Freedom Ranger two weeks

The little rangers are growing fast, similar to their counterparts, the Cornish Cross. I took a little longer to put them into shavings. Today is their first real experience with the shavings in their environment. They like it. I have moved the warmer up weekly and they are chunkier than I anticipated.  They are kind of skittish.  I think I need to spend more time working with them so that we won't be stuck chasing them around in the rain when it comes time to prepare.

Rangers are Growing Fast - 17 days old

Pecking in the wood shavings

They are getting wings and tails

Ten weeks without Rain

The last rain we had in our area was June 17 and it was about one-half inch. Yesterday and last night, we had rain.  Not a lot. Not enough to get through the leaves on the trees, but enough to cause humidity to increase.  The past five days, the temps at night have been dropping into the 50s and it has been more cloudy.  The temps dropped quickly from the 90s mid-day to the 70s and 60s at mid-day. So obviously the weather has changed, at least for now, to a fall-like late summer.

This year, a record was broken for the number of 90+ days in the year.  So far, we have had 30 days, albeit, not in a row.  

My fall plantings are all up with pix below.  My cuks are doing well enough and it looks like we will get a total of five cucumbers from the two plants.  My bell peppers are being harvested. We pulled 16 additional cobs from the corn with another 10, or so, left to grow, if they do.  With the sudden cool down, it is unlikely that they will get much larger. The chickens will get those.

With the sudden cooldown, I have pulled the tomatoes, peppers and lettuce into the green house so that the cool nights don't stop them in their tracks. The fall plantings will appreciate this cooler weather and should do just fine.

Cucumbers with rain drops	Fall Carrot Starts
Fall Cilantro Starts	Fall Lettuce Starts
Fall Spinach Starts	Red and Yellow Bell Peppers

August is Harvesting the Rewards

We are pulling ripe plants and fruits as they appear mature. Sometimes, we are a little too early, but, that happens when we can't see what's inside.

First of all it is strawberry runner time.  Strawberries will send out runners across the ground and "replant" themselves.  However, because we have ours in pots, we can bring bags of dirt up to the runner to simulate the event.  This is how we do it.  We do not cut the runner until the roots take hold in the dirt. Then we need to keep the soil really wet to ensure that the new little plant survives. This is an easy peasy way to get new strawberry plants for next spring.

Strawberry runner in fresh dirt for root growth.

Let the new growth peek above the soil keeping it wet.

A new plant on its own

I harvested 1/2 pound of green beans from our first plant. It is on the downhill side of producing. However, of the other two bean plants that I replanted, one has survived and is now thriving, so we may have more beans later in the fall!  This is the first harvest of the carrots.  There will be another in about two weeks to finish off that planting.  The fall harvest will likely be in early October. Tomatoes continue to ripen and the few apples that we have this year are ready. The other harvest is the corn. Can you tell what we will be having for dinner tonight?

Today's harvest from green bean bush	One-Half of the Carrots planted
Tomatoes and part of a ripe apple	CORN!
Sweet 100s	More the sweet 100s

As you can see, we do NOT plant a lot of anything that we grow.  We do not see any reason to over plant because we hate to be wasteful plus it takes up precious space. Some things will be dried for use later in the year, like herbs. Oregano that I totally cut back last month and thinned out is coming back in force, so we will get a third harvest this fall. Also, it is time to cut the dill flowers for drying. I keep topping the basil so that we continue to have a fresh supply all summer.  I LOVE a little fresh basil on my hamburgers. I have dried some basil for cooking this winter. This year I used a clean fry pan screen set on top of a colander. In the photo below, I outlined some of the dried leaves that will be thrown out because those leaves that turn a funky color tend to be bitter. 

Oregano Fall Reboot

Dill Flowers & Basil

Drying Basil

Prepping for Early Fall

We have our fall babies a month early because it takes them a little longer to grow to full size than the Cornish Cross.  This fall we are experimenting with raising Freedom Rangers.  My understanding is that they are a hybrid of a European meat chicken with an American meat chicken, but I have no clue which chicken breeds are used. I have read positive things and negative things.  Since we only have a few we will be able to see for ourselves whether they are more expensive, more time consuming, and how the meat tastes. 

Freedom Ranger Chicks - 4 days old

We're into the fall planting for the carrots, spinach and cilantro.  I picked up some more lettuce seeds too, for the next planting but I'll wait a few more weeks on that. The current lettuce is great and since we have them in buckets, we can move it into the shade in the afternoon to cut down on the heat induced bolt factor. Bell Peppers are finally getting ripe as are the tomatoes.  It is all coming together, finally. 

Day-time temps are still higher than usual, plus this week, we have had very bad air with high smoke particulate count. It is hard to breathe. Not sure yet how that will impact the plants or the birds. 

Leaf Lettuce Mix in Buckets
Red Bell Pepper	Yellow Bell Pepper slightly deformed
Baby Cucumbers	Just a few more inches until ready to eat.