Baby Chick Update

These little girls are growing at such a rapid rate that it is astonishing. We have to double there brooding box because they can't go outside until they are past 6 weeks old. Right now they are almost 4 weeks old. The "dinosaur" chick stage is starting. The "big girl" feathers are coming in but they still have some downy around them, making them look like freaks. I have 2 brave girls that like to be held and 2 that want ab-so-fricking-lootly nothing to do with me. They will all eat out of my hands or anyones hands for that matter as they are ALL about food. No wonder because of the shear size growth they go through.

We still haven't named all of them yet, but we do call the 2 brave girls Alpha and Beta and the 1 that is most afraid we named her Daisy Faye Layamesmeggs. We've decided that to 2 sets are twins and they are related as cousins so the last names are McCluck and Layamesmeggs. Say that last one fast and you will get the joke, I thought jake was pretty funny with that one!








And the video of the Layamesmeggs and McClucks.

Butterfly/Bees Garden to Please

Well I finally got around to planting that Monarch Way Station. However it kinda turned into a bee garden in the process. I am missing one crucial element to the Way Station and that is milk weed, lots of butterfly larvae like milk weed and I don't have any yet. But none the less it is mostly planted.

This is after the 1st rototilling and basic grass removal. There are still some clumps of grass but it is generally smooth. I have added 1 cubic yard of compost from our recycle center to give the soil a boost.


The smoothed in compost and 2nd rototilling now this baby is ready for planting.


Now here is all the plants in the wheel barrow ready to get in the ground. It doesn't look like much but I do have a butterfly bush that will get much bigger than the 1 gallon pot it is in now, I like to buy things at the end of the season on sale and really needing some better soil and some love. I have nursed most plants back to glorious health that way.




Now those are the plants in the pots, but I also transplanted 2 moss's and 1 russian sage. I have to move my 2nd russian sage but I am afraid like the first one it will get witthery and die. I was un-aware that russian sage's roots are very woody and extremely thick! Much like a small bush's would be. I am not sure what to do about the other one... regardless the sage is looking sagy and overall not happy with life right now. I am hoping all it's efforts are going to its roots, and I will HEAVILY mulch it this winter as to protect it, hopefully with that it will come back. If not it's off to the nursery I will go.



Here is the plants list:

2 Lavender -Lavandula 'Munstead'
1 'Bicolor' Butterfly Bush- Buddleia
3 Gaura 'Pink Cloud' - Gaura Lindheimeri ( a weedy like plant with pink flowers... wild flower like)
1 Purple Sage - Salvia
2 Heliopsis 'Sommersonne'
2 Salvia 'Schneehugel' Snow Hill
2 Garden Aster 1 "puff" and 1 "hazy" in color
1 Gallardia 'Tokajer'
1 Liatris 'Floristan White'
1 Joe-pye Weed - Eupatorium 'Chocolate'
1 Pincushion Flower - Scabiosa columbaria 'Pink Mist'
1 Purple Coneflower 'Echinacea'
1 White Coneflower 'Echinacea'

To be added:

30 *ish Tulips
15+ Crocus's
2 Milkweeds
1-2 russian sage (if it doesn't survive)
pathway from driveway to gate we are thinking of doing moss to have a living walkway, plus the bees like the little flowers on the moss's so thats a bonus.

Baby Chicks

Our girls are here! They definitely have a "pecking" order, one of the girls always comes and jumps into my hand before the others. She brings the others around, so I guess she is our "rooster" since we don't have one. We haven't named them yet, we're waiting on getting more personality before we do so... but we have some funny one's.

Cherry Picking plus some Raspberries

A blog in pictures of our Cherry Picking and Raspberry hunting adventure! Plus a video at the end. Enjoy.

Round-Up?

Jacob and I have really been giving thought and much discussion about GMO's (genetically modified organisms) and there role in our food shed. Most americans, myself included had NO idea that our food has been altered. GMO corn is bread to withstand being sprayed with round-up. Yes that's right, the herbicide that kills ALL broad leaf weeds. I think I have some in my garage in fact (better get rid of that, an organic urban farmer does not have round-up in there garage. In any case the corn is sprayed with round up to reduce the weeds growing in between the rows of corn. Not only is corn sprayed but many plants. I am going to try my best to get ahold of this documentary in titled "The World according to Monsanto." Monsanto is one of the leading seed producers in the world.

Imagine one company owning all the seeds in the world. No need for guns or bombs, starvation works just fine in controlling the world. I know I'm getting kinda dark so I'll leave it there. But here is a video clip from the documentary I mentioned. It is worth some thought.

Water Footprint

Inspired by a blog I read entitled Crunchy Chicken. Her most recent post discusses your water footprint. Intrigued I decided to see how we compare. First off I dug out our most recent water bill. For the month of 5/12 through 6/11 exactly 30 days we used 586 cubic feet of water. This includes watering our garden, lawn, and inside water usage. In Crunchy Chickens blog she states that the average american uses about 100 gallons of water per day. My first thought was YEAH! we only used 586 in a month! But that would be wrong, cubic feet is not the same as gallons. So I googled cubic feet to gallons, and google provided me with this: 1 cubic foot = 7.48051 gallons. Ok so I took my 586 cubic feet of water used in a month and divided it by the 30 days to get my daily average of cubic feet of water used. 586 / 30 = 19.533 but now according to google I have to multiply those lovely 19.533 cubic feet of water by 7.48051 to get gallons. So 19.533 x 7.48051 = 146 gallons per day. But that number should be divided by the 2 people who live here. So 146 gallons / 2 people = 73 gallons per person! WOO HOO below the average american of 100 gallons per day! That is exciting.

Now Jacob and I did this comparison about a week ago and were shocked to see what we have done. So Now let's figure out how wasteful we were last year at this exact time.

Ready for this....

2845 cubic feet of water used same number of days, same month in 2007! OMG!!! That is some green lawn we had! I wonder if thats why our lawn is brown?

Lets figure the gallons!!!

2845 / 30 = 94.8 cubic feet per day x 7.48051 to get gallons = 709 gallons per day / 2 people = 354.5 gallons per day per person!

That is a savings of 281.5 gallons per day per person from last year!




What have we done?

1. Water lawn 1" of water per week, that is usually about 40 minutes to an hour. ONLY once per week. Yes your lawn will turn brown, but it is going dormant it's not dead it will green up when it starts raining and cooling down. (Water your plants normally)

2. Flush your toilets less (yes it's kinda eww gross) but the as the rhyme goes "if it's yellow let it mellow if it's brown flush it down!"

3. Is that shirt really dirty? Wear again, it reduces the laundry by half! I'm not talking undies and sweaty socks but shirts, jeans, shorts and skirts do they really have to be one wear only?

4. Back to the toilets: Add 16 oz. or bigger glass if you have it, with rocks, water or a mixture of them, here is a picture of our toilet with 2 glass jars filled with small rocks and water. Thus reducing the volume of water with each flush of the toilet.

5. Build a rain barrel, ours are already constructed and in place. But we will be doing some at my parents house and we'll post the how-to when we do that.

6. Remember to turn off the water when: you brush your teeth, wash the dishes (don't have the rinse water on constantly), shaving in the shower or out. Be conscience of the water around you, it like gasoline is in limited supply.

For more information visit Water Footprint.

Chickens

We've decided to become backyard chicken owners. With our garden and sizable back yard space we figured it is time to take a hand in "growing" our own eggs. Organic, Free-range, happy chickens! It has been in the discussions for some time now. Weighing the pros and cons of raising a backyard flock. Happily we are going to go for it! Our first decision, what breed? Doing the homework... and not getting sucked into "which one's are pretty" we've decided on Buff Orpingtons.


They are a dual purpose breed, by that I mean meat and eggs. They do well in cold weather due to there size and have calm and friendly personalties. I really enjoyed this gals description and pictures of her (as Jacob puts it) BO's.

Buff Orpingtons at Backyard chickens.

The other contender was a Rhode Island Red, but we opted for the blondes. Kai being the only blonde in the house was out numbered. That is about to change!

We ordered our girls through My Pet Chicken.

The coop for these girls is under construction and we will be posting it in stages.

Our day at Green Bluff strawberry u-pick

Yesterday was so productive! But there is still so much left to do that it doesn't seem that way. But I am only going to touch on the strawberry picking we did. Jacob and I including Mom and Dad went up to Green Bluff yesterday to a u-pick strawberry field.

Us riding the tractor wagon down to the field.

Mom and Dad on the wagon! 

We got our boxes and crates and off we went! The instructor told us that the back field was just opened up if we wanted to hike way back there. Of course WAY back there was relative, it wasn't far but most people chose to stay on the lower acres of fields. Jacob and I took off in search for riper strawberries.

Jacob in the field, in the distance you can see the buildings we left and the lower strawberry fields it wasn't really that far.

Me in search of the perfect little gem. I honestly felt like I was stealing little ruby's! 

After we got our loot it was time for a pit stop and ice cream. The Harvest House, which is like the main building. They have the best ice cream! Jacob had Huckleberry, I had Vanilla, Mom had Chocolate, and Dad had Cookies and Cream. Us relaxing and using the ice cream cone as a microphone, we were singing with the band!  

After all the fun was had we journeyed  home, we forgot to have Mom and Dad take a picture of us with our loot of gems, so we set the timer and did it ourselves. Us with our strawberries. Which cost 1.09 / lb. a total of  $26 and some change. We picked 23 lbs. of strawberries. It is time to learn how to make jam!

Heat and Local foods

Man the heat when it gets up into the 90's it really makes your muscles like liquid. Maybe that's why we have been doing indoor things all afternoon.

This morning however, we went into Spokane to harvest some local foods. First stop was Fresh Abundance. This little gem is new to the Spokane area and stocks TONS of local foods. I found a local grain distributor that I was otherwise unaware of thanks to Fresh Abundance. A local honey producer in Otis Orchards, and a Tofu maker in Newport!  Local, Local, Local that is what we are working towards. To coin a phrase "localatarian" this is what Jacob and I are striving to become.  

We next stopped off at Huckleberry's the long standing natural foods store. Granted they sell mostly organic products, but we are trying to take the petroleum out of our food. Organic bananas, however wonderful they look still come from Argentina! That is ALOT of gas just to get me some bananas. So we are learning to live with what is in season, which is cherries and shortly strawberries. This winter will definitely be a challenge for us, since not much is grown in this region. We'll have to rely on much of what California produces. We are lucky because we live so close to California. If I can't buy local I want to purchase bioregional, which will support not only my state but neighboring states. 

Ok back to the topic on hand, Huckleberry's sells many things we use in bulk. Things like olive oil, braggs amino acids, sesame oil, even some bio-kleen products (which in fact is a cleaning product from Vancouver, WA). We found out that Huckleberry's has organic bulk peanuts, yeah for peanut butter!! 

Next on our harvesting journey was the Spokane Farmers Market. We needed some salad fixings, and baby green onions. We scored some early green beans, and some sheep cheese from Lark Haven Farm they even had the BEST feta I've ever had! But being loaded with feta already I decided we shouldn't purchase any, after I finish off what's in the fridge I'll be getting some into my hot little hands. 

Trailer Before and After

Jacob and I got really sick of filling two huge rubber maid tubs with compost and lifting them into the back of the car. Talk about back breaking and sweating for your garden. We needed a trailer. The hunt on craigslist began! Shortly, as if the universe heard our need we manifested a small trailer.


The modest and very used little guy was being sold for $200, we offered $150 and she took it. The little guy needed new lights, a paint job and some love. All of which we were capable of doing for under $70. Which brings our total up to $220. Now this size and utility style of trailer (assembled) sells for upwards of $400 before tax. We got a steal!



After some careful planning we decided to go with a green or yellow coat of paint. To further our "green" efforts we opted for green in color, ( plus I couldn't find yellow. ) I purchased a rustoleum primer for heavily rusted metal and our chosen green color. I neglected to get a picture of the trailer in it's primed color. Which was a really ugly color of brown/red. Jacob said he was having flash backs of the color of our house BEFORE we painted it... yep green. Do you see a theme with us? I think so.



After the final coat of paint was on this little guy was looking sexy! We decided it was time to sand and stain the boards. But Gerry, a man Jacob works with, had some left over plywood that he was looking to get rid of. We gladly took it on, for one, this wood was not weathered and would hold a stain much better. We decided we would build bird houses out of the old trailer wood, because birds don't care and would much rather have there homes unstained! So cut the wood we did, and stain it too! Slapped them on to the metal and paused in awe, wow we do good work!

The final stage in this beauty was to add the electrical. Jacob decided on using LED lights because they consume less energy and therefor would tax the Prius's batteries less. It took him several hours to run the wiring. Being the perfectionist that he is many zip ties and adjusting was needed to get it just right. But then after some debacle with the car wiring, we were able to test out our trailer.



Working and looking great, the little beauty hauled it's first cubic yard of compost yesterday. It will be hauling more later this after noon as soon as the recycle center is open.

Dog Treats

I found this recipe while in search of raw dog food ideas and thought it sounded like a good wholesome treat for the little girl. I had to evolve the recipe a little because it seemed way to dry.

Here is the original recipe:

1 1/2 c. ripe mashed banannas

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. oats

1/2 c. chopped peanuts

1/4 c. applesauce

Mix all ingredients, heat oven to 350* make "meatball" sized cookies and lightly flatten with a fork. Bake for 15-17 min.

I didn't have applesauce. But I had 2 (grown in washington) apples, with my food processor I smashed the apples into a slightly chunky applesauce ( I didn't want to get the blender dirty).  I used old fashioned oats and they were a little to dry for the lack of liquid ingredients in this recipe. So I used both apples, it ended up to be about a cup of applesauce. I also didn't have peanuts on hand, but almonds did the trick... after I ran them through the food processor to make them very tiny.

My Recipe:

1 1/2 c. ripe mashed bananas ( 2 bananas)

1/2 tsp. vanilla

3 c. old fashioned oats ( I will make this 2 1/2 c. the next time I make them)

1/4 c. finely chopped almonds

1 c. apples (food processed to slightly chunky, 2 apples)

Bake 350* for 15-17 min

Monarch Way Station day 1

We started half of the Monarch way station today. We didn't have enough supplies to get it all done. That will come later in the week. 

First before any planing can be done the grass has to be removed/killed. Rather than rent a gas guzzling machine to rip out the grass or using poisons to kill it we opted on smothering. Smothering the grass is really easy and saves on back breaking labor too.  The tools needed are, cardboard, a sprinkler, shovel, soil/compost, or other soil amenities like manure and coffee grounds, tarps (optional).

This is Jacob peeling off the stickers from the cardboard we will be using.

This is the plot we chose, it is the smaller side of our front yard. It measures 15 feet by 30 feet. The minimum for a Monarch Way Station is a 10' by 10' area or 100 square feet. Ours will be larger than the required minimum, yeah for butterfly's and bees!

Jacob is adding our soil amenities, since as previously mentioned the top 2 feet is all rock. We are adding compost, manure, coffee grounds and some garden soil. I'd liked to have added some newspaper or hay but the wind was blowing pretty hard and made adding that impossible. Maybe later...

All done adding stuff! Now we need to tarp it!

Tarps held in place with wood from broken down pallets. this will help the soil "cook" and break down faster thus making a nice garden bed.  We will plant the seeds right on top (after removing the tarp) once we get them ordered. 

Beginning the Monarch Way Station

Today, since it is nice out I am going to plan and measure for the monarch way station. I believe part of our front yard will work wonders for this idea. For more information about starting a Monarch Way Station click here.

First on my to do list is kill all the grass in the area I want to plant. Which shouldn't be a problem, I plan to put down cardboard and soil amenities like compost, newspaper, coffee grounds, and manure. Our top two feet of soil is mostly rock, since not much thrives on rock I have to soil build. 

I am going to get most of my "wildflower" plants from Wildflower Farm.They graciously separate the flowers by state, so you can purchase native plants.