Red Wing Blackbirds

I heard them for the first time yesterday morning as I was hanging out the laundry. In Shelburne, they filled the field in the early morning, in the early spring, with their call. I loved to be struggling through knee deep snow and listen to them declaring their intentions to raise young in what looked like a forbidding environment.

There are not so many making their declarations in the damp area below our property, but I savor their call, announcing the coming spring.

No robins, yet, and no "cheeseburger" calls from the chickadees.

Chickens and Berries

I've been considering options for protecting our berries from the chickens. I feel like I've made one mistake after another with the berries and I'm reluctant to keep on messing up.

Here are the good things about the current berry plot:
1. All the berries are there with the exception of the raspberries and blackberries.
2. It's close to a place wild blueberries are already growing.
3. Compost was delivered there two years ago, so the soil is better there than some other places.
4. It's at the top of the driveway, so if it looked pretty, that would be a good feature.

Here are the problems:
1. It's difficult to get water to this place.
2. The chickens would have to be fenced out, and I do not want a fence at the top of the drive.
3. The berries do not get as much attention as they deserve.

One thought I've had is to leave the blueberries here, as they will grow tall enough that the chickens won't eat ALL of them. If we did ever want to let other people pick blueberries, this spot is easy to get to, and I do not have to worry about other plants getting trampled.

I would then move the other berries to the periphery of the other gardens. This would be easy enough, I suppose, with the currants and gooseberries. They are not exactly "lovely" plants, but they are a delight to see. The gooseberries need a fair bit of room, and I think the currants would also like that. Also, I only moved all of them last year. I guess I'll partly be experimenting with how often these plants can be moved and survive.

By the house garden, I already am coping with blackberries. I would rather not add much to that difficulty. When I think of the big garden, it seems so bare out in the middle of that field. I'm thinking some gooseberries and currants along one side might look nice and maybe provide a bit of a wind break. I have already resigned myself to fencing that garden to protect it from the chickens, and to more easily allow the cow to graze near it. I could probably devote at least one thirty foot bed to strawberries, and I could move them between the beds every couple of years.

That still leaves the raspberries. I have thought of a couple of places I might like them to be, but none are places I'm willing to put fence. I wonder if I could plant enough that the chickens could have some and still leave some for us- rather like my plan for the blueberries. Maybe, once the other berries are moved, I could but the black raspberries in with the blueberries. And maybe, I could make another row or two of red raspberries along the drive close to the steps. Raspberry canes are not exactly beautiful to look at, but any well-tended garden space has some appeal, and then it would be yet another area I would not need to mow.

Weird Eggs- series post

Eggs really don't all look the way they do when you buy them at the grocery store. I enjoy the variety, so I'm going to start posting pictures. Feel free to add yours!

A dollop of shell on top.

A long skinny egg

Cows and fencing

There was a cyclone fence around our backyard when I was little. I do not remember my parents doing anything to maintain it besides an occasional assault on the honeysuckle. Our dogs sometimes got out through a gate that did not shut well, but we just quit using that gate. Our house in Fort Worth also had a cyclone fence, but it needed all the hackberry cut out and had many gaps due to the pushing of the trees in it. We never quite figured out how to tackle the problems that fence had.

Now, fence has come to mean something much different, although maintaining the same purpose. We put up all the fence ourselves, and we tried to put it where we want it. It is easily moved and restructured. It's set at a height that easily allows clearing around it. And it almost always keeps the cows where we want them. That almost is the important part.

Calves, it turns out, are particularly tricky to fence, especially when you're used to keeping a docile milk cow. Even that docile cow occasionally takes a notion to jump the top strand of fence wire. So far, we have not had to wander off our property to find a cow or calf, but I'm attributing that to luck. We have talked about putting tall woven wire around the perimeter, but it's expensive and time consuming to install. We will do it, but in stages, and starting only in the places we feel certain we want the fenceline to remain. Each year, we've tweaked the fenceline, realizing that the back pasture has quite good grazing closer to the house, or that we want space in the front field for a really big garden space. We want the cow to graze in the orchard, but we don't want fence there all the time. And so on...

We also have a wooden paddock by the cow shed as a more permanent fence and one that does not rely on electricity. This is because electric fence does not carry much of a jolt in winter what with snow and frozen ground and all.

However, when we knew we were building a new cow shed and that we would have to address the fencing around that AND we were confronted with all the bedding in the old cow shed, we took down part of the paddock to make moving the tractor around easier. (The tractor will now be considered in all fence placement.)  Here we are in March with new calves who can simply walk through wire- and we've seen calves do it even when the wire has a powerful punch- and no real paddock to confine them. Also, the opening we made in the paddock for the tractor is so wide that no fence solution we know of will work. Perhaps now is a good time to point out that sinking fence posts in March is, shall we say, challenging.

What are we poor planners to do?

First you get more cattle panels. I'm sorry there is no picture of the panels strapped over the top of the CRV. Suffice it to say that these panels are very flexible and reached from the front bumper all the way down the back glass. We drove the half hour home quite carefully, peering through the grids of the panels.

Next, some bungee cords and ratchet straps come in handy. We also found an alternative use for some wrapped bales of hay.

It's true that the cow is already tearing at the plastic where she can reach it. And it's true that the bungee cords probably will not hold Violet in when she wants the grass that will be growing a couple of weeks before she's allowed to graze. But we'll deal with these problems as they arise. The hay that's messed up by the torn plastic can be used as bedding or mulch. We'll run a hot wire inside the paddock once a little electricity will do some good. For now, I'll just enjoy our funny innovations.

And I'll be comforted that everyone is contained, at least for now.

Math Curriculum

If you're a homeschooler, and your first two children LOVE probability, and your third child delights in the relations between the multiples of 2, 4, and 8, then you may pat yourself on the back, I think, for choosing a good curriculum.

The one we use, just in case you're interested, is available for free online.

Math

Late Winter and the Chicken Coop

I sometimes feel frustrated when trying to vet an idea online in that an idea that seems good two days or even a month in might be a total bomb a year later. This post is to help anyone thinking about a permanent chicken coop.

First, in Vermont, chickens are pretty limited in outside time in winter. If they land in deep snow, they just sit there and freeze. Extra ranging space must either be sheltered or at least shoveled. If you have been following the blog, then you know our new cow shed is incomplete and the chickens, Violet, and the twins are sharing the shed that was supposed to be for the chickens only this winter.

There were a few days in January that were so bitter that we made sure Violet could get into the shed/barn all day. That means the chickens were confined to their smaller coop area, because otherwise Violet would get into their coop and eat all their food. Bad for the chickens, bad for Violet.

Now Violet and the calves are confined to the shed. The chickens actually began eating the calves' soft baby hooves the first day, so they were once again relegated to their small coop. This coop was never intended to be the only space for the thirty chickens, and it got smelly after very little time. Even really the cold nights last week did not freeze all the water in there, and the wet is where the main odor is. We've put down hay to trap what we can, but it's not ideal.

We did manage to open their outside door, which had been frozen shut and completely impracticable. With the spring thaw, there was enough clear ground that they could happily range outside. Today and tomorrow, we're supposed to get in the neighborhood of 12" of snow. Again, because the March sun is stronger, this snow will not stick around too long- most likely. But spring in Vermont can be a fickle thing; we could have another foot of snow now and again for at least a couple of weeks.

I still think the permanent coop is easier on the chickens. They are easier to train; it took only a day or so before they learned that we do NOT want them going through the people door, which is the door we had been using for them all winter. They are not picking at each other much, though that sign of stress is evident. The red hens in particular are picking at the brahmas and cochins. All the ladies are still laying in the nest boxes, which is much preferable to having to search for eggs in a dirty coop.

And their coop is dirty. If you already keep chickens, you know how filthy birds are. I can tell this is not an arrangement a bird would make in the wild. I keep a paint scraper in the coop so I can scrape the accumulation of droppings off the top of the nest boxes and roosts. Their water often has poop in it because they perch on the side of the bowl. (We have to use a plastic/rubber bowl in winter to deal with frozen water two to three times a day.) I think we should figure out a different door configuration that would make dealing with the accumulation of bedding easier. The bedding is SUPPOSED to build up in the winter; it actually helps heat the coop a bit. However, the door just gets more difficult to operate, especially now that there's so much cow bedding on the outside of the door. I will also look at ways to give them a little more wind protection without completely destroying circulation. The shed was supposed to be board and batten, but the battens never got put up. I would like to get battens on the whole shed.I would also like to make their outside door different; I would like to be able to open it for ventilation even if there is snow piled outside. I would like it to be arranged such that we COULD tend them from that door if the need ever arose again.

I do NOT like this arrangement for the chickens, but next winter will be different.We can certainly finish the cow shed between now and November, so the chickens can again have this entire sheltered space next winter.

Starting Seeds

I have overcome my fear of starting plants, at least partially. For some of you, this fear may seem laughable; others, I am sure, either buy plants from the garden center or grow nothing. If this second group is like me, they are a little daunted and puzzled by how EXACTLY you plant a seed.

Don't laugh! Many of us never saw it done. We have trouble believing it's really as easy as those gardeners say it is. I mean, look at a tomato seed. Hiding in that itty bitty, furry seed is anywhere from 3 to 150 pounds of tomatoes. It is an awesome thought.

Since I chose to live in Vermont, I have had to overcome my fear of seeds. Way up here, in the cold, cold north, many fruits we prize can only be grown if you start the plants in the house while the snow is on the ground. Yes, absolutely you can buy plants to put in your garden, but you do not how those plants have been handled. Unless you buy them from a local grower, you don't even know if those plants know what Vermont means. Varieties matter, as well, when your growing season happens in the blink of an eye.

It's late, wherever you are, to only just now be considering buying seeds, but it's not TOO late. First, I buy my seeds from a company owned and operated in the land of cold. The seed catalog I like has good descriptions of how the plants function in our climate. They source seed from smaller and larger growers, and they tell which type each variety came from. I pore over that catalog, trying to glean which magic bean will bring me a golden goose. Then, I just take my chances.

Next, I get good potting soil that is compost-based and peppered with some trace minerals. I sprinkle a bacterial and fungal inoculant into each seed packet and give the packet a shake. I get my black plastic trays and put moderately-sized cell trays in. I do not use the tiny or next-to-tiny ones, because I want my plants' roots to have faith that one day there will be more room. I thoroughly wet my potting mix and fill the cells. I poke one to three seeds into each cell or I sprinkle the seeds over the tray and rake them around. Then, I keep the trays moderately warm (except for peppers which I set on a heat mat). Then I wait. Because my potting mix is good and wet to start with (not mud, but still WET) I do not have to fret too much about things drying out. If in doubt, water them. Most seeds will not germinate without a nice evenly moist environment.

Pretty soon, I will see green lifting it's head. For most seeds, that's the time to start moving the trays around from window to window, maximizing the time they're in the sun. On warmer days, I put the trays outside in a cold frame or I set them in the hoop house.

The trick- the thing that kept me from performing this little miracle- was knowing when to start what. It turns out that timing is the main variable when dealing with starts. Tomatoes, peppers, and onions can hang around in a 4" pot for awhile. I prefer that my tomatoes go from a 4" pot into the ground, BUT I do have 6" pots if I haven't timed things well. Squashes, melons, and pumpkins do NOT delight in being transplanted, so I start them only a couple of weeks before the ground is ready; I also start them in 4" pots right from the start. I'm still learning just when each thing wants starting.

Cabbages can go in the ground when it's still not warm outside, so I stat them the same time as peppers, but they go in the ground a month earlier. Onions are the earliest and go in the ground a little later than cabbages, but well before squashes and tomatoes.

So, get a little dirt and a package of seeds. You can even go to a store where they don't know you, you can buy the smallest bag of soil they have and some really trustworthy seeds, like tomatoes or wheat berries. Try it! It's a miracle you can see.