The Rebuilt Coop

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You can see the corner where Gizmo dug enough to screw things up. I put the cinder blocks here for extra defense.

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Rebuilt from the ground up. I like this design much better. A few trim pieces left to add. It leaves room to add a few external nest boxes later on when everyone is laying. I put a 5 gallon bucket in for now for them to use but Kitty and Vanessa just lay in the corner.

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The entire roof hinges up to give complete access inside the coop. I originally had a few roost bars installed but none of the girls used them, so I didn’t bother installing them in here. I should add them anyway just in case.

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Vanessa and Kitty. Vanessa is an Ameraucana that is just under a year old. She is flighty and lets her presence be known. We got her at Marshall Grain near downtown Fort Worth. The last few Saturdays they made arrangements with a few people from around the area to bring some ladies that were close to laying or laying already. This is nice as most feed stores just sell baby chicks. We got there early and secured a place in line. They had a Wyandotte that I really wanted but someone nabbed her up quickly.

Chickens are friends, not food.

A small reference to Finding Nemo there in the title.

Over the course of a week and half we have lost 3 chickens and gained two.

Miss Softy, who was our little baby chick went to chicken heaven after Gizmo dug a small space under the run and she made her way into the big world and got taken out pretty quick. I had left her and Fluffy out of their small cage inside the run for the evening to let the continue getting used to their bigger feathery friends. So it was kind of my fault. Like 1% maybe.

Since Zoe was so upset about it (and furious at Gizmo to boot) we decided to go back to the feed store and get another to replace her. We got a replacement for the Ameraucana and ended up getting a Wellsummer pullet as well. We got them home and they were having a grand old time in their new home for less than a day before then meet their maker.
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It wasn’t long after I took this shot of the three of us playing ‘pirates’ that either Gizmo or the cats somehow pulled back a corner of chicken wire and took both of them out and had their way with them. I only realized anything was wrong when I saw Sugar (our white cat) walking out from said hole. I can’t put the entire blame on her as I don’t now exactly which animal made the hole. I did some patch work to last for the evening and the next day made a trip Lowe’s for some hardware cloth. I completely rebuilt the coop last Sunday. No more a-frame style tractor. After getting everything they way I wanted it, we made a prison out of the run, leaving the original chicken wire around the bottom and going over that with the new hardware cloth. And instead of using staples we opted for the more secure u-shaped poultry nails.If the cats and dogs are able to get through this, then bravo.
All Zoe knows about this missing birds is that they somehow got out and flew away sometime during the night.

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Here you can see Duck (our oldest cat) and Kitty. We got her from the lady across the street who was trying to find her a new home. She is just over a year old. We’ve had her a week and she has taken things pretty well to her new home and friends. She likes to roam the garden and explore a lot. She has already had to fiend off Gizmo from getting to close to Fluffy.

So as of now we have Rosie, Tiana, Fluffy, Kitty, and Vanessa. I’ll tell you about Vanessa tomorrow.

Meet the Flock

I’ve been wanting to get into chicken raising for some time now. Last week I put together a run and coop and this past weekend we were able to track down a few young pullets in east Fort Worth. After we got them back home and into their place, Stephanie mentioned that the run seemed a bit large for just two chickens and mentioned we should run and get one of the chicks we saw a feed store in Keller. Somehow I was able to weasel in a second chick.

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Rosie. She’s a Rhode Island Red. I tend to call her momma. She has established herself as the leader of the group.

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Tiana is a Black Australorp. She is a sweetie.

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This Cuckoo Marans is named Miss Fuzzy. Only six weeks old and already a handful. The one great thing about her is that she is friendly to her younger friend and keeps her under her wing at night.

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The younger friend, Miss Softie, is an Ameraucana. She is too young yet to really have a personality. She doesn’t even have all her feathers yet and should probably be under a heat light another week or so, but Miss Fuzzy seems to be keeping her warm enough.

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I’m keeping the youngsters in a cage inside the run for now. Rosie likes to peck at Miss Softie and instead of risking having a dead chick, these two will sty in here for while.

Happenings

Well since I really haven’t written anything here in two months you’ve missed out on a lot of stuff. Too bad I’m not really going to catch you up. Well, maybe a little.

Way back towards the end of last year and the early parts of this year, my wife had another bout of optic neuritis and temporarily lost vision in one of her eyes. This led to MRI’s and steroid shots and a partial diagnosis of her possibly having multiple sclerosis. This led to a visit with a neurologist and more MRI’s and a spinal tap. With the neuro doc not coming up with any real, my wife decided to do her own research and for some reason decided to cut gluten out of her diet. She had read reports of gluten being a cause of lots of medical conditions. I piped up and told her to quit drinking her diet sodas. For as long as I can remember she always drank diet soda. I’m not to knowledgeable on aspartame, but have heard mix reviews of it. Literally, overnight she quit both sodas and gluten and has been free of them since January. This has literally flipped the kitchen in a 180 degree direction.

I’ve been on a soap box for the past several years with her about food. What’s in it? Where it comes from? I talk to her about the use of genetically modified organisms in our food or, how far that fruit traveled to get to the grocery store. Before, I just got a nod and she went on about her business. I think the switch finally turned on in her head.

Its the food that is slowly killing us. Whether that’s how it was grown, or the pesticide that was sprayed on it, or the laboratories that changed the genetic makeup of a plant, or the living conditions of the animal that caused it to not be healthy when slaughtered.

I started a garden in my backyard some 5 or 6 years ago when I really started learning about GMO’s and food transit and all the other green mumbo jumbo. For some people, that “idea” is already gone. For me, it’s just beginning. I wanted to know what a true tomato tasted like. I never liked tomatoes from the store or in restaurants. The garden started small and Stephanie complained when I made it bigger and bigger. Now? She wants me to rip up the boxwood shrubs in the front and plant blueberry bushes. She has been educating herself. I think.

There are no breakfast cereals on top of the fridge with cartoon characters on them. The boxed ‘helper’ dinners are gone. The inside of the fridge is chock full of fresh organic. Stephanie is actually in the garden helping and tending to things. I nearly passed out when she asked me is she could plant something. I’ve even got her convinced that composting is good and she’s saving food scraps to put in it.

Really, its about knowing where everything came from. Those corn chips you eat at the Mexican food joint down the road? There is high probability they contain GMO’s and pesticides. Unfortunately, there isn’t anywhere you can go that serves food that you should really be eating.

Stephanie has now started making a menu with the weeks scheduled dinners. Having things planned is great way to keep up with whats in the fridge.

Well, I totally went off there didn’t I? Sorry.

Anyways, things in the garden are going great. Well, almost great. We had yet another freak cold spell for the second year and I’ve lost all my tomatoes again. At least this year I was on the ball and had them covered all weekend. It was Sunday nights dip into the 20′s that really did them in. I had only transplanted a few pepper plants, so not all is lost on that front. The wheat (that Stephanie can’t eat) is growing really fast. We are cutting lettuce daily now, and some spinach. The chard is still small. You can’t walk into the garden without smelling all the flowers blooming on the mandarin tree. Just lovely.

I’m this close to building a small a-frame type chicken tractor and putting a couple hens inside.

I’m over at Sprout today. Talking about a recent trip to a family farm in Keller.

Whats growing on?

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Back on the first of January, I started a load of pepper and tomato seeds to get ready for spring. Early last week I started a second tray with the new pepper seeds that came in the mail.

Here is a list of what’s growing in the seed trays-

Herbs:

Sorrel
Chives
Lovage
Lemon balm
Hyssop
Sage
Parsley
Oregano
Basil

Peppers:
Bhut Jolokia (Ghost Pepper)
Trinidad Scorpion
Cayenne
Sweet Banana
Big Jim
JalapeƱo

Tomatoes:
Brandywine
Black Krim
Speckled Roman
Cherokee Purple
Roma

I have the heating mat underneath the peppers to allow for ideal growing conditions. The mat is large enough to fit both trays but my grow light isn’t wide enough to fully light everything.

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The ‘maters are growing fast. I’ll be moving them into larger pots soon enough.

I’m also over at Sprout today, talking about planting onions. Go check it out.

The Week of Surprises

Almost everyday last week I received something in the mail. Every day a special package.

Monday I found a puffy envelope waiting in the mailbox. The pepper seeds from Kearley Seeds had arrived. Ghost and Trinidad Scorpion varieties. This prompted immediate action. So I gathered some dirt and a seed tray and planted these along with a load of herbs.
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Tuesday an even larger envelope showed up. This time my seeds from Sustainable Seed Co. had come in. Buckwheat, tobacco, and crimson clover. Stephanie has been eating the crap of out of buckwheat the last two weeks or so. The stuff is very tasty and resembles ‘Cream of Wheat’. I planted a common variety last year as a cover crop for use as a green manure, but ordered a more specific variety to grow as an eating grain.

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Wednesday a big box was waiting on the front porch. Five pounds of wheat. Yes, wheat! I really only needed 3 pounds of it with the space I have but Johnny’s Selected seed only had it available in increments of 1, 5, 25, and 50. So, 5 it was. I’m planning on planting this on the south side of the house.

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Thursday I was welcomed with another box sitting on the porch. Though, not as big as the day before, it was the most anticipated package of the week. Onion transplants. I had ordered these back before Christmas and the ship day was the week of the 14th, so I was eagerly waiting for them to show up. Planting onions marks the first big thing planted in the garden every year. I tried growing them from seed back in October but it was a big failure. I ordered 7 bunches total. 2 Red Creole, 2 1015Y, 2 Candy, 1 White Bermuda.

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Goodbye Isabelle

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We brought you home after midnight around Valentine’s Day 2002. You were born the day after Christmas 2001. I’m pretty sure where we got you was a puppy mill, but I really didn’t know what those were 11 years ago. I had picked out your name before we even had you. Isabelle. Izzy for short. Since you were a Christmas baby I gave you the middle name Noel. Dad really wasn’t up for having a new dog in house but he saw the sparkle in your eye and loved you anyway.

In the beginning you were my dog. You slept in bed with me. We took you camping with us and you were a good camping dog. You loved chasing balls. Tennis balls. Big soccer balls. You didn’t care. You kept Stephanie and I company sometimes when we went geocaching. I would take you over play with Dottie, Patch and Rocky when Stephanie still lived with her parents. I took you over a lot. You played until you were completely worn out. You were my car riding buddy.

Eventually you became the family dog, giving love to everyone that needed it. When I went to work work at Philmont, you kept mom company while I was gone those summers. You gave her something do. You took care of me when I broke my ankle. When the time came for me to finally move out of the house I wanted to bring you with me, but mom needed you more. So I left you to be her buddy and companion. You greeted me every time I came by to visit. You were even good to Zoe and Grayson.

You eventually started to succumb to being old. Your joints started to give out and then you lost your eyesight. The past several months seeing you lose weight and not eat was tough. I’m glad you made it to see your 11th birthday a few weeks ago, so we could spend one last Christmas together.
Saying goodbye to you is going to be hard. You were a great friend, Isabelle. I love you.