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Painting with August
One of my favorite parts of Spring is all the random projects out and around the yard. What’s even better is having a little helper to keep you company. Painting should be fun right? Now we’re also one step closer to having the berry bushes protected from the deer.
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Happy Easter Chicks!
What better way to celebrate Spring than with Chicks 🙂 Having only 2 chickens seems a bit lonely so we’re adding 6 more to the flock. 3 Rhode Island Red and 3 Plymouth Rock will make for a colorful yard. For now these cute little chirpers are hanging out with my in the office. Their box is 2.5 feet high but that is nothing to these chicks, not even home for 18 hours and they are already roosting on the top of the box. Willow doesn’t quite know what to make of them circling and circling the box. She’ll come around but for now we’re keeping her away to make…
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Cleaning the Coop
With the warm weather comes, cleaning the chicken coop. Luckily we have 3 pairs of little hands to help on this seasonal task. Having laminate flooring under the bedding made cleanup a breeze. With just the 2 chickens the bedding stayed overly dry with the lower layer completely dry so a quick sweep did the trick without the need of mopping. Even with quadrupling the number of chickens (+6) next year I think the amount of bedding should be about the same. We also tossed a bunch of hay down on the fenced in portion of their coop as they pecked it to dirt. Surprisingly it equaled 2 wheelbarrow loads,…
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2018 : Blackgold Sweet Cherry
The Blackgold Sweet Cherry is the only standard tree we’ve planted. If all goes well it should really fill out, however so far we haven’t seen any actual growth. Last year (planted) there were several leaves but no vertical growth. I’m hoping that means it was focusing on its roots. Stay tuned as I’m hoping to take monthly updates to track its growth this year.
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Impatiently waiting for Spring…
So spring has arrived and we’re still covered in snow. Normally I wouldn’t mind but I’m excited to get out and do some yard work. Looking forward to reworking the mulch building some raised garden beds and various Trellises and boxes. Not to mention curious how the blueberries fared from the last storm that buried them. Almost lost a cherry bush that was plastered to the ground but luckily it didn’t snap under the stress. The chickens seem to be impatient too standing at the door of the coop waiting for us to open it for them. They seem content to pick through the straw but definitely want to range.
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Spring Shopping – Orchard Edition
Spring Cleaning on the ridge starts with Shopping! What new trees, bushes and plants are we adding to the orchard this year? The short and simple answer would be everything and anything, the more realistic approach would be to wait and see how all the plantings last year did through the winter. My answer why put off to next year what can be done today. This year we’ll be planting a nectarine tree, 2 plum trees, 3 pear trees, blackberries and black raspberries. Should be able to get some red raspberries from the neighbors and some pink from the parents to finish my vision for the raspberry patch. I’m not…
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Weekend Projects – Bench building with the Family
Nothing like spending the weekend with the family. Even better is when the kids are all in to do some “building”. We got our hands on some true 2″ x 8″ barn wood this past summer and it was begging to be turned into some nice benches for the front yard. A few cuts from the saw, some screws, a drill; and the kids have helped build their first set of benches. Can’t wait to show these off in the front yard. Of course Lionel wasn’t satisfied and wants to build a full play house indoors with a bunk bed and 2nd floor. A house in a house if you…
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Autumn foliage
Blueberry bushes sure are beautiful in the fall. Can’t wait to the bushes mature to their full height what a sight it will be.
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Strawberry Harvest
There is nothing as sweet as fresh picked berries. With Everbearing plants you continually get to pick strawberries all through the summer, instead of 1 large harvest. Ideal for a quick daily pick for adding to salads or a snack. I’m hoping the strawberries will send out runners next year so that we can expand to 4 rows vs the 2 we planted. It’ll let us do a nice multi-year rotation of the outside than inside rows.
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Dear Deer:
Please stay out of my yard. That’s not to hard to do is it? All week I’ve been seeing a few leaves plucked from a random apple tree, not worrying about it too much. Lo and Behold I’m walking around the house today and our cherry tree in front of the house has been completely stripped of leaves. We’ve tried deer repellent spray, and garlic oil… now we’ve upgraded to fencing. Only time will tell but so far all the trees and bushes have bounced back from all deer attacks. Oddly they haven’t touched the blue berry bushes, hopefully writing this doesn’t jinx me. Pro Tip: don’t have any stakes.…
