Happy Chickens

Southern California has seen a lot of rain in the last week and 1/2, everything from a dense gray drizzle to flashes of lightning and cracks of thunder.  I regret that I did not get a rain water catch system set up before this storm- I would be set for the whole winter season!  However, the rain always brings up bugs, worms and fresh green sprouts of grass, and my foraging chickens are very happy.

This is Ethel, who has recently gone through a very traumatic molt, but seems finally to be emerging from the experience.  Along with looking like a half-eaten carcass, she had a nasty attitude.  We are happy to have our feathered friend back.

These pictures show the growth of my youngest chickens, Sabine (who was originally Sebastian) and Grayson (who was originally Gracie).  Grayson has turned out to be quite the gentleman of a rooster.  He escorts Sabine around the yard and hardly crows at all.  I realize this may change still, but I am very happy with this fellow so far.

Look at those gorgeous feathers!  Just for fun, I am also adding a picture of our rabbit, Bunnicula.  She is participating in a little experiment with me.  Along with teaching my 6 year old responsibility, she is supplying our worms with copious amounts of rabbit poop.  My daughter had been asking for months to have a pet bunny, but it wasn't until  I read on the Urban Homestead website that you could drop those droppings directly into the wormbin that I was won over.  The trick, however, is eliminating as much of the urine as possible before giving it to the worms, as it is too strong for them to process.   TMI you say? I will let you know if this experiment is worth the aromatic qualities of the procedure.

Transition Time

The garden is not very cheerful right now.  The tomatoes are browning and sagging, the squash is sprawling long and lean, and even the chickens seem to be slowing down.  They have slowed to one egg a day between the three of them.  Is it because they miss my attentions?
With school in full swing and the house empty from 6:45 to 4:30, it seems everything has entered a transition.  At first it makes me sad, longing for the summer and the hours of time to devote to the yard.  Then I must remind myself that it is the beginning of something new, and with a little elbow grease, I can shift into this next phase.  Rip out the old and plant the new.  The compost is ripe, the broccoli and celery seeds are sitting in their pretty packages on the kitchen counter.  It is just me who needs a kick in the butt!

Planting a New Garden

This past week, I have been planting a new garden.  Although I have spent a lot of time thinking and planning in the serene setting of my backyard, this garden will not be planted there.  This garden will be grown at my job.

I am a teacher.  A special education teacher, which, to beat you to the punch, does not mean I have patience.  I have to learn patience every year, just like my students have to learn new reading and math skills.  This year, however, I am starting out with a slightly new perspective, which involves the same patience it takes to grow a garden.  Let me explain.

A seed takes many things to grow, as we all know.  One of those things is the right soil/warmth environment.  Then their are the nutrients, the water and fertilizer.  If you follow my metaphor, the teacher is the gardener, the students are the seeds, the soil is like a classroom environment, and the water and fertilizer are the lessons.  The end goal is for there to be fruit, a harvest of skills and knowledge that will feed the growth of the student.

In years past, I have focused on the lessons I teach, practiced my delivery in my mind, wrote copious notes in my planner.  I hoped that with the right words or activities that my little seeds would exclaim, "Ah ha!!" and sprout.  And sometimes they did.  Sometimes, the right nutrients was all that was needed.  I hope this year to continue to give the right nutrients as I teach my students.  But I believe, this year, I need to attend more to my soil.

What I have learned through gardening is that setting up the right growing environment really gets things growing.  A heap of compost is like a super charged jump start.  Now I won't be heaping any compost on my students, but I have spent more than my usual time and energy setting up my environment for learning.
The fertilizer is in place, the water is automatic, so that my students and I can focus on the growth.

As with everything, there are a lot of elements beyond my control.  So I will have to regularly update you with the signs of progress, the glimmer of green coming through, or the opening of a flower.  As with everything, time will tell, and so will I, for better or worse, so that I may also grow.

Busy Week

Tried out the Perfect Pickler perfectpickler.com and it worked great - got a huge jar of pickling cucumbers together on Sunday ($1 per lb at the Farmers Market) and they were all briny and ready for crunching today.  My oldest daughter has already consumed 1/2 the jar, but we plan to set up a second jar tonight!

Then the beans came in.  They seem to be on steroids right now and we can't eat them fast enough.  So a whole bunch got crammed in a jar for later - thank you Ball Canning Bible for making this so simple!

I also picked up 5 ambrosia cantaloup for a buck a piece and made this cantaloup jam I have been dying to try.  It is truly heaven, and I highly recommend it.  The recipe comes from Blue Chair Jams, which was featured in ReadyMade magazine this month and is coming out with a new jam recipe book.  Not only is this jam very pretty, but it made 8 12oz. jars, so I have lots for gifts, if I don't eat it all!

Remember the apple pie filling that went into to jars a few weeks ago - we made apple turnovers that were to die for!  Our neighbors who shared the apples were mighty happy to have breakfast made for them that day too - they were in the midst of boiling meat for their homemade dogfood - not exactly breakfast feed.

The final achievement of the week was finishing up the larger chicken coop.  The girls seem to have settled in, although I still hear occasional squawking due to their pecking order maneuvering.  The egg laying has slowed a little, and although I put kitty litter boxes in there (on a tip from Mother Earth magazine) for nesting, they haven't taken to them.  They like laying during their foraging time, which results in us finding eggs here and there around the yard.  It's like Easter everyday!  Here is their new feeder, sleeping quarters and an antique doorstop that my mother-in-law found us.

The Latest in Summer Colors and Flavors!

I have to credit Punk Domestics for this awesome recipe - A jam made from peaches, sweet corn and bourbon ( just a splash).  It is absolutely divine.  Check out punkdomestics.com!

On a similar note, Blue Chair Jams is coming out with a recipe book soon and it should be a jam-making gem!

Here are some of the tomatoes harvested recently - so good!  

With a sprinkle of salt and pepper and a drizzle of balsamic if you're feeling it.  I love this time of year!

I won't show you my plants though, they are sagging under the weight of the huge ripening tomatoes, and diverting all their food energy toward the fruit, so the leaves are browning and turning ugly.  They need a little TLC right now.

But look at those tomatoes!

Canning Bonanza

It's canning season, and thankfully we are having a cool July because the kitchen has been steamy.  I have been putting up strawberry jam seasoned with pink peppercorns and balsamic vinegar, pickles both dilled and refridgerated, grilled tomatillo salsa, and apple pie filling.  My nieghbors' apple tree is sagging with fruit right now, and we are all trying to make the most of the bounty.  Here are some pics of the pickles and some apple snapshots.

New Chicks Getting Feathers

These two have enjoying their roam time in the yard now that they have gotten beyond the fluffball phase.  As you can see, their feathers are coming in and showing some of their adult color.  Gracie has beautiful gray with red-lined feathers and a rose comb coming through.  Sebastian is looking more female these days, but the final call can't be made for another month or so.  S/he has lovely brown spotted feathers and a single comb but her feet are the best dainty pale little twigs.  They are very curious critters and the scourge of Goldie, who tries to sneak in signs of her superiority whenever she can.  When they are not roaming they spend their days in a dog crate outside and their nights in a laundry basket filled with shredded bills, which they seem to prefer over straw - last night they flew into the basket and hunkered down for the night without any hesitation.

New Chicken Coop

As you can see, the chickens want a new home.  Without a huge brain, their imaginations are limited, and so they want only what they can see, which happens to be my living room.  Unfortunately for them, they cannot have my living room, nor can they continue leaving their droppings all over my patio.  It seems lately I can't step outside without landing on a slippery spot.  With two new additions joining the flock soon, I have to move them to the corner of the yard, to a bigger home with more space to forage (and digest, and void) away from the house.  Let me introduce the two newest members of the flock:  Here is Gracie and Sebastian, named in the male form to superstitiously keep it female.

So here is the beginning of the new coop - four huge posts cemented into the ground.  Much thanks to my husband for patiently holding the levels!

This used to be a veggie patch and produced a few tasty asparagus when we first moved in, but it is all clay underneath and very far away from the water, so garden no more.  Hopefully, it will produce food of the ovum kind from now on.

A week later...

Here is the coop, through the two phases of external construction.  First the framing was added, then the door, chicken wire, and roofing.  The door and roofing were re-purposed from earlier construction, as was the door frame.  The posts, chicken wire, and main frame for the roof were new.  Many thanks to my oh so kind neighbors for letting me borrow their miter saw and levels.

Still to come, an internal home for roosting and nesting.  I plan to use wood left over from the first coop to construct a simple raised box with a roosting post, a hinged door for collecting eggs, and a ramp.

Been Knittin'

I have been busy knitting lately, knitting in San Francisco, Las Vegas, and all over southern Cali.  Finished projects will be posted on Ravelry - see Link to This

Here are two views of the amazing Imagiknit in the Castro in San Francisco.  Loved it!!!

Of course none of this traveling and knitting would be possible if I hadn't set up that wonderful drip irrigation system - it is working beautifully and we have been harvesting tomatoes, eggplant, tomatillos, peppers, and beans.  There are two great pumpkins growing, and the squash is finishing up.  We are still waiting for the corn to ripen, but in the recent heat, it shouldn't be long!

From soil to plate!

I harvested a whole crop of veggies tonight - beans, tomatoes, and these squash, purple carrots, and potatoes.

Then the potatoes joined a few golden beets, and radishes from an earlier harvest in the oven to roast.  Before...

after...

The squash was grilled in a grilling basket beside a marinated halibut fillet... can't you just smell it!

Beautiful Chickens at the San Diego County Fair

These were just three of the amazing chickens at the fair.  Most of them made poor photo subjects because they moved too quickly.  I was very excited to see a speckled sussex and a porceline Belgian D'uccle, but, sadly, the pictures didn't turn out.  The top is a Dutch bantam, the middle is a pencil tip Polish and the bottom is a white-crested Polish.

Recent harvests

Anaheim peppers and purple dragon carrots!

Pattypan squash on the vine!

New pickles!  And I made my first jar using a super flavorful recipe from this book -

Drip irrigation system

With the hot California summer quickly approaching, I got my drip irrigation system set up in the front.   The total cost of the system was about $100, but is working to water about 25 potted plants, and three beds.  Plus I have enough supplies to set up the backyard for only the cost of timers, which were $30 a piece.   The hardest part of setting up a drip system is punching those dang holes in the main tubing.  It takes a lot of elbow grease and my thumbs were wrecked for a day, but now I don't have to worry about any watering in the front of the house!

Here is a useful website which helped me get started:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.learn2grow.com/projects/containers/construction/~/media/articles/2009/02/11/ContainerDripIrrigationStep4_300x311.ashx&imgrefurl=http://www.learn2grow.com/projects/containers/construction/GrowingLushContainerGarden.aspx&usg=__J0W3MwYPkwKcCMP2FHfZ7ng5mzU=&h=311&w=300&sz=58&hl=en&start=12&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=L8GR2Fw9ybUqkM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=113&prev=/images%3Fq%3Ddrip%2Birrigation%2Bsystem%2Bfor%2Bpotted%2Bplants%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26rls%3Den-us%26tbs%3Disch:1

Ok, so it is long, but this link will take you there.

The Spiritual Garden