An unexpected harvest

I had not planned on harvesting any potatoes until Mid-July/August but the patch with the Chieftain and yellow potatoes were just not doing that well. So, dig we did and got a decent harvest for the amount of time those little guys were in the ground.

With the weather I admit I’ve been a little depressed, but yesterday the sun (along with a Summer Solstice sale from Farmington Gardens) encouraged me to do the rest of the buying for the season. So, I now have:

1 hops tree (yay hops)
2 bushes of Willamette raspberries
2 bushes of Toro blueberries
2 lipstick strawberry plants
1 San Marzano tomato plant
1 Zebra tomato plant
1 black plum tomato plant

I totally forgot to get the tomato frames so I will have to run out and get those today.

Diversify, diversify, diversify…right?

Itty Bitty Carrot Harvest

It's always...interesting the first year. Our fingerling potatos are doing very well, here is the yield from just on plant.

Our carrots...well, I dub this year the "itty bitty carrot" harvest year. Next year I promise we will plant you farther apart and in deeper soil.

Surprise!

Well, I came home last night from work, and what did I see? I saw a finished roof on my chicken coop! And it was all balanced and stuff too! Ron and Cory (the neighbor) had done it during the day as a surprise for me!

That's some fine work there!

Looks inviting!

This coop has the Anne Seal of Approval(tm)
In other news, I was finally able to secure the impossible to find toddler galoshes...and they are cows...because what the world needs more cow boots.
Also, they have little tails in the back.

paving...good

So, I had a "consult" with my super awesome neighbor about the chicken coop this morning and I've basically decided to put shake shingling on the sides and stain the shingling. This should a) make it look much better and b) provide some insulation during the summer and winter. I'm feeling like this could actually happen now.

In other news...I finally got around to paving the area from my back door to the winter compost pile. I know I should have done this last fall before the ground got soggy, but better late than never, right?

The backyard pre-path.

With the path!

And here is a bonus corgi picture with my filthy kitchen.

Chicken housing

So, I was looking at the Lowes website for fencing for our backyard which currently bordered by essentially a poor man's chain link fence and I found this awesome thing for $218:


It's a dog run that measures 7'6" x 13' by 6' which I feel is perfect enclosure for the chicken pen. Because of the cat killer dog next door, and our crappy fencing, we really can't have free roaming chickens, so we need to do some kind of pen around the coop to protect them. The chicken coop measures 5'2" by 4'1" by 5' so there is almost a foot of clearance from the top of the coop to the pen, plenty of room to put netting over, or even a cover (which I also saw).

I went and staked out the two areas I would like for the chicken coop, and I'm more of a fan of the one not against the house.


Ron wants to build it from scratch with just some stakes and chicken wire, but with the disastrous placement of the compost bin (we placed it in November in what we thought was a great spot until spring came and neighbor's tree covered it in shade for 10 months) I'm very hesitant to have something that we can't just pick up and move if we make another mistake.

In other news, the roofing felt is still not on and I have not gotten the plywood to spruce it up. Current plan is to have chickens by March.

Baby, it's cold outside!

Yesterday the kids were driving me insane by 9:00am, so I bundled them and threw them outside to play. Brrrr.....I think it was about 30 degrees.

The prize of the morning was water frozen in a wheelbarrow...which we proceeded to smash about 10 minutes later.

In other news, I'm starting to panic about what to plant and how to go about starting the whole thing. Last year went as planned, one apple tree in and the yard was "de-suburbanized." I'm debating whether just to focus on the chickens this year and let our CSA run for another year and try not stress about growing things...or maybe just put in another fruit tree.

I know Ron wants it to be some mapped out thing to maximize productivity, but I'm thinking I would rather it just evolve organically. I feel confident the land will reveal what it wants to grow if I just give it enough time instead trying to force it, but perhaps I'm just being totally unrealistic.

More Cheese!

In an attempt to not drive myself crazy today...I made some more cheese

This time I used a cheesecloth and got about twice the curds out of it...



After the cheesecloth but before the first microwave, quite the difference from the first time.


Kneading...always kneading....


Finished (this is about 2/3 of the cheese, I gave 1/3 away to neighbors)

Cheese!

Holy moley...I made cheese!

from: http://www.animalvegetablemiracle.com/Mozzarella.pdf

Stirring the milk...stirring...stirring. The milk started out at about 40 degrees.


Adding the citric acid at 55 degrees. Then, more stirring.


Felix was super interested at first...at least he was hopeful I would drop something.


Still stirring.


Felix starting snoring at about 70 degrees.


Max checks the temperature


Time to add the rennet!


Curds!


Squeezing out the curds


The curds before the first microwave


After the first microwave


After the third microwave


Pulling the cheese


Max kneads the cheese


All done!

Snow Day! 12/14/08-12/15/08

In the beginning...12/14/08
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Not much happening at first in the early morning...

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

The dog is not impressed.

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Four hours later...

Sledding!
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

The real purpose of snow.

Copy of DSCN9016
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

So far the chicken coop has held up.

Copy of DSCN9017
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Why is my ball frozen? Why. Is. My. Ball. FROZEN?

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Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Not so much for a fire today.

DSCN9046
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

The Christmas deer look great under the snow

Snow Bowl
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Look what I found in the back yard!

Orange Snow Cone
Originally uploaded by WeavesWithFire

Yellow snow is strictly prohibited, but orange snow is A-OK

Cluck cluck cluck!

We got our chicken coop!

It was old.

It was full of chicken poop.

It was $50.00.

Perfect!


11/29/08
This is the coop right after it was cleaned out and we ripped the old rotting shingles off. The black stuff you see is roofing felt. One side has brand new roofing felt and the other side has disintegrating roofing felt.

Felix investigates his new "doghouse."




Inside of the coop after cleaning.

You can see the three entrances to the nest boxes.






















The back side of the coop where the nest boxes are.

















Nest boxes. Those were pretty gross, but I think I got most of the crap out.






Ron holding the top to the nest box.

12/1/08
Because the bottom had rotted away, we made some foundation repairs.

We also covered the top with a tarp in case it rained before we could get new shingles on.

I just have to say we really lucked out in the friend department because I have a friend who a carpenter and a and one who is a concrete carpenter and they were happy to repair the foundation.


12/2/08
Of course, it rained. This morning I trudged out there and put blocks under the coop so that the new wood doesn't rot as well.

We are picking up shingles and roofing felt tomorrow afternoon fro $20.00 from a craigslist ad.

Once we are done, we will head down to habitat for humanity re-store for primer and paint.