Chickies Day Two

Day Two: Still on paper towels. Temps a little low in the photo because I had just opened up the top to add a new layer of paper towels and to bring fresh, warm water. My experience shows that cold water and temps too cool contribute to pasty butt. I start pasty butt watch on day 3 or 4 as that is when they actually start having some real food in their guts. At this age, they get stuck in the feeders meant for chicks, so I open feed and also put some around on the towels so that shy ones that don't want to compete around the central feeder will also get fed. In a day or two, they will start doubling their food intake and it'll be time to put out the real feeders. I'll stop sprinkling food around, too, as they will start scratching and producing enough of a mess. Right now a new layer of paper towels is added 2 -3 times a day as their chickie poo is not very moist. Tomorrow they will get completely cleaned out, and pine shavings will go down, but with paper towels on 2/3s of it. They are getting less freaked out over hands dropping out of the sky.

A post shared by Karla Upton (@kmom246) on Mar 3, 2017 at 6:22am PST

They are already starting to get their tiny wing feathers!

2017 Chickie Babies Arrived today

Babies arrived today. Picked them up in the wee hours. They'll stay 4 - 6 weeks or so (depending on the weather) and then they will be off to new homes. Love the baby chickie stage!

A post shared by Karla Upton (@kmom246) on Mar 2, 2017 at 6:21am PST

Photo above was taken at the post office to verify that everyone made it from Iowa alive and kicking. They were a bit freaked out by the "sky" suddenly opening up on them.

Day One Tips - paper towels work better than pine shavings on day one. Food is easily distinguished from paper towels, and footing is more sure. Also, pine shavings get kicked into the water, and at this stage, little chickies can't easily get to water if I put the waterer on a plate. These metal waterers have seen several generations of babies. And, being metal, they can be run trough the sanitizing setting on the dishwasher at the beginning of each season (or when they get especially icky or we've got a round of pasty-butt).

A post shared by Karla Upton (@kmom246) on Mar 2, 2017 at 6:25am PST

Babies are from McMurray Hatchery.  I have ordered from them 4 times over the last several years and have never been disappointed.

Journal Entry 2017-01-04

Gardening in Middle Tennessee
Harvest

• 1 White Egg
• 2 Small Tan Eggs
• 1 Marans Egg

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Journal Entry 2017-01-01

Gardening in Middle Tennessee
Harvest

• 1 White Egg
• 1 Brown Egg

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Journal Entry 2016-12-23

Gardening in Middle Tennessee

I left my December book at work, so here I am with the January book.  Got a  break from the 20° F weather.  Nice 60° F day to day.  Rain is predicted for tomorrow.

• Went to get mulch but they were closed.  Hopefully they are opened on Monday.
• Began pulling crab grass - endless  chore.
• Set out two sets of mulch four pathways -needs to be thicker, but it’s a start.
• Much of the mulch from last year is showing signs of decomposition.  Good thing I have an unlimited source of free stuff.
• Chickens enjoying being out and about.  Nice day.  Hope they became rewarding be with lots of eggs soon!  People at work are waiting.
• $47.00 for 3 bales pine shavings and two bags of food.
• Need fencing for the garden for next year - chickens and then the addition of new puppies.  Yes, new puppies, German Shepherd brothers.  Been a long time since we had puppies.  Scout came to us as a nearly one year old.
• Finally got are bound to buying some permanent tags for my trees.  Just in time, too.  Some of them have already lost their original tags.  I have a map, so I’m pretty sure which one is which.  Copper tags that you write on with an old ball point pen.  Probably need more.  
• Can’t find my plant labels.  Still unpacking things from Nevada.
• I’ve got some inadvertent compost tea.  Need to aerate it and have it go aerobic.  Probably be good for all my trees.
• Happy to have gotten to enjoy this a lovely day, even if I spent most of it sleeping.  To go outside and not be bundled up was a pleasure.
• Still struggling with waiting to plant seeds in January and February.  Could it be a lifelong problem. I’ve be an writing about this affliction for over a decade and hasn’t seemed to have gotten any better.
• Put all my tree inventories in two Evernote.  Slowly getting my act together.  Another lifelong endeavor.

Lessons learned

• Making bean packets for each tree was awesome.
• Not keeping them weeded meant we didn’t eat a single bean.
• Will I really be able to retire at 65?  Will we really have the house paid off by then?

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Chickie and Hoop Tunnel Updates

Still too cold for the baby chickies to be outside all day, but I fashioned a makeshift mobile hoop house for them so that they can enjoy some sunshine and fresh greens.  They still get a little freaked out about being moved in and out, but they do enjoy being out when they can.  The plastic diffuses the light, provides wind protection, and also produces a greenhouse effect so that it is in the mid-80*F inside.    I face the opening away from the wind. 

Peas, lettuce and some red onions are doing quite well in the low tunnel.  Probably could have started the lettuce earlier, but I'm still pretty excited about it.  And the first pea flowers are opening.

This photo is from a little earlier in the month.

Garlic in the foreground.  Taken the cover off of one of the hoop tunnels.

View of the neighbor's trees seems closer in this photo, but they are really probably 75 feet or so away.  You can see the framework for the fencing that the guys are putting in.

They are bright pink-ish purple when young, and fade to a more blue-lavender color.

Mid-March

A short, Mid-March photographic tour. 

Deciduous Magnolia blooming right on schedule.

Jefferson Peach (Planted Fall 2015) teasing with flower buds

Dandelions already in bloom under last year's dry crabgrass.

Strawberries coming back to life.

Cherry Plum blooms among the lichen.

Do not believe your wife...

...when she says that there will not be any more baby chickens raised in the living-room... Baby Cuckoo Marans came home during the worst ice storm of the year... so of course they could not stay out in the shed.  Even if the shed was heated...  Yes, I do have the best husband...

Just a few days old and already getting feathers.

Aren't I a cutie?  Don't you love hearing me cheep all night?

Scout looking over his future charges.

Daring Spring with Low Tunnels

I've always wanted to try winter gardening, but when it is 0*F at night and in the teens during the day, I don't want to be outside any more than the plants do!  And thus, another reason I am delighted to have returned to The South!  Dipping into the teens at night, and barely above freezing this week - but 32*F I can do.  Time to build my first low tunnel "mini-greenhouse."

The Plan

Build two low tunnels for two of my beds.  Each bed is about 3 foot wide and 6 foot long.  These beds are next door to each other.  As for what to plant, I'm going to keep it simple and plant peas, spinach, lettuce, and bok choi.

The Materials & Equipment

The following materials list is for one 6 foot low tunnel

• 6 - 2 ft pieces of rebar
• 3 - 10 ft pieces of 3/4 in "schedule 40" pvc pipe cut to 7 ft lengths
• 10 ft x 12 ft row cover material (extra amounts to bury sides and gather ends)

The Build

1. Drive 2 ft pieces of rebar 1 foot or so into the ground (preferably when ground is not already frozen).  Some people recommended at a slight outward cant; however, I chose to put them in as straight as possible, thinking this might be more successful in frozen ground.  I put one piece of rebar at each corner of the bed, and one on each side.

2. Bend the pipes and insert them over the rebar. 

3. Cover with row cover.

It is January as I write this, and, of course, late January and February are our cold and ice storm months, so I may have to repeat sowing a few times before I get something to eat - but the scientist (or the kid) in me loves to experiment. Crossing my fingers!  Still can't believe that I am sowing seeds in January.

Planting Muscadines

Well, some people are successful at growing wine grapes here in Middle TN, but research makes it seem like I might not be as successful, at least not for a first grape venture - too hot, too much rain, too much clay.  But Muscadines - they were born in The South and love it here.  Even so, the success rate for propagation from hardwood cuttings is still supposed to be only 70% or so.  For $7 for 6 cuttings, I figured I'd take my chances.  And, support a small time farmer.  And if half of them survive, I have Muscadine grapes forever?

Cuttings arrived in damp packing inside zip closure bags, and sat in my mailbox for a few days in freezing weather.  Then they sat next to the tea pot in a 70*F room for several days.  Finally, after all of that abuse, I got down to actually getting them planted.

Materials:

• Cuttings
• Rooting hormone
• Seed starting mix combined with vermiculite or perlite
• Pots
• Pencil or chopstick or something similar to make holes with
• Knife or fingernail or something to scrap the very outer layer of bark off of the cuttings
• Seed starting heating pad
• Something to help retain humidity (mini green house)

Procedure:

1.  Rinsed cuttings and set in tepid water
2.  Filled well cleaned reused pots with 75% seed starting mix + 25% vermiculite (because that is what I had on hand)
3.  Used a chopstick to make holes in the potting mix slightly bigger than the cutting (so that the rooting hormone would not be scraped off
4.  Scraped the outer layer off of the cutting in several places where I hoped roots would grow - this is called wounding the cutting

I made several scrapings along the part of the cutting that would be under the potting mix.

3.  Applied rooting hormone to the whole length of the cutting that would be underground.  Note how I have just made a little slit in the seal of the jar? That is so I can drop the jell onto a coffee stirrer from above without actually touching the coffee stick and contaminating the bottle.  I use the coffee stick like a spatula.

A little goes a long way. 

4.  Placed cuttings in the holes in the potting mix, and pressed the potting mix down so it would make good contact with the cutting
5.  Made a little greenhouse for them out of plastic wrap.  Used chopsticks to hold the plastic off of the cuttings.
6.  Going to set them on a seed starting mat in a cool room to hopefully encourage roots to grow, but buds to stay dormant until roots are well on their way.

Another winter project started.  Another distraction to keep me from planting tomatoes in January!