Arizona Chickens

[BlueBaby]

@BlueBaby
Whatcha gonna eat?

Thing's that I like to eat, but he won't touch. He's one of those picky eater's.

 

[igorsMistress]

Thing's that I like to eat, but he won't touch. He's one of those picky eater's.

My husband is too. Heaven forbid there's any heat in the food.or broccoli, or cauliflower.

 

[DesertChic]

Good afternoon AZ . The wind has picked up some here and it's chilly outside. I put our winter blanket on the bed today and gave the kids each an extra blanket. I tried leaving the front door open while I baked cookies but the heater came on. I love it! I think it's time to bake some bread. Maybe this weekend.

The chickens were at the backdoor complaining they're hungry. When I threw out pellets they looked at me in disgust Except the little dude, he's eating.

What's everyone been up to?

No wind down here today, thankfully. Yesterday was horrible. Today it was just chilly and cloudy, so I spent the day purging my garden of the now dead tomato plants....and harvesting tomatoes I didn't even know where there. I got over two dozen ripe tomatoes, and eight dozen getting close to ripe. The chickens got the rest, along with all the greens. They're VERY happy today in spite of the chill.

And....my winter plantings have begun to sprout in my new raised beds. I've got onions, cabbage, beets and artichokes sprouting outdoors; Romanesco and purple broccoli that had already sprouted now trying to survive the cold; Swiss chard growing like crazy; oats, alfalfa and red clover growing in the pasture area for the chickens, and thyme, basil, mint, true comfrey, parsley, celery and parsnips growing in the house. And two of my tomato plants are still partly alive, though I don't know they will be that way tomorrow. We'll see how cold it gets. I'm considering trimming stems from the two survivors and rooting them indoors to get a head start on my spring plantings. Usually I just start them from seeds in December, but these were VERY prolific plants. Hmm....

 

[meetthebubus]

No wind down here today, thankfully. Yesterday was horrible. Today it was just chilly and cloudy, so I spent the day purging my garden of the now dead tomato plants....and harvesting tomatoes I didn't even know where there. I got over two dozen ripe tomatoes, and eight dozen getting close to ripe. The chickens got the rest, along with all the greens. They're VERY happy today in spite of the chill.

And....my winter plantings have begun to sprout in my new raised beds. I've got onions, cabbage, beets and artichokes sprouting outdoors; Romanesco and purple broccoli that had already sprouted now trying to survive the cold; Swiss chard growing like crazy; oats, alfalfa and red clover growing in the pasture area for the chickens, and thyme, basil, mint, true comfrey, parsley, celery and parsnips growing in the house. And two of my tomato plants are still partly alive, though I don't know they will be that way tomorrow. We'll see how cold it gets. I'm considering trimming stems from the two survivors and rooting them indoors to get a head start on my spring plantings. Usually I just start them from seeds in December, but these were VERY prolific plants. Hmm....

How do you grow anything out in land? I fight against lizards, prairie dogs, birds, pocket mice who dig up the seeds, rabbits, ive only been able to grow garlic bc its a natural deterent. Lol

I've tried super raised beds, all sorts of stuff I can only have fruit trees bc I put hardware cloth around, and DE on top

 

[DesertChic]

How do you grow anything out in land? I fight against lizards, prairie dogs, birds, pocket mice who dig up the seeds, rabbits, ive only been able to grow garlic bc its a natural deterent. Lol

I've tried super raised beds, all sorts of stuff I can only have fruit trees bc I put hardware cloth around, and DE on top

My raised beds are about 3 feet tall and filled with compost that comes courtesy of my chickens. Here's a photo of some of the 8' long water troughs I use in part of my ever-expanding garden. The sides are too slick for varments to crawl up. These are Armenian cucumbers...three seeds that turned into plants that grew like crazy in the hottest part of summer.

I use a lot of companion planting to both improve harvests and repel "predators". You can see the basil I was growing in the ground in the background, as well as a peek at the squash I had growing in the next trough (bottom right) and a large flower pot on the left that I was growing...something I can't recall in.

This year I've added the IBC containers we'd cut in half for the aquaponics setup we just disassembled. I don't know how well they'll fair outside, but I'm hopeful.

The small pasture area I planted...this year I do have rodents of some sort digging into it, which annoys me to no end. I'm looking into mixing up a variety of natural repellents to keep them away.

 

[FeatherPugs]

@DesertChic they may be moles - we fought them in the chicken yard for a winter season! I finally put out poison covered with dirt and then covered with wire - and covered yet again with a pot or something. Super scared one of those chickies would begin digging to China a get the poison!! We have all sorts of stuff growing too but I'm not much interested in trying to keep it up these days. Seems my time is caregiving and taking care of myself and the chooks. Not much else.
We had cold, cold wind again today until about 4pm ish - then it calmed down and was tolerable. Good thing as I needed to work in the chicken yard for a bit - I didn't do anything but the droppings boards yesterday!
@BlueBaby I wouldn't be cooking - I'd be letting someone else cook for me - like Arby's, Panda, - kinda get my drift.... clean kitchen for at least a weekend!

 

[BlueBaby]

@FeatherPugs I thought the same way, but I didn't want to be going for take out every night. I don't want to have to drive 20 minutes one way to get something to eat. So I picked up some of those frozen dinner's that appealed to me, and stuff to snack on.

Edit: I think that I'm going to enjoy the next few day's at home enjoying my somewhat vacation?

 

[FeatherPugs]

@BlueBaby - I agree - 20 minutes is too much to go unless I'm already there and can take something home to heat. Yep super fun times ahead.

 

[DesertChic]

@DesertChic they may be moles - we fought them in the chicken yard for a winter season! I finally put out poison covered with dirt and then covered with wire - and covered yet again with a pot or something. Super scared one of those chickies would begin digging to China a get the poison!! We have all sorts of stuff growing too but I'm not much interested in trying to keep it up these days. Seems my time is caregiving and taking care of myself and the chooks. Not much else.
We had cold, cold wind again today until about 4pm ish - then it calmed down and was tolerable. Good thing as I needed to work in the chicken yard for a bit - I didn't do anything but the droppings boards yesterday!
@BlueBaby I wouldn't be cooking - I'd be letting someone else cook for me - like Arby's, Panda, - kinda get my drift.... clean kitchen for at least a weekend!

I use sticky traps instead of poison when I detect rodent problems. I can keep the chickens away from the traps by putting temporary fencing around the area and then let those pesky diggers come out at night and get stuck, disposing of them before I release the chickens in the morning.

 

[BlueBaby]

@BlueBaby - I agree - 20 minutes is too much to go unless I'm already there and can take something home to heat. Yep super fun times ahead.

Well, now I won't have to go anywhere unless I want to. We have the car here now as a backup vehicle, and he took the pickup. I bought one of those pumpkin roll cakes from Walmart and tried it out. It's pretty good.