining...

 

[fuzzi]

This afternoon it was sprinkling when I headed out to the coops. One egg, in the Sussex coop. Today's sides were small plum tomatoes, a handful of BOSS, and a couple Vienna sausages, they LOVE those! I filled up food, rinsed waterer cups, and topped off oyster shell flakes. While they were scratching about looking for crumbs I harvested some arugula and Swiss chard leaves. I lay them on the ground inside the hoop coop, then place a brick on the stems to make the leaves easier to tear.

I had a small chard leaf that I held out to Julia, the boldest of the OEGB pullets. She approached, but hesitated. Naomi (Julia's first broody momma) came over and started snatching beakfuls of leaf, so then Julia came over and took a piece of leaf from my fingertips.

 

[Baymule]

I like your mini hoops over the beds. Plastic over that and instant frost protection. Brilliant. I used to have a winter garden in Livingston. We lived in town, 1 block off a busy highway and just a few blocks from downtown. I gardened in the front yard in the strip between the driveway and sidewalk. Then I made beds in the front flower beds too. All that concrete absorbed enough warmth to help keep cool weather plants from freezing. I had a PVC greenhouse frame that I covered in plastic, with a small electric space heater, that gave us ripe tomatoes in December. It even snowed one winter and the cabbage, broccoli and collards were ok. Once we moved to Lindale, farther north, a winter garden was impossible. Now I'm an hour north of Livingston and hope to have a fall garden again, maybe even another greenhouse.