What did you do in the garden today?

[AllenK RGV]

OK. Did just an hour or 2's work in the garden/run today. DW and I added in more pups from my native aloe. 10 of the pups I collected I didn't like as I forgot how I pulled them last time. Once I got the kinks out, the remaining 15 pups had about 1 foot of root to transplant. Here are a few picks of the additional 18 feet of added aloe cover and I hope most are healthy enough to throw up at least one flower stalk come late March early April.



I just included this last photo as it includes my wonky stunted Cook's/Norfolk Pine under the wonky green tomato cage. Our 3-4 foot tall Charlie Brown X-mass tree is in a 15 gallon Root Pouch and doing quite well. All of the fence posts are preset at the moment are just in case we have issues with the untrained, ignored, and sensory deprived neighbor dogs. They were set in the summer when we were having issues. Our pack set most of that right as we have 4 bitches in the 45, and 55-75 pound weight range. Little 5 pound dogs don't seem to like getting tossed.

We made it up to 83F today and full sun so DW came out of her shell and helped in the garden, tomorrow should be 88 or so so I will get that last 10 or so feet done. I might get the majority of the fencing done before X-mass for additional cover for the Silkies run.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Right there with you RV neighbor that was stealing my eggs seems to have disappeared from the home and the 4 untrained errant dogs

 

[AllenK RGV]

Right there with you RV neighbor that was stealing my eggs seems to have disappeared from the home and the 4 untrained errant dogs

Well apparently the jack russell visited my front silkie pen today. Our count is off by one pure silkie hen. There is a trail of feathers over to my neighbors side of the fence and the wind was dead today. He came up and mentioned all of the feathers he found in his yard that he noticed "DW and I were discussing" what we could plainly see on his side of the fence. He even asked if we were missing one to the no duh trail of evidence. I related the corrective action I had already visited upon his jack russell terrier the previous day. In hindsight, I should have just killed it for the first infraction then I would have all my chicken today. I also reminded him he shouldn't be upset that the next time his dog is caught on my side of the fence I will be euthanizing it as per Vernon's Health and Safety Code(paragraphs 620-626). In Texas his dog is now legally defined as a coyote. I witnessed an attack on my livestock/fowl I am now free to shoot/poison/kill/trap that animal. He has seen me remove animals from this neighborhood before for just this reason. So he will probably get rid of his animal or allow it to become an inside dog or tie it out 24x7x365(most likely but still illegal in Texas).

 

[AllenK RGV]

Right there with you RV neighbor that was stealing my eggs seems to have disappeared from the home and the 4 untrained errant dogs

Congrats on loosing yourself a thief!

 

[pennyJo1960]

Ya had a problem as there was a wife and couple kids have heard her with them but not the wars we where hearing at night from there so hope she got rid of him for good

 

[TropicalBabies]

Well apparently the jack russell visited my front silkie pen today. Our count is off by one pure silkie hen. There is a trail of feathers over to my neighbors side of the fence and the wind was dead today. He came up and mentioned all of the feathers he found in his yard that he noticed "DW and I were discussing" what we could plainly see on his side of the fence. He even asked if we were missing one to the no duh trail of evidence. I related the corrective action I had already visited upon his jack russell terrier the previous day. In hindsight, I should have just killed it for the first infraction then I would have all my chicken today. I also reminded him he shouldn't be upset that the next time his dog is caught on my side of the fence I will be euthanizing it as per Vernon's Health and Safety Code(paragraphs 620-626). In Texas his dog is now legally defined as a coyote. I witnessed an attack on my livestock/fowl I am now free to shoot/poison/kill/trap that animal. He has seen me remove animals from this neighborhood before for just this reason. So he will probably get rid of his animal or allow it to become an inside dog or tie it out 24x7x365(most likely but still illegal in Texas).

So sorry about your hen. Wow, that is a lot. I'd be fuming... I have cleared out a few neighbors in my hood for their antics. The dogs were smarter than the human for sure. I don't miss either. Wishing you a clear shot, good luck

 

[ValerieJ]

Thanks @ValerieJ that is great to hear! I was really disappointed that, after the summer off, they still had low to no eggs and were possibly going to be just loud, bossy, hungry & pooping yard pets. With that said... 2 BO's made it into the boxes this morning!!! Yippity skippity! I hope they left me something.
K. Here is a photo(s) I took the other day. Not green but it was very warm.View attachment 1980892 View attachment 1980891

Well, that is a breathtaking view!

 

[ValerieJ]

@AllenK RGV I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your hen! I'd be setting a trap for the JR and turning him over to the pound or the police, with full disclosure of his predatory nature.

 

[karenerwin]

@TropicalBabies and @AllenK RGV unfortunately I did not think to take a picture of the alfalfa souffle garland, byt next time I make it I'll post a picture.
As I said before this is not my recipe. I got it from the Chicken Chick, off of her website.
But here it is:
Alfalfa Souffle Garland Chicken Treats
12 eggs ( I only used 10)
1/2 cup mealworms (I didn't have any, so I substituted BOSS about 1 cup)
3/4 cup wheatgerm ( I couldn't find mine so I left it out)
1 cup of Candula petals (I pulled out the petals from the Marigold seed heads I had, but tried not to get too may of the actual seeds because I want to plant them next year!)
1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
12 to 15 cubes of Alfalfa ( I bought that many but it was WAY too much!!) soak in water to equal 2 cups of re-hydrated alfalfa ( I did use 2 cups of re-hydrated alfalfa)
Crushed egg shells from 3 or 4 eggs
cooking spray
9 x 12 baking pan or some cupcake pans ( I used 6 small heart shaped cake pans & 6 small circular pie pans ( like for individual pies))

Break apart the soaked alfalfa cubes and remove any thick pieces or long sticks. The alfalfa should be moist not soaking wet.
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray pans with cooking spray. ( Don't be stingy with the spray, a few of mine stuck).
In a bowl mix everything except the egg shells. Pour (mine was spoon) into the prepared pans. Sprinkle crushed egg shells over the top. (I pressed them down some to try to get them to stick better, but still a lot of it fell off). I also added a plain granola bar that I found in the cabinet that had been torn open no telling how long ago! I crumbled it on top with the crushed egg shells.

Bake cupcakes 15 to 20 minutes. Bake the 9 x 12 pan for 40 minutes.
I think I baked mine like 30+ minutes because they still looked too moist and I was afraid they would fall apart. Oh, and before I baked them, I used the wrong end of a writing pen to make a hole through each one near the top so I could string them after they were done.

 

[pennyJo1960]

Thanks Karen got it wonder if I could use oyster shell in place of egg shell never give egg shell to my birds