50 Shades Of Grey ... Farm Style.

A Lovely View

I know it sounds a little ominous, but don't panic. Steve has not been naughty. You'll laugh when you see the photos. Steve got the first chicken and turkey tractors finished today while I was planting and getting the running around all done. After he was done I guess he looked at it and thought 'Hmm, that'd make a good work bench' so he built a second one above the first for use by the chickens. I couldn't resist taking photos. Maybe I just get a kick of seeing my husband behind bars. 

It's been a very productive day! Even Jordan got in a full days work despite being in a play at school and taking half the afternoon off for the final show. It was awesome.

We got some herbs in, half a dozen roses and a rhododendron are planted, 800 feet of potatoes, a hundred pumpkins plus we transplanted out the 4 giant pumpkins from the greenhouse. Mateo our wwoofer and the sister missionaries all he lped with the first rows of market crops in the green garden, the girls helped me plant chives and Meghan cut the grass. So it's slowly beginning to look like a house with a yard and garden instead of a trailer park after a tornado. I even cheated and ordered pizza for supper because I still don't have an oven and the time saved gives me more time to get the turkeys moved to their new home before it gets dark.

Caged Husband

Ok, my drink break is over. Time to get back to work. I think I've absorbed as much water as I'm going to for now.

(10pm Update)

W ell it's too dark to work so I'm inside now avoiding the bugs. All the animals are tucked away except the ducks who are out hunting for their new crunchy June bug treats. The wind has picked up so I popped out to give all my plants one last watering while the bugs were relatively light. I sprayed myself first and still got a few bites despite the wind. 

The turkeys are settled into their tractor (that's the name for a movable poultry pen) and are all roosting up on their perch. They look so cute! The chicks have moved from the dining room to the greenhouse where the turkeys used to live. We moved the feeders that they're used to out there and I'm trying to teach them how to drink out of the watering nipples. If they get that figured out it'll be lovely because I can set up a gravity fed watering system for them when they're ready to move outside in a few weeks. It's hard to believe that just a few weeks back we were worried about the turkeys getting too cold on those frosty nights where it dropped below freezing. Now the problem is the heat. The greenhouse topped out today at over 51 degrees Celsius, that's 124 Fahrenheit. Yikes! And that was with the main door top open. I quickly opened the back door and vented the whole place. The tomatoes are all ok and we'd moved the roses out to the garden at that point so the real worry was the turkeys. They were totally fine and had plenty of water while they lay in the shade. It took them a few minutes to adjust to going from their greenhouse box to the great outdoors and their new grassy run, but they have settled in and are having a very good time now. I was thinking I'd put a solar light in there to attract bugs for them to play with in the evenings. Turkeys love bugs.

It's an inside job

If the weather is wet tomorrow I'm going to build a display rack and pot up more tomatoes. I'm taking them over to the Co-Op Country Store in Middleton for sale so feel free to buy some :)  The basil should also be okay to get into the garden and some into pots. The oregano in the greenhouse isn't doing very well though so I'm going to make a nursery bed in the garden next week and plant it in a nice sandy spot. The weather is supposed to be gusty and wet tomorrow so I'm glad it'll water in my new veggies and give me a break from digging. Maybe I'll even sneak my radio and bench out to the greenhouse and commune with nature for a couple of hours after church. That's the thing about the weather, it dictates so much of what we do here at the farm and so we just have to always plan for a backup activity if the weather turns inclement.

Well, I'm off to shower and scrub off the layers of sunscreen and repellent. I have a lovely tan but I'm pretty sure it'll wash off too. Then I plan to collapse into bed and stay there. Have a lovely day guys. I probably won't have time to post tomorrow but if I can, I'll get some photos of the gardens as our 'before' shots.

What comes after 2 days of Rain? ---- Monday

We had another cool and wet week but the brunt of the rain is over for now and the sun is shining. It's cooled right down again with evening temps dipping below freezing. Still, the sun is out today and since the kids have a day off school we're going to make another attempt at getting a 40x60 ft sheet of plastic over the greenhouse roof without the wind carrying it away like a kite with children attached. The wind is supposed to be light after lunch so we'll see. With the moisture in the ground now and the sun shining we'll hopefully see the lawn growing soon. We did put on some 17-17-17 fertilizer to give it a boost since it's looking thin and weak. You can't really be spreading liquid manure in a neighborhood where the neighbours are mere feet away from your yard. So to keep the peace we used slow release pellets instead. We didn't fertilize the garden area though, I'm going to dig in compost, leaf mold
and composted manure when I till it this weekend. I did overseed some bare patches in the lawn too but resisted the urge to plant oats as a nurse crop for the grass, it works great in pastures though because the faster growing oats provide shade and water deflection for the smaller grass seeds to get established.

Yesterday Steve and Chris built me some hen houses with a removable panel on the side for easy cleaning and egg retrieval. We moved the buff orpington chicks out with the 4 hens but the hens chased them pecked them mercilessly and generally beat the tar out of the new arrivals. I've seen hen fights before but this was bad so they are now separated and doing well. We might try to reintroduce them once the chicks are physically bigger.

The houses measure 4 feet on a side (4x4) and it takes 2 sheets of OSB or plywood to make one house. Additional materials needed are some 2x2 or scrap lumber for edging so you have something solid to screw into and also some hardware cloth for vent screening, screws and some angle brackets to act as a rest for the side panel, to stop it from sliding off. To remove the panel you just slide it up a few inches and it comes right off. The houses do have a few exposed edges so for year round use they need to have a waterproof covering and currently ours are simply tarped. Venting is very important because chickens do have a tendency to get damp in their houses so ventilation provides a drier and healthier environment. Each house has top and bottom vents as shown in the pictures and are covered in hardware cloth to stop rats and mink from getting in. A roost runs along the house and we cover the floors of ours with shavings from the feed store or the high school wood shop. Cost for each house was about $24 and end triangles were cut from a 4x4 piece of wood with the front panel being a whole piece and the back panel being the leftover pieces joined together. If you need better instructions, let me know. This shape makes it easy to attach a run and is good for a chicken tractor, especially if you add feet or wheels t raise the house off the ground. Ours will be outside in the summer and then in the barn for the wet season so they're fine for now. They're not beautiful but they're cheap and functional.

Patiently Waiting

Hi there! Just in case you wonder what's up with us...the answer is nothing. Well that's not entirely true. We're still finding ourselves super busy which is typical of Spring in the country. For us it's a little different though because we're living in town right now, buying land in the country, and gardening and raising chickens wherever we can. Yes, we're farmers without a farm. But hopefully all of that is about to change!

I'm trying to not get overly excited for a few reasons. Firstly, both Steve and I have been disappointed before and don't want to get our hopes up only to later have them dashed. Secondly, we know that once the buying process is done, the real work begins. Right now it's just paperwork, sketches and plans on paper, research and inspections. As soon as that's all done the actual physical labour begins with fencing and building some small but sturdy barns. And a home for us of course, but that's going to take more time and money so we have to stick to our plan and do things in their proper order, not rush things.

That's one of the greatest things about this 'build your own farm' we're doing. We get to put exactly what we want where we want. Want a tack room in the barn? I can do that! Need a small space to brood chicks? I can do that too. Hate having a formal dining room but want a pantry and a cold storage? Done! We'll get to build a practical house for us that's also energy efficient and will hopefully save us a lot of money in utility bills over the course of our lives and will be a blessing to our children when they inherit it. Steve's got 10 more years before retirement is an option so by then we should have everything running smoothly, most of the kids out of the house, and be self-sufficient. Maybe that seems like a long time to some of you, but trust me, even the best laid plans have a way of evolving over time and taking longer than you think. We're basically working on the next 6 months, the next 18 months, and the next 3 years when planning. Since most outdoor work will happen in the Summer and Fall it makes sense to plan building activities then. Of course that doesn't mean the winters are idle. That's a good time for fixing fences, storing firewood and building materials for the upcoming season and getting permits arranged.

So we're patiently waiting for the lawyers to do their thing and draw up papers for us to sign. Shouldn't be long now.

Speaking of not long...Nicole's new book is available for pre-order on Amazon and Indigo so I'm eagerly awaiting The Ultimate Guide to Permaculture. Oh crumbs Helga...I still owe you a book!

This weekend is also the time to break out the tiller and get the gardens dug over ready for planting. The temperature averages are creeping up now so we're getting closer to being able to start some cool season crops like peas, leeks and leafy greens. Our 4 new layers will be here next Friday so we need a coop built for them too, a nice little portable one we can wheel around and eventually move out to the other farm. We're going to use the chickens as weeders and bug removers as we prepare the beds for planting and before we let them roam free during the day. We already know there's at least one local fox so we need to have a good predator proof set up before we even think about leaving the chickens out there overnight. Steve's working on an idea to have a coop door that closes automatically and opens automatically...I'll keep you posted.

In the meantime, thanks very much for your kind thoughts and prayers on our behalf. We feel very blessed to have you as friends, to have each other, and to have this opportunity to finally build a place of our very own. I can't wait to invite you over for a house warming party!

Spring is here and it's 25 degrees!

So here's our new logo for the farm and I'll get a sign made up for use at the farmers market too. What do you think? I just wanted something simple and that would be easy to read.

Today was a busy one. We got the chicks their new waterer and feeder and I also got the plastic film for the greenhouse. It's 6 mil Poly, used in house construction as vapour barrier. Since it's not the UV protected plastic I should think we'll get only 2-3 years out of it but that's ok with me. It'll do for starters. Tomorrow some of the kids have early dismissal so we're going over to measure the frame and then we'll ct and piece the plastic into one big sheet before pulling it over and attaching it. After that I will have to construct an end frame for vents and a door and then on the weekend Steve is going to give the tiller a service and start digging over the garden area. I will take some pics tomorrow for you so you can see what we're working with. I'm getting my planting schedule sorted out because if I'm going to be in the market each week I need to make sure I plan to have a weekly harvest. The main things I'd like to have started to begin with are turnips, beets, greens, lettuce, tomato plants and radishes. I can have those ready in short order. I'm also going to get some peas and other cool weather veggies in the ground under row covers as soon as I can. The weather is so unpredictable in Spring and just because we're getting temps in the mid to high 20's this week doesn't mean it won't freeze and snow next week. Since I need higher temps for some of my seeds to germinate I'm starting my lettuce and tomato plants indoors and I'll later transplant them outside to the greenhouse.

I'm going to build a movable ark for my chickens so that they can clear the ground of bugs and grubs. Of course they'll also fertilize the ground too. I'm sure you've seen movable coops around and they are very useful. But I'll give you one tip: Don't use COB as a feed because those seeds can sprout in the ground and suddenly you're growing corn, oats and barley. Unless your COB is rolled of course, then it's not a problem. That goes for chicken scratch or any other feed that has a whole grain. The advantages of using this chicken tractor is that while you're digging up nasties from the ground, the chicken parasites stay there too when you move the birds onto a new patch of grass. The chickens love it because it's fresh food every few days or week, and it helps to naturally control pest levels, because of course when those eggs and parasites hatch, the chickens are long gone so it stops re-infestation. My chicken tractor or ark will be a small house attached to a 4x8 foot run. I'll plan my growing areas accordingly and have the door higher up so that if the coop is sitting beside the run and a raised bed, the chicks can still get out and into their little run.

I was working out how many tomato plants I'd have to sell to buy my own piece of land...it's a lot and I'm gonna run out of pots! If you're looking to buy some already started heritage tomato plants then just leave me a message or see me at the Greenwood Mall Farmers Market starting in April or May. I'll keep you posted.

Had a great time at book club tonight and a nice drive around some of the countryside outside Mt. Uniacke today because the highway was closed due to an accident. I forget sometimes just how pretty the side roads can be. Isn't life like that? We're so busy looking straight ahead as we zoom along the highway that we forget all the beautiful things just off the beaten track.

Anyways I'm off to bed now...long day of gardening tomorrow and working on getting my first sunburn.