Color

All four chickens are laying and so they're all, officially, adults! Hens not pullets. And we appreciate their efforts very much. It certainly sounds like a great effort to lay an egg; they all make that well-known "cluck-a-cluck-a-CLUCK!" sound right after laying, sometimes in harmony. It's loud but quite charming. It lets me know they're working hard!

Something I am coming to appreciate about these homegrown eggs is how beautiful they are. Sure, the nice deep yellow-orange yolk is often mentioned, but you can't forget about their shells. What variety of color and texture, even between the eggs of one hen!

Some of the eggshells have freckles, some have raised bumps, some have bands of darker color around the middle, some have wrinkles. The three hens laying brown eggs produce shells in every shade from the lightest tan to dark chocolate. Makes a carton of plain white eggs from the grocery store seem so boring!

Front Yard Pictures

There's actually been some respite from the endless gray clouds and rain lately. Yesterday there was a bit of sun in the afternoon, and today has dawned quite sunny (for Tacoma), so I'm feeling some hope that spring may eventually come. And that is getting me very excited for gardening!

I took a few photos of the front yard yesterday, with some cameos from the chickens. Though the garden bed is little more than bare dirt at this point, I look at it and see it filled with green, growing, edible things!

As well as adding plants, we will need to make sure that we integrate the chickens properly into the garden. We let the chickens into the front yard in the afternoons, when we're home to keep an eye on them. The rest of the time, they hang out in their run, which is accessed through that lime green gate in the last picture. But when they are up front, we need to make sure they aren't scratching up plants, eating them down to nubbins, or pooping all over them. At first, I believe we will just add one of those little wire fences along the inner perimeter of the garden beds so that the plants can become established, but I do want to make it mostly chicken-accessible in the long run. To that end, I have been reading this book:

Meanwhile, I'm looking forward to attending Seattle Tilth's March Edible Plant Sale and buying my first perennial, edible babies!

Preliminary Garden Plans

Even though I'm thinking constantly about my garden these days, I'm not actually at home right now. I just had a total thyroidectomy, so I'm recuperating at my parents' house in Seattle for a few days. I haven't had much time to familiarize myself with the quirks and microclimates of our property yet, but I have a pretty good idea of a basic, preliminary plan for each of the three main areas. This post brought to you by hydrocodone and dreams. . . .

The first area of our property is the front yard. The front facade of the house faces north, and though this may not be ideal it seems as if there will be decent sun out there as there's no big street trees or anything. We have a white picket fence (squee!) and the garden bed borders the lawn along the fence line. At this time, the only plants growing in the bed are a lavender bush and a peony, so I'm very psyched to fill it up with plants that I can choose myself, rather than having to work around a bunch of dumb tiger lilies or something.

The second zone is the chicken run. It is fenced on all sides and encompasses the side yard and part of the backyard. I'm so glad this was here already so I didn't have to build anything, as fun as building the coop at our last place was. So far, this area contains the coop, the compost bin, and a lilac bush. The ground is covered in wood chips and weeds, a pretty good surface for chickens, but I also see this space as a blank slate wherein I can plant chicken-friendly plants that will function as shelter from airborne predators or the elements.

The last zone is a cute little brick-paved patio which is accessed from the driveway and from steps out the mudroom, which makes it perfectly placed for entertaining visitors in summer, planting things in containers, and grilling everything that's edible and not nailed down. It is on the south side of the house, but it has fences and the shed enclosing it on all sides. My friend Amber, who knows about this kind of stuff, tells me the brick paving will mean this area will be somewhat warmer than other zones.

So now that you know a little bit about the three zones, here's a quick rundown of my plans. I will be planting a varied mix of perennials and annuals, edibles and ornamentals, in the front yard. I want a large variety but I'm most interested in perennial edible plants, like rhubarb, artichoke, asparagus, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and so on, as well as perennial herbs/medicinals like rosemary, thyme, sage, chives, anise hyssop, and of course, comfrey. I don't think one is allowed to have a permaculture garden without comfrey in it. Then, I will tuck annual veggies and flowers in between all these.

The chicken run seems to be a perfect place for native woodland plants, and so I am looking to add Oregon grape, salal, various ferns, and so on. I would also really like to try growing mushrooms out there, perhaps tucking a few pre-inoculated logs under plants or in moist, shady corners. I also want to add things like a dust bath area and other amenities for the ladies.

The patio seems to me to be the best place for growing tomatoes and annual herbs in containers, since it is easily accessible from the kitchen. It will also have the usual patio suspects like a picnic table, the grill, and my beloved aluminum-frame, nylon-webbed lawn chairs. The fences and walls on all sides will be great for hanging Woolly Pockets and slinging strings of cafe lights. Additionally, the landlord may be adding a built-in planter as part of the fence separating the patio from the chicken run, which I feel will be the perfect spot for some bamboo.

Okay, that's it for now! Pictures to follow if it is ever sunny again.

Back to Civilization

I have some news, and it's the reason I've been so silent here lately. We moved out of our place in Yelm, and into a new house in Tacoma! The reasons for leaving our old place were myriad, but I don't want to get into it because it's really been a very stressful and unhappy few months for RC and me. But that's all over now. On to better things!

We are still in the process of moving our stuff into the new house, so I will hold off on more photos for now. Suffice it to say, it's a small cute place in a residential area in Tacoma. But I bet you're wondering how I'm going to homestead in an urban environment. Don't worry, it's totally a thing. Our home comes complete with a garden all ready to be filled with plants, and a chicken coop and run! And there's a lot more to be done, as well, to become more self-sufficient, even as we enjoy the conveniences of electric baseboard heat and cell phone service.

We've had a few setbacks but we will continue to bloom. I hope you'll stick around as I get settled and ease my way back into blogging. The first steps will be to plan the garden! I received a book on permaculture for Christmas and I'm very excited to put some of their principles into action.

Onward!

Woodsmoke

Now that the beaver dams are taken care of, we are ready to move on to other things. Our landlord is planning to replant the bluff, so in preparation I will be pulling up as much Scotch broom as humanly possible before the end of 2013. Scotch broom, as you probably know, is an aggressively invasive plant which loves to spring up in disturbed areas, so a clear cut bluff is pretty much ideal habitat.

I will also see if I can fix the greenhouse roof. It's made of clear corrugated plastic panels, some of which are broken. No clue how that is done, though, so I may have to admit defeat and leave it to a professional.

Meanwhile, we are continuing to adjust to life off the grid. Wood stove heat is relatively cheap, but time-consuming as one has to collect and process wood. We, of course, have many piles of logging debris on the bluff, as well as acres of forest whose floors are covered in the usual dead branches, and even some whole dead trees killed when the creek flooded. The raw materials are there, and we are gamely attempting to get on top of it. But I now understand why people have gigantic woodsheds filled to the brim with logs year-round: you need to stock up. But I figure if we gather everyday, and buy from others, we will be okay. This is yet another body of knowledge we will have to acquire: how to cut down trees, how to know which to cut down, how to maintain a forest so that it provides us with firewood without just cutting it all down at once, and so on. This is all stuff to know if you want to homestead, and I'm glad I'm getting some experience now before we actually own a place.

For the chicken enthusiasts: the ladies love their new coop. Also, they are so big now! The three young ones are now what's known as pullets. Not a chick, not yet a hen, as Britney Spears might say. They won't begin to lay until they are at least six months old, and the two older hens will be laying less since it's winter (hens need lots of sunlight to lay at peak efficiency) so for now they are just all running around eating things and being cute. Pictures!

I actually managed to get all five laaaadiez in one shot! From left to right: Mistress Kiki, Minerva, Pearl, Beatrice, and Gwen.

Applesauce

We harvested all the apples off our little tree, and I used most of them to make up a batch of applesauce.

I wish I knew what kind of apples these are. They are crisp and tart-sweet, and we are guessing something like Pink Lady, Fuji, or Gala. But I have no idea how to find out!

Making and canning applesauce is easy yet time-consuming. You peel, quarter, and core all the apples, cook them down, purée them, and add lemon juice, sugar, and spices if you like. This all takes a long time. Also, I only have one big pot, so I had to make the applesauce, then put it into smaller pots to keep it all hot while I reused the big pot to sterilize the jars and lids and then boil the full jars to seal the lids.

When I finished, it was around 11:00 at night, the kitchen was steamy and dirty, and I was a sweaty, frazzled woman. I had to make dinner simultaneously with canning, so things were extra-exciting. But in the end, I had nine pint jars of delicious applesauce that will keep for a year! I didn't add much sugar and no spices, so it would feature the flavor of the apples. The tartness will go well with meats, too. I can't wait to eat a pork chop with some of this smeared on top. Maybe someday if I feel ambitious I will make pierogi; they are super tasty with a little applesauce and sour cream.

Just recently RC realized we have another apple tree on the property, down near the creek, which is covered in apples. He only noticed it when the apples ripened and turned red. The tree is at least 20 feet tall and choked with brush and other vegetation growing closely all around. Like the other plants producing edible fruit down by the creek (blackberry, blueberry, salmonberry), it could benefit if I clear the area under the canopy and do some pruning. I see a lot of food-producing potential here!

The Coop is Finished!

It's time for the glorious debut of my chicken coop! I just finished it on Saturday, and though I'm not at home for a couple days, RC has assured me that the chickens are doing well living in it. I'm so happy to have completed this project. It's the biggest thing I've ever made, and I did it completely on my own using mostly salvaged materials and paint I already had.

Okay, enough talk. Time for pictures!

I created the coop within the greenhouse by partitioning off this area at the north end of the building. The hardest and most time-consuming part was attaching the sill plate (the pieces that run along the floor) to the concrete. I ended up using wedge anchors, which are basically big bolts you hammer into holes you drill into the floor. When making a wall, you're supposed to construct it all while it lays on the floor, then raise it up, but since I don't have a bevy of Amish brethren to help I just built it in place. The nest boxes fit in between the studs and have hinged lids so I can collect eggs without entering the coop. I also decided to get fancy with the little green trim pieces around the window and a nice shiny green door that I made from scratch! No pre-manufactured pieces for this girl.

Next time I build something, I will definitely use connectors and brackets and such, to keep everything square. As it is, nothing in this greenhouse is square or level anyway, so it isn't such a big deal as it would be if I were making a freestanding structure.

I mixed up this nice sky blue from some leftover white and turquoise paints. Since I had to use salvaged plywood, the walls are clad in many small pieces which I caulked together at the seams. I made the roosting ladder out of some branches, as chickens need variety in their perch sizes to avoid foot damage. The bottom of the ladder isn't attached to the floor so I can lift it up to clean under if necessary. I also cut two chicken-sized doors in the exterior walls. One (near the feeder and waterer) leads to the garden, and the other (near the roosting ladder) leads to the outside, unfenced world. During the winter I'll let the chickens go into the garden, but the rest of the time they will not be allowed so they don't damage our crops!

Here is the chicken door into the garden. The greenhouse foundation was not made properly, so rainwater can just sort of seep right in through this wall. I don't know a long-term solution; the only thing I can think to do is lay some sandbags against this wall, which I will do before the Endless Rains of Winter begin.

Here is the chicken door leading to the outside world (and the compost pile.) as you can see from the rotten cladding near the ground the earth was originally piled up against the wall, but I cleared it all away. The new, red piece replaced a portion of the wall that was so rotten I could put my hand through it. I would like to plant shrubs and such in this area, to provide shelter from flying predators for the chickens and make this area less of a mud pit.

Thanks for checking out my coop! It makes me very happy that it's done and I know my chickens have a nice home which is conveniently located. And now. . . We need more pullets! We have five chickens now, but hope to have a flock of ten. Bok bok!