They Proved Me Wrong! July 2023

I saw this Sail Tarp (Triangle Shade) online for a great price.  Marked down a lot, I'm assuming, because it's probably not purchased a lot? Instantly I loved it, because I could see great potential of using it for the ducks.  They would be able to hide under it quickly to get away from the hawks and owls that swoop over our field, looking for food. While I don't think they would ever attack my ducks, I know that those predators really scare my ducks. The ducks quickly scamper into their coop to hide.  I wanted to give them another option, while also giving them some shade, which would allow them the option to keep an eye on things without running into their coop. 

My tallest stakes are four feet, and no amount of "taunt" is enough to keep the center of the tarp from drooping.  At the lowest point, the tarp dips to 2.5 feet from the ground. My ducks are all about 2 feet tall.  I honestly never thought that they would hang out under the tarp with it being so close to their heads.  But, nonetheless, I put the tarp up inside their pen to at least get them accustomed to the tarp as a non-threatening object, until I have the taller stakes to lift the tarp higher. 

So, today, after about a week, the ducks have proved me wrong.  They will and do go under the tarp for shade. First I saw Indigo, then shortly after that, I saw Diego and Sparks, and then finally saw Toast hanging out under the tarp, in the shade. Today is not a hot day, by any stretch of the imagination but , yah, they are using it. Wish they had been braver earlier when we had temps in the high nineties, but, hey, that's just the way animals are. 

I started most of my garden pretty late this year.  So, I have been really thankful that our hot days didn't burn the plants. We are getting some quick growth from our little crops. Corn, the most.  I need to take a moment to really weed around them, but the stalks have really grown a lot in the last few weeks of warmer weather. 

August 2020 - Garden and Chick Updates

July weather definitely helped with our garden, although the last week of July was sweltering. I had to start protecting the tomatoes to keep them from getting sun scald. Aside from that, the tomato wind guard area seems to be working out fine.  While I had originally planned on setting the bell pepper plants in that area, it's just not wide enough.  I will need to rethink it if I do this next year. 

The cucumbers are FINALLY doing their thing.  The first planting didn't survive.  The 2nd planting barely survived, but I didn't think they would, so I did a third planting... they also survived, but we will see it it was too late to get any cucumbers from them. At least we are getting some cucumbers at this point. 

Acorn squash. First try. Finally starting to get female buds.  For about three weeks, there were only male.  I just read that as soon as the male flowers start showing up, to put a dose of fertilizer on the plant to encourage the females to form. Then watch closely, the color of the leaves.  Keep them from turning yellow by regularly feeding the plants. We will see how this turns out. 

Corn survived!  The last time we had a summer like we had in June, my corn did not survive the month.  This year, instead of trying to start them outside, I kept them in the greenhouse under a light and that seemed to do the trick. I pulled all the tillers off this year and this past week, have added a dose of bone meal to help with corn development.  We should have some corn in another couple of weeks!

 

All onion are pulled and most have been cut up and dried. Pulled enough bush string beans to freeze for three meals. Plan to do that with the corn this year, too.  

Have pulled most of the broccoli florets off to keep them from bolting. Cauliflower heads are finally starting to form.  I have not grown cauliflower since the 1980s. I can't remember how long it takes.  This has been a very LONG time, it seems. 

Bell peppers have been attacked by bugs this year.  They are doing better, but not as well as I would like.  I think it is also a weather situation. This photo is a Sandpiper pepper.  Curious to see what it tastes like. 

Basil replant took hold.  I normally can't get basil to come up in July because it is usually too hot by that time. But the June weather really took a toll on a lot of my starts. It will probably be a late August before I can start harvesting dill and basil.  I'll take what I can get. 

The Cornish Cross Chicks came in on Wednesday this past week (July 29).  The last batch of Rhode Island Reds, Barred Rock and the Blue Plymouth showed up on Friday (July 31).  Lots of new chicks and their cute little peeps are in the garage. 

Red Clovers and Pullets Update July 2020

Gardening is finally full on. Took some time and persistance with the crazed weather and temps. But corn is three feet tall now, just starting tassels and I have put the last dose of manure on them before I switch over to the bone meal and potassium. I pulled about 30 apples, either sick looking, had worms or there were simply too many in a bunch.  I think there will be about 70 left to harvest later. I threw those apples into the compost pile. Sun has been too hot for the tomatoes so I now have a shade cloth for mid to late afternoon, then I take it off after 5 as the peak heat has hit and the sun is headed west. The clover that we planted in the first batch is nice and lush. I'm happy with it. 

Red Clover, Red Clover, Send.... 

Pullets, are just about ready to start laying.  These ladies are super friendly. Love their treats. I need to concoct some type of nesting boxes for them.  I'm hoping that the square buckets that I ordered will be large enough.  

I'm speculating that the Rhodes will being the first or second week of August, while the Barred may not start laying until the end of August or even the first of September.  We reallyl don't know their hatching dates, so that will make it a bit harder to determine their ages when they start. 

We moved them onto fresh grass last night, and they seem quite happy with the fresh cool blades of grass under their feet.  The Barred are super smart and curious. They are a fun breed to have. Collectively, they are a bonded flock now, but there is still a special connection between the two Barred Rock within the flock. 

Barred Boot Inspection	Rhode Boot Inspection
My Good Buddy Barr	I Want Pets too
Rhodie Buddies	Curled Neck Feathers
Barred Buddies	A check in
A different check in	All check in

Testing a Temporary Tomato Greenhouse July 2020

Two of the most difficult factors of growing tomatoes in our area is 1) wind, and 2) rain.  If we can keep the disease away, the bugs will usually also stay away. But the rain both over waters the roots and damages the leaves, while the wind will whip them around until they fall over on the ground. I don't want to put the tomatoes in the soil because of the underground pests that I have to also contend with. So keeping them in the five gallon buckets works best. This year, we dug some holes to put the buckets into to help keep the roots cooler during the hottest days and so that we do not need to water too much. I want to have them outside rather than in the greenhouse because it is too difficult to regulate temperatures (heat) in the greenhouse.  

The greenhouse is great in the spring and fall, but not in the summer. So, I created a temporary outdoor greenhouse space facing the south that allows the air to flow easier, protect the plants from the worst of the winds, and I can easily cover when it rains. So far, so good. I used PVC for the North wall with clear vinyl table protectors.  It is spendy, but allows the sun unobscured access to the plants in the greenhouse. On the west and south walls, which are about three feet tall, I used the milky clear plastic sheeting (cheap stuff) more to protect from the winds, allows some light to get through, and can be adjusted easily when I need to throw shade cloth or plastic over them to protect from the intense sun and/or the rains. 

I do need to lay down a bit more black plastic to keep the weeds back since it can't be mowed in there. It's a work in progress.  but the fact that I have some actual tomato fruit started has me super excited. There are 10 small tomatoes on the two taller plants.  I plan to keep them topped out at about 3 feet in hopes of promoting stronger branches. 

As I mentioned, I wanted something temporary in this build because I don't want to put the time and resources into something permanent if this isn't really going to help with the tomatoes. We dont' have the best or consistant tomato growing seasons, (like this year) so if I can figure out a way to improve my tomato crops in our region, and that does not cost a lot of money to do, that's my mission. If this works, I have a plan of action for next year to build a better space on the south side of my green house that is "outside" and better for my tomatoes. 

Tomato Space from the East	Tomato space from the West
Some actual Fruit!

Early June Garden Updates 2020

I truly don't have as much planted as I hoped.  We have had some rather crazy weather. But plants are happening, little by little.

On May 30, there were thunder storms and downpours.  So I covered the most delicate of the plants to keep them from getting knocked down.

Protecting beans, broccoli and cauliflower	Protecting Corn
Protecting Onions and Garlic

Monday was great. I was able to get the tomatoes transplanted into buckets. This year, we are going to put the buckets into the ground (as shown in photos below) and put plastic tarps and bark mulch around the buckets so that we don't have to mow around them, and can protect them from the winds and rains during the summer months.

Comparison of plants	Cloned Starts are almost 3x larger
Keep Ants/Slugs away from Strawberries	Corn was started inside this year!
Oregano thriving 2nd Cutting	Potatoes starting to bud/bloom
Creeping Rosemary transplanted

Garden & Chicks - Early May Update 2020

Yes, still have a lot of chicks.

Lost a few small ones and nursed a couple more that seem to be doing better.  Yesterday, one of the little Rhode Island Reds cut her head, right behind her ear and others were picking on her.  They were chasing her away from food and I thought we were going to lose her. Washed her little face off and isolated her in a separate cage inside the pen, to ensure that she was able to eat, drink, and sleep.  Within a few hours, she was alert and ready to go back. The others didn't pick on her anymore and all seemed better.  Then, today, I noticed one of the Barred Rock chicks had pasty butt.  It still had food in it's crop, and was still eating, so I think I caught it early. I had to soak the chick in a pan of warm water to  get the poop off.  Holding it on a warm washcloth just wasn't doing a thing and the cloth just kept getting cold. Within a minute of putting the chick's butt into the water, the pooh released and fell off into the water. I wrapped her up into a little wash cloth and held her on my chest to keep her warm until I found the hair dryer.  Set that up about eight inches away and let it blow on her until she was all dry. Wasn't even ten minutes because she's so small. Put her back with the others, and she went right to the food and started eating. Fingers crossed on both of them.

We decided to add an extra feeder into the pen and put the other warmer into the pen.  That's been a big hit. Plus, every day is Sheet Cleaning Day with this many chicks.  I try to change the sheets every day simply because, well, there are a lot of little poopers in there all at the same time. Normally, I can wait about three days between changes. But not now!

24 hours of pooh from 16 chicks

The baby RIRs are starting to fly and jump over things. That's a good sign that we are about ready for shavings.  BUT, the baby BRs are not quite there yet.  They seem to be about three or four days behind the RIRs at this point.  When we got them, the RIRs were much smaller than the BRs.  Now the BRs are much smaller and somewhat delayed in abilities.  It's all good, but I would like to have them all in shavings at this point so I won't need to keep washing sheets.

The other BRs finally figured out their dust bath!  It was almost full and now it is almost empty.  They are mite and lice free at this point with just a few nits left. I am still keeping the heater going as that will help those nits hatch and fall into the DE.  One more week and I will clean out the entire cage to ensure we have all mites and lice out of there, and put all fresh stuff in there and we should be back on track, pest free. These BRs have gained weight and have more feathers, so they look much better.

4 or 5 wk Barred Rock Pullets

Dust Bath Emptied

In the greenhouse, we have tomatoes, bell peppers, cilantro and lettuce.  I had transplanted the plants from the nursery into gallon milk jugs because they were getting root bound in the containers. They were doing really well outside until the storms came in and started pelting them.  One of the bell peppers got the most damage, so they are back in the greenhouse for now.

Cherokee Purple Tomato Clones

Sweet Bell Pepper Clones

My starts, from seed in March, are finally looking good.  The lettuce also is doing very well.  I have three types of leaf lettuce.  The cilantro just sprouted this week. I will need to thin that out.

My Itty Bitty Starts are Growing

Potatoes are finally looking good. Strawberries are still blooming. Peas  (planted on two weeks apart three times) are all doing very well. The marjoram that I started last fall in the green house, then struggled to keep the bugs from killing it, is actually thriving. Last winter, I just took the pot outside and figured I would just start over in the spring. But it just came back on its own. Go Figure?

Cilantro Sprouts	Leaf Lettuce - unknown type
Leaf Lettuce - Red Sails	Topped Off Potatoes with Soil
Strawberries still blooming	Marjoram Revived itself
Peas Planted 2wks apart

And lastly, the clover seed that we sprinkled out last week has already sprouted. We tried to dig out all the thistles that had taken over some areas of the back yard and it looks like the clover is going to fill it all in.  So today, we scrapped out some areas that were filled with moss in the shade to see how long that will take.  Little by little.  I purchased 10 pounds of seed, so we have lots of areas to experiment and see how it does.

Crimson Clover Sprouts