Baby Veggies!

Yay for cold weather loving seedlings! Wee little lettuces are poking their heads through the dirt, and today a baby rhubarb made an appearance too.

Coop Photos

Here is the book I used in my brief period of chicken research--super helpful!

And here are a few photos from Coop Construction Day One. Fingers crossed that there is only one more installment in the Coop Construction Series--and that we finish it this weekend! (Above: Mark and Stella Dog, considering whether it will continue to drizzle or truly start to rain on us) (Below: I reached the cold and wet stage a few hours earlier than my hardy husband, here he is working hard by himself)

A Chicken Remodel & Addition

Yesterday the chicks moved into a palatial new spread-- double the square footage, with a secret side room and new and improved roofing. They're still in the basement, but were outgrowing their brooder box, so we had to add an addition and remodel while we were at it.

Here they are chowing down after moving in.

$100 Chicken Coop Budget-- possible?

Given the serious expenditures going on as of late, we were aiming to keep the chicken coop costs to $100. And if you don't count the $450+ we spent on a new fridge on one of our Lowe's trips to pick up coop supplies, we did pretty well.

We were able to find reclaimed lumber at the Reconstruction Center and only needed to buy treated wood for the pieces that will lie on the ground. We also found a giant piece of plywood in a free pile on the curb a month or so ago, and luckily expended the effort to walk it home (a half a mile, probably through the rain...) because it will make up the majority of the henhouse. We had to buy one more piece of plywood and the chicken wire too. When all is said and done we came in around $110 for supplies.

We are extremely lucky in that we live in a neighborhood with a Tool Library--and we were able to borrow the tools we didn't already have. But then Lowe's was having a fabulous sale on drills, or so I am told. So we ended up with a new drill in the process. Ce la vie.

This week in gardening...and poultry

On Sunday we got the chicken's new abode half built. In a drizzly rain, and in the freezing cold. But it's half up. This weekend we'll finish it, though they are still scheduled to be living in the basement for another month or so.

That month can't go quickly enough, for their sake. They are getting quite big, and a bit rowdy. Constantly knocking over their water and making a giant mess...flying the "coop" whenever possible is also a favorite past-time. We put a screen on top to keep them in the brooder box, so a new favorite hobby is flying into the screen and knocking it off. Fun times for teenage chickens?

In between erecting pieces of the coop I managed to get peas and carrots in the ground. The lettuces are starting to pop up. I think. Either that or we have a sudden influx of clovers in the exact spots I planted greens... It's been stormy for over a week, so my time in the yard has been limited. Hoping for a sunny weekend. Or at least one sunny day...

On tap for next weekend: finishing the coop (**hopefully**), continuing to double dig the garden beds, and addressing the growing pile of yard waste in the back yard. It seems all my yard projects entail pulling up, digging up, or chopping down something. And it's generally ivy...

Chicks : 6 Weeks

The chicks are 6 weeks old, and minus one peculiar screech we haven't had any crowing yet-- here's hoping they are all hens!

End of March Garden Update

It's nearly the end of March, time is slipping away! But the garden is, shall we say coming together. Last weekend I bought and planted 4 blueberry bushes, got 6 kinds of lettuces (seed) in the ground (just in time for a huge storm and a good soaking...), planted the rest of the potatoes that have been sprouting away in a bag for 2+ months (they are an experiment since they started sprouting early and I ignored them until the last few weekends, and they were potatoes from our CSA not official "seed potatoes"), and planted 2 containers with rhubarb.

The strawberries all took quite nicely to their new home, and the parsley has survived a second replanting in two weeks (thanks to my haphazard planting the first time it needed to make way for lettuce).

I am hoping to get peas and carrots in the ground this week. Then our weekend projects will begin to include some important pieces of the garden puzzle--the raised beds and the chicken coop. Last weekend we installed a new door to the garage, so that we can easily get our bikes in and out and access the garden tools from the back yard. Installing doors makes me very grateful to have my architect/former construction worker husband!!

The chickens are growing, entertaining us with their antics, and so far only mildly sounding like there might be a rooster amongst the flock.