What to do with extra Sunflow Seeds

I planted giant sunflowers and had an abundance of sunflower seed.  What to do with them..... ?

Watch how big his cheeks get.  He ran off and came back for bowl after bowl.  I hope I don't have sunflowers popping up everywhere next spring.  No telling where he stored them.

Fall Harvest

It's getting colder and rainier in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.  So it was time to get the last or almost last of the vegetables harvested.  Still have a few winter squash on the vine hoping to get a bit ripper before picking.

Was a good year.  No pest problem, everything seemed to produce well and overall I'm very happy with how this year went.  Here are some pictures of the last harvest.

 

It's Hummingbird Season

There are 4 species of humming birds that are seen in Kentucky.  Can you tell which ones are visiting my feeders?


KENTUCKY (4)

1. Green Violetear --PHOTOS
2. Ruby-throated Hummingbird, n --PHOTOS
3. Black-chinned Hummingbird --PHOTOS
4. Rufous Hummingbird --PHOTOS

  

Here's a video of the group that are fighting over my feeders.  I have several out but they seem to like this one the most.

 

 

 

Edible Roots

I love root vegetables.  Potatoes, carrots, onions, turnips everything except beets.  Not fond of beets. 

I planted the usual onions and Yukon Gold potatoes.  The onions didn't get very big this year but they are sweet and tasty just the same.  And the Yukon Golds are terrific.  Pretty good crop for the small area I planted (I have a couple more tubs of potatoes and onions).  I could have gotten more if I used deeper boxes and buried more of the potatoe plants as they grew.  But I have plenty for myself and plenty to give away to friends and neighbors.







This year I've added carrots to my list of root vegetables grown in the garden.  I purposely picked a short variety since I knew my beds probably weren't deep enough or had enough good loose soil to grow regular size carrots.

Some came out very short as you can see.  But turned out to be just the right size for popper carrots.  Trim and pop in your mouth. 









I still have sweet potatoes to harvest, but I will wait till the end of the season for them.  They usually do very well.  And I do love sweet potatoes. 

Next year, more Yukon Golds, more carrots and maybe I can get to like beets enough to plant some.

The 3K garden in Buffalo

This spring I helped my sister in Buffalo NY start her garden at her new home.  She's not as urban as I am and has more than my 1.09 acres, though we followed an urban garden concept for her garden same as I did with mine.  Goes to show it will work for everyone, no matter now much space you have or don't have.

My sister's name is Kathy, her daughter's name is Kristina and her granddaughter's name is Kira so of course the name 3K Garden seam obvious.  Here are some picture the 3K garden so you can see how easy it is to create a workable garden.  From start to finish this was a weekend project. I did have several family members helping so I don't want anyone to think I did it all myself.

Being a fan of Mel Bartholomew and his Square Foot Gardening books I use many of his concepts for my own garden as well as for my sister's.  Building raised beds and planting by the square foot is definitely the way to go.  Now if I'm talking about rows in my garden it's rows of garden boxes not rows of plants.

Start with a design.  Graph paper works great for this, though we changed the design as we went along.    Since we did the square foot concept each square on the graph paper equaled one foot.  Only needed a ruler so my lines were straight.

 

The K box was the most complex. Fortunately I had access to family with carpentry skills.  Lots of sawing (thanks Mike), some deck screws (again thanks Mike), a lot of mulch and a variation of Mel Bartholomew's soil mixture we were ready to plant (thanks Everyone).

 

A couple of month's later the plants were off and running and my sister and her family got to start reaping the benefits.  If only she can keep her granddaughter from picking and eating the vegetables before she can get them into the house and on the dinner table.

Chicken is my favorite food.... I'm not the only one who loves it.

This spring has been a battle of me against nature.  I'm not talking snow and cold weather, hurricanes or even rain storms.  I'm talking about all the hungry eyes you see looking back at you in the night.  Much of my blog is about my efforts raising chickens, mostly for eggs but also some for meat.  I love both eggs and chicken meat, so do my neighbors, family members and coworkers.  Though lately I don't have many eggs to share.

I've taken great precautions to guard my flock from roaming dogs which have been a problem in the past.  Last summer I woke up to find 40 dead chickens scattered all across my 1.09 acres.  The obvious work a group of dogs which I'm sure (but can't prove) live in my neighborhood.  Lots of fencing and dollars later, I thought my problems were over.  They seemed to be, at least from roaming dogs.

A couple of months ago I noticed a dead chicken, definitely eaten by something.  Dogs usually just kill them.  So I'm guessing a hawk or fox had gotten one that didn't get put up at night.  Some of my girls decided they liked the trees better than the coop at night. 

Over the next several weeks I kept loosing hens.  Either finding them dead and half eaten or simply missing.  I locked up those I could get out of the trees and set traps only to have the bait taken and the trap not sprung.

Eventually with the help of a neighbor I setup a couple of trail cams and was able to record and trap not only an opossum but a raccoon as well. 

Not sure which of these were bypassing my safeguards or maybe they were working together who knows.  Many times the activity in my yard reminds me of old cartoons.  But now the trapped chicken killers live somewhere else and the remaining girls are doing well and only have one left that prefers the trees at night.

It's a constant battle and something every chicken owner will have to deal with at some point.

Be nice to the trash collectors, you never know when you will have a bag of dead chickens for them to take away.

Another Year's worth of Chicken for the freezer

Here is what my processing setup looks like.  First what the neighbors see.

what things look like inside.

and here is what I ended up with.

A year's worth of chicken for the freezer.  The killing part was difficult as it always is, but realizing these birds had much better lives than those of the chickens purchased in the grocery store makes me feel OK about the whole process.  Plus I know what they ate, how they lived and know there are no antibiotics or other chemicals added.

Over all.... Not a bad weekend.

Spring time is here, planting time is here, chicken plucking time is here

Spring is already here in Kentucky and quickly moving into summer.  Grass is green, trees are in bloom and planting has already started.  So far I have Yukon Gold potato's, carrots, turnips, onions, 3 kinds of lettuce, radishes, 4 kinds of tomatoes, bell peppers (3 different colors), asparagus (thought I won't see anything to eat for 2 years) and of course the usual herbs.

This weekend is also chicken weekend.  I got my Cornish Rock chicks 8 weeks ago and they are now up to weight.  Looking forward to not having to move their coop daily and clean up after them, but also not looking forward to having to end their lives.  Though some are having a hard time running across the yard when they see me come out to feed them so I  know I can't wait any longer.

I go into this coming weekend of chicken processing knowing that the short life these 30 birds have had, is better than the lives the 30 birds in the grocery store had.  They got to run, play with each other (could tell the roos from hen - the roos would stand up and face off to each other.  At least for a few seconds, the hens just turned their heads and look for something to eat or lay down).  They got to eat grass and bugs and some even managed to flap their wings hard enough to get a few inches off the ground.   Though everyone is too fat to get off the ground this week.

Spring must be here soon, I've purchased my first batch of chicks

Was in Tractor Supply and it was the first day they had chicks.  Coincidentally, two days ago a dog or coyote got 6 of my hens.  So of course I went home with 6 new chicks. 

It's been snowing and cold here in Kentucky, like most of the country, so the chicks are in the den.




I've also just ordered 8 Creme Lebar chicks online.  Can't wait till they are laying.

They lay blue eggs.  They were hard to find and very costly for day old chicks.  But I'm hoping the eggs and chicks I get will quickly re coop my costs.   Besides they are great looking birds who lay BLUE eggs.