Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[SillyChicken]

Good morning.. Well, this rain is certainly something..my green bean seeds have literally bursted thru the ground & grown over 2" in less than 48 hours. Of course, so has my grass AND weeds.. Speaking of weeds. I have this evil prickly weed that showed up about 2 years ago and will grow over 4 FEET if you let it. Truly invasive...my question (wish I had taken a pic yesterday, & it was too dark this morn as I left for work); anyone have a good NON-CHEMICAL idea of how to get rid of it? I have noted this year when clearing an area for aspargus & red potatoes that the root system seems vining vs. tap-root....any help greatly appreciated. Now that I have the "kids" no chemicals whatsoever in the yard, so I need to creative with this weed Thanks!

and idiot spoon and some elbow grease?
or maybe vinegar while it's young (but it will kill all around it as well)

 

[SillyChicken]

I've been home sick for a few days but on the mend. Took some pics last night between rain showers.
DH stayed home and did more work on the goat shed. I hope to get the rafters up and decking on so I can shingle next week.

My Silkie chick had started sitting on eggs for about a week, stopped for a week, then started laying and stayed on the eggs along with the other uggo hen (they're both sharing). I saw one chick had hatched last night so I can't wait to see what pops out of those eggs! We also have a dozen new bunny babies!

(also found out when we asked the township about the shed permit if we needed one... we are zoned ag, so they confirmed it for me without having to ask) PHEW~

So here's what we got so far for the goat shelter. I'm going to have the feeders along the fence so I can have someone feed/water the goats without having to go in the pasture to do it and it'll keep everyone and the food dry. There'll be some storage in the rafter area to.

 

[preciouskitty]

and idiot spoon and some elbow grease?
or maybe vinegar while it's young (but it will kill all around it as well)

LOL! Yep..kind of figured I was going to be stuck with the "elbow grease" as the pH of the vinegar would trash the rest of the garden. And the ones that have overtaken the area by my front porch can no longer be considered young (was too busy doing garden, getting coop set up to care...now they are, no kidding, 3 feet tall!!)

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Good Morning Everybody just let my ducks out -- they found a huge puddle out behind the barn and they are enjoying that. I must not have got as much as you Opa, I slept like a baby last night. And my dogs didn't wake me either.

Gaitngirl. I'm sorry your girl hasn't improved and that you must dispatch her. I hope it goes as well as can be expected.

Today is my youngest's final day of school, lucky me, I will have workers for the summer schedule. Bad news on my oats-- while my ducks love the seeds, I just don't see anything growing except weeds. The beans are lost, as are the peas. My cukes and dill that I winter sowed are very stunted even tho I'm watering. On the plus side, this is the 1st year ever that I've never lost any seedlings in the hardening off phase. Winter sowing= huge success in that regard. Still have jugs and jugs of cosmos to get in the ground.

Y'all know I've been busting up the stash of DH's old work jeans, making the clothespin/plastic grocery bag Bags. Here is my latest. My plan is now to try some chickens to bring to the CS swap table. Let me know what you all think. This is the front:

Here is the back:

 

[Elyssia001]

I'm now taking orders for hand knit stocking caps. $40, made from hand spun wool yarn that I sheared from my own sheep. Allow 4-6 weeks for completion. Very warm and soft, lots of stretch. Can spin in any shade of gray (white-black). PM me if interested.

Those are beautiful hats lady! I'll have to wait a few weeks before I place an order as I'm currently broke.

I got my orange tree in, and while I'm happy to have it, it wasn't what I had expected. Stark Bros website shows a small orange tree in a brightly colored pot proportional to its size, already sitting pretty in the pot and ready to place wherever. What I got was a very tiny orange tree (small enough to be a desk plant) in a 4" greenhouse container, and a very large pot that dwarfs the newly dubbed "Sam" (yes I name my house plants). So today I'm going out to find a citrus potting mix and a proper sized pot for Sam after work.

 

[Maah]

I'm just not having a good week. I got my grain barrels secured and then forgot to close up my brooder tractor last night. I lost all the eggs and I'm not sure how many hens. The thing about coons is that they keep you on your toes, with immediate feedback. I had a white silkie rooster that was being picked on so I put him in the pen with my chukar 1" x 2" wire. Its a large pen and I have never had a problem with it, the silkie evidently slept too close to the wire and a coon pulled it 1/2 way through and ate it. So, no more chickens in there at night. I haven't had loses like this in a couple of years, I must be getting sloppy. And I was thinking about putting 1" x 2" wire on my new hoop run,not going to happen now, I'll stick with the 1/2" hardware cloth.
Welcome Kat and the other newbies , aren't chickens great!

Sorry about your loss. If you'd like a replacement white silkie rooster... I have one for you. He's a good boy, not aggressive. We're thinking about changing up our breeding pen to colors.

I was thinking about doing this with those two but I have to work out arrangements for them first. I would worry they'd fall victim to the local wildlife if I simply kicked them out to live with the sheep. The chicken tractor is currently booked solid for at least a month. But maybe I could kick the chicks out of the grow-out pen, into the "big girl" coop, and stuff the two old biddies in the grow-out without access to the run. Do a swap of sorts.

We still put our SLW back in the coop at night. She would bawk her head off after bedtime and we didn't want her to attract any predators. We'd wait until our rooster put all the girls to bed for the night & would put the SLW in the coop after they were all settled. First thing in the morning, we'd move her back with the goats for the day (chicken jail). We did this every day for 3-4 days.

 

[ladyrsanti]

We still put our SLW back in the coop at night. She would bawk her head off after bedtime and we didn't want her to attract any predators. We'd wait until our rooster put all the girls to bed for the night & would put the SLW in the coop after they were all settled. First thing in the morning, we'd move her back with the goats for the day (chicken jail). We did this every day for 3-4 days.

Ahhh, good to know. Thanks!

 

[gladahmae]

I put a new fence up around my back flower bed today. I now have a strip of grass 3x30 that is inside the fence that I'd like to make part of the bed. What would be the best way to go about that without tilling/pulling all if it out? More newspaper and cover with soil?

if you are buying bags of top soil, you could just lay the bags on the grass, slit them open and plant right in the soil. At the end of the season, pull the plastic out. The grass underneath will be dead. Works best for annuals that won't need deep roots in the first year.

I suppose I could do that, but I'd probably have to start everything from seed since I can't imagine paying for enough bags of topsoil to get it 3in deep to plant cell-packs of flowers in there. Hmmmm. I may just need to accept that I won't be having flowers in the part of the flower bed this year. I'm not AGAINST planting from seed, I just don't know what I could put in there at this point that would have a shot at blooming this year!

 

[HollyDuckFarmer]

Glad I can bring to CS you some of my wintersown Cosmos (orange from SeedSavers)

 

[Stacykins]

I'm not squeamish but I really hate doing this. The guy who cuts my hay came out and cut my field today even though they predicted rain. It was already a steady drizzle before he finished the field (he came while I was at work) and now it's thundering and lightning. Between that and my poor little blue marans pullet, I'm afraid to wonder if this week can get any worse . . .

What the heck? He just went along, cut your field, and now caused you to loose ALL that precious hay? I know time is short and all, but cutting at a bad time and causing a massive crop loss is pretty irresponsible. Are you going to try and confront him in some way?