Big Ole Pile of Stink Comin' at Ya

P U.

Yep. That's right. Had this big pile of compost delivered today and with the wind gusts going on I gotta tell you this stuff stinks. I'm sure those already annoyed neighbors are going to love it. Why did I have 8 cu yards of cow manure compost all good, ripened, and stankay delivered? Well, because I rotted in the box this weekend(remember shitty job) and that means one thing......I had a lot of time to think. And that time leads to me brewing a whole slew of good ideas.


So the front half of our yard before the creek is going to be grass. Right now its just a bunch of dirt and when it rains, it sucks. We decided we want most of it to be grass right now and then we can add on different landscaping as we go. But right now we figured grass, so at least when it rains it's not a mud pit for days.


We decided to get an estimate for irrigation and sod since that is the quickest and easiest way to get a yard STAT. The guy we have been using for landscaping sent us the estimate last week. $8,000!
Yeah I know. One more time.  $8,000 #!^%@C#^% dollars. Uh uh.


I was doing a little rotting and research and came upon a website talking about native lawns. It talked about how using native grass can save on water, fertilizing, and all the other annoying things you have to do to keep non-natives such as St. augustine and Bermuda grass alive. Well..........lightbulb. I ordered the seed on a whim ready to tackle the 6500 square feet of backyard. Besides, we realized we didn't want to consume so much water, have the upkeep of an irrigation system, and watch our water bill double per month.


Today was day one of getting the yard ready and it sucked. Bad. Have you ever tilled hard compact clay soil before? It stinks big time. And I wasn't tilling up a small space.This was the first step in preparing the yard and I realized halfway through that this was one of my good ideas gone bad again. Way to much for me to accomplish on my own. But I'm cheap (and hardheaded) and I didn't want to pay anyone to do it. Annoyed halfway through I pushed on in the heat with hallucinations of a tractor and landscape crew to help me. I finally got it done, my arms are still shaking and I'm as sore as an 80 year old in the morning but tomorrow, tag me in. Round 2.


Round two consists of raking and spreading that good compost all over the lawn. Then sowing the seeds. I'm trying to get it done before the real heat comes. It was 90 already today and this native seed don't do sizzlin.


I will let you know how it goes tomorrow and keep you updated on the grass situation as it plays out. If you are in Texas and want to check out Native lawns here are the links where I have been getting my info. Check it out.


http://www.seedsource.com/
http://www.wildflower.org/

If this doesn't make you nauseous

Feel free to watch. However, it's rough footage(taken from an iphone). But I thought I would give you a glimpse into the backyard and what its becoming and also give you a peek at the girls. There are two videos because for some reason you can't download a long one. Here ya go.

Something Ate My One Strawberry

Things are growing good around here lately.  Except something ate my one and only strawberry. Claire wanted to eat it the other day and I wanted to make sure it was perfectly ripe and ready for picking. So I said, "lets wait another day, then it will be perfect." Seriously, it's the only thing we can eat from the garden at this point and I was super excited I actually grew something.


See we lived in NYC for awhile while going to school for a career I hate ( I know mom, hates a strong word but in this context it fits) and while living in a boxed sized apartment, my love for gardening was stifled. I never knew it existed until I moved to Austin. We bought our house about three years ago and that winter I caught the gardening bug. I made 3 boxes and filled them with soil and planted. I was super excited. Spring came and wham ...... bamboo. Holy crap. I have never seen something grow so fast. It grew, took over my sun, and my garden failed. I literally grew one green bean and one tomato that was supposed to be normal size but turned out to be more like a cherry tomato. I gave up. 


So when my dad came a year ago and cleared out all this bamboo I vowed to have a garden we could sustain ourselves on. So that small strawberry meant a lot and dammit(sorry again mom) something ate it. I'm hoping this isn't a glimpse into how our growing season will end up. 


I have been busy lately. 


With my job, I leave early and get home late. Buh-Lah. So I set up a water saving drip irrigation system to start and stop on a timer. That way if I get home late I won't have to worry about watering in the dark. However, one of my favorite things to do when I get home is to grab a glass a wine, head out with my hose, decompress and water.  I will miss that. 

Drip irrigation set up 

Does anyone know how to drill a 1 inch hole into a 4x4 all the way through without draining the battery on the drill? Yeah, me either. I'm building a chicken run. Since the girls try to wipe out the garden every chance they get, they need a place to free range away from the garden. So, I'm building a run. But I didn't want to use just regular wire. I decided to use 4x4 cedar posts and electrical conduit. Kinda maybe a modern twist on a cattle fence....maybe. I'm sort of thinking long term. A spot big enough for the chickens and the Nigerian dwarf goats (hopefully) to roam and be happy during the day.  Anyway, drilling the holes to run the electrical conduit is a nightmare because my drill battery keeps running out. I'm going to see if I can rent something bigger and more powerful and finish the fence on Tuesday. Here is a preview of what I was able to get done with the fence thus far:

Coop with the fence. The posts will be cut down to the top of the last conduit

I also was able to get most of my trellises up this weekend. I went with a few 2x2's and some temporary fencing. It was simple and cheap. I put them in my 3x12 box with cucumbers, melons, beans, and zucchini. I zig zagged them and I think this should give us the most space.

Everything is growing great. Im feeding with a fish/seaweed foliar spray. It stinks but it's giving the veggies a big boost. The temperature has already reached 90 degrees on some days and my tomatoes were looking somewhat puny. But after feeding them they perked up. Hopefully this week the temps will cool off to the 70's for at least a few more weeks before the big texas heat hits. 

Barb Became a Woman.............

For the past week or so, I had heard big Barb bock bock beegocking like crazy. She's about 5 1/2 months old now and her comb is getting super red and big so I figured any day now she would lay. I noticed a small fragile broken egg one day under the roost during the week so I was hoping I would have an egg in the nesting box soon. I have been enticing the girls with golf balls in the nest box to simulate eggs ever since they were young. The other day, Barb stepped up to the Tee and gave us our first fragile whole little egg........Yay!

Typical Situation

On Saturday I loaded up the boys into a dog crate, put them in the backseat of my car, and made the emotional drive to Louisiana.  They were like old pro's riding in the car. For the most part they just sat in the crate. Every now and then they would get up and scratch around for the treats I put in the crate and I would get a rear view mirror full of Henry wondering if we were almost there yet.

Everything was going smoothly until we got to Beaumont, TX, and couldn't catch anything on the radio. I shuffled around in my glove box and found an old Dave Matthew's Band CD. Score. I know I know they are a little mid 1990's but I will be honest, I do still love them.......... and so do the boys I quickly found out. 


If you ever find yourself in a small car for five hours with two roosters in the backseat, I would suggest not playing any of Dave's High pitched songs, lest you want to rupture your eardrums.I mean I have heard of roosters competing with other roosters. When one crows, the other crows. But man when I put that CD on they wanted to show Dave Matthew's up. It was so loud I had to roll down the windows and of course once that happens everyone else has the pleasure of hearing them sing as well. People were looking at me like I was crazy. What? You haven't seen a girl and her two Roo's before? I have never laughed so hard in my life. 


We made it to Louisiana easily. I was worried about integrating flocks. From what I have read it isn't  always such an easy thing with pecking order etc. But being that they were roosters I figured the Hens wouldn't bother them too much. I gave them a little rest for about an hour before the introduction and when the time was ready put them in their new coop. Everything went smoothly, the boys strutted around like they owned the place, and everyone was happy. I seriously couldn't have imagined how beautiful this transition could have gone. I am happy they are together, happy they are in good hands, and I am happy I will still able to see them any time I want.  

Their new yard 

Lucky, the pet deer(found on the street after being hit by a car as a baby)
Now has steel rod in his leg and loves cookies. 

Henry trying out the new roost 

Struttin' Sonny

This one smells kinda funny right?

"No seriously Claire, this one smells weird." I must have said this 40 times a day every day while holding Henri.
Seriously, everytime I picked her up she smelled like she was in liver failure. Full of Ammonia. I know I know, most of you have never smelled this but if you have, you know it's not a pleasant aroma. So naturally I was concerned that my little Henri, the one who was picked on by the others(thats how little shit got her name) was in full blown liver failure. In the first few days I had them, I believed she wouldn't live longer than a week and my job was to try and give her the best life possible before she died all jaundiced, bloated, and stinky. I'm in the medical field, of course I always expect the worse.
Seriously Claire, "You don't smell this?" I asked every night when we would sit and hold them. Even though Henri  was on the verge of death she was always the one to jump out of the box first and say hi, always liked to snuggle under my chin, and even today is the first one to come up to me when I feed them in the morning. Mama's girl.
But the stink... Whew. The stink remained and for some some reason I had a feeling this girl was special.
She was so much smaller than the others for weeks and then one day she blossomed and finally started growing. Three weeks later than the others, she started to get her tail feathers.  I thought the others were somehow pecking them off or that the liver failure was causing some sort of stunted growth. Little did I know that these two defining characteristics would make her more special than I could ever imagine.
One day the smell disappeared and I knew she was going to make it. She was doing well. eating fine, growing like crazy, getting the prettiest saddle feathers and growing a much larger and redder comb than the others. 
"What the hell was that noise?" Holy Crap. It was coming from the laundry room where they were brooding. The most immature effort filled crow I have ever had the privilege of hearing was escaping through the door. I walked in and right in my face, Henri showed me how proud she was of her new acquired skill. I raced to the feed store and asked the lady how likely it was that my sexed pullet (female chicken) could in fact be a rooster and the famous last words, "give it a little more time Sweetie" were born. 1% chance she said. 
I gave it a little more time, went through a few stages of denial, wished my 1% good fortune would win the lottery, and realized why my Henri was special from the beginning.  Henri was now my Henry. A beautiful rooster who has perfected his crowing skills, who protects the girls, and is still Mama's boy. 

Did I mention he has a brother?  Oh yeah good times. 

My two Americauna's Little S(hit) and Sonny are straight run. Meaning they were not sexed at the hatchery and had a fifty percent chance of being male or female. I took my chances with these two. 

The other day as I was walking to the coop to feed the girls and boys, I heard Henry crowing. I opened the coop door and to my astonishment it was't Henry. It was sweet, gentle little Sonny as proud and as loud as can be.  I couldn't believe it. TWO roosters. 

As much as I want to keep these two and as much as my heart breaks to have to re-home them, the neighbors are getting restless. When I first got them I thought I would be able to cull them(kill them in a nice, humane, and peaceful way) if I ended up with any roosters. I have become so attached to them and feel so maternal since raising them from a day old that there is absolutely no way I can do it to these two. 

Luckily, my Dad who lives on a farm in Louisiana was looking for a rooster or two. On friday, I am sadly going to bring them to their new home. I am thankful I will be able to keep them together  and see them regularly when I visit. I never in my life could have imagined it would be this hard.  

 

Long time, No talk.................

Whew....been awhile.
Took a lovely trip to Park City, Utah  last week. The landscape was three hundred and sixty degrees different than here in Austin. It snowed all day every day. The thought of a vegetable garden and spring planting didn't even cross my mind. The most we worried about for four days was whether the hot tub was going to reach 104 degrees.  Our main goal was to rejuvenate our tired, somewhat out of shape ski muscles so we could hit the powder again and again. Good skiing, good family, good food. I couldn't ask for a better weekend(Thanks Mom and Mike).


The last 6 days since I have been back have been a blur. I ended up rotting in the box(blah...work) for four days straight and ended up being sick a few days(neurotransmitter withdrawal....good times). Today was a beautiful day and I was able to get out for a bit and get all my spring planting done. I planted my cucumbers, beans, peppers, tomatoes(15 varieties). Still too early for okra and a few squash varieties but other than that we are good to go.


The girls/ 2 boys(I promise story coming soon) are doing great. Barb, my oldest barred rock should be laying soon. Next up is building a fenced in area for them to run in. No more free ranging for these crazy birds. The other day when I was planting a few herbs they all got together and ambushed me. I swear. They could have taken out everything I planted in 2 minutes.......luckily I was able to corral them back into their coop, where they have stayed, giving me dirty looks daily, since the attack.


Here's a few pics of what the boxes are looking like.......................