Chickens!

After several years of putting it off for one excuse or another, we finally got some chickens. I have a friend who offered me her grown hens that are laying eggs now (definitely a no brainer) :) So we had to figure out arrangements for them fast since she needed her coop for her new chicks. Luckily, I have a handy Cameron who could build a coop for our new chickens. He made it over 2 days which was super fast and we were crazily getting everything ready for the hens. The original plan was to have a mobile coop so they could forage but after we finished, Cameron and I could barely lift it into place so it got a permanent spot behind our garden.

 The plans for the A Frame coop were from ana-white.com but we modified it a bit. Cam used fence posts for the roof, hardward mesh (as recommended since we live in an area with lots of raccoons), and we put doors only on one side (hers had 4 doors on the top). We tried to use a bunch of scrap wood we had on hand to keep down the cost.

Here is a view of the inside. As you can see it's sitting on cinder blocks because of the slope. I had those totally covered up with dirt so the chickens wouldn't hurt themselves but after our recent 3 days of pouring rain it all washed out. I'll have to figure something out there. The floor is dirt which is nice because I just sweep their bedding from the nesting boxes on the ground. Theoretically it should all just compost down. And maybe I'll get to use some for fertilizer.  The stick across is for roosting.

Here is their nesting area. Cam cut some old buckets we had to make a designated place for them to lay. We just barely got some peel and stick tiles to put on the floor to make for easier cleaning but haven't got them in there yet.

 We lock each door with a carabiner clip. This also is suppose to help keep racoons out (I heard they can figure out lots of simple locks?!)

I still feel like I don't know as much as I should about the chickens (normally I would read every book from the library first) but diving right into it has been good for me. We have 4 chickens and have averaged about 2 eggs a day.

This weekend I convinced Cam to build a little mobile run for the hens. I wish I could let them free range but I know my neighbors wouldn't have it. We also have a neighbor behind us with a pit bull that runs loose occasionally. The mobile run hopefully will be a good alternative so they can eat some bugs and weeds at least.  It still is going to get some wheels on one side so I can roll it around the yard but it's just about done.

Green beans

I like this variety of green beans already! They grow so long!

Garden Update- June

Here's what the garden is looking like this month.  I've cut down most of my snap peas since it's been too hot and they've stopped flowering. I'm trying to train the winter squash up the back wall. Strawberries are about done.  We've been harvesting carrots, onions, green beans, lettuce, a few raspberries, and herbs over the past week.

 We've picked a ton of lettuce and have been eating it almost everyday but we still have some left. This bright green variety is called Slo-bolt. It's been living up to its name as our romaine has totally bolted but this stuff still looks great. It is starting to get a tad bitter though.

 Lemon squash are about to make there appearance.

 Cucumbers are almost ready too. See that one in the middle?

Front landscaping

I finally finished up the front landscaping. We were waiting for weeks for the compost to be ready but I couldn't be patient any longer and just got some from Lowes.

Before (pre move in)

Now

 

 

A few weeks ago

Now - Juniper and peonies in the front (my favorite flowers!)

Before

Now

Before

Last Year

Now

I did end up planting some extra bare root strawberries I had in the front. They haven't been eaten by deer yet and they are growing pretty good for the 5 hours of sunlight they get each day.

Before

Now

No spray painted tree :)

Shoe Organization

My computer started working again :) So I can finally share our recent little organization project. Ever since we got our wood floors done we've kept the shoes outside. Unfortunately that left a total mess in our garage.

 We were tripping over shoes and digging through endless boxes for shoe matches.

Cameron put together this shoe rack in a few hours. Finally, no more endless searching for shoes. It's heavenly!

Everybody has two shelves of their own and the large space at the bottom is for boots. We are in summer so right now it's housing one lonely flip flop yet to find it's match :)

Set backs!

I was hoping to post the finished landscaping today but my mulch I get from the compost facility isn't available until next week.

In lieu of that, I was going to share a little organization project but my I-Mac just died as I was uploading pictures. Such a bummer :(  (I do have a backup hard drive though, whew). I'll share as soon as my mac gets fixed.  

Landscaping in the front yard- Part 1

This year, I'm beefing up my landscaping in the front yard. I wanted to continue with my original plan.

Remember this?

I added the landscaping right by the door and porch but so far, nothing by the driveway. So I wanted to cut out the herb beds in the front. But I decided the herbs weren't necessary (since I already planted them all out by the garden) and and wanted to incorporate more evergreens and my favorite flowers, peonies.

 Here's what it looked like out front a few weeks ago. Yes, the house is begging for a new coat of paint. But I have to be patient and work on one thing at a time. So landscaping first.

Here is where I started to cut out the bed.

The only problem was on the other side my flower bed would be in almost full shade because of this tree. It looks ok here but it was really a sad looking tree. We had to cut down a branch for the power lines, and another for the basketball hoop. And then Cruz attacked the tree with blue and yellow spray paint. Long story short, I decided the tree had to go. So I asked Cam while he was on a business trip if he could cut it down and he agreed. While he was gone, I got the pick axe out and worked on digging and cutting roots.

Cameron got home that night and on Saturday he was outside with his handy dandy chain saw. I was so excited I forgot to take any pictures of the take down. Bummer! To get the stump and roots out, Cam hooked the tree up with a heavy duty rope to his truck and pulled that sucker out. It was awesome!!

We were left with a huge hole and nasty weed grass so we decided to replace the weeds with bermuda sod. That required us to shovel out all the weeds and existing grass and level it out.

 Haha that's Cruz behind that giant sod roll.

 They were super heavy and Cruz just about fell over.

 Don't ask me what Kian is doing in the picture because I really don't know.

The sod is all in now and getting watered really good with all the rain. I'm hoping to plant the beds and then share the finished product next week!