peas and radishes

We planted peas and radishes this weekend. It was so much easier this year. We could follow the pattern of the hills from last year and no tilling was necessary. We were not fighting grass and weeds and it took only a few minutes to break up the ground with a spade fork. We then followed with a potato fork to remove weeds and rake the soil smooth. The last step before planting was not planned, but the chickens, seeing fresh ground, followed right behind, scratching out the last weed seeds and bugs. We then planted sugar snap and snow peas and a short row of radishes. We will plant more radishes in the coming weeks so as to extend the season. The rows were covered with a floating row cover so as to keep weeds at bay and chickens away from the seeds.

Replanting Raspberries with Dad

I had about 900 feet of raspberries planted in a field down the road. I decided to move a few of them this fall. I dug up some canes and hilled them in some compost over the winter. This weekend with help from Chris, we were able to plant 200 feet of Tulameen raspberries, a summer bearing berry that is delicous.

Here is a photo documentary of the process:



Plowing to hill up the soil. Raspberries require dry feet and good soil drainage.



Discing the hilled soil to break up soil clods.



Loading compost to topdress the rows before planting.



Safe tractor work requires the operator's full attention which includes awareness of your surroundings.



Compost is placed every 10 feet to be spread along the row with shovels.


The berries are set out about every six inches. Ideally with new root stock I would space them every 2 to 3 feet but I need to established the row a little sooner.


Anna uses the shovel to open up a hole and Dad burries the roots and firms up the soil around the cane.


Supports are placed every 25 feet.


We try to reduce, reuse and recycle. This bailing twine was used on the hoophouses last year. This will suffice until we have a chance to install tall posts, braces and high tensile wire to make a more substantial trellis for support.


I am dreaming of fresh berries and cream. It might be hard to get the picked berries all the way up to the house before eating them all.

Cleaned Fence Line

BEFORE

AFTER

The neighbor John and I took down the fence with some help from a friend of theirs. After we freed the New Zealand Fence (3 strands of smooth high tensile wire)from the berries, we pulled the wire into our field and mowed down the blackberries into a mulch. Above is a picture from this summer, notice the highlighted area, that is what we mowed down.
The next day John and I repaired broken wires and restrung the fence. I think we both reclaimed about 1/4 of an acre from the Himalayan blackberries.

Starting Seeds

drip tape, small hoops, bailing twine, plastic mulch and floating row cover

I have started some onion, broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage seeds this week. Last year we moved into the new place in March and I did not have many starts so the spring garden was a little late. I will be able to plant lettuce, spinach, broccoli and cauliflower under a hoop house to keep the rain and frost at bay. My goals in the garden this year are to improve water management (irrigation) and timing. I am planning to use more floating row covers, small coldframes and plastic mulches to start my season earlier and extend it later.

rain collection from the shed roof

To help with irrigation I am collecting rainwater and using drip tape. We have water provided by a municipality and they sent us a letter stating that our rates will be increasing. I don't like to use city water to irrigate, it seems like such a waste to use treated water on a garden. There has to be an old well on this property and If I can find it I will use it for irrigation. The rainwater I am collecting is nice but it is dry here in the summer and I cannot easily store enough water in the rainy months to provide irrigation all summer. I plan on using the stored rain water to make some compost tea in the containers and irrigate with that concoction. It is called chemigation when irrigation water is injected whith chemical fertilizer. There must be a term for irrigating with compost teas or organic fertilizers, perhaps organigation or compostigation, they just sound like dirty words.

drip tape close-up, a hole every 8 inches

TP mischief

Last night was the last girl's varsity basketball game. Apparently the girls weren't ready to end their season on a losing note, so they decided to work together to drape toilet paper ALL over their coach's house and yard, including way up in the only 2 pine trees on the property and every fruit tree. I guess they didn't work hard enough this season to be too tired to be out in the middle of the night. So much for our guard cats, who didn't alert us to anything, but thought it was really fun to play with the streamers blowing in the wind as I was cleaning up. The neighbors and I discovered tree pruners are the best tools to reach really well-thrown-toilet paper. All 3 tractors were decorated as if they were ready for a parade. Luckily, all was in good fun and could be handled with a sense of humor since it didn't rain. I might find a good way to get them back somehow, but for now I'll let them giggle away and enjoy it since we don't have school today. What I really want to know is why they used such expensive toilet paper!

chicken scratch

I collected 18 eggs today, 2 from the 3 year old hens and 16 from the 8 month old chickens. This is the most eggs the pullets have offered us in one day. I just purchased a bag of layer ration and it cost just over $14.50. That 50lb bag will last me 6 days. Now for a word problem (a flash back to grade school).

Vince has 25 hens that lay 18 eggs a day. If Vince buys a 50 pound sack of feed for $14.50 and his chickens consume it in 6 days, how much money in feed does it cost to get 1 egg.

18 eggs x 6 days = 108 eggs in 6 days

$14.50 every 6 days / 108 eggs every 6 days = $0.13 each egg

It costs Vince $0.13 (I can't find the symbol for cents) in feed to get one egg.

(I had to write the answer in a complete sentence to get full credit.)

Every evening after work I visit the chickens to put away feeders that attract mice if left out and collect the eggs. I usually walk into the run in order to swish the water around and dump out any contamination. The waterer is empty at least one evening each week and I take it up to the faucet to refill the 5 gallons and lug it back down to the run. If I neglect this task in the evening I have to wake up a little earlier the next morning. Around 7:00 A.M. I feed the chickens that I have separated into two flocks, 2 scoops of feed to the smaller flock of older hens and 4 scoops to the younger hens. Each flock has a rooster, more about that later.

By the time these chickens have reached 22 weeks they are starting to lay and it cost about $15.00 each in feed to get them to that age.

I have kept the older flock through their 2nd full year to see how they do throughout the 3rd summer; hopefully they will lay enough to earn their keep. Two eggs a day is what the 9 hens averaged all winter and through the molt. It hardly seems worth all of the feed but I kept a Rhode Island Red rooster to fertilize the hen's eggs. I am going to try to raise some chicks this spring. Mail ordered chicks are only $3 a piece and I will get mostly hens when I purchase chicks, but breeding my own has an appeal that might be worth the extra expense. Then again, this can be how a farm doesn't pencil out and an enterprise fails.

I need to raise my own feed to reduce my costs. I am going to plant a little field corn and wheat or oats. I need to find out more about harvesting cereal grains. The hens eat less feed when they are free to roam, but I can only do that on weekends when I am at home; we lost 7 hens to the coyotes before I built the runs.

When something does not cost a whole lot of money its small cost is referred to as chicken scratch. Boy is that an old saying.