Washingtonians

[hallerlake]

I let my girls free range when I'm home, and can keep my ears open. The crows and Carmen warn me about danger.

 

[hallerlake]

My girls will come up on the deck and tap on the kitchen door. They're pecking at specks, but it sounds like they want to come in.


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My girld free range all day every day, unless it is REALLY cold, then I lock them all up in the coop and run. But most times the barred rock and the delaware mutt, roost in the tree above the coop, and the NH and the Silky sleep in the coop. They just look so miserable locked up all the time, that its torture to leave them locked in.

Only problem now is that they have figured out that they like coming up to my sliding glass door. They are turning into even bigger beggers than my 3 dogs are!

 

[TifsBroodyBabes]

What a beautiful day its turning out to be!!!!

 

[jettgirl24]

There not much to plant in January unless you are planting in the greenhouse. Most the things are for transplanting out later. If Tomatoes and peppers get planted now they don't usually go in the garden until Late April/May and will need to be potted up several times into larger containers prior. I usually start my Tomatoes in mid to late February and peppers in March. At a month they go into 4" pots and by 8 weeks they are in gallons. Both I try to get in the garden by 8 week old transplants.

Illia, where are you going to put your hundreds of Tomato and peppers before you can plant them out? The weather should be nice enough this week for working on your greenhouse.

What kind of peppers do you grow here? I have tried two years in a row now but had horrible harvests... Last year was particularly bad but that was to be expected with how cool it was in western WA over the summer. I'm wondering if I'm trying to plant things that just need too much heat and take too long to grow... Are there some hardy varieties that are better suited to this area?​

 

[ByN8ureHomstead]

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I agree. It is snowing like mad right now.

 

[jbear]

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crows make great watchcrows -- looking out for hawks? The crows make such a ruckus.

 

[Snipes]

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MMMM yeah, Western Washington is beyootiful today!

Gotta love the crows. Not only do they warn and deter aerial preds, they play with the ducks. Or tease them, not sure which. Trans-species interactions can be tough to gauge.
Has anyone had success by making their own murder of crows to deter hawks and owls? I don't know how easily fooled they are- crow decoys are expensive and the ones I have seen where you use wire and black cloth don't seem all that convincing.

 

[Ogress]

When I was driving home at 12:30 this afternoon, it was 38 degrees. It is amazing how warm 38 feels when the sun is shining and there's not a breeze. The girls are running all over the lawn, checking and checking out the carpenter and their new digs while I was able to do a big clean on their coop.

 

[Illia]

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Nothing does well enough to fruit without a greenhouse, hoophouse, coldframe, etc (some kind of protection) - However I have successfully raised Banana, Anaheim, Red Cheese, and Jimmy Narello Italian last year and the previous.

This year I will take off the Banana Pepper, and add to the list - Craig's Grange Jalapeno, Cal Wonder Orange Bell, Sweet Chocolate, Patio Red Marconi, Melrose, Italian Pepperoncini, Corbaci, and Quadarto d'Asti Rosso.


Beautiful sunny day today.

 

[hallerlake]

My house came with a crow's nest in the backyard. I got lucky.


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MMMM yeah, Western Washington is beyootiful today!

Gotta love the crows. Not only do they warn and deter aerial preds, they play with the ducks. Or tease them, not sure which. Trans-species interactions can be tough to gauge.
Has anyone had success by making their own murder of crows to deter hawks and owls? I don't know how easily fooled they are- crow decoys are expensive and the ones I have seen where you use wire and black cloth don't seem all that convincing.