My Wish Came True

These are not my hands. They are of some unfortunate soul's which I found on the internet.

You will never find me getting that up close and personal with maggot looking things like that. I am a bit too squeamish for worms like that. There was an entire chapter, in my seventh grade biology book about parasitic worms (You know tape worms, heart worms, and hook worms) every time I turned to a few graphic images I would feel sick to my stomach about almost pass out (just so you know I never opened by biology books in high school or college, didn’t need to I am that smart!) However, its ironic that when I look in the compost pile today I got excited when I found these larvae. They are the larvae form of the black soldier fly and they’re compost eating machines. It’s great that they are in the compost bin, but I still want the contraption that harvests the larvae so that I could feed them to the chickens.

The larvae in my compost bin. Also notice the beautiful purple and orange carrots which were harvested from the garden.

Our first watermelon (Moon and Stars). It's just not ready, yet!

The tomatoes are coming along with their little stinkbug friends.

The cherry tomatoes remind me of little bells.

Chicken Tractor 1.0

Finally! Mike finished building the chicken tractor. Which is only one thing on the to-do list.

• Build chicken tractor
• Make both a gravity fed waterer and a feeder out of 5 gallon buckets for chicks
• Weed garden :/
• Mow around the garden and walking paths. Although I don’t know of to operate those machines. Perhaps this is something mike will have to do for me.
• Build tomato cages. I think I counted 32 tomato plants without cages… eek!!
• Collect cow manure to add to compost bins
• Make sauerkraut
• Determine if the carrots are ready to be harvested
• Research how to save seeds for the green beans

Here it is, Chicken Tractor 1.0

The hose/rope in front is what we pull the tractor with.

The tin sides will keep the chicks protected from the elements while still allowing fresh air to flow through.

Of course they are still given access to their normal chick feed but also able to forage grass and bugs by themselves.

Eventually the barred rocks (black laying chickens) will be separate from the Cornish Cross (white meat birds). There is an incredible size difference between the two breeds.

Benvolio is chewing on my first cucumber of the season

This is a baby Marketmore cucumber. Isn't it cute with the little spikes? They are very tender the mild tasting. I guess I am use to eating the grocery store varieties which are bland compared.

So, silly me. I didn't realize that the little spikes stay on as they are adult cucumbers. Be careful when picking them or wear gloves.

I already looked up sauerkraut recipes.

Chickens love worms

When the chickens get old enough they will be put out to pasture. They will have the freedom to forage for their own worms and bugs all day long. However, right now they are confined to the brooder. I thought it might be nice to give the chicks a sneak peak for their future life outdoors. I predict there will be mass panic when they are first put in their chicken tractor, glorious mass panic over bugs.

Chicken/Garden Update

The sweet garden peas are maturing on the trellis. I planted other types of peas on the same trellis so when the first vines are exhausted new vines should be sprouting up.I

A lot has happened now that this is constantly warm weather and we have the baby chicks. First off, I have eaten a lot of green beans. It seems like almost everyday I could pick a pound and not all the plants are producing beans yet! It’s a good thing that I love green beans. I can eat them straight from the garden, Instead of buying them frozen from the grocery store.

The night before this mold/fungus was bright orange and has little "hairs". The next day this is what it looked like. Notice the red goo oozing out of the middle.

Some of our cabbages are heading nicely with little damage from bugs. In this case I think the flour remedy worked.

But not all cabbages were so lucky.

We are using a minimal amount of pesticides. I don't want to, but I gave the natural method a good shot. It didn't work as well as I hoped so I am going to try using this stuff. I will reiterate, we are using minimal amounts of pesticides. We are dusting only the cabbages and not using a lot. Perhaps we will use the flour method again in a week or so.

Sorry for the blurry picture, it's very hard to focus with macro with that particular camera. Anyways, these are some cherry tomatoes.

Mike is working on building the chicken tractor.

Benvolio is enjoying his new country life. I always felt bad about having him inside all the time because he has such strong natural instincts to hunt. In fact the reason I picked Benny from the others in his litter was he was so feisty, he was climbing upside-down on the top of his cage.

I am so proud of him.

I like to think of him as a guard cat. Although, it's a good thing the top of the cage is secure.

And the chicks are growing wonderfully. Look at his wings and his tail feathers.

In a few more weeks the broilers will be ready to be sold and slaughtered, just in time for the 4th of July. If anyone is currently interested in purchasing a bird. Please contact either Mike or I. We are not ready to set the price or a date for pick up but we will appreciate your interest and keep you in mind when we are ready. If there is enough interest from people in Atlanta we may make a special trip.

The Chicks Have Arrived

Very redundant statement

This morning at 7:30am we got a call from the post office to pick up our little chicks. The woman told us to go to the back door but then they would not open to door for us. Anyways, we got the chicks, 27 cornish X and 13 Barred rocks. Crackle Hatchery sent us the extra chicks just in case some did not survive the journey. Now they are set up and just doing their little chick thing.

The hatchery is racist, separating them by color... jk

First you must dip their beaks in the water.

These buggers started eating from the moment I took them out

Mike built the Fort Knox of brooders. No one will escape!

I guess there is not much to do with chicks except watch them grow.

Inspiration

I wish that I knitted to that I could buy some of her yarn!

This man owns the company that I bought most of my seeds from. He seems geeky, but geeky in a cool way.

This woman is the anarchist of urban farming

From somewhere outside Louisiana, a lovable old fat man. There is something hypnotizing about his videos.

Mike playing with the Benz… I guess him, and Miss Athena, are my mouths to feed!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

The garden on the first of May. In the forground it is all pepers and it the back from left to right is; cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, beans, tomatoes.

This will be our first harvest, Beans! They don't taste good yet, but give them a few more days.

Mikes basil is doing wonderful. Once our tomatoes come in we could make a margarita pizza!

One day these will be pomegranates!

Such a pretty bloom

I think mike would make a comment about the 5 pointed star.

Good thing you can still get a snack from the garden without your wisdom teeth.

I am sorry that some of the photos are focused the best it could. Mikes camera does not have manual focus so its difficult to take very nice pictures. My dream camera will have a sensitive manual focus and a macro lens.