Mid-winter February Chores

We took advantage of the good weather this morning to add a bit of fenced-in extension to the chicken tractor. This has given the girls some much needed access to the garden plot and the patch of winter rye we planted last fall, You could almost hear the chicken equivalent of a "sigh-of-relief" as they ran around a bit and snacked on something green. Probably best to get this straight now as they are calling for another round of snow later in the week. We temporarily covered the top of this new area with old chicken wire and zip ties so there would be no chance of escape even though they will only be let out into this section on the weekends when we can keep a close eye on them.

Fall Greens

With at least two hard frosts under our belts, the brassicas and romaine lettuces have continued to hold on. Right now we've got collards, kale, chard, beets, brocolli, cauliflower and cabbage. But unfortunately these won't last for long. Luckily they can take lite to moderate frost without special protection and I hope to continue harvesting up to Christmas.

I'm keeping the lettuces under a low poly tunnel for heavy frost protection and a separate spun fiber tunnel full of kale that I intend to overwinter (separate post to follow). Once we get into mid-December and the chance of snow increases I'll overlay the spun fiber with poly to give more thermal and snow load protection.

First Frost 2015

We had our first frost of the season last night so yesterday afternoon was spent harvesting the last of the peppers, squash, tomatoes and strawberries along with a couple of bok choy for dinner. I put the half tunnel over the lettuce while the the rest of the fall crops are frost proof. I guess summer is finally over.........where did it go so fast?

My son and I were down on the canal last weekend to harvest some American spice bush berries (Lindera benzoin) as they really like the damp under story down there by the edge of the water. Although they do not have official GRAS status, they do seem to be safe and have a long history of use as a spice substitute. They aslso were used to reduce fever, relieve colds and dysentery, and to destroy intestinal parasites up through the Civil War era. I've got them drying in the basement and I'm thinking of doing an alcohol extract as part of an aftershave concoction. It will be interesting to see if the scent is alcohol extractable. Tea was often made from the leaves, bark and twigs.


Chicken Update: All four hens are laying now; FINALLY. It was a bit touch-and-go there as one of the girls waited almost a full month before joining her sisters. It got to the point where we were about to send her back to our supplier. And so far the early training with the nest box blocker at night appears to have worked. We haven't used it in about two weeks and they have yet to sleep in them and make a mess of the nest pads.

With a chill in the air and some new firewood it was time for the annual chimney decon to kill off overwintering stink bugs. They weren't so bad this year so only a few fell down into the flames.

News From Around The Patch (week of 9/20)

Well, as you've probably noted, my promise of doing weekly updates from the patch this season didn't work out too well. There have just been too many things going on and life got in the way. In the long run that's a good thing as all of the "in the way" things have involved other outdoor activities or adventures.

It's been a dry time around the patch for the last month giving us a break from grass mowing and being able to concentrate on the edible landscape. But we've also noted some weird activity in the wild fauna department such as this mother mouse who decided to set up shop inside our gas grill for a very late genetic experiment. I had been removing her nest on a weekly basis for nearly a month not knowing whether it was bird or rodent. This last weekend I found her on there with a full liter of  pups. The gecko would have enjoyed one of those "pinkys" and maybe even the chickens. But that would be mean so they were relocated to the wooded area to fend for themselves. I also had a few flash-backs to all of those long hours in the rodent rooms back in the 1980s!

The other big news is that the pullets have begun to lay; FINALLY! First there were two eggs per day and just this week we've been getting three so hopefully that last girl will not be too far behind. Pullet eggs are a bit small at first but soon gain size. That's a standard large-grade egg on top from one of our fellow backyard keepers. The two on the bottom are from our pullets. Unlike our first batch of chickens, we're hoping that these girls will be a bit more uniform. One of our last flock would lay a huge dinosaur egg while another would occasionally lay albumin blobs without shells. We're also training this group from the very beginning to not roost in the laying boxes at night (using the blocker panel). This means we get pristine eggs right out of the box just like in the movies.

The strawberry bed renovation also did well this season. We took care to pinch off all of the blooms on the Sparkle plants (true June berry) so that the plants would put all of their energy into root and side-shoot development. Same for the Seascape (day neutral) as they began to bloom in late summer. But now that the Seascape have established themselves, we've let them begin to fruit out. The quality and flavor is excellent and we're getting about a quart box every other day. Hopefully that will continue until the first hard frosts.

Next up we'll be reporting on our experiment with a low tunnel for overwintering and winter harvest. We're a bit behind calculating our local Persephone period but with some indoor kale starts I'm hoping to be able to catch up a bit. Eat well and eat local!

Getting In The Fall Garden

It was a rare adventure-free weekend where I could concentrate on family ties and the Food Patch. Starting yesterday (Saturday) my daughter and I headed over to our local Mennonite farmer to pickup four 17-week old pullets to get our egg operation back in business. They had just arrived at his farm on Wednesday so they were still a bit  skiddish. I suspect they were getting acclimated to being outside at his farm and here we were putting them into a crate and bringing them home to a chicken tractor with all of the noises and commotion of being on a major state highway. Just today they managed to learn how the food bin works. I suspect it will be a week or so before they get the nipples straight on the water bucket. We even had to physically grab them and remove them from the hutch portion this morning and put them into the run area so they could get food and water. And this evening two refused to go in to roost so we have to grab them and shuve them into the pop door before we could close them up for the night.

Also today I cleared off the garden of dead cucumber and squash vines and planted the fall crops. These included two varieties of  kale, two varieties of collards. chard and beets. These should take us up to Christmas and I also am planning some low tunnel crops to get us into early winter (more to follow).

I also hand aerated the two strawberry beads and strawed in the walkway and edges. Since May, I've been hand-plucking blooms from the Seascape (day neutrals) and the Sparkle (true June berries) plants so they could spend all of their energy to root growth and side shoots and get themselves established. Now, the Seascape will be allowed to set fruit so we can get a few late season berries before frost.

Not to mention the fall brassicas; cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage.

Summer Around The Patch (Rain Forest Edition)

It certainly has been an interesting season. We've averaged roughly an inch of rain a week for the last two months! And lots of cloudy days. Two previous mini-heat waves and just today, a third. We have been grateful not to have to water, but it has made high quality ripening difficult. The tomatoes ripened on schedule but the taste and texture are suboptimal. The weeds have been a constant chore and for some reason this has been the longest and most severe Japanese beetle season in the history of The Patch. And of course the grass has yet to go dormant meaning the weekly mowing chore has gone on unabated. But we've had ample chard, beets, squash, cucs and tomatoes to keep us well fed. Soon it will be time to start fall crops; how the time flies by!

One other thing I've tried to keep up with more this season is the herb harvest. Last year's basil has been savored and I'm making sure to have enough dried down to get us through another winter. The chamomile also has been doing well. Not exactly Brother Cadfael's operation but our own little version of it.

CHICKEN UPDATE: The tractor has been hardened up with additional wire so that only a very large and determined predator could now get in there. Except for some paint touch ups it should be ready to go for the the late August pullets. So far we have trapped one possum, one ground hog, and one skunk (don't ask!). The ground hog was purely a precaution for the garden whereas the possum and skunk were small enough to be possible suspects in the hen murder. We will continue trapping to see what we get although I would prefer not to have to handle any more skunks.

Loss of Our Girls

It's a very sad day around The Patch. Some kind of wild vermin managed to get into our chicken tractor and slaughter all of our girls! The trouble began Saturday morning when I found one of them dead in the corner of the run area with minimal trauma signs that looked more like cannibalism by the others. Since there were no signs of foul play or forced entry, I chalked it up to a natural death followed by cannibalism by the other three. I had just picked them all up the night before and there were no signs of sickness. Vents were clean and heads, eyes and combs were bright and clear. Although one of them had occasionally laid a shell-less egg ever since we got them; a sign of internal reproductive abnormality that had gotten worse over the last few weeks.

This morning was bad. Two were dead outright, and the third, Nugget, was crouched in the corner hurting and barely alive. There were no morning eggs in the nest boxes or empty shells. I picked her up and a big chunk of her lower abdomen was missing. I had to euthanize her straight off as she was suffering and there was no way she would recover from that type of trauma. I can only imagine the commotion that must have transpired sometime during the night or early this morning as well as the pain and agony that followed.

The asshole that did this must have managed to wiggle through the lattice work of either the end or top hatches. All of the poultry fence was secure and there were no signs of anything digging in under the tractor frame. However, the culprit did manage to take a dump inside the run area. This scat had no visible hair but there were obvious seeds most likely from our own raspberry patch. The ultimate indignity; taking a dump at the scene of the crime after eating some of our own berry crop.

I WILL HUNT YOUR ASS DOWN AND THERE WILL BE HELL TO PAY!

We'll miss you girls and the dozens of eggs you made for us over the last sixteen months.