Garden Update/ Successes & Failures, New Coop Interior, Great Score on New Tableware

 

Garden Update/ Successes & Failures-

It has been a really crazy summer for everybody in our area with gardening. We had cool weather with rain, then heat. We got into a pattern of monsoonal moisture which is a blessing especially living in the high desert. Sadly it brought lightning and we're having terrible fires. Also that rain makes every single weed seed sprout! Just trying to keep things weeded was really insane. We did have a few good ideas though since we were desperate. We had some leftover weed barrier and there was a really bad area right in front of our blackberries that's a walkway. So I suggested to Dave that we throw down the weed barrier and cover with bark dust. We did that, problem solved! We did a lot of extra watering with the 100° days off and on, it just it was so hot. Good news we've had some nice big tomatoes coming off of some of the plants. The flip side is we got almost 1/3 of our usual Early Girl tomatoes, almost no paste tomatoes, and very few cherry tomatoes. Our Siberian black prince tomatoes and cukes all went crazy! Almost 5' tall!

We try to grow mostly Heritage but I do the others just for a quicker Harvest. So I do have lots of fresh tomatoes in the freezer that are vacuum sealed. We had a really good crop of pears. I made several giant crisps out of those. I gave the rest to my two daughters since I still had some canned ones left from last time. Froze a lot of peaches! I may do some canning this winter when things are cooler and it's quieter. We did get our first new black currants that we planted in our front yard as a shrub.

We've had some kind of disease or fungus in our front lawn resulting in a big brown patch. I contacted the Master Gardener program for help with that. At first I thought it's because we cut down our really old apple tree and it has full exposure to the sun burning it. But then it spread and spread. I spoke with them and sounds like a fungus hitting the valley. Will take a sample in. Sounds like we'll need to re-seed. So with gardening there's just always ups and downs every year. Another reason why we try to plant a variety of veggies and fruits. If you have a failure over a couple varieties you have some backups. We did get about four or five apples off our brand new baby apple tree! Looking forward to having more apples next year. Herbs did great and got a new pump for the pond-

New Coop Interior-

The chickens are doing really well in the new coop. We decided to do a second coat of paint since it weathered a bit in the Sun and winter is around the corner. Here's some photos of the inside to show you the layout, which is a little different. We did the same footprint but because we did the flooring and foundation the way we did it's a little bit narrower. After I saw another blogger had this idea we built in a little mini-enclosure inside the coop for either sick chickens or new chicks. For new chicks it would obviously be when it's warm enough for them to be out there and the temporary situation. The girls love sleeping at night up in the nesting boxes. They were used to being up on a shelf by the upper window, but we put the new (used) window down low this time to avoid falls. Everything else is going well with the coop through good ventilation and everybody was happy this summer. Super grateful that we have our huge maple tree in the backyard, gives us lots and lots of shade! Here's the main area, feed and water on the left, floating perch on the right-

New temp enclosure for chicks or ill birds-

Window above nesting boxes and enclosure-

Naturewood first batch

Great Score on New Tableware-

A couple years ago I had stumbled on a stoneware pattern that I really loved on Facebook Marketplace. Sadly I just couldn't afford it at the time. I left Facebook for a while and then went back recently to follow local businesses and have access to Marketplace. Then I spotted the Pfaltzgraff Naturewood stoneware pattern again! And the price was way down, not sure if it's the economy? To make a long story very short I was able to get a great price on a set from two different sellers. The first seller had mixed in a second pattern called Perennial Flowers which coordinates with the Naturewood. After doing some research I decided to sell those on Marketplace. It's actually a quite expensive pattern since it was only in production for about 5 years. Long story short is also I may wind up actually making quite a chunk of money on this as it is very valuable, and I am selling it for a really good price. Will be listing it in a day or so. Worked out great!

Naturewood pattern

New Coop Finished/Weird Weather, My Free Skywarn Storm Spotter Class I Took With The National Weather Service

 

New Coop Finished/Weird Weather!

We finally finished the coop! We had a lot of really weird weather in April thru July. We had hot weather, cold weather, Monsoon rain, thunder, lightning and wind. It really held up the coop construction, we just had to wait it out. In April Dave decided to bite the bullet and get started. We set up a temporary coop for a few days for the chickens, which worked out great! They even used the cardboard box I put in there as a nesting box and laid. Dave and I talked a lot ahead of time about what we wanted to do and basically we used the same footprint of the previous coop. Our main thing that we did different was the roof line, and we have the nesting box with inside access only because we like the way it looked. Dave did most of the construction, I had to protect my back. I helped with a few two person holds! Old coop below showing the damage, ready for a tear down. Here are the photos!

 

 

 

 

 

Dave started the tear down, we recycled what we could

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My last picture of Debbie, she lasted 2 years after the Vet said she would, passed peacefully in the house with me, RIP  

 

 

 

 Temporary coop with rain cover

Dave wanted to build the foundation with concrete blocks on the ground but I suggested that it would be really hard to level. So he used recycled bricks that we had with pressure treated lumber on top of that, then leveled. Then he did concrete blocks on top of that. Should last a long time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Girls using the nesting cardboard box!

 

 

 

We bought a used window and used storm door for the coop. Dave cut up the old storm door to create a window vent which is great to get cool air in from the north side in the summer. We also have the glass for in the winter when we can close it up to keep it warmer. The storm door also has a panel that goes up and down depending on the weather so it's nice cross ventilation along with the little window, also has a metal vent on the southside-

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to paint the coop the same color as the house, and leave the cedar trim natural for contrast. I basically did all the painting except for the part that I couldn't reach, love the color! 

 

Plastic roof over the plywood, Dave added soffitts

  

I repainted the "Eggs 5 cents" sign that we got from a yard sale years ago

 

We put the wind vane back up, and added some Japanese wind socks as they go with the ones in the garden!

Garden windsocks, love them! 

Bye bye old coop, she lasted 13 years or so mostly from recycled materials-

Interior pictures coming soon...

 

My Free Skywarn Storm Spotter Class I Took With The NWS-

A few months ago I took a free live online class with The National Weather Service. It was fun and very informative! Lots of good info. For more information go here NWS SKYWARN Storm Spotter Program for classes near you. They gave us all a nice packet afterwards with other resources we could use. It's great to be able to know who to contact if you see something important. 

Independence Days Challenge, Happy St. Patricks' Day!

 

Independence Days Challenge-

We have finally been getting some spring weather the last week or two. We had some snow off and on the last month but finally broke into the 60s. Supposed to be was pushing 70 today! We've been getting some rain off and on which we definitely need since we're high desert here. Grass is greening up and bulbs are up. The chickens are really enjoying getting out more with a nice weather. Debbie is still hanging in there, I have no idea how. The Vet said almost a year ago that she didn't have much time left. She's still eating and moving around, just slowly. I think because animals don't have belief systems like we do that they can hang on a lot longer. I'm thinking about getting two or three chicks early in the summer. Debbie hasn't laid for a year and the other two don't lay much between October and April. I'm always fearful of having just one chicken in the end. They don't do well alone from what I've read. With times being the way they are not bad to have extra eggs to sell/barter. I learned the hard way not to get chicks too early in the year, then you have to keep them inside in the cold weather until they feather out. The hatchery we use locally sells chicks until almost June. Works much better for us and the chicks!

1. Plant Something- 

 Will be starting some herb/flower seeds soon.

 

2. Harvest Something-  

Eggs, one to two every day! So great to have the two girls back in production. Chives are up, collard greens wintered over. 

 

3. Preserve/Store Something- 

I will be making some South American fermented Curtido soon. Bought 3 extra Irish Soda bread loaves from Trader Joe's, freezes great! Bought Dave some extra socks/shirts on sale.

 

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-  

I have been buying and freezing extra meats and cheeses. We just had to buy a new washer and dryer but got a really good deal. I did have to remind the salesperson we were on a budget. We recently got new batteries for both cars. My husband won a gift certificate that paid for our overnight anniversary Hotel in McCall, that was great! Found some great Eddie Bauer percale sheets marked way down, love the blue ticking stripes!

I bought a plain wood box for some storage, used the water based wood stain I have used before, still drying, but nice! $10.99 at the craft store. Easy cleanup with the water base-

 

$2.99 a bottle, have one bottle leftover

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-  

I am embracing my newfound Scandinavian DNA with exploring more Scandinavian foods I'm not familiar with. I had found out about a famous American Scandinavian Chef I had never heard about Beatrice Ojakangas. She has some great YouTube videos with a lot of different types of food. I found three of her cookbooks used on eBay and bought some. One is on baking with tons of really unique whole grain bread recipes. I'm looking forward to trying some! The other book is on it's way-

 

6. Build Community Food Systems-  

Too early for the farmers market.

 

7. Recycle/Re-Use-  

We are looking at removing the rest of the turf in the front yard. We may move some of our plants from the backyard to the front as well as start some from seed. We'd really like to eliminate mowing and I've been pushing Dave to do this for sometime. He has been re-inspired when he saw a family members yard in Portland. I'd like to have some nice raised beds and more shrubs/pollinators.

 

8. Skill Up-  

Been wanting to expand the types of breads that I make and I think the new cookbook will help. I'm learning new Physical Therapy exercises with my physical therapist for helping my back strength post surgery. Going really well so far!

 

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-  

Had all our carpets steam cleaned, looks much better! Also doing my physical therapy. My back is stabilizing and I'm starting to get some endurance back. When you're in a lot of chronic pain you don't move around much and really affected my strength/endurance walking. But I'm doing much better lately. Hope to be on my bicycle and riding with Dave by summer. I decided to redo a little bit of my kitchen decor and I removed my aqua colored antique jars and a little sign I had. I decided to go with something a little bit more Scandinavian. I bought a nice print for $5 on Etsy and printed it myself it's a famous Finnish concept, Sisu, artist on Etsy is BellissiCasa -

 

I already had the frame so I just printed it out, cleaned up the frame and it's perfect on the kitchen counter. Then I also have another smaller frame and I found a free Dala Horse folk art print that I printed and fit in. I added my little Shamrock wreath for St Patrick's Day. It's nice to freshen things up a bit! And only cost me $5.00-

 

I stored all my other items, but for now it's a nice refresh!  I bought a cute Dala Horse garden flag, going out soon-

 

 

Happy St. Patricks' Day! 

I made my corned beef last weekend since Dave was out of town this weekend. Made carrots and cabbage to go with it and bought some of Trader Joe's Irish soda bread, which is so delicious! Moist and has Caraway seeds. It was nice to have a weekend to myself to do some little projects here.