More poking

I blame Henny.
She's a bit of a pecker.
She's now pecked two eggs in her life enough to puncture through the shell and the membrane. Today she just happened to peck one of the hatching eggs. Thanks jerkface. 

When I told a friend who knows me really well, she responded "by jerk [you] really mean sweet!"

So today I got to break a day 6/7 egg.

I was a little more careful breaking this one... did I mention the watery whites? I may have gotten squirted last time. Sadly Henny's pecking had broken the yolk sac too. This one was actually dead.

The yolk mixed with the whites making things harder to see this time. But if you google day 6 or 7 images of a chick's development. .. you'll literally get the picture.

I fed it to Ruebendog.
I should have thought quickly though... he lapped up all the goo, I totally could have gotten a better look at the egg alien before it too was licked out of the bowl.

Get me my poking stick.

Warning: vegans and some squeamish vegetarians may want to skip this post. Farmers and sciencey folks will be happy.

So I toy back and forth with the idea of eating my laying birds in the fall and buying new layers in the spring. With a tiny flock like mine, financially it works out to be about the same- $35 to feed the girls through the winter, or about the same to pick up 3 ready to lay birds in the spring... and I wouldnt have to spend time fighting a losing battle with ice and snow to keep them happy.
Two things hold me back, Cheepers is way more pet than potential food... the second reason is related, if I'm standing on principle that the birds are pets not livestock for the bylaw changes, I probably shouldn't eat the rest of my "pets" (until the changes to the bylaw happen.... )

Anyway, last week I decided to try hatching some eggs under my broody Cheepers. I got some fertilized eggs from the Mack's farm and marked them with a pencil before putting them under her.
That was Wednesday night.
I was clear that I took too many eggs early on. When one of the other girls would lay an egg, Cheepers would scoop it up too... pushing out one of the fertilized eggs from under her to make room. I took away one of the eggs the first day. Ruebendog ate it.

Sunday night I went out to the coop to get the eggs that had been layed that day, when I reached in the nest box I found that Cheepers had managed to scoop all three new eggs, and one of the hatching eggs was pushed aside. Cold.
No sense in leaving a now dead egg in the nest... it would just stink if I left it too long, so I brought it inside for Rueben,  figuring it would have a gross red spot in it, but he wouldn't care.

I failed to realize how quickly eggs develop.

I mean. Eggs are amazing.
They get layed,  and if they are fertilized they stop developing if the temperature drops below 80... and they just sit in stasis until the temperature goes back up. This means mamma hen can lay an egg every day for a few days, then get broody and sit on those eggs... And they'll all hatch on the same day!!!

So. My eggs were layed on Wednesday by a number of different birds, they were sat on Wednesday night... Sunday night...
4 days in (5 if you count that they were laid that morning and didn't really drop too far in temperature)

The first thing I noticed when I cracked the cold dead egg was that the white had changed consistency.  It was really runny. Like water. When it dropped into the dog dish I realized two other things.... I had no idea how long it took for a chick to develop... there in the dish was a tiny chick shaped blob about two millimeters in size... with a giant eyeball, and two bright red veins that reached well out into the white of the egg...

So gross.

So of course I poked at it.

About a second later I realized that a cold egg doesn't mean it's a dead egg.

At 5 days it had a heart.

A light fluttering heart making those tiny veins pulse.

I freaked out and fed it to the dog.

Be still beating heart.

The worst part is... I want to break open all the eggs one by one now to see how far they've developed each day.

adventures in urban homesteading. (or) the time I lost my shit.

(apologies for my language...I drop the f-bomb a lot when I'm mad)

I'm going into my 3rd winter with Chickens in town.
I could go on and on about ideas around building the perfect chicken coop- VENTILATION, basic chicken care, and about how frickin' fantastic watching those bumbling featherbutts can be... but I won't... come and ask me questions some time.
My coop is the most hobo-built-redneck creation out there. It's built out of spare pieces of wood and parts off an old rabbit cage (Norty's old cage). It's been great- located inside my shed it's been mostly preditor proof- last fall a set of raccoon prints appeared on the lower side of the coop inside the shed, but the little guy never returned.
And there was the run-in with the fox this summer that made off with 2 of my meat birds, but that was a small run out in the yard, not the coop...

Last night I went to bed early- I've done a string of day shifts, and I find that getting things done and out the door before 7am is hard work... I fell asleep by 9:30 and was sound asleep in my own bed by 10.... at midnight I heard the chickens screaming.

I fumbled around and found a house coat in the dark (because I still haven't bothered to plug the lamp back in under my bed!) and went running out... three of the girls were in the run... Darlene was screaming bloody murder...The girls are never in the run at night- unless the coop door has blown shut and locked them out. So I run into the shed... and come face to face with 4 young raccoons! one took off right away and I never saw it again... one was in the coop eating an egg, and two others climbed up ontop of the coop.

I did what any chicken farmer would do.

I grabbed my broom and started playing raccoon baseball. I whacked the heck outta them- I shoved them, I hissed at them. I yelled (several times) "you mother fuckers get out of my fucking chicken coop!'

What did they do? They took it! One just sort of rolled his eyes at me while I swung at him. Oh, I made contact- once or twice the broom was bitten. Eventually I chased them out of the shed- they ended up on the roof. I could hear them pacing above me, so I went outside and started beating them again- one climbed into the run- where the girls started pecking at him.

This is likely where someone might have called the SPCA on me, because I grabbed the wooden pole that I use to prop open the run door and took a few swings at the beastie. In frustration (because I couldn't reach the jerks on the roof) I had thrown the broom at the coons while I spat out every swear word I've ever learned, so the pole made a great replacement.

It's still on the roof (the broom I mean).

The wooden pole was heavy- I couldn't swing it at the coons on the roof, and it was only 3 feet long. So I switched to the bamboo poles from the garden, at 5 feet long they make an amazing switch... and I could reach the peak of shed roof from the ground.

For the next half hour I ran from one side to the other of the shed, whipping raccoons. I was not gentle... but they seemed to think it was a joke.... till I climbed on the roof of the run and got on the roof of the shed and tried to play raccoon golf.

Finally I'd hit them in the head often enough that the decided to (slowly) leave.
They climbed down onto the fence... where I hit them some more.
Then they climbed over the side of the fence into the neighbour's side- still hanging onto the lattice of the fence.  I spent some time jabbing them in the stomach with my bamboo pole. That pissed them off and they fell off the fence- one fell off the fence and got stuck, that was pretty much the best moment of the night... I may have been laughing manicly at that point. I only stopped when I heard myself loudly say "take that mother fuckers!"

I also realized at that point that my housecoat wasn't done up, and that I was still wearing my mouth guard.

Awesome. Thank goodness I live on a quiet street.





epilogue: I chased the coons again around 3am. No chickens were (seriously) harmed. Tonight I built a cage inside the coop to house the girls till I can do some serious repairs to the side of my delapitated old shed. Vacation/shed repairs start next Monday if anyone would care to join me.

peep peep

I had a super visit with the Mackattacks this morning. 

I may have a spinning buddy! 

There was chasing and wrestling of sheep, some donkey scratches and kisses, eye to eye with a beautiful peacock, and a wicked game of tag between a red squirrel and the blue jays... which of course led to singing "green forrest". 

A very lovely morning.

AND, I brought home some hatching eggs. 

I'm very excited about the idea of hatching some chicks, and my girls are the broodiest birds in the land. "Start sitting on the nest the first week of August and never come off? Don't mind if I do!" Said two of my hens.... Until about 4 days ago. Which is good, Maria especially needed to get off the nest... but 4 days before I get my first hatching eggs??? 

Really?

I mean... really?

-made a comment about the lack of winter and the hate of "rainy season".... so of course it's freezing rain tonight.

- Also sold my Djembe, for way too low of a price, but I figured there was no sense in keeping it around if I wasn't going to use it, and if I was going to sell it- it needed to get out of the house right away before I changed my mind.

-12 pairs of slippers in the first 7 days of badbunny.ca , a pretty good start. Tonight I started cutting fabric for some market bags. I have an idea to make them a little stronger than the current design- so they will hold heavy loads like groceries. 

the people that you meet when you're walking down the street

Who are the people in your neighbourhood.... ug. getting songs stuck in my head left right and centre today.

Tomorrow is Amber and Shawn's wedding. I'm super excited about it- they are two of the loveliest people that I've the privilege of meeting thru the Players. I'll be singing with two beauties as Amber walks down the aisle, something I haven't done since the Newlandwed's wedding... whoa for a very short second there, I had written "since Mandamanda's wedding". Oops.

On walking to VicHall, where the wedding will be happening, I passed a car parked around the corner that was running. Locked and running. On returning home? The car was still locked and running. After walking the dog? Nearing 4 hours later... the car was still running. I didn't see a key in the ignition, someone must have hit the "start" button inside their house... I just couldn't figure out which house.

A little while later, I'm chatting with the neighbour over the fence, she lives around the corner, but as the lots are all shaped oddly, she backs onto my yard... There are only two houses between us. She's debating where to put a vegetable patch in her yard- in the past I'd had conversations with the previous owner about where to place a veggie garden- based on the sun... after two years of conversations, we figured that the front/side yard was the place that would get the most light. So, I mentioned this to the new neighbour... she was shocked... and kind of insulted by the suggestion. "Out FRONT? Tomatoes in the front? Where people could just TAKE them? No, that would be stupid".
Then I asked her if she'd seen my veggie garden in front of the house...
Keep in mind that she has two dogs... so it's likely (in my mind) that she walks them.
She sort of pointed at my house, raised her eyebrows in a "are you kidding me" look and said no.
Who doesn't walk their dogs?
Or, maybe if she's walking them downtown... who doesn't walk around their neighbourhood when they move in? She's been there since May.

I'm feeling rather judgmental today... and running with it.

Red necked Urban Farmer's guide to a quick frost cover...

I'm interested in what the neighbours are going to say when they wake up tomorrow and see my pepper and toms tucked into bed under old feed bags.

I've been meaning to get down to the second hand store and get a great old floral bed sheet to protect my fragile babies... tonight's early frost warning came a little too soon.

a little giddy (a long one)

I switched to using my trusty camera last week, I want to avoid the washed out look my pictures have when I use my camera phone.

Sadly, I left the camera out yesterday when I left for work, and only just noticed it now... The next morning.
In the camp chair.
In a puddle in the camp chair.

Water ran out of it when I picked it up. I can see full on droplets in the viewing screen, and behind the lens. It turned on though! I think the inner workings were protected, and I've got it sitting in a bowl of rice on the counter.

I think I'm going to need to keep a bag of rice handy dedicated to the revival of items I've allowed to get wet. Because right now? I don't have any rice for eating left.

Anyway, garden update!

I built another raised bed yesterday. This one is only 2x5...or 6? I didn't measure. When you have power tools... you don't have to measure anymore, I figure. *

Anyway, it was too hot to build the damn thing, but I had a load of dirt in the trunk of my car** that I needed to take out- gas is expensive these days- and I had nowhere else to put it. So, I dripped and dripped and built the stupid thing. *** Loaded the dirt in, and moved two of the orphaned tomato plants (from the Tomato Lady in Port Hope... look her up next spring... 72 varieties at the market!) I think they were a Paul Robson and a Black Cherry... but I forgot to put the tags out when I planted them.
They'll be much happier there. When I dug them up out of their temporary home, I realized that 6 inches down under them- there's some sort of large boulder or cement running the length of the fence line.**** And now with the new bed I'm actually at 92 square feet of garden...

So... garden excitement?! (interrobang)
The strawbale tomato garden finally caught this weekend. It takes a while for plants to get established in the bales (no soil.. just composting bales) But once they do... look out! Two of the plants doubled their size since Saturday! *****  The later planted strawbale toms even look like they've caught, which is crazy, because they've only been in there 2 weeks.
More excitement?
Garlic is nearly ready to harvest, 3 stages of beets in the ground, Chard is still going strong, tiny toms are COVERED in fruit, Peppers are coming on, Eggplants are growing, there are BEANS on the tower, carrots are more than 3 bites now, lots of flowers on the soy, brussles sprouts are getting tall- and I can see lots of little baby sprouts growing up the stalk.****** First ground cherries have dropped, onions are fist sized, and the tomatillos are looking like cute little lanterns... and ... and ... the grossille tomatoes have their first pinkish fruit! And I'm eating raspberries.

whew.
awesome.
good thing I don't have a full sized farm.
Now, off to update the 1000 lb challenge page.

*Every time I turn on the saw, a neighbour comes to check on what I'm doing. I don't think they trust me. Or maybe I haven't desensitized them enough? It's been a long time since I borrowed the air gun....

** Don't you put loads of dirt in the trunk of your car? The washing machine repair guy at work thought I was nuts.

*** It only took 10 mins to build! The last one took me nearly an hour- thank you power saw and drill!

****Old houses are weird.

***** They've nearly caught up to the garden bed Toms.

******Sort of an experiment, as I keep having to take leaves off one side of the plants to keep space for the soybeans. Next year I'll put the Sprouts over in the far end of the new bed to give them some space.

spinny and green

guess what?!
interrobang
Crazy Kijiji lady had a no-show on her spinning wheel sale and contacted me..... and dropped the price back down.... and now I'm in the possession of a single treadle lendrum wheel!

While I haven't had a chance to actually spin anything on it yet (what with the amazing weather and the market work- more on this in a moment) I've spent some time sitting just treadling, getting used to the feel of a single treadle and the ins and outs of this wheel. She's lovely. Really lovely. I actually find there's a smaller "dead zone" on this wheel vs. the Ashford traveller I've been using- that space where the treadles won't move the wheel- I was quite frustrated with the Ashford's dead spots. The only downfall with the single treadle, I have to give the wheel a push by hand to get it turning in the direction I want- with the double treadle, so long as I wasn't in the dead zone, I could start it off the right way with just my treadling.

ok, geeky spinning wheel story over.

Market stuff!!

I've teamed up with the handsome men from The Victory Garden   and they're letting me use a corner of one of their tables to sell market bags (crochet ones and sewn double sided shoulder bags) and produce bags (made from mesh- as light weight as those nasty plastic bags from the grocery store produce section, but reusable).. I'll be occasionally selling worm tea kits and worm composting kits too.... So fun! In exchange for the table space, I'm hoping to help out when needed in the garden harvesting and bagging for the market.

Some spending money that I feel really good about!

Not only that, but the Victory Garden is the same garden I was working in two summers ago! It's so nice to see that it's being loved ... I can't wait to show you some before and after pics!

Week 1

Welcome to week one of the 1000lb challenge!

While I still haven't built the two new beds, I did chop down some bushes, and got some seeds in the soil.

I have a problem.

I'm addicted to the kitchen garden planner on gardeners.com . The pre-planned gardens are really cute... but it's the square-foot template planner that I'm in love with. You drag and drop the pictures of the veggies you want on your plot, and it gives you a list of when to plant, how many to plant, and how to plant it... So cute. I've redesigned my garden a million times in the past two days.

But... I did finally break down and got some seeds in the soil.

I'm doing the square foot thing, sooooo here's the run down:

in the ground-

12 square feet of garlic

4 sf golden and red beets

4 sf of rainbow chard

2 sf sugar snap peas

2 sf snow peas

to be planted-
(in that first bed after the frost is done, seeds have been started in the house)

4 sf sweet bell peppers

2 sf HOT chilli peppers

2 sf eggplant

I've noticed the squirrels aren't so into digging in a moist bed- I've been really laying down the water (as we've gotten 2 good days of rain in the past month), but my plan after work today is to cut the squirrel net to size and figure out a nice neat way of attaching it.

ALSO! I got word this week that I can team up with one of the farmers market booths to sell grocery bags (crocheted market bags and sewn veggie bags) along with some worm stuff ... This is with the victory garden guys (Richard's son and his partner- they moved into Richard's place in the fall). I'm pretty pumped, they're doing some really neat things over at the garden, and I'm excited to be a part of it too.

I'm wondering about sprouts.

I know the guys are doing pea shoots and some other things... I'd like to do the spicy sprout mix to sell too.

ok, too many ideas.

challenge accepted.

I'm taking on the 1000lb challenge.

With a few adjustments....

The 1000lb challenge is a friendly year long competition going on between two gardens down South, one of the competitors is an online friend....

Basically- they each have 500 square feet of garden and are going to try to get 1000lbs of food out of it over the next year.

I have (nearly) 100 square feet, so I'm going to try for 180 lbs of food over the year.

I'm trying out "square foot gardening" but might end up squishing a few things closer than the recommended spacing to take advantage of my plots.

The garden space: One built 8x4 raised bed, one nearly built 8x4*, one 8x2 hot bed (it's first to thaw and last to freeze, but too hot for anything mid summer). the 12x1 straw bale garden, the 2x3 asparagus bed, and tonight I just chopped down the yews out front to make room for a third** front bed (4x4).

I'm feeling good about it. I'm excited to see what I can do now that I have land that gets some sunlight! The garlic babies are doing GREAT! 32 of 34 have come up. Last year I planted 12, 8 came up, and the newspaper kid crushed them all by throwing the papers on them. This year, it's a little more obvious that things are growing.... so I'm hopeful the newspapers stay out of the beds. I found a really great little site that looks at square foot gardening in raised beds. It gives a few example layouts and notes how much space each plant needs. Then you can go and plot out your garden, and drag and drop the plants into place- I like visuals... it shows what the garden will look like mid growing season- a good reminder to pay attention to the esthetics- especially since it's out front of the house now.

* nearly built... I've told myself I'm building it. Maybe I'll even buy the wood for it this week.

** nearly 3rd... see above.

dark

Real spring is back.

Cold and dark.

I've lost all my enthusiasm to get anything done.

How do other people manage to accomplish anything?

I just want to sit around and take pictures of my pets.

It's Bunday Sunday. Spot the bunny?

grow time!

So I finally conceeded that the back yard is no place for my raised bed. There's just not enough sunlight to support the things I want to grow back there. Taking a cue from the victory garden I worked in two summers ago with sweet Richard, I got brave, decided not to care what the neighbours think... and moved the bed to the front yard!

I still need to give the yew bushes a good trim to make room for the second bed that I'm going to build (next week after payday), but right now I'm really happy with the way it turned out.

I grew some veggies in that flower bed by the front door last year- so it's a natural transition. The biggest comment I've gotten since putting it in is "aren't you worried people will steal from it?" Oh good night! If people need to steal veg, they need veg! We don't have a lot of foot traffic (or any traffic) on our little street- I know most of the faces that pass by the door, or at least know which house they're headed to. We don't even get much drunk traffic after the bars close- and we're not on the route that the kids use to get to school.. so I think most of my plants are safe. I've still got the posts though to put up the squirrel/cat nets. I hate the squirrels digging up my seeds, and the idea that a cat wants to pee on my veggies grosses me out so much.

As of this morning I've got 5 little garlic babies poking their tips out of the soil... very exciting stuff. I'm trying so hard not to plant other things yet.

Drip drip drip!

March is so weird.

This is a photo from last week... 15 mins later the sun came out and melted it all!

I'm very patiently waiting on the sap buckets to fill though. Last year's birch syrup adventure left me exhausted (um, hello! 100 litres of sap to a litre of syrup?? Yes, I made two litres of syrup). But this year's Maple adventure is much more tame (35-40 litres of sap to a litre of syrup). My big plan had been to ask the neighbours if I could tap their trees too.. Next year hopefully.

Time to go chase some chickens around the yard till lunch. I sprouted a mix of seeds this weekend that are looking like they'll be the delicious topper to today's salad. Lentil, mustard, radish, and goodness knows what!

Oh geeze.

I'm writing about salad toppings and weather. I need to get out this week.

Spring... and SPRUNG!

It's spring here!

Robins, Cardinals, Chickens, Wood Peckers... and giant leaping bunnies!

Poor 'Touff. He kept wiping out in the mud in the yard while he ran around. Slightly funny, slightly terrifying. Eventually he figured out that the herb bed was dry and solid and fun to play in (yes, the fence is going back up on it as soon as the last frost has passed). He's a bit of a lug though- and ran into the wall and the boards multiple times.

Yes, I called him a "wingnut".

the list

The March "Lion" is toying with us. Which, makes me a little stir crazy. It also means I'm getting frantic to garden. I spent some time yesterday looking at garden plans (not my own). The biggest thing I'm looking at right now is finding a few spots in my yard that have enough sunlight to garden in. Possibly the front yard. Likely the fence line in the back yard with the strawbale gardens again. And hopefully the driveway fence line (I really want to put in a few fruit trees there)

Last week I was toying with the idea of making a list of homesteading skills... For now, here's a list of the skills I WANT to learn.

Why? Well, once I started listing the things I could do, I started getting pretty cocky.

Animal husbandry: sheep, goats,
(with that, shearing, milking, cheese making)

chickens- how to brood/hatch

chop wood

hitch a team

plow/or better understanding of soil

spin (I heard I'll be learning this one soon!)

sewing machine sew/ follow a pattern better

other preserving techniques (pressure cooker canning/root veg cold storage/crocks)

whole food understanding

growing and milling grains (which I wrote as "milling brains" the first time, and couldn't figure out why it looked so funny on the list)

passive solar /solar power

cob/strawbale/earth building

I'm sure this list could should would be longer.

Homesteading

It's not what I thought it was.

I've been reading quite a bit lately about the idea of homesteading- in particular urban homesteading. Bedmates with green living. I feel like everything I read is an attempt to live the ideal set out in early editions of "The Mother Earth News". Things I've been trying to do, things I hope to do.

side note: we've really got to finish that TMEN documentary... I was reminded at the new years' eve collage party.

side notes' side note: the new years' eve collage party was great- and we've published our own little hand-bound book featuring our work. You can purchase a copy at the bookstore down town.

more notes: I finished two pieces I'm particularly proud of. One is silly- "all the single ladies" with two TMEN "positions and situations" ads and a few old articles from the Port Hope Evening Guide- articles from the 1890's... and another that I shouldn't call finished.

Today I was reading an article about taking stock of the things you're currently doing in your own way, and things that are on your wish list (to do list?) that take you steps closer to a homesteading way of life. I think I'm going to take some time this week to make those lists.

Making music must count.

Community building- I'm putting that on the list.

hm. maybe my list isn't going to look so homesteady after all.

Do the worms count?

which came first?

The fact that I ate my first home grown egg on the same day I processed my first home grown chicken isn't lost on me. This strange life cycle condensed. Cycles.

Yesterday Cheep laid her first egg. So this morning, I fried it up and had it on a home made english muffin.

Tonight I (humanly and calmly) killed my other chicken, sliced up onions and carrots and potatoes and put them all together in a pot for tomorrow's supper.

While the act of taking a life was difficult, looking at the cycles and systems inside Cam (previously known as Camilla until he started to crow) was such an amazing thing.

I could do it again.

I learned a lot, Cam was patient, and he'll be enjoyed.