If I’m going to harvest any food this year, I need to plan my garden beds. Space is not the issue. I have lots. But I’d like to begin with the pasture that’s directly to the right of the house. There is a laneway and a bit of yard separating it from my back door. So since it’s close, I’ll take better care of it. Well, that’s my thinking anyway.
Problem: The previous owners used that pasture for the horses they were boarding. The horses only left about a month ago. Through the winter, their useable pasture area grew more confined as the snow built up. There are rather large amounts of horse poop in places and lots of hay in others. Then there is water where most of the snow sat. It’s a mess. But the location is perfect.
I’ve investigated and I think I will choose the path of caution. I’ll try to remove as much of the hay/manure as I can from the area I want to use. If I move the muck just outside the pasture, I’ll try to start a hot compost pile. For the rest of the pasture, I will gently work the ground to incorporate the manure so that next year I don’t have to worry about the poop burning my fragile plants. That’s the plan.
There is a rather large area to clear for all this to happen. But I have the summer to get most of it ready for next year. I will only use a small portion of it this year. We will have to prepare that area rather soon if I want to have a good growing season.
Lots of labour ahead!
Seedling are doing well. All the Patriot seed varieties are showing promise. My saved seeds and my mother’s not so much. The Survival Seed Vault that the girls got me seems pretty solid!
The cold is still hanging around. We have 21 new eggs going into the incubator this week. Turkeys will be here May 1. We got bumped on our first order of turkeys so we are starting them later than we wanted. Hopefully we will be able to fatten them up for Thanksgiving.
Our little chicks are doing well. The three oldest have spent this last week roaming their stall. The others are in the stall also, but in their totes. If the weather could cooperate, we could have them all out of boxes. I feel really bad for them. They are getting bigger and have no room to move around. It’s not optimal.
But on the up side, my piano got a good cleaning and tuning. At the old house, I had hardwood flooring installed and it created so much dust. I’ve been waiting for the perfect time to have it cleaned. I love that feeling of playing on a well tuned and beautiful instrument. It’s a perfect balance for me. Days in physical labour, evenings at the piano.
My biggest concern at the moment is finding the best design for our chicken tractor. This needs to become priority. The chicks can’t stay indoors for the summer and with the new hatches coming soon, we will run out of space in the one barn stall we’d hoped to dedicate to them. The plan has always been to keep only the chickens that fit into one stall. That has flown out the coop as the girls are falling in love with every breed they come across. I didn’t know you could become addicted to chicks!
These are the breeds we currently have:
- Chantecler
- Jersey Giant
- Ameraucana
- Cochin
- Orpington
- Silkie
- Welsummer
- Faverolles
- Egyptian Fayoumi
- A cross between Egyptian Fayoumi and Rhode Island Red
- Copper Marans
We are incubating:
- More Chantecler
- More Copper Marans
- Cream Legbar
- Olive Eggers
- Ayam Cemani
So this weekend we are going to go through a pile of old wood and lumber that was left here on the property. We’ll try to salvage what we can to use for the construction of our first chicken tractor. I’ve already pulled out a few 4X4s to recycle into posts for the dogs’ fencing. The wood has obviously been left there a long time. It’s heavy with water. We’ll bring some of it into the workshop to dry and hope that it’s still useable. It would be great not to have to spend too much on materials.
On a personal note, I’ve been dealing with an ear problem. It started a few weeks ago. One ear hears everything just under a half tone lower than the other. It feels muffled and high pitches cause discomfort. Thinking it was just a sinus issue, I tried upping anti-histamines. Didn’t help. Earlier this week I went to my doctor and she put me a strong course of steroids! Not my favourite thing to be on. She is concerned that it could be something that would give me permanent hearing loss. On my 6th day and still no progress. I don’t know if this is related to my AS or just a weird occurence but I am slowly getting concerned. It makes the music side of my life uncomfortable. The meds are giving me side effects, so all in all, with this dreary weather and my ear, it’s been a little harder to be upbeat.
Let’s talk pasture preparation next week!
Dont forget to watch this weeks vlog!
Unruffled Farms 