Cabin Fever

This past week, Mother Nature decided to be funny. Just yesterday, she brought record high temps of 59 degrees to our Maine January, and our snow has slowly been melting into a memory and exposing highly confused grass in our backyard.

The chicken coop yesterday

The deceptive warmth has made my skin itch to dig in the dirt, to get building my raised beds, to see chickens frolicking. But reality tells me it's still January. It reminded me again this morning by dumping an unexpected snow storm on us. As I slipped on a patch of ice on my way to clean off my snow covered car, ending up on my ass in the snow, I really did not appreciate Mother Nature's sense of humor.

The chicken coop this morning :(

Reality also tells me that I have a full-time job, a family, and other various life issues (like the week long flu) that are just scheming to suck away all of my project time. Motivation escapes me on a regular basis, and bits and pieces of my potential projects stare at me accusingly, like the old windows I collected to make my greenhouse. Or the Mavis approved growing system that has yet to have any seeds started in it.

But, these things WILL get done. My commitment to having a thriving, self-sufficient, urban backyard paradise has not waned. Now, I just need to find some time.....

The Big Chicken Decision

We are finally closing in on getting the fencing in for our chickens. I spent all day Saturday clearing the area needed of copious amounts of snow, and with some serious nagging of GH, I'm hoping to get the frame erected, then the mesh up together. The master plan is to be able to pick up six lovely pullets this weekends.

Now, the real hard part - deciding on what breed(s) to get for our lovely backyard patch. The local farm store where I'll be picking them up has five breeds of pullets currently available:

                                                                      Golden Comets

                                                                   Silver Wyandotts

                                                                  White Leghorn

                                                                         Brahmas

                                                                       Delawares

 

 

 

Since our city only allows a flock of six, this is tough choice. I consider the chickens to be the cornerstone of all of my self/sufficiency projects. In short, this means productivity is high on the list, followed closely by Winter hardiness and general temperament.

 

 

My research has me leaning towards the Leghorns - these seem to be the most productive of the available breeds. However, I really like the look of the Silver Wyandotts best out of all them. I'm thinking of possibly doing a mix, but I'd really like to make sure my flock is harmonious.

 

 

Here's where I enter a plea for help - Please, experienced chicken owners, what would your advice be for selecting my small backyard flock with these breeds available? Help!

Seed Saga Continued

To my suprise and delight, I received a lovely email from Katie Wagner at Peaceful Valley appologizing again for the issues with the shipping of my seed order. She went on to say they couldn't figure out where the fluke occurred that caused the delay, but to make it up to me, they were returning the shipping and handling I paid on the order.

It's things like this that really make a difference to me. I don't have a lot of money, so when I spend it somewhere I like to know my business is appreciated, as measly as it may be. This has gone a long way in redeeming Peaceful Valley in my eyes. Hopefully I can place another order in the near future to see how it goes the next time around.

In the meantime, I'm still very excited about my chicken forage seed mix - can't wait to grow it and see if it is chicken approved.

The Depths of My Garden Mania

If this post doesn't get me committed, nothing will......

So, now that I have seeds in hand, and will begin indoor germination soon, I decided it was time to formulate a battle plan for the garden layout.

I had already decided to do raised beds using the Square Foot Gardening method. Having purchased the book about two years back, this has always been the most practical approach to me, especially doing a backyard, urban garden at a rental property, and desiring high yields for my time and effort.

In my 4' X 4' raised beds, I knew the next step was to determine how much I wanted of my various vegetables, and then how to plant them with "companion" vegetables that would be happy together and help encourage each other to grow to it's maximum potential.

Doing this was an effort in algebra, advanced chess, and Machiavellian strategy. The end result netted me a total of eight raised beds, but I think I've gotten everything mapped out in proper order.

Viola!





Ignore the missing lines down the right hand sides of the beds - my Paint skills are a bit lacking......



 

 

If any more experienced gardeners have any tips of suggestions regarding my layout, please feel free to let me know. Till then, I'm going to go rest my brain......



Updates

A little catching up from the holiday week:

Update #1: Seed Fever

My seeds finally arrived from Grow Organic (Peaceful Valley), coming in at just under a month from when I ordered. Everything was there except for my onions, which I had already been informed would be another month's. Boo. However, after my last post, a very nice rep from Grow Organic emailed me to let me know she was looking into what had happened to delay my order for so long. Still haven't gotten a follow up on that, but I'll give it a little more time I suppose.

On the plus side, yeah seeds!

So lovely

I'm really hoping the chicken foraging mix is worth it, because at this point, it may be the product that brings me back. We'll see.

In the mean time, I've placed another seed order, this time with Botanical Interests. This is the company my idol Mavis uses, so I'm hoping they come through. I ordered a whole bunch of seeds, including some overlap of what I ordered from Grow Organic. I'm going to do a kind of Pepsi challenge with this year's crops to see what grows best, and what I'll go back to next year. Results, and general frustration to follow as things progress.

Update #2 : Projects

Not a lot of movement on my planned projects. However, I have found a potential local source of 55-gallon food-grade barrels for $30 a piece. Score. Work has said I can scavenge a few of their wooden pallets. My reclaimed windows continue to sit in my garage, waiting for the day they will be transformed into my greenhouse.


Update #3 : Chickens

There is a coop in my backyard. There is fencing in my garage. Still no chickens yet, but we're moving closer.......

Update #4 : Neighbors

I made retaliation cookies just in time for Christmas and delivered them to the neighbors via my own adorable minions. Then, yesterday, I met neighbor mom face to face. She's very cute, very young, and apparently, far better then me. Just as I feared. When I casually mentioned I have a horse (always my cool card) she responded by telling me about her high-school career riding Dressage on Stephen King's horses in Bangor. I nearly choked to death. Sorry neighbor wife, you're apparently far too cool for me - this is now abundantly clear.

Update #5 : The Girl

After several people we knew shared with K that they too had suffered taunts and torments throughout school, I think she felt validated. She also got a mountain of new clothes for Christmas. Hopefully she feels a little better equipped to face her first day back at school today after the holiday break.