Little Avery Pig Tails

Painting a sandwich

Nahni is at the table painting the tabletop as well as the day old sandwich on top of it.

2 chickies

And a 3rd one hatching

Anticipation!

Too bad all science classes aren't this cool.  They are watching the first chick learn to walk and a second pip out of the shell.

Proud papa

My new chicken!  I'm almost as good as a hen's but

Chicken/bunny coop

I spent all day yesterday working on my chicken coop and bunny box. Both will have close-able doors to outdoor pens.

We already have some bunny hutches donated to us last year. We'll use those for any critter want to isolate. In the winter we'll stack up bales in the bunny run so they can nest in them. Then we'll use the bunny box in the shed for food and water.

The chicken coop is small - made for max of 6 hens. Avery helped me paint it white so it's be easy to light in the winter to keep the chickens in a good mood. Then we covered the painted wall with twin-wall polycarb to make it easy to wash later.

A window on the back with an awning type shutter on it will become the door for the chickens.

The bunny box acts as a step to help little people get up to see in, or climb in.

Pretty Pictures

For a phone, it is also a useful camera.

Space adventurers

Avery About to Paint

Avery was very helpful painting hte chicken coop so the chickens would
be happy and bright in the winter. She did pretty well with very little
paint on herself or elsewhere.

New raised bed garden

Today I tried out two ideas that I've been excited about: Tensile ring ring raised bed garden and a Keyhole Garden.

The Tensile Ring part is that it is help up by a mesh or fence in a round shape. Almost nothing else is needed. This round raised bed should be small enough to reach the center from the edge.

Keyhole gardens are neat raised bed gardens with the following features:

• Layers of mulch and fertilizer under the soil to act as sponges for moisture and provide nutrients as they compost
• A compost basket right in the center - because of the spongy layers of mulch you can water the whole bed right from the center and the moisture easily wicks out. Then, as the compost breaks down the nutrients leach into the bed with the water.

Here is my tensile ring. I started with 6 stakes. I sat in the center of where I wanted it and placed the first two stakes at my arm's reach on both sides. Then rotated and did the next two, etc. Then I took 21 feet of 2 foot wide chicken wire, folded it in half to make it only one foot wide.
Then I just ran it around the stakes and bent the wires together where they overlapped.
Improvement: Use a square mesh fencing that won't stretch as easy.




To keep the dirt in, I stacked up flakes from rotten hay bales around the perimeter. I might also use straw, or landscaping fabric. Making a product out of 12" pieces of cedar screwed to 2 strips of galvanized steel may worth a try, too. Or silt fence material and stakes. But rotten hay is what I have lying around my yard at the moment, so that's what I experimented with.



Then I put the mulch/moisture sponge layer down. More rotten hay - about4 bales, then some highly rotten logs and the black soil from under them, and some leaves from our leaf pile and some leaves from the driveway. Over time these will break down and settle, but then we'll just have to add some more on top, I guess. I would have loved to get some manure for this job, too, but it wouldn't fit in the budget this time.



Then i started adding the black dirt (we happen to have a few yards of that in a pile from a the last raised beds we did). After adding a bit, I decided to fill in with another bale, too.



After many wheelbarrow loads, it started to look heaped like this. Note to self: next time place these beds where I can get at them with a bobcat. You can see the previous generation of raised bed gardens in this picture, too. I can say that the round one was much less expensive than the cedar ones.



In the following picture you can see where the compost will be dumped in the center. I don't know if it will be quite large enough, but there wil probably be a couple more of these along with some chickens and bunnies to split the compost amongst.



I needed something to make a basket for the compost so it didn't just sit in a dirt recess. The whole weaving a basket from grape vines didn't work out in time, so I went with an old standby - firewood. Below is the firewood lined compost pit.



And now, the same thing complete with compost.



A thing of beauty to behold, it quickly attracts admirers. Rowdy hooligans.


This is to show the prifile of the side. The chicken wire is too easy to stretch, so we're getting some bulging except for where the straight wire runs through it. I will probably end up ringing the whole thing with square mesh soon, and maybe landscaping fabric, too, to give it a nicer look. If I was wealthy with rocks, I would build a dry stacked rock wall around it. At only 12" high, that could be quick and easy.


Components:

• 21 ft of 24" wide chicken wire - approx $5 worth
• 6 stakes - scraps from garage
• 5 rotten hay bales - siting around the yard
• leaf compost, rotten logs - perimeter of yard
• 1 to 2 yards black dirt, sitting in a pile from a few years ago
• 8 pieces of firewood - sitting around
  

Total cost: Approx $5 in materials
Total time: 3 hours

Seems easy and enjoyable. I'll keep you posted on how it is to use.

A visit from a teacher

The kids had their first close-up encounter with a garter snake, today.
I caught it first. It was really mellow about being held for the most
part. We put it in a 5 gallon bucket, but it could easily climb out.
Avery didn't want to touch it "'cause it's slimy". I couldn't change
her mind. Ethan, however, overcame his initial fear that it might bite
and learned to hold it. I just love snakes because they are so
different from furry little legged mammals. It visited for about 30
minutes I think before we set it down and watched it slither away. Nahni
was asleep for that whole time.

Plantings

Avery helped me plant 5 tomato plants, garlic chives, chamomile, St.
John's wort, Mugwort, and something else that I can't recall at the moment.

Dogs traded food?

Toothless

"They don't stay like this for very long."

"They don't stay like this for long."

Hot, sweet, honey buns

Dinner was particularly good tonight.  The kids ate it, but I found it especially interesting and enjoyable.  Pretty good evidence that I haven't had enough special time with my wife, it would seem.

Wildlife photos 2

Here we see the same mother Ambiwifi Shamanus away from the couch and foraging for cake with her young. She appears jubilant with her success and celebrates with her young. After her successful hunting, they all feast. Even in the midst of devouring the carcass, though, she must renew her social bonds through facebook- a defining characteristic of this species.
Again, while usually safe to observe, it is dangerous to get between a hungry mother and her prey. That cake does look good, though........

Ncdjhuidfhntf.... ouch. Yep, dangerous.

30 hot chicks

I am totally planning a date with up to 30 hot chicks 3 weeks from now.  Hopefully my rigged up cooler will work as an adequate incubator.

Babes and cute chicks

Nahni at Mary's farm with a baby duck. 

Fun with pulleys

It started with a pulley dumb waiter.  Then a zip line.  Then a pinata.

Avery's bunnies

While garage sailing, avery got 2 more toy bunnies for her collection.

Boys in the wood

Boys playing in the woods.

Latest Swine Flu Virus Research

(click on picture for larger version)

As you can see from these similar looking micrographs, the swine flu is not something to be taken too seriously. Just look at those cute little beady eyes.

Wildlife Photography

Here we see a mother Ambiwifi Shamanus. These rare and beautiful creatures are couch dwelling cake-o-vores. They are semi-nocturnal, frequently engaging in what amounts to verbal earlobe-ectomies with their mates. While normally relatively harmless (though not docile), they can be quite dangerous if interupted during their frequent FaceBook updates. Checking their FaceBook status, for this species, is very analogous to the social value dogs get from sniffing one anothers' butt or smelling a well marked fire hydrant. It lets them know who's been there and how they're all doing.

When observing a prime specimen such as this one, it is imperative that you keep your note taking out of kpoj'jpomdjm ...... ouch!

More kids and chickens

We went to visit the goats and chickens at Paul Liane's with Barb. The kids had fun meeting the new little goat kids that were a day or two old.




Ethan and Konnor are now "Chicken Tamers, Inc." They love catching and picking up chickens.

Avery All Around

Avery says a lot of funny stuff. And makes for many good pictures.
This is Avery holding a chicken. I think she and the chicken look pretty content.


This little goat is one of triplets born the day before.


This is Avery with some friends in her dance class.



And this is Avery posing with her chalk drawing of "mommy sweeping with her broom. I love the stylized artwork.