Twins

We've been getting one to eggs a day now and it looks like we have a pretty strong twin gene in one of the producers.

And here we have a triple yolk, which I've never seen nor heard of before. It's an interesting thing, but I hope it doesn't become regular like the doubles. I'd rather have more eggs, less yolks.

The hens escaped the other day and after ranging around a bit, one by one they all wandered back into the coop. So we thought we'd let them free range yesterday, as we were doing some work out there, but ti was challenging to get them out on purpose. Ginger and Carmine came out first and wandered around together, pretty far afield. VDub and Crashy wandered in and out a bit. Ms Dash-Alot and Dot popped out once and went right back. They are in general the most nervous birds, but some of it could have to do with the dog incident.

We've got a lot of green beans and lettuce right now. The garlic is all out and we got this amazing huge, tall garlic from the farmers market yesterday which we're going to try and plant in the fall for spring harvest. The mystery squash in the compost pile are a little less of a mystery. Two of them are definitely spagetti squash, while the other two may even be some kind of melon, perhaps watermelon. They are getting large and round and speckled green. I may just have to sacrifice one to see what it is. I can always give it to the chickens.

We're planning out additional beds, trying to figure out where they should go and what type they should be - regular, raised, coldframe, east west, north south, yikes. But I'm going to try and get some initial turning done today since we had a huge rain last night and the ground is good and soft. That way we might be able to get it all tilled on thursday.

Yesterday we got an egg with a perfect hard shell finally. I checked in the morning before I left and there was nothing, but M checked later before he left and found one in the egg hole. So I think we are successfully getting eggs and they are actually laying in the boxes and the eggs are actually rolling back into the compartment now that they are hard enough. Wow.

Then today, I checked this morning and nothing, but just now another perfect hard egg. So I guess our gals are daytime layers for now. But at least we aren't getting anymore soft shell eggs. Who knows, we may get more when all the hens start laying, as I'm not sure they are all at the same maturity level since we have three different breeds. But since we are on the correct feed now, maybe the later layers will have an easier time of it.

This morning we had two shmooshed eggs. One on the ground and one on the wire. Hopefully as they harden this won't be as much of a problem. I'm a little worried that they may get in the habit of pecking at the eggs, but we'll have to wait and see.

The chickens are truly determined to roost on the roof. Even though I blocked the whole roof from all sides, the two Wyandotts managed to push through the second section of the roof which is not really attached just laid on top of the first section. So I had to mull over the situation again, and hopefully I have it fixed this time. Otherwise I may need to start from scratch on the boxes. I think if it doesn't go, we will just build an external box where the egg door is. That way they get the full window back, they can't possibly roost on top and we already have a hole ready to go.

Harvested some beans and lettuce. The lettuce is definitely on the way out, almost all of the heads are bolting. Lots of weeding still to do. The middle beds succession of beans is coming up.

Actually got to eat some raspberries today. They were small but sweet. I think we may need to water that bed a little more as they are ripening now. Milo ate most of them, and was sad to see there were not more ready. But good things come to those who wait, and it's worth not having to pay $10 a pound for them.

Our cucumbers are starting to get big on a couple plants. We have several varieties so not all are at the same stage. We managed to get the trellis all ready to go, so they can climb to their hearts content. The tomatoes are producing fruit pretty well, lots of little green guys. I hope we are ready for the avalanche when it comes. We have good plans, but who knows how it will work. We'll get a good feel this year for how many plants really make sense for a small family. We're mostly planning on making and freezing sauce and paste and hopefully having a solar drier ready to go for the romas. The peppers are still looking fairly petit, but they do have flowers on them, so something is happening. Hopefully they will produce as well.

Well we've had a couple more eggs, but they have all been of the sad shmooshed variety. One was laid in the box, one out on the wire and one on the roof which fell off. I hope we don't have an egg pecking problem. It's hard to tell what's going on. I've blocked off the roof of the nests now, so they can't sit up there anymore. I feel a little bad about that, since they seem so happy and cozy up there, but hopefully they will transfer over to the roosts.

I finally fixed the door, with a pretty low key solution. Just a hook which attaches to the wire on the yard, plus a piece of coat hanger to lower it and raise it. Having the bar in the corner was warping the plywood and making it really difficult to close. We'll see what this does.

My last problem to solve is how to get the water off the floor. I now wish we would have put the hole for the stair over the door rather than the back wall. It would have given me more options in placing other attachments.

I have added a section to the feeder for the oyster shells, so they can self feed on that too. Plus we got some of the laying feed, which I just mixed in with the chick feed we still have left. I figure some of them are laying and some aren't, so no need to waste it. I also decided to get pellets rather than more crumble because they do seem to drop a lot of that and it's hard to pick up. The pellets are easier for the chickens to grab and should be easier for me to scoop up after we move the coop. I try to get as much of the waste crumbles as possible and use it for scratch in the yard.

The peas have come out and pole beans have gone in in their place to reuse the trellis. It's a little late, but hopefully we'll have a cooperative fall and get a good harvest. I plan on interplanting with bush beans where ever the poles don't come up since they have a much shorter harvest time. We've pulled some garlic, which is super hot and the lettuce is definately getting to its end with the hot weather. The heads are bolting and will need to be picked today or tomorrow or they'll be chicken feed, which isn't all bad.

WE HAVE EGG !!!

Yes, after a sad little shmooshed thin shelled egg yesterday, today we have the real deal and actually birthed in the nest box rather than on the roof. Luckily it looks like the hen (to remain anonymous) was in no way broody. They all hauled butt out of the coop when I opened up this morning. The egg is very cute and small, about the size of a golfball, but a lovely shade of brown with speckles.

We'll have to get some real laying feed now and some oyster shells for calcium suppliment. I was assured that they wouldn't start laying until 20-24 weeks but here we are at 15, so I'm a bit caught out on getting the real feed in the coop.

It has been quite an exciting day. We also had a bee swarm. The bees living in our tree in the middle of our yard were frantically flying all over the yard and leaving en mass from the hole. They re-congregated at the top of another tree close by, you can just see the clump in the center of the picture. Not sure why they do this, and hopefully it doesn't mean they are leaving all together, as it's nice to have them to pollinate our plants, especially with veggies blooming.

Today we'll be planting the pumpkins, so hopefully they can give us some fun in the fall.

The grapes and raspberries seem to be doing well. I may try to harvest some of the grapes this year rather than letting the birds have them all. We should probably get some netting on the raspberries before they start to ripen, so the birds don't get them all as well. The strawberries out front keep disappearing before they even ripen, stem and all. Oh well.

Today we witnessed a dragonfly frenzy. There had to have been twenty or thirty of them flying and dive bombing all over the farm. Since they are major mosquito eaters, the more the merrier for me. It was a quite amazing sight.

We're starting to lay out the next phase of beds. Cold frames to the north of the north bed, extending the north bed and the lettuce bed. Maybe putting in some raised beds along the fence by the tracks, since the soil there is kind of rocky, probably from when they built the raised rail bed.

We had a major monsoon this afternoon, high winds, pelting rain. When I went out to check the farm, it had actually blown over the potatoes and the beans. I was able to get the beans back upright and didn't think it was really a problem for the potatoes since they are underground.

It looks like it caused some sort of chicken freak out also. Two of the chicken were caught outside when I went to put them to bed. Somehow the door had dropped on them. And then when I checked inside to make sure everyone was in, the piece of carpet on the upper level that shelters the food from dropping poop was on the ground covered in dirt. The wind was really hard, so maybe there was some uplift. Luckily everyone looked to be OK, all shmooshed up on top of the nest boxes as usual.

I turned the compost today and the center of the pile was pretty hot, which I'm proud of. It means I'm mixing the greens and browns well enough and keeping it moist. There was some clumping, perhaps too many leaves, but that should work itself out in the mixing. I need to get a tarp over it to keep the moisture in and keep the pile cooking. I also need to make a sifter to fit the wheelbarrow.

I had to break the video into two parts so i could get the chickens out, which is not a particularly cinematic process and without a tripod, would have been a lowly affair. They are always ready and waiting to get out in the morning, especially since we don't always get to them early. This was about 10 am I think. Plus they are generally happy to see me because I usually bring some sort of treat. I'll either pull up something that is past its sell by date, mostly broccoli rabe right now, or bring some of the kitchen scraps. I hate wasting food, but at least it gets back to being food by either going into the compost pile to help grow other food or to the hens to help with future egg production.

Part two shows our three beds in the back, with lots going on right now. Potatoes are full guns, peas look like they are about to head out - getting too hot for them, melons and pumpkins are coming in. The carrots in the first bed are about to come out - they look good but don't taste as great as they could, I've heard carrots are a hard thing to get great. We'll have to do some experimenting, both with soil amendments and with types. We have some leaf mold, which is supposed to be great for carrots, so we'll put that into the bed they'll go into next year and let it overwinter.

The bush beans are flowering so we should see some beans in the next month and the lima beans are going a bit crazy. They have a bit of a learning curve. I picked one that looked big to me, but when we opened it up it was all fluff and tiny beans, so I think they have to be bigger than I think to be done. The broccoli has been pretty good this year, we get heads with some secondary small ones after the initial cutting. Last year all I got was these gigantic prehistoric looking leaves and one tiny little head. That was also the summer of the late plant and the ignoring of the garden due to the baby. So that may have had something to do with it.

The lettuce has been an amazingly abundant crop. Part of it was that we were a little over enthusiastic in our initial planting, and then the weather has been so weird and coastal like, which lettuce love. We'll see what happens, now that real Colorado weather has returned.

I can't say how excited I am about the asparagus bed. First I thought I had totally screwed it up by following the somewhat mystical direction on the package. I'm not sure why I didn't just stop and get one of our many books and double check how I should do it. A bit of Mommy brain I guess. But they are pretty hardy plants and managed to get themselves above ground even though I planted them sideways and probably too deep. It'll be another two years before we get a real crop but we should be able to take a small amount next year. This is just my kind of vegetable, plant it once and with a little water and attention get twenty years of produce.