Arizona Chickens

[mclevinson]

Quote:
Yes, they go to public school. It is not like schools here, though. There is one girl in the neighborhood named Alma. She is 14 in such a sweetie. She LOVES school. When she first moved there, she couldn't wait for school to start. Sadly, when she got there, they didn't have enough chairs. Then, she ended up having to go home because she didn't have a pencil. They didn't own one. Because of her, we did a school supply drive down there in August. I actually had her get involved and make out the lists of needed supplies for each level and she helped to distribute them. I was blessed to be able to present Alma with a backpack full of supplies. She was so very thankful, and I can't tell you what a blessing that was for me to be a part of. I do take down pencils and crayons all year, though. I wish I were closer, too, but then I'd be further from Mexico and not able to go so often. I don't know how you are on space to store donations, but I will be in that area for sure in July for the homeschool convention. Do you go to that? I would love to come pick stuff up and meet your flock.

I will start collecting some things too.

 

[5pinkarrows]

Quote:
You guys are making me sad.

My garden has been taken over by bermuda grass and I don't know what to do with it.
I let the chickens in hoping they would dig it all up but they aren't doing a thorough enough job.
Maybe I'll figure it out in time for Fall planting or, if I'm lucky, in time to plant my favorite... okra.

Okra? Becky, are you a southern girl like me? I love me some okra!

 

[5pinkarrows]

Quote:
That will be wonderful! Thanks! By the way, they are required by law to go to public school. There are no options. The gov't there is very oppressive. It's hard to believe things are so different just 10 miles from my home.

Yesterday, the lady (Mari) that runs the Kids' Cafe that we support there was able to come across and go to my church! There is a family from Maryland just finishing up a 2 month mission trip down there and they brought her over. I was able to take them out to lunch and then we went to Walmart. I got her some craft supplies and she was sooo excited! When I brought stuff for the pancake breakfast Saturday, I brought some apple juice. Mari LOVES juice, but that is a luxury they just can't afford. Yesterday I bought her a big bottle of apple juice and she just beamed. I wish all of you that want to help out could go with me sometime. I can't tell you how neat it is to spend $2.50 and make someone so happy they nearly cry. You can just do so much good with so little there.

 

[Beckyhsinglsc]

Quote:
Okra? Becky, are you a southern girl like me? I love me some okra!

I'm actually from Tucson but my maternal grandparents were from Arkansas. I learned a lot about eating and cooking from that grandma.
I like okra boiled/steamed and slimy or fried/baked with cornmeal. It's also good in soups or crunchy(and slimy) right off the bush.
When you buy it in stores it just isn't the same at all.

My favorite hen died early this morning.

I brought her inside on Saturday. She seemed to be sick like the other one was so I was giving her the same treatment thinking she would get better like the other one.
I think I'm going to try to get a necropsy(sp?) so I know for sure what's going on with my flock. I hope it's not something that's going to go through all of them and leave me with 1/2 of my chickens and a closed flock.

 

[rufus]

Quote:
You guys are making me sad.

My garden has been taken over by bermuda grass and I don't know what to do with it.
I let the chickens in hoping they would dig it all up but they aren't doing a thorough enough job.
Maybe I'll figure it out in time for Fall planting or, if I'm lucky, in time to plant my favorite... okra.

Bermuda grass sure is a pain in the posterior. It grows every where except where you want it. We used to rotate our garden around from spot to spot to avoid it. We can't do that now that we have limited space.

We used to paint old pieces of tin roofing with black paint and lay them over the grass. The solar heat kills the grass off. This is also a good way to make ants move their nest. You can never get rid to a red ant infestation, but you can sure make them move their hole. Just keep doing it until they move to your neighbor's property.

Rufus

 

[rufus]

Quote:
The best answer to the rabbit problem is a ten year old boy with a sling shot. Once those cotton tails meet the red chili, they never chew on your garden again. The cotton tails are pretty tasty, but you have to be pretty desperate to eat the jacks. Jack rabbits are really hares, and they are a different story.

Rufus

 

[Gallo del Cielo]

5pinkarrows--It sounds like it would be very difficult to have a garden where you live without having it completely enclosed somehow. I live in the center of town but, surprisingly, we also have javelinas. Fortunately, my back yard is completely surrounded by a block wall and they can't get in.

mclevinson--that's interesting that you saw an article about purslane there. I have probably had about half a dozen random encounters where it was discussed/written about over the past year and I found a some seeds in a batch that my friend gave me. I started some and they sprouted in about 24 hours. Also, Native Seed Search seems to have more seeds than are in the catalog. I'm always surprised when I go in and ask for something and they dig it up for me. I'm definitely going to keep my eyes open for the wild ones this summer and collect seeds from them.

rufus--Did you like the Verdolagas? I know what you mean about tough times and expanding your diet. My family grew or hunted nearly everything we ate when I was growing up. I never saw a grocery store until I was about 5 when my family moved to Ft. Bragg, NC during the Vietnam war (my father enlisted). I remember being so surprised that you could just buy food and thought it was such a magical place. I also thought that we had suddenly gotten very rich, since we lived in a house that had electricity and water and even an inside flush toilet! We moved back and forth between MI and Ft. Bragg twice and times were always hard for us after returning to MI, since it always seemed like starting over. I remember one particularly harsh winter, when I was about 8 when we had no food and I made snares out of bailing twine and snared rabbits. We ate nothing but rabbits for nearly a month. No one complained. There wasn't much out there that was safe from us eating it. If it moved, we ate it. O.K., we didn't eat the skunks.

TT!-

Beckyhsinglsc--I'm so sorry to hear about your hen! Your favorite one too; it must have been so sad to find her there.

To those with grass problems in the garden-- grass problems are often indicative of soil structure problems. If your soil is hard and compacted, some of the roots almost always remain when you pluck it out. If you have enough organic material in the soil and don't compact it by standing on it, the grass can be easily pulled up with all of it's roots when it first makes its appearance. It sometimes seems impossible to remove it without resorting to chemicals if you can't remove the roots. Of course, I don't know how it'll go when my bermuda grass eventually reaches the edge of the garden and there's a constant invasion. Then I might consider burying a barrier to keep it out.

 

[mclevinson]

Quote:
Gumbo! Fried in cornmeal! Yum! I love okra too.

So sorry about your favorite hen.

 

[NoSkiveez]

There are tons of rabbits out here. It wouldn't surprise me if we had 100+ on the property. They are the ones with the fluffy white tail. They don't bother with the chili plants but eat everything else. I had raspberry bushes and they dug under the wire and ate the bushling off until it was a nub 1 inch long.

 

[mclevinson]

Quote:
Wabbit Season!