Life on the farm - Updates from Bethel

[BamaChicken]

Great looking family you have there. Your flowers are looking good. Chickens are a blessing. We laugh at our church and call it my Chicken Ministry. I think I have started about 8 families in our congregation with chicks and chickens. If we did small groups I know we would have one that worked with chickens.

 

[redhead83402]

Quote:
Ruth, have you seen the chinese tree peony? They are simply stunning ~ and they bloom long before any other peonies. They are rather expensive, but, they are worth it. They grow out like a small-ish shrub or undergrowth, but need mostly full sun. And the blooms are about 2 to 3 times larger than regular peonies. My chinese tree peony blooms just after the bulbs & forsythia ~ and the blooms hold on for almost a month. Best of all, maintenance free.
:-D
Just a thought ~ you already have a stunning garden
{;>)=
~Red

 

[ChickNLittle]

Oh Ruth, everything is so beautiful; your chickens, the pink/white eggs, and the house is my dream. That is so wonderful. I'm happy for you.

 

[ruth]

Hi Red - when I was looking up on line catalogs that sell peonies I saw the tree type listed. I had not seen one before and thought that would be nice for our parterre garden in front. All of the tree roses that were originally there have died.

Actually I have not seen real/live peonies at all but it's one of those things that suddenly comes up more than once in a matter of days and you think "it's a sign". I was at a town meeting here the other night when someone asked me if I had met so and so yet. I said no. They said well they just had everyone over today to view their peonies that are blooming. Well then I had to look up peonies and then I had to have them because just a week before, at my daughter's bridal shower, they were discussing having peonies in bouquet and how very expensive they were.

I don't mind investing in plants that come back year after year and multiply. My problem seems to be remembering when to water and when to prune and when to fertilize, divide, etc. But that's the fun of now having a farm. I'm finally getting a chance to do gardening full time now - sort of semi-retired and work from home. I cut out all the travel that I did, living on the road, for 15 years. It was really hard maintaining a garden and keeping things alive when I was never there.

 

[ruth]

I posted a separate thread about our newest resident so don't want to duplicate things. Here's the link to SCARLETT - 8 week old GSD female.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=52586

Isn't she too cute? She has such a look of intelligence and wisdom in her eyes and has the face of a much older dog. We're hoping she will be as much of a benefit to guarding livestock as Rex has been.

She has already gotten to meet everyone, including cats and chickens and ducks. She seems to be really studying them all and processing it. I took her into chicken/duck run, on a leash, and at first she wanted to run after them but I gave her a little tug and told her "no". After that she would just sit by my feet and watch them all. I'll work with her every day.

Kind of tired now - was up all night with her crying off and on every time I tried to move my hand. She slept by my bed and I had to try and sleep with one hand hanging over and petting her. Tonight I'll move the kennel back in house. We had to go buy her a new bed of her own and new toys - just like having a new baby in house. She has learned so much already I know she will be very smart and she will have Rex to teach her a few things.

 

[ruth]

It's been almost a month since I've updated this thread.

Let's see not much new just everything and everyone seem to be really taking up a lot of time.

My garden is doing well. Here's a tomato plant - and that's just one plant - it just keeps growing and growing and putting out more and more long branches that I have to keep staking. It was loaded with tomatoes when I took this picture day before yesterday. But yesterday and today my sneaky little chickens got ahold of it and pulled off over a dozen big green tomatoes.

I've tried growing tomatoes all my life and never had much luck. Last few years got nothing at all. This time, of course I moved, but I used a wheel barrow full of "stuff" from barn floor - 50 year old cow/horse poop. The little kitchen garden I planted by my back door is growing like crazy.

I did find my brussel sprouts covered in little worms the other day. They had eaten the top leaves to shreds. I hand picked off a whole bunch and fed them to the chickens. That's when I got the bright idea to let the chickens back into the backyard and into my garden so they could do a little natural pest control since I don't like to use pesticides. Well they did a little gardening work for two days and it cost me a dozen big green tomatoes.

Finally - I have finally built a front door for my coop. It has just had chicken wire and plastic on front since we moved here in December. I also built a new ladder for them and took down the death trap raggedy thing that was in there. I built them by myself. I found an old grocery store door out in one of the buildings on property - there are so many old materials and building supplies around here I don't think we'll ever have to buy anything. Anyway, I liked it because it had the old Holsum sign on front and back of door. The door was too tall so I had to cut it down to size and put hardward cloth and reinforced back. In winter I'm going to put plexiglass on back. We also have many different sizes and shapes of that in shed because they used to use it on the porche screens in winter. I'm going to build cold frames and a green house with it as well.

Anyway I'm quite proud of myself. It still looks a little rough but I had to do it all by myself. I learned to use a power saw and tools in the process. I will still need to paint the door but I had to rebuild the door frame. There was no longer a frame in place and the walls just wiggled since they weren't attached to anything. I was trying to hang the door by myself without dropping it on the chickens that seem immensely interested in what I was doing. Not an easy task to try and hang a heavy door by yourself. I used my toes as leverage to lift and hold and thought later I had broken them but they are o.k. - Did possibly break thumb which I still can't bend and it's swollen and black and blue.

But here are the rough results.

From inside the coop.

The view that the chickens now have and the nice breeze.

And finally my chickens can use the front door like civilized folk.

Here's my ladder I built.

Finally the gardenias are all in bloom and since they are everywhere on the property the heavenly scent made working outside in the searing heat, in a chicken coop, for two days almost enjoyable.

 

[speckledhen]

I think you did an awesome job on the door, Monique! Very nice. Same thing happened to my brussels sprouts the only year we tried to grow them. They were fine one day then the next, BOOM! infested.

 

[nutmeggie]

I am in love with your house and land.

That is pretty much my dream house. What I want to know is if you have met Green Morris yet around your house? I think it would be fun to have a ghost in my house as long as it was a nice ghost. You have such a beautiful house, inside and out.

 

[Omeletta]

Absolutely beautiful job! It looks fantastic, and I bet you are very happy with your work. Now, an honest question...how do you keep up with your property? It is always nicely trimmed, and tidy. You also seem to have alot that 'needs' to be trimmed regularly for it to look it's best, and in all your pics, your home looks lovely. So is it like a Martha Stewart calendar thingy, or what? I really would like to know! I have a fairly small property, and since we are in the middle of renovations, the outside gets rather neglected. I have reagular help (via my children and DH, who are more than capable). Please let me know!

And I am glad Scarlett is working out so well, and is feeling so much better from her terrible ordeal. And was glad to hear that the 'infamous' Rex is doing better, also!

Love your threads, wish I had the nerve to start a " Life from Rose Cottage" thread (or something similar, need a 'home' name, first )

Tanya

 

[ruth]

Thanks Cyn- I'm hoping it will look better after I finish with trim work and paint. Part of that front wall had collapsed/sagged down over time and I'm trying to shore it up. I also had to nail hardware cloth to places in coop where boards had large gaps. Of course coop is 100 years old but it is made from very thick solid cypress - you can't drive a nail into the wood or screw into it. You have to drill a hole first then use a power drill to put a screw in. Hubby had given up on ever working on coop again way back when. Just as well cause I couldn't take his cussing and fussing. So the door just got left covered in wire and plastic till I decided that was a bit too risky and just plain ugly, plus they couldn't use that entrance at all.

I'm sure there are some who will say I should have built a solid door and they may be right. I did find an old solid door in shed as well but I like the screen door because I can look in and check on them without having to go around to back of coop, through gate and into coop. Could something possibly tear through the top section that's hardware cloth? Yes but my dogs will tear them up before they get that far. Again, they've only had a little chicken wire barely stapled to front with a piece of plastic tacked on for winter and nothing has tried to get in yet. Well there was that dead possum I found in front of coop that time.