Coffee's ready...

[quercus21]

Morning People
Coffee's hot, but I hate to say, not that good. I haven't had that 1 exceptional cup from this pound yet. You know what I mean?

It's been hot the last couple of days and finally received the long awaited rain last night. It poured for a good 1/2 hour then a nice soft rain afterwards.

We started our "quest"" in doing the fire towers of the Catskills and Adirondacks mountains on Monday. These are going to be fun if we can get up into the towers. It was a hot and hazy day, so the view wasn't that great. Just about 4 weeks before the Craneberry Hike. We are really looking forward to that one.

One day, when I have time and money, I'll put in raise beds. Dirt will have to be trucked in and locust boards cut to order. One thing I should really do now is cut a drainage ditch from the garden to the stream. We live on clay, something resembling modeling clay. You can dig a fence post hole and come back years latter and it will still be there. It acts like a giant clay pot around the garden.

Time to start my day
Everyone enjoy
Kaj

 

[chics in the sun]

Good Morning, folks!

Quote:
I ordered seeds from these folks last year and I received everything promptly and without problems.

http://www.bountifulgardens.org

Good to know - thanks. Maybe I should have asked before I ordered- I'll let you all know how these turn out. I also found out Park Seeds is going through some sort of bankrupsy procedure.

Those hikes sound wonderful, quercus. What is the Cranberry Hike?

I planned on finishing my coop addition today, but it looks like we will have a downpour any second, so I'm waiting a few minutes. Darker than it was yesterday morning. I've got plenty to do in here if it's pouring out there.
Have a good day.

 

[oesdog]

Once again its coffee on the run for me!

Have been outside in the garden this morning watering and weeding a bit. My tomatos are crazy and taken over everything like a jungle!
Though they are only now begining to turn red! I am annoyed though that everytime I pick up a nice big one something appears to have had a bite before me?

My strewberries have been none existant this year! I went don;t the back end to the fruit plot and there was heaps of lovely big strawberries I was sooooo looking foward to them. Next time I went to see if they were red yet they were gone! Even though they are under fruit nets! It isn;t fare!!!!!!!!!!! -

I have to have a very stern word with the local wildlife! Again!

The wild birds are a bit of an issue right now. Well I kind of think it is our fault really.

We had very few birds at all here as the back end of the house was just a big plot of nothing but sand! We've managed to bring it to life after a few hard years! Anyhow then we got the chickens and although they are behind a big caged in area - the wild birds are small enough to get in and well eat! Anyhow they are very fond of Layers! This year we seem to have a bumper crop of wild birds and well I think they are probably producing more and more eggs because of the Layers! -

. Anyhow its a bit like the all you can eat Buffet out there and they actually line up along the fence for breakfast now!

We have to keep rescuing them as the small onse don't realise they grow and they can get in the cage but once they fill up find it hard to get out again! - One sadly fell down the pot belly chimeny and died - which was a bit sad. So we have gone from desert to jungle in a few short years here!

Anyhow sorry I can;t stay and chat - have to get the boy from work again.

Have a good day folks.

Oesdog -

 

[TyrannosaurusChix]

good morning, may i intrude, yet again? lol


This morning.. ehhhhh.. made one cup of instant coffee( havent had to want to even wait to brew it lately)

im out of milk, and hubs has the car since his truck broke down. i do have some powdered enough for kids cereal and ive gotten to nose-turn-up from them. i am seeing cooking eggs in my very near future!

went out, found a ton of food out of the chicken feeder, put it back in with more.. the chickens have been making that Aaaaw aww aww aww aww sound at me when im out there. like telling me they need more food

they dont, they only want the boss out of the food.. the wyandotte- witch clan anyhow.. its hilarious but also frustrating!

I had to feed the adolescents also, and left the door creaked open.. and aout 6 got out,.. enter the great morning chicken-chase because the door opens intot he main adult run.. sounds like fun huh!? Thank goodness we just bought a new net... i guess i got my workout.

By then i had to fill all the water dishes, sweaty-- and i live next to a swamp so i also fed the mosquitos

Chickens fed- check
chicken-lescents fed- check
waterers- check( except for polish but they will be good til afternoon when i clean out previous brooder for new chicks to go in)
mosquiterz fed-- check

me: sweaty- check

 

[rancher hicks]

Morning folks slept late. Went to bed late too.

Oesdog , my tomatoes are a jungle to, cuz i hate to throw out plants and just stuck them in. Had to fix the gate so the smaller chickens couldnt' get in and eat them. I would have thought they'd eat the lettuce or parsley but nope. They're eating the green tomatoes. I do have a rabbit or two out there but they would go for the lettuce first too am I right?

Chics is that your garden with the pvc hoops. What size pvc and how wide are your garden beds?

Well mails in, have a nice day folks. Hope there's some good news.

Rancher

 

[math ace]

I seem to be posting in the evening lately. Just too busy in the morning to get to the computer. I made sausage gravy and biscuits this morning for the family. Everything from scratch ! I sure hope my children know how to cook by the time they leave my house !

Then Dd and I had hair appointments. It takes a while to do my hair - - - lots of gray to find ways to hide

We went to the grocery store next and returned home just in time to grab a short afternoon nap.

Then out to the chickens. . . . I swear my roo is the best little boy there has ever been

He is going to be such a good roo when he grows up - - - he is only 5 months old.

I was going to get into the garden this evening - - - but it rained. I ended up inside the house working on paperwork for a few hours.

CRAZY CRAZY CRAZY days lately. I swear - - - Will I ever find Down Time ? ? ?

Ok - - enough whining. I am going to head to bed. I have a full day planned for tomorrow and so help me GOD, I am going to find some time to hang with Dd and paint our finger nails - - - it is our special time!

 

[rancher hicks]

Well I mowed the grass mostly today and I'd be inspired to do more outside if it weren't for those darn mosquitos. They are absolutely the bane of my existence.

DB came to visit and in talking reminded me he had a friend who dies of Equine E.... . I have to spray myself with lots of spray to be outside.

My point being skeeters discourage me from working in the garden.

 

[quercus21]

Morning People
Coffee's on and oat meal is cooking..... We have maple syrup, honey, raisins, dried blue berries, butter and or brown sugar to mix with it.

chics in the sun: Here is a link for the hike - http://cranberrylake50.org/
We have 3 more peaks to do for the summer and about 10 more winter peaks for the 3500 Catskill Mtns. To me, there's nothing like being on top of a mountain right after or during a snow storm. The peace and quiet....

rancher hicks: We had the same problem last year with all the rain. This year, being dry we are back to normal. It seems like we have more bats this year also.

Updates: 3 new chicks from the clutch. I finally found some yellow squash in the garden. They are about 1 - 2" so far.

I started on the "Bean d'ville" and hope to have it completed sometime next week.

Weather: Cooler in the mid 80's with a "chance" of rain.

Yesterday, the better half has a "seam ripper" which she told me she has had since we first started going out, way back when. I said that's pretty cool, a antique. Her comments where something that I can't write here. Anyways, off to pry her out of bed, she wants to go with me today.

Enjoy everyone
Kaj

 

[chics in the sun]

Good Morning - for some reason my son got up at 5:45 today. Maybe he is just getting ready for school to start back up. I, on the other hand, was trying to sleep a little later for as long as we can. Oh well. Got the coffee brewed to wake me up.

Rancher - no, my raised garden is made with re-used bricks. I actually found half of them in my dumpster! Now I am trying to collect as many used bricks as I can, especially the really old ones they used for the streets here, and eventually make a deck with them.

Quercus - have a great hike - that Cranberry hike looks amazing. I love hiking, too, but only get to go on 'real' ones when I am on vaccation. The Florida ones are nice, too, just no peaks to admire the veiw from. My BF just started his own little web-site about hiking in Florida. It's neat. He is going to take pictures and do reviewes/ blogs about hikes all over Florida.

Math Ace - I know what you mean about down- time. I can't believe how busy I've been, even with school out!

I have to share a little incident from yesterday. I was almost given a citation by a code efforcement woman for my RECYCLING BINS. We don't have curb-side recycling here, but you can pay a company to pick it up. A lot of people do this. There are three just on my street. The woman started off by asking me if I was new in town, as St.Pete doesn't do recycling. I said No, I'm not new, I pay for a service. She acted like she had no idea this was an option - despite the bins in front of many many houses, and the big recycling trucks all over the roads!! She said someone called in a complaint about bins of garbage sitting on the curb for days. WHAT? We take it out Tuesday night, bring in the empty bins after work on Wednesday. I couldn't believe it!
I have my suspicions about who called them, and now I am so worried he will call about my chickens. I am over my limit of five by one right now, but the EE's are 7 and 9 weeks. I'm afraid once they are outside permately in a few days he will call the authorities. I am desperately trying to remember if I told him how many chickens you are allowed to have in St.Pete when he first saw me building the coop and asked me what I was doing. I got the feeling he didn't like the idea. Sort of feighned interest but looked worried. There is also one more Ameraucana I was hoping to get, but maybe I'll put the EE's out first and make sure nobody calls before I get anymore. I so hope I don't have problems. I can't imagine getting rid of any of my girls. The only reason I went over to begin with is that the "Ameraucana" I was sold at the pet store turned into a White Leghorn, so my BF bought me an "Ameraucana" chick he found at a feed store, which of course is an EE, but the chick was too lonely, so I got a Olive Egger chick to keep her company. Still no Ameraucana.

 

[math ace]

Quote:

Oatmeal sounds wonderful