I wake up pretty early most days, sometimes as early as 3:00am. I don't set the alarm any more, when we moved to the country it was basically for me to be able to do things like garden and get back into doing things I wanted to do. The quiet time of the day...is when I first get up, I fix coffee first thing. I usually don't sit down long to drink it though, a few sips and I usually start in on chores. I am dead tired by the end of the day so I usually leave the dinner dishes until in the morning. I start cleaning the kitchen and doing dishes and wiping down counters and such. Then I rest a few and drink my coffee.
Some days I don't even get half of my coffee down...because when I have baby chicks I start checking on them, cleaning the brooders, filling their waterers and food up. Right now I have 14 chicks less than a week old in a brooder in the bathroom of our office. I have a double decker brooder that I built on the back porch with 12 chicks in each section. Today I am writing before checking on them, but soon I will get to work on everything...after I finish this cup of coffee.
My husband use to work for a very large Corporation, he likes the finer things in life...when I met him, he had this coffee maker that you basically set the timer, filled a hopper with coffee beans and water, then in the morning it would grind the beans and brew the coffee and be waiting for you when you got up. It is the best coffee I ever had, we experimented with different brands of coffee and found one we really both like, it is chocolate raspberry flavored. I look forward to my cup of coffee every morning, sometimes I will drink it and watch the sun come up and listen to my roosters crow.
I prepared the coffee maker last week, filled it with water, put the beans in it and turned it on...then because I had cleaned the kitchen before bed, I started my daily chores with the chicks. I didn't get the coffee myself. The coffee maker had sprung a bit of a leak and I had a tray underneath it to catch the leak. I came in the living room after feeding, watering and changing out the bedding for the chicks, turning the eggs in the incubator and candling a few to see the progress of the egg development. I rested. My husband walks into the kitchen and hollers "Honey"...and I immediately think I forgot to turn on the coffee pot, or put coffee beans in the hopper...but, that was not the case...I knew I did both this time. He said come here for a minute...so, I did.
There was a big mess everywhere. The basket to the coffee maker had sprung out sometime during the process. I am glad the tray was under the coffee maker. But now we had coffee grounds and coffee in the tray, the drip basket was full and a mess was on the counter. He tried pushing the basket back in...it did not stay. He cleaned it up, but we knew the coffee maker was done, over, finito...no more good coffee. I pulled out the Mr.Coffee and ground some beans and started a new pot of coffee.
You get spoiled sometimes, you get use to things you like and you don't want them to change...good coffee is one of them for me. The coffee out of the Mr. Coffee tasted weak, it was also slightly bitter...neither of us enjoyed it. We thought we would just live with it, the coffee maker that failed was a luxury item. Since we moved out here we have pretty much eliminated luxury items. So, all week I tried to make the coffee taste better. Ground more beans, experimented with trying to make it less bitter, more bold flavor, used different water...filtered verses tap, cold from the fridge, room temperature from the Berky water filter. It finally started tasting a bit better...then the Mr.Coffee quit working...it stopped pumping the water. I ordered a new Grind and Brew like we had...in the mean time, I am drinking coffee that is not so great tasting made by pouring hot water through a filter basket.
The new coffee maker should be here today.
Monday, August 18, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
First Batch is grown up...
If you have never had chickens, you don't know what you are missing. I never thought I would enjoy them as much as I do, but I love their personalities, their sounds and even enjoy the roosters crowing. The first batch of babies is reaching maturity now, they are crowing and the hens should start laying soon. There are 4 roosters and 10 hens, they get to forage all day in the fenced area around the new coop we built, they are still basically living in the grow out pen. We moved the hatchery chicks to the coop and as soon as I can put wire on the outside so they can't go under the chicken coop...they will get to go out and play with the older juveniles. I call them my teen chicks at this point...not quite old enough to be called adults, but almost there.
I have another big batch of chicks on my back porch, I think there are 24...6 of those are the Cream Leg bars, 1 a Blue Splash Maran I hatched in the incubator, the rest are chicks from my original hens...and a lot of them are roosters. My Dominique hens bred with my Rhode Island Red rooster so I can tell that any of the chicks that have Barred feathers are males and may be considered as Rhodebars, the pretty much solid black are females called Sex Links. I was disappointed not getting but one Maran out of the hatch...so I tried again, I bought more eggs off of eBay.
I had a more successful hatch this past week, but still not great. I have 14 new chicks in my brooder in the house...but that is out of 48 eggs. I did get a few unusual chicks out of that batch, 1 a Golden Laced Polish, 4 Blue Laced Barnevelder, 1 Gold Laced Wyandotte, I believe 3 Blue Splash and 1 Black Copper Marans...then a Rhode Island Red, a New Hampshire Red and 2 Blue Andalusians. Because all but two of the Black Copper Marans eggs were infertile they sent me more eggs...they are still in the incubator and I hope to get at lest a few more out of that. I candled a few of them yesterday and it appears chicks are growing in them.
I hope that by this time next year that I have around 60 hens laying and a lot of different colors of eggs. I can breed a Marans Chicken with a blue egg layer and get an Olive colored egg...and my Easter Eggers should be laying so a variety of colors with them, and dark browns with the Marans, the Cream Legbars lay blue eggs...I look forward to that. I ordered a book on chicken breeding, so I can learn about traits and how to get different breeds out of my base chicken stock.
I know my family probably thinks I am crazy, chickens are a lot of work but I enjoy watching them, hearing them coo and chirp, they make happy sounds. My husband and I have chairs set out under the trees in their pen and we enjoy watching them and taking them treats. It is funny having them all come running when you go out to feed them, or bring them treats it is cute seeing all those little legs moving, seeing them hopping up trying to fly to you faster, get to you first. Even when they are adults they make the cutest sounds when they are happy...and there is no feeling like finding your first egg from a hen you raised, or a baby chick you hatched out.
I have another big batch of chicks on my back porch, I think there are 24...6 of those are the Cream Leg bars, 1 a Blue Splash Maran I hatched in the incubator, the rest are chicks from my original hens...and a lot of them are roosters. My Dominique hens bred with my Rhode Island Red rooster so I can tell that any of the chicks that have Barred feathers are males and may be considered as Rhodebars, the pretty much solid black are females called Sex Links. I was disappointed not getting but one Maran out of the hatch...so I tried again, I bought more eggs off of eBay.
I had a more successful hatch this past week, but still not great. I have 14 new chicks in my brooder in the house...but that is out of 48 eggs. I did get a few unusual chicks out of that batch, 1 a Golden Laced Polish, 4 Blue Laced Barnevelder, 1 Gold Laced Wyandotte, I believe 3 Blue Splash and 1 Black Copper Marans...then a Rhode Island Red, a New Hampshire Red and 2 Blue Andalusians. Because all but two of the Black Copper Marans eggs were infertile they sent me more eggs...they are still in the incubator and I hope to get at lest a few more out of that. I candled a few of them yesterday and it appears chicks are growing in them.
I hope that by this time next year that I have around 60 hens laying and a lot of different colors of eggs. I can breed a Marans Chicken with a blue egg layer and get an Olive colored egg...and my Easter Eggers should be laying so a variety of colors with them, and dark browns with the Marans, the Cream Legbars lay blue eggs...I look forward to that. I ordered a book on chicken breeding, so I can learn about traits and how to get different breeds out of my base chicken stock.
I know my family probably thinks I am crazy, chickens are a lot of work but I enjoy watching them, hearing them coo and chirp, they make happy sounds. My husband and I have chairs set out under the trees in their pen and we enjoy watching them and taking them treats. It is funny having them all come running when you go out to feed them, or bring them treats it is cute seeing all those little legs moving, seeing them hopping up trying to fly to you faster, get to you first. Even when they are adults they make the cutest sounds when they are happy...and there is no feeling like finding your first egg from a hen you raised, or a baby chick you hatched out.
Success!
I planted my gardens sort of piecemeal and late this year, with all the rain we had I just didn't know if anything would actually produce crops. I stay pretty busy around here and with working on the new chicken coop and all the baby chicks that have hatched I have not really paid a lot of attention to my gardens.
Well, we finished the chicken coop enough to put our chicks that I got from the hatchery out there and I started paying more attention. I had to weed. Note to self: I will need to give myself more room if I am going to use the tiller between rows to do it next year! I had to use a hoe to weed and a hand cultivator...and just my gloved hands to pull the weeds that looked more like small trees...and there are a lot of those. It is going to take a long time and a lot of maintenance to keep the weeds out.
I have had good success with my tomatoes, I planted San Marzano, Arkansas Traveller, Black Krim and Sweet 100's...I have to pick tomatoes every couple of days and get all of the ones that are just starting to turn red, if I don't the bugs and birds will eat them. I have used zero pesticides on my gardens and really have not had to worry much about bugs...but, there are ants that will cover the overly ripe tomatoes that fall...and the ones that touch the ground. I will have to come up with a better method than tomato cages and stakes...the weight of the tomatoes bent, broke and pulled the tomato cages out of the ground. I think I planted about 20 tomato plants, and even with all the bad tomatoes I still pick around 10 to 15 pounds or better when I pick them every time. I have canned tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and hot sauce. I pick around a gallon of fresh green beans twice a week, have picked enough jalapeños to can a couple of pints and make 12 pints of hot sauce, brocolli has been harvested 4 times and each time it is enough for a couple of meals, pinto beans...a little over a quart but I doubt I will plant them again, I harvested my corn and even though the cobs were small and the birds pulled out a row and a half we got probably 60 ears. My herb garden is doing pretty well, the mints are huge, basil and oregano did well, Stivia is so so, dill almost non-existent (weeds crowded it), Cilantro died. I put pickling cucumbers in the herb garden and have had a good crop...made a lot of pickles for the first time, Kosher, sweet hots, and even am fermenting 3 gallons at the moment. I had to uncover my strawberry plants and blueberries...they are doing better now...it took a few days of weeding to find them. Oh, I harvested some bell peppers too. I am sure once the weather starts cooling off everything will do better especially if I keep up with weeding.
When you buy all your produce at the store you never realize how bland it tastes compared to home grown...the taste difference is remarkable and so much better. I think this years garden was a success, even with all the set backs. I have watermelon and cantaloupe on the vines too...just trying to wait patiently to be able to see how they turned out. Now, to figure out what to plant for my fall garden.
Well, we finished the chicken coop enough to put our chicks that I got from the hatchery out there and I started paying more attention. I had to weed. Note to self: I will need to give myself more room if I am going to use the tiller between rows to do it next year! I had to use a hoe to weed and a hand cultivator...and just my gloved hands to pull the weeds that looked more like small trees...and there are a lot of those. It is going to take a long time and a lot of maintenance to keep the weeds out.
I have had good success with my tomatoes, I planted San Marzano, Arkansas Traveller, Black Krim and Sweet 100's...I have to pick tomatoes every couple of days and get all of the ones that are just starting to turn red, if I don't the bugs and birds will eat them. I have used zero pesticides on my gardens and really have not had to worry much about bugs...but, there are ants that will cover the overly ripe tomatoes that fall...and the ones that touch the ground. I will have to come up with a better method than tomato cages and stakes...the weight of the tomatoes bent, broke and pulled the tomato cages out of the ground. I think I planted about 20 tomato plants, and even with all the bad tomatoes I still pick around 10 to 15 pounds or better when I pick them every time. I have canned tomato sauce, spaghetti sauce and hot sauce. I pick around a gallon of fresh green beans twice a week, have picked enough jalapeños to can a couple of pints and make 12 pints of hot sauce, brocolli has been harvested 4 times and each time it is enough for a couple of meals, pinto beans...a little over a quart but I doubt I will plant them again, I harvested my corn and even though the cobs were small and the birds pulled out a row and a half we got probably 60 ears. My herb garden is doing pretty well, the mints are huge, basil and oregano did well, Stivia is so so, dill almost non-existent (weeds crowded it), Cilantro died. I put pickling cucumbers in the herb garden and have had a good crop...made a lot of pickles for the first time, Kosher, sweet hots, and even am fermenting 3 gallons at the moment. I had to uncover my strawberry plants and blueberries...they are doing better now...it took a few days of weeding to find them. Oh, I harvested some bell peppers too. I am sure once the weather starts cooling off everything will do better especially if I keep up with weeding.
When you buy all your produce at the store you never realize how bland it tastes compared to home grown...the taste difference is remarkable and so much better. I think this years garden was a success, even with all the set backs. I have watermelon and cantaloupe on the vines too...just trying to wait patiently to be able to see how they turned out. Now, to figure out what to plant for my fall garden.
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