It's A Dog Day--

Photos: Alex With Trainer Terry Cook & Titan

Today we focused on getting our German Shepard Titan trained. We hired a great company called

sit means sit to come to our house and train him. Terry Cook is the owner and just happens to be our trainer for Titan. So far I am totally impressed and happy that we choose this type of training for Titan. If your interested and in Ohio; within 60mins of Lancaster, give him a call and mention Titan to get 10 bucks off the cost of whatever program you choose. They do a great job of working with you to fit your financial needs and have lots of options for training your dogs.

Chewys Spuds--

As the season has come to an end I am excited thinking about next year and saddened about the fading of this year. I am sad because my new venture decimated most of my garden; the chicken and ducks. I'm a novice caretaker of these birds and on much advice was told that if your veggies are "Big Enough" the chickens and ducks can't hurt them.....well I beg to differ considering I had lovely cucumbers, cantaloupes, tomatoes, squash of so many different variety etc...and they all went to the BIRDS!! lol...ah well, live and learn. Needless to say I had high hopes for the crops that the birds couldn't get their beaks on and boy was I excited when I dug up these beautiful Sweet Potatoes!!!! I shared the scraps with the chickens and ducks but my husband loves Sweet Potatoes, so the giant ones were all his :) It's a nice ending to my garden adventures for the year. I like the idea of planting many different cold tolerant vegetables so that you have a steady variety , extending your harvest late into the fall.

Chewy's Day in the Sun----

My Days in the sun has been vast and plentiful.....letting myself go from the crazy daily routine and trying to take a moment and just appreciate. Sometimes life can get so crazy that I truly miss the joy between the everyday mundane tasks and the overload the world willingly provides.

So if I want to kick off my shoes and swing barefoot with the baby..........or sport my mud boots and wade through chicken,duck and turkey poo......maybe sink deep in the dirt on these really hot summer days only to return unburnt, dirt faced and thirsty but still dreaming of next years garden.....I won't feel guilty about it!!!


I have come to believe or realize rather.....that everyone especially children need to plant their hands in the dirt, reel up a large mouth bass, play mother to a bunch of adorable ducklings, taste a sun warmed tomato right off the vine, dust the dirt off a carrot and eat it right there, fill the chickens feeders with ice cold water from the hose; while giggling because they filled their boots too.........accidentally crack a duck egg because they are so excited that they found one and can't wait to show you, read a book languidly around the lake.......I can close my eyes and sigh realizing in these moments I am completely, utterly content. Our Minds (Hubby,Myself, Children) are rested, refreshed, reset; ready to conquer a new day and all it's woes with a little less seriousness and a little more silliness. I can't remember who said "Life is a Journey, not a destination." It's not about getting there or how fast you do! It's about enjoying the journey and all it's bumps and bruises ...learning along the way and making your happiness now! not when everything seems perfect!

Isn't Chewy wise and full of Wisdom? .....well she's full of something alright! and it's kinda creepy that I am talking about myself in third person...I have always hated people who do that! and use excessive !!!!!!!!!!!! I'm just gonna stop while I'm all content like :) Found my Chi so to speak:)


Check out the photos I took with my new camera. My daughter took the pic of the mini-rex rabbit, her baby. Isn't it fantastic?

Chickens & Ducks and Turkey's Oh My....!!!!!!!!

I'd like to say I took a moment.....some time away from blogging just to enjoy the summer. I'd like to say that but I can't! My summer thus far has been very hectic. I'm not sure how I ever worked a full time job and was a full time Mommy too.

I've added to my own stress with a bunch of chickens and ducks...um...um...um....plus a few turkey's which hopefully my husband continues to think are just really tall chickens.

I'm a city girl at heart who has to learn to be a country girl. We lived out in the country once before and I hated it...how we find ourselves out in the country again, in a fairly new state is beyond me. But alas here we are. I have always complained to my husband that it's boring! that was before I started to garden and fell in love with it. I came to the conclusion that country life isn't boring if you have something to occupy your time and MIND!!

Well....One day I saw that my neighbor was erecting a really nice shed...what I thought was a shed until I heard noises. That is when I learned she had purchased a few Cochrin chickens and a few ducks and was building a chicken coop. Oh! how cute were the ducks!!!! so cute that not long after my kids fell in love with them we ended up purchasing two ducks too (see older post). Well at the the time I didn't really take to the chickens. They didn't really appeal to me at all...............................................................

A few months later and Wham! I have chickens (all different varieties) plus the neighbor's chickens and ducks visit everyday. I started out only going to order a few chicks from Idealpoultry.com and for some reason I became amazed and order happy because of all the different varieties of chickens. Who'd have thought there were so many? I ended up purchasing Plymouth rocks, heavy feather legged pullets, Silkie bantams, Wyndottes, Buff orfington's, speckled sussex to name a few......and the ducks, well they had just as many varieties; crested swiss, Penkin's, black runner ducks, fawn crested and on and on......

All was great until I got them all here and realized that I was going to have to come up with some housing and quick. Sure they can live in an old child's swimming pool with straw placed on the bottom and a heat lamp hanging from the garage ceiling...but they grow, and fast!!!!

needless to say that between all the kids day sport camps, fundraising, car-pooling, College campus day's and dentist, doc and general "run me to the mall or I'll die" trips for the kids........I've let the garden slack a wee bit and have been running around myself like a chicken with it's head cut off trying to get recycled or free housing and learn to build too.............here are a few pics.......

Sadly...being the chicken novice that I am we lost 13 chicks and 2 turkey's from either a skunk, cat, coyote etc.....my neighbor's lost 5 chicks the next night and shot a skunk so................This was a month or so ago. I took a trip to Tractor Supply Company and while getting chick feed this guy came strolling down the Aisle and happened to ask if I had ducks.........cause he lost 6 of his to coyotes and was telling me to make sure I had at least a six foot fence. Anyhow.......as we talked I asked if he had any experience with chickens and "Oh, sure........" was his response. Well in the course of us conversing he ensured me that if I had a heat lamp on them even out in the open, and a fence around them nothing would get them. Hrmp!! well Tractor supply Man was Wrong! maybe that's why he had a cocky little smirk on his face as he sauntered off.....hmmm........

PS: Don't look like a city slicker when you go to Tractor Supply Company--that's sac religious!!


Here are a few pics of the temporary shelter's I have built, salvaged and found on the side of the road for free (converted Green rabbit hutch into a chicken coop for the silkie Bantam's as they will not grow very tall. The ramp is built with left over wood from my son's "tree house" and an old hose I cut to make the treads. The A-frame I built using three wooden pallets and left over roof paper and shingles again from my son's tree house project. I covered the floor with chicken wire and then put straw onto for warmth and comfort. The A-frame fence was given to my by my neighbor and I made a chicken run out of it using wooden tree branches I staked into the ground on either side to keep it from collapsing and I also wired the top together with left over spool of wire I used on previous fencing and helped give it support by resting it against the A-frame wooden pallet house I made. All of this is portable so I can move it around to fresh grass area's. I plan on making a STRAWBALE CHICKEN COOP in the next few weeks. My love for straw bale garden is extending into all areas of my life...lol...I researched it and turns out it was one of the very first shelters for animals and still holding strong today.

I put a few pics of the garden area's.....they are very overrun with weeds! Since I have been spending so much of my time researching and taking care and building chicken,duck and turkey housing I haven't had much time left for weeds. The center of the StrawBale area has acorn squash, cantaloupe , eggplant, cucumber, sweet potatoes in it. The neighbors chickens and duck are peaking to death the squash and eating the entire plants on some. The tops of the bales were planted with strawberries but they are entirely Gone thanks to little cluckers..... Next year I will put a fence around it to keep out all chickens and ducks including mine...LOL they are so cute it's difficult to be mad......

Chewy's White OUT------

Snow in May? no.............that would be horrible. As horrible as having a major Pest problem already! The pest aren't attacking the veggie garden just yet (hopefully never) but they are indulging on my rose bush leaves.

Last year we planted five rose bushes just outside our bedroom window. I imagined early on smelly sweet rose's and a cool breeze as I drift off the never never land. Last year we didn't get many buds because we planted late in the season. This year I am getting lots of buds and BIG in Diameter Roses. I am really excited about that but the pest are attacking aggressively and eating the leaves up. I have narrowed it down to a specific pest that I believe it to be. The Japanese Beatle I believe is having breakfast,lunch, dinner and snacks in between. If you have any ideas of what else it may be then leave a comment or two.

A few weeks ago we planted in the back outside of our other window another five Rose bushes, and I'm hoping to cure the pest problem on the others before they have a chance to attack the new one's. I was reading online about Natural cures for pest and ran across mixing vegetable oil and baking soda or vegetable oil and Garlic together and spraying the plants. Well I decided since it had just rained to sprinkle the bushes with baking soda, thinking the water would help the baking soda cling or turn into a paste on the leaves. Needless to say it looks like it snowed! If you have another natural cure for garden pest leave a comment or two.

Here are a few pics:

Chewys--Momma's Day !!!

New Asparagus patch--




First of all anyone who knows us know that we are a very large, crazy (in a good way) family. We say the more the merrier about most things. (kids,animals etc.) ha,ha. So if you are reading this post and are shocked that they have Ducks, and Dogs in the pool; don't be. We don't just have animals we LIVE animals. No worries, there was no clorine in the pool when the Ducks had their swim. The dog, Titan took to it pretty well but his face in this picture just tickles me!! He reminded me of the Shepard Charlie in the movie "All dog's go to heaven."






For mothers day I only wanted one thing; more garden space!!!! So I took the opportunity to use my Mother's Day power and with full advantage had the hubby and all the children help with a few new plots.

We ended up putting in three new areas. I used the No-dig style for all of them. Relatively quick I had new planting space. Each year I think I have enough space and then I find myself longing for more because I have new things I want to plant.

The new cinder block, No-dig space is mostly for greens (lettuce,cabbage,Brussels sprouts, collards, Swiss chard, cauliflower) In the back of each I planted different variety of tomatoes. In the cinder block holes I planted lettuce, and corn. I'm not sure if the corn will thrive but we will see. When planting the corn I planted four seeds in each hole so that they propagate. I will thin them once they sprout, leaving only the healthiest plant.

Then I decided to use some things around the house for my pole beans. I had an old swing that I did upside down tomatoes on last year. I also had a broken doggie gate that I was going to just throw away but felt I could find some use for it. So I ended up with a make-shift solution for my pole beans. I ended up keeping the soil in the bag and planting directly into them. I just pushed the poles through the bag and left enough space for the plants to grow up and around the poles and eventually onto the gate. I added through the holes some compost and manure.

The smaller cinder block area in the front is for Asparagus only, and the holes in the cinder blocks are planted with a variety of lettuce.

I reused the BIG tire (some comments were worried about leaching of the tire) I planted Sweet Potatoes in the center. I also decided to grow red and russet potatoes in cardboard boxes (I have read that it keeps them pest and disease free) and I also planted watermelon, and cantaloupe in a few boxes.

Onto the Straw Bales-In the center I planted Zucchini, acorn squash, Muss Melon, cucumbers, eggpant, and sweet potatoes. I planted directly IN the bales only; different varieties of Strawberries, and one Big Boy tomatoes plant because I ran out of room elsewhere. The bales this year are second year and broken down more than I had expected. The good news is that I will compost them after this year. I will have to transplant the Strawberries, but I plan on doing another Cinder block, No-dig area for them. I will also buy new bales next year and start the process again.


All In the Family,

Chewy


PS: Sorry the pics are not in the proper order..still learning how to edit this......you might have to scroll up and down to see corresponding pic.

It's All In The Straw--

Last year I embarked on an adventurous style of gardening. The Strawbale gardening technique. The outcome was satisfactory enough (aside from the little chewing pests) , that I decided to give it another try this year. I think it worth it just in fact that you don't have to dig so much like a traditional garden. I also like arranging the bales and having a built in weed deterrent. The little rascals have to make it up and over the bales to plant themselves amongst my vegetables. Not to mention that the weeds have to get through the loose straw I have around the plants to be able to embed in my garden, so I have very little weed problems.


My first attempt I had more prep work (seasoning the bales) as I've talked about in previous posts. This year I plan on only soaking the bales for a few days and the last day spraying them with miracle grow. Also my bales are far more broken down this year so I intend on filling them in with compost, topsoil, bloodworm, manure instead of just layering across the very top of the bales. When you begin with new bales the straw is very tightly packed and it can be difficult to separate enough to get your plants in, but not impossible. You just have to hack out or use a spatula to separate the top of the bale like a book, insert your plant or seed and close the bale back together. My bales this year are second season bales and after this year I will compost them <---------waste NOT want NOT !!! Here are a few pictures of the second season bales and the process of prepping the center area.

I already had my rectangle shape set out from last year

I used the center of the Straw bale garden all winter as a compost area

First I raked all the compost out and layered it with newspaper, cardboard, topsoil, bloodworm, manure, and more compost from the store.

Then raked back in my Compost.


Soon I will PREP the outer bales again, and post pics!

In the meantime the center area is ready!!!!