Today was quite the day. Started with not wanting to get up, but then again, that isn’t special or unusual. Driving thru Buffalo on the way to work sounded like we ran over something. Stopped down the road a ways and checked the tires, but couldn’t see anything wrong, hear or feel any leaks or find something sticking out of the tire. So we drove on in to Springfield, about 50 miles by the time we go to Jeanne’s moms house and everything. Then I went and got gas before going to work. Didn’t have to take Jeanne to work this morning because she went to an appointment with her mom.
Then this afternoon while we were out for the afternoon recess, the announced on the PA system that a white van in the parking lot had a flat tire. Yep, that’s me. And I knew exactly which tire it was and where it happened. So I used the portable air pump to pump up the tire some, get it off the rim until I could get it fixed. After school I pumped it up more, then headed across town to Big O tires. They installed the new tires in it a few weeks ago and fix the flats for free. Took less than an hour to drive there, and get it fixed. They took a piece out of the tire that looks like it came from the edge of an aluminum rim. It’s about 3 inches long. Amazing that it didn’t completely trash the tire, and that we were able to drive on it all the way to work. Came home and the pups were still in the chicken yard. I put some boards up in the corner where they were getting out, and guess that helped. Checked eggs and we got our first turkey egg. Not sure who laid it or anything, it was in the nest box up in the wall with some other chicken eggs. So we will see if we start getting more turkey eggs. Then we went out in the garden and did a little work in it. Mostly I wanted to plant the potatoes that were under the cabinet. First I used the tiller and worked up the ground, then we flopped the big tractor tire around and got a couple of large truck tires form the field. That made 3 sets of tires. I dug down in the soil and planted the potatoes. Some of them had pretty long sprouts on them, so laid some over and a few stood up strait, then added soil around them. On top of that I put some fresh straw and filled the tires up. I also used the rake to loosen the soil in the raised beds I made the other day and then covered them with straw too. For the potatoes, when the plants get big enough and start showing through the straw, I’ll add another tire on top and add more straw. Somewhere along the line I figure I’ll also need to add some type of fertilizer, maybe some of the composted straw I remove from the coop later. Not sure if I plan to clean out the coop this year or not. The raised beds I’m building I plan to keep using for several years right where they are this year. That will help me with my plant rotation too. And I’ll try to add new ones to them as we go along. There will still be some areas for a while that I do not have raised beds in. Some of those will be corn, my melons and large vine plants. Some I’ll try to train to grow up a fence, and some of the vines can even grow through the corn and help shade the roots. Other than weeding and watering, I really don’t need to get into the corn or the squash and pumpkins and such until I harvest them. So that will be a good dual use of the space. And it should help keep the weeds down. We have done pretty good so far in tilling the ground and removing the roots and such to get things ready to plant. I need to do some PM’s on the tiller, and then tear up the rest of the garden area. Plan to make a real effort to keep ahead of the weeds this year. I have a lot more in the garden than we are ever going to be able to use, more so because we don’t all eat vegetables and such. I’ll give some to Jeanne’s mom, to people at work or what ever. If we have enough, the thought is to try to sell some of it at the Farmers Market on the weekends, or when ever. We’ll see. We got some tomato seeds the other night, made sure they weren’t hybrid types, and put a bunch in baggies to sprout. So I figure tomorrow night when I get home they’ll be starting to grow and I’ll need to put them in little grow pots. Looked at the other stuff I have sprouted, and I have 2 Rose Mary plants and about 8 Thyme plants. Guess I better find a use for thyme. And plant more Rose Mary. And I need to work harder at getting Oregano to sprout. Evidently didn’t do to well with it the first time. And lastly, in two days, on the fifteenth, the new list of jobs comes out. Not like I’m excited about it or counting days or anything. Lol. Can’t wait. We had a nice weekend. Saturday the sun shined and we cleaned the living room and the plants. Tried to get rid of all the fine dust left from the chicks in the house. I got some of my seeds planted and the starts put into small pots, and the lights set up on the shelf. Planted the rose bushes in pots.
Then I went out in the garden and rototilled parts of it. Put in 3 of the frames for raised beds and tilled up several other areas. I didn’t actually plant anything yet, just got the ground ready. Also 2 or 3 of the Oregano plants from last year actually made it through the winter. I took the covers off them and they are looking pretty good. I am totally shocked that they survived the cold. I hadn’t even given it a thought that they would, but when I found them, I tried to protect them some. Of course by then, most of the bad parts of winter was over. And I think they are the kind of Oregano I labeled as “Other” Oregano. It just smells and tastes different, better. And so I’m hoping to get more of it this year. I also bought a Rosemary and Lavender plant at Wal-Mart. I have some I’m trying to grow from seed, but I wanted to be sure I had some. And I’m starting to run out of what I have in dried from last year. I accidentally killed my Rosemary last fall. I trimmed it way back and figured it would grow back. But I have since learned from reading that Rosemary is one of those strange plants that does not grow new buds. You can trim off parts and it will keep growing from the terminal buds. But if you cut off all the terminal buds, it will not grow any new buds or shoots like regular plants will. What happens is the plant dies. I thought I was just trimming them back for winter and coming inside. Instead, I killed them. We had gone to the MFA store here and bought about 5 pounds of clover seed. I think it is red clover, I’m just sure it isn’t Ladino clover. It came with some kind of coating on it, could be an inoculant or something to help with handling the seed, not sure. Anyway, got the seed and went out just before dark Saturday evening and scattered the seed by hand over the area we plan to fence off. It covered the area pretty well. I’ll just have to see how it grows and survives the summer drought. Saturday night we got some pretty good rain, and during the day Sunday. So I went out Sunday and checked on the seed. The seed was still visible some, but had been worked down into the ground pretty well. I had forgotten to save a few seeds to test sprout inside. So I gathered up a few and brought them inside. And in the process of doing things and checking stuff, we found the first egg Edith laid in the peacock pen. So she has finally come of age! Will have to keep an eye on her and keep Hot Rod away from her. Not sure what we plan to do with the eggs, I’ll probably try to hatch them and sell the chicks. Not sure that we want to raise very many of these smaller birds. They may be small, but I’m telling you, both of them have some personality! We’ll see what happens. So Sunday it Rained and we didn’t do much outside. Grilled a tri-tip steak again. Has become a habit, almost a tradition that I hope we continue for a long time. On Sundays, especially when it is nice weather outside, we grill out. We got this steak Friday night and marinated it until Sunday. Then we put it on the smoker and smoke it using pear wood for the smoke. Takes about 3 hours or so. Oh, and we watch the Nascar Races while it smokes. Something new I am learning to enjoy with my new wife. Jimmy Johnson, #48 is our favorite. So about two thirds of the way into the race, the power goes out. Came on and off for a while, but eventually stayed off for over 2 hours. Good thing we were grilling or dinner would have been a poor fare. Had steak and steak fries from the grill. And just as we were getting ready to eat, the power came back on. Nice, as it was getting dark also. We also changed our clocks ahead one hour to Day Light Savings Time. But guess that is a whole other story. Not sure how I feel about it. Monday it really sucked because we aren’t used to it yet, and we had to get up in the dark again. We did like the extra daylight hours when we got home. So we’ll see. Monday night we tilled up another section in the garden. Then we planted some of the lettuce plants and onion bulbs in it, along with some peas, beets and lettuce seeds. I didn’t have carrot seeds with me or would have planted some of them, too. We got another egg from Edith, but I dropped it and it broke. Emmy has 8 eggs in her nest and hope she starts to really sit on them soon. We got 5 other eggs from chickens, too. Moved a bale of straw into the coop and moved the Dog Igloo into the coop. Tried to get the pups to sleep in it, but don’t think that will work. Maybe the turkeys or something will use it for a nest box. Moved 4 goose eggs to the hatcher, should hatch any day now. Been a while since I wrote on here, so let me try to catch up.
One week ago. Took 3 of the chicks we hatched in January back to school a week ago. The kids loved them, they got to hold them and pet them. The ones that weren’t afraid of them any way. It was really an experience for them. Even some of the teachers and staff loved it, lol. Was interesting. Have 12 geese eggs in the incubator right now. The turkeys haven’t started laying yet, but hoping will have turkey eggs to incubate soon. Have 33 chickens we hatched in January, and all of the roosters are destined for the freezer or the canning jar in about 2 months. Thursday night I took some of the chicks outside and put them in a pen outside our window. It was on the West side of the house and got the afternoon sun. I put a light in it and put up some blankets to form an area that was warmer. We put blankets over the sides and closed it in really well. I put half the chicks out there, the ones we think are roosters. They spent 2 nights out there and seemed to do alright. One of the problems was it didn’t get any sun until afternoon and another was only half the chicks were in it. So today we moved the mini-coop from the garden out to the field beyond. I cleaned the area up and Jeanne helped me move the big pen and set it up. Then we moved the mini-coop and placed it next to the pen. I cut a new hole in the fence and stapled it to the side of the mini-coop. Because the problem we had last year was the chicks were either in the coop or in the pen. But now I can open the mini-coop and just leave it when we go to work, and the birds can come out when they want to. I was hoping to get out in the garden and till up some of it so I can plant stuff soon. I have a few plants started in the house. The Broccoli and the lettuce didn’t sprout very well. The Thyme did really well, and I only got 2 Rose Mary plants. I still need to start more plants inside for the garden. I also need to get the seed for the field to grow clover. I did a pre-screening interview for teaching positions with Springfield Public Schools, the other day and think I did pretty well. The next round on internal transfers begins 15 March, when positions get posted. They have to be up for 10 days, and then on 26 March, schools can begin interviewing. My name is in the hat for any positions I am qualified for, I don’t need to do anything. I just need to check out the positions and prepare for interviews. In the first round, there were 3 science positions. So either they are still open, or they got filled and now there are open positions where those people came from. So there are positions available, and chances are there could be additional ones also. One of them is with at risk kids. and I think I could enjoy working there, and have a real shot at making a positive difference in their lives. So now, just kind of wait and see what happens. Oh, and in case you heard about our tornadoes. We did have one a few miles down the road from our place and one person died. Several mobile homes were destroyed, and Buffalo was with out power for 2 days. We never even lost power at our place. Got woke up by the rain and the wind, but no damage near us. The plastic lawn chair in the yard didn’t even get blown away. Last week. We started putting the puppies in the chicken coop to sleep at night, and then they hang out in the chicken yard with them all day. Bear sleeps under the nest boxes and Nikita sleeps just inside the door. We have the light set to provide light until about 830pm each day, so we put them out in the coop a little after 8 each night. That gives the birds enough time to settle down for the night after we put them away, and then the pups go in and lay down for the night. Has worked pretty well so far. We are betting that by growing up with the birds, they will be less inclined to chase them or kill them. We know there could be accidents, and think we are prepared to accept those. We have been reading books on training dogs and ways to train Pyrenees especially, and how to work with birds. Did a lot of research on the tying the dead bird around their necks thing, and in my opinion it is the best way to go. And I’m trying to take a different view of training the dogs and how they see things and feel about stuff, and how they learn. So far the pups have been great. Mom has been the issue. Jeanne caught her chasing the birds one day, and she had Brownie pinned down and was playing with her. Bit all her tail feathers off, and lost some of her wing feathers, but there wasn’t a scratch on the bird. Now she just looks funny with no tail. Stopped collecting the goose eggs. We have 7 in the incubator and 4 in the hatcher. Those 4 should start hatching Monday or Tuesday. Then 3 next week and 4 the weeks after that. There are 5 eggs in the nest in the coop now. She sits in them every night, but gets off them in the day time. That is the way geese do it. And so each evening, I have to go in and reach under her to get the chicken eggs, because she moved form the nest she built into the dog carrier I put out there and now the chickens all lay in her nest. We only got 2 eggs today, and 6 yesterday, 5 the day before. Not sure what the deal is. And we got our first egg from Edith today. Not sure what I’m going to do with it. I put it in the closet and will see if we get many more. Bought 3 rose bushes and some herbs. Planted the roses in pots in the living room. Will grow them there for a while and then plant them in the yard when the weather has warmed up. Also started some seeds. I put some in the other day and they are in little pots now. Filled up the starter tray last night with cabbage, broccoli, beets, 2 kinds of lettuce, egg plants, cilantro, marigolds and some other flowers. Then today I cleaned all the plants under the stands in the house and got them organized. They were all covered with this fine, white dust film from having the baby chicks in the house. I also tilled up the garden some, set up 3 raised beds and burned most of the dead blackberry stalks and such. Jeanne helped me pick the plants out of the tilled areas. Didn’t plant anything outside yet. The peacocks came in the garden and “helped” me. The alternated between pecking at my fingers and the weeds I was pulling. Every now and then one of them would grab a weed and run with it. Other times they’d get my fingers. Not sure what it is about fingers, but they seem to love them. The baby chicks are doing fine, and 33 is just about the limit of that small coop. The pen isn’t too big for them either. I need to take some of the new fencing out and fence off an area around the cage they can get to when we are home. They are still vulnerable to attack from the air by hawks or eagles or owls even. We also go some clover seed and I spread it in the field. We got 5 pounds at MFA today, and I broadcast it by hand just before dark to night. The seed looked like it was treated, or covered with something that should help it grow better, or maybe just make the seed bigger and easier to handle. At any rate, I waited until just before dark to lessen the chances of birds or something eating the seed. It is supposed to rain tonight, quite a bit, and so my the morning I hoping the seed will be worked at least to the ground layer and maybe less visible to animals. And the rain should help it to get started growing. We are expecting some warm weather the next week, with days in the 70’s and night in the upper 40’s to lower 50’s. 10th of March and not sure if we’ve seen our last frost or not. We got a good one Wednesday and Thursday night. Got down to 28 one night and 31 the other. Those were the first freeze we’ve had in a week or more. And no more are in the forecast right now. This week the jobs get posted for internal transfers at work. And yes, I am very excited about it. The Oscars have been acting like they are wanting to nest, or breed. They keep clearing out the gravel from around a rock I placed at the bottom for just such a reason. But the Pleco fish keep harassing them. Think the Pleco would eat the eggs given the chance and the Oscars couldn’t stop them. So I’m going to measure and see if I can get something to separate the tank and put the Plecos on one side the Oscars on the other. Haven’t decided what to do about pools outside this summer, but the plan is to turn the old pool into a fish pond and put the large Pleco in it. Think he’d be good in the tank the birds drink out of, just not sure what I’d do with him in the winter. | AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesNovember 2012 CategoriesAll |
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