Any time now

Thyme looks as if she's about to touch the ground her belly is getting so big.

We've spent the past 2 days hauling cattle panels and goat panels through the woods to give the pigs and goats new wooded area's to browse and root.  Exhausting work with temperatures in the high 90's and low 100's.   What was I think when I decided to do this project now? 

Anyway, it's an area that's never been open to the animals and rarely have we even walked in that area.  We had to snake our way through the tree's, over downed wood and poison ivy carrying them one by one and then holding them up till we could get them attatched to the one before.  I'm sure in the next few weeks we'll have at least a few spots of poison ivy on us.   I think we went through a bag full of banana flavored popsicles in the process trying to cool off.  We have a rule to never venture into the woods without our Wellie's on because we have on occasion spotted copperheads back there so that added rubber -to -the- knee's only made us even hotter.

Cattle panels for anyone not familiar with them are 16' long pieces of metal fencing 4' tall.   The goat panels are the same but much heavier because for goats the holes are 4" x 4" and the cattle panels have 6" holes meaning less wire.    They are great for temporary fencing that is fairly easily moved.   In grassy area's it's not too bad a job but hauling them through thick wooded area's is a job.  We had enough to do about an acre.  We used both the types of panels together to make one big area the pigs and goats can share.  The baby pigs can get through either fencing easily right now but have no intention of being away from their momma so aren't going to go anywhere.   When they start to deplete it we'll move it again to new ground.  It keeps the worm load down on both goats and pigs and keeps them in fresh greens while allowing the previous area to recuperated before it's destroyed.    

Last year we would take the goats for walks in the woods so they could eat the browse.   Or we would cut and bring it to them weaving the long branches into the fencing for them to eat.  It will be nice having them get their own this year.

                             

                             

Where Rosemary goes her babies follow.  We took these yesterday just before putting them in their new wooded area.  They are getting big fast.  It's cooler in the woods for them and they have a great wallow back there to laze the days away in when not out exploring and foraging.

Favorite things - Johnny Seeds

After spending the past week catching up on all the garden chores I sat down last night to put together an order of things I will  need soon.  I pulled out my stack of catalogs and immediately opened Johnny's first.   I am always drawn to Johnny's first.   I love Johnny Seeds.   I mostly love there catalog.   It has so much info on growing each seed / plant they offer,  it rivals many gardening books.   For vegetable gardening I've relied for 20 plus years on Crockett's Victory Garden's first edition.  It's served me well over the years.  But Johnny's catalog has so much great info in it I find myself going to it now instead of my old stand-by.  

If your not familiar with their catalog, it offers all kinds of veggies, fruits, herbs and flowers.  It also has green manures,  various cover crops and pasture mixes for different animals.   It has some great tools and all kinds of supplies.  

On the top of my shopping list is agribon row cover for this fall / winter.   I'm going to do some low tunnels for extended season growing.   I am also going to get the pipe bender to bend galvinized conduit pipe to hold the agribon and poly up.   After last years snowy winter I want to make sure my tunnels can stand up to the weight of a snow load.   Johnny's is located in Maine so they know snow.

The only other things I need are some seeds.  I'll get pea's to get in now, onion seeds to sow now for spring harvest and garlics.  I may try a few new lettuces too. 

Johnny's also has a number of video's on their website.  I watched the one on their pipe bender yesterday.  BTW... I am not compensated for this review.   I just really like them. 

http://johnnyseeds.com/

  

Almost wordless Wednesday

Hubbard Squash Flower

Cucumber teepee, Jalepeno's & tomato plant in mixed garden border bed

The day's pickin's

My new power equipment

Powered by me that is.   Stll, it feels good to know it's going to start every time.  No trips for gas.  No regular visits for tune-ups.  And those little piggies LOVE to see me coming with that green bag!  And surprisingly, that mower really does a good job.

And then there were 3

Nugget - Splash Orpington Rooster

It's been a rough year to be a chicken around here.  We started out with 8 chickens - 5 adults; a blue orp rooster, a buff orp hen, a blue orp hen, a lavendar orp hen and a Jersey Giant hen plus the 3 chicks we hatched in early spring.  We're now down to 3 of those and it's only July.  And one of those is injured so maybe it's closer to 2 1/2 ???

First the coop was left open one night - gone - my handsome rooster and one of the hens.  I never could keep straight which of my hens was blue and which was lavendar but one of them, Lilly,  was gone.  (Side note: Don't give the closing up of the coop at night as a chore to a kid with ADD.  Bad idea.)   Then on separate occasions 2 of the hatchlings got into the dog yard and that was that.   What the dogs didn't consume the pigs did later than night although the pigs have never gone after a live chick and don't kill for sport the way dogs will.  At least mine don't.

Sky - either a blue or lavendar Orpington

Next on the "oh no, my poor chickens"  list, one of my adult hens, either the blue or lavendar hen...which ever she is that survived the spring coop mayhem, got mauled - twice....not once mind you, but twice by a dog. She hadn't fully gotten over  the first attack and was nailed again. This time the dog dug into the chicken yard.  Sky's been in a crate now for 2 weeks and she's just starting to be able to stand again.  I thought for awhile,  I would have to finish what the dog started  but alas thankfully, she's on the mend.   The dog on the other hand is now in need of a new home.  I can forgive them for their instinctual behavior when the chickens are going to them but not so much when they are digging into the chickens yard.

Gwen - Jersey Giant

Then there's Gwen.   Gwen has been here the longest along with Bonnie, the buff orp. I got them in my first Murry McMurry order a few years back. Gwen being a Jersey Giant can not move fast. This is a breed of chicken I would never get again. She can't even get up a couple of steps without great difficulty.  And it takes her twice as long to get anywhere as it does the rest of the chickens.  Her body is just too big for those legs. I had read about this when getting them but didn't fully understand how that would translate to life in general.  Lets just say it's not an easy life being a Jersey Giant. They would make great meat birds but I only wanted layers.

Nugget, the lone survivor of the three hatchlings from spring, wasn't a kind and nurturing rooster to his girls.  He was ruthless.   He was young though and he may have learned as he matured to be the kind of rooster I'm used to; friendly, self sacrifing, nurturing and concerned for his girls.   Poor Gwen got the brunt of his ruthlessness.   In the photo above she's missing a bunch of back feathers...normal when you have limited hens and a rooster, but her comb is gone in the back and she's always got these sores on her head from him tearing pieces off along with any feathers in close proximity.    She tries to get away but can't.  He he's like a kid with a new toy... just can't put it down or stop himself.    Bonnie is agile and got lots of attitude to boot so she would just chased Nugget off but poor Gwen couldn't.    Bonnie would even try to  help out Gwen and chase him from her too when she was close by.   In the end though I had to intervine and say bye to Nugget.  He was sent off to a new home to help them spread that blue gene of his. Hopefully for those hens he'll learn to be a kinder rooster.


And then there were 3.