News From The Back 40

The Crows watch over the plums

Inspite of one brief rain, I/ we  (with our dear neighbor and friends help) continue to produce food.  Daily tomatoes ripen of the smaller varieties.  My climbing cherry on the patio gives us enough tomatoes for the two of us for salad daily.  All sorts of greens and lettuces fill our bowls and stomachs. Onions are braided in the pantry (I must get a photo), and garlic braid hangs next to the stove. I keep flat leaf parsley and chives on the patio too. Asian eggplant and strawberries were picked yesterday.

Cherry tomato on patio

Daily, we get 8-10 ripe cherry tomatoes

This year we added much more shade to the garden.  With great results, if I must say so myself.  Last year seedlings fried.  This year, few did, and many actually turned into cucumber vines, pepper plants, chard, mustard greens, rapini, basil, and the latest turnips and carrots.  3.5 sides of the garden have 6' high 50% shade cloth, which doubles as a wind break.  Lloyd and Karen have added their own pieces by using one raised bed to bury foodscraps, and worms.  For me, this worm/compost bed is a fun science experiment. 

Asian long beans

Mesculin mix that is no mix...but tasty

We are actually getting a 3rd bed behind the guest house ready to fill.  My original plan was to have 3 back there, but the overgrown vegetation had to be removed. Karen and Lloyd took care of that.  They are pulling up all the grass. Flag stones and mostly edible ornamentals will be planted between the stones.  The strawberry bed is out of control, so Karen will transplant the babies all along one side of the wall.  This will be perfect for them as it's much cooler.  I look forward to having more fruit growing. Bob actually put netting on our new peach tree today.  So we should have about a dozen peaches, bird free.  They already got a dozen with the "one bite and we're done" method.

We left one onion so we could see the pretty bloom.

more lettuce...salads abound!

Manzano plum tomatoes...I think that's their name.

Tonight we are having green chili stew that is made from tomatoes, green chili, onion, and carrots from our garden last year.  There are a few bags of chili and whole tomatoes left in the freezer.  Just in time to fill it up again. :-)   Uh, don't tell Bob...we are getting a freezer this year.  The 3 beds in the back of the guest house will be extended season growing beds.  So we will have spinach, chard, lettuce, root veggies, into late fall.  And in spring they can even be used like a cold frame if the covering is the heavy kind.  I must say that much credit this year is due to Karen and Lloyd.  I am pleased as punch to have "Co-Farmers" working our land. 

After freezing tomatoes slip out of their skins...easy.

Green chili stew...mmmmm

Green Chili Stew
4 chicken thighs, boned, skinned and cut in small pieces.
1 cup green chili (hot or mild, depending on your taste)
1cup fresh tomatoes peeled and seeds removed (mine are frozen and slip out of their skins when    thawed)
1 chopped white onion
1 cup chicken/vegetable broth
1 clove garlic smashed
bay leaf
salt and pepper to taste
any other veggies you have left over to throw in.
Saute onion in oil until clear. Add chicken, and garlic and cook until meat is 50% cooked.
Add rest of ingredients and simmer one hour. Remove bay leaf.
Tonight I am serving this over pasta. 

Thanks for reading.
Each day is a gift, open now.
xo,
Suz

4 More At The Door

Australorp chicks

Last night I got an email from a chicken farmer in the East Mountains of Albuquerque.  I had contacted him in March about getting some of his Australorp chicks.  He was out of them but said he'd have some mid May to late May.  I wrote back saying I needed them before of after our trip to see the elephants.  However, I never heard from him again.  I also left several voice mail messages.  Imagine my surprise when he emailed me!  

Full sized Australorp hen.

So here we go again.  I now have a broken foot, and am in a walking cast. So I can't do the things I normally can do.  I will enlist help of Lloyd and Ethan to move the nursery back into the walled patio area.  There will only be 4, so that is much less clean up or work. They are a large breed, and will grow fast.  Eventually they will be commingled with our flock.  Of course Ethan is thrilled to have chicks again.  

I could have told him no.  But these are a favorite gentle breed of mine.  And for another week, I have a 13year old farm hand. :-)

Thanks for reading.

Each day is a gift. Open now.
xo,
Suz

Stop and Smell the Roses

Talullah loves looking at the new roses. 

As I eat the last piece of fresh fruit tart (Bob bought at Whole Foods) with my coffee this morning.  Here are a few chicken photos from the mother hen.  On Mothers Day my son and I spent an hour feeding, petting, and watching the chickens. He named the non neurotypical one "Gobbles." As this chick looks like she's gobbling food because of her head tic.  It's been windy and cold here, so they keep close to their "club house."

 

 

Mothers Day Morning

Gigi, Talullah, and Nanette: Talullah is HUGE!

Bantam buff Cochin...so cute!

Cosette, the largest of the Dominique French hens

 Thanks for reading.
Each day is a gift. Open now!
xo,
Suz

It Takes A Village To Raise A Chicken

Today "Fort Chicken" was completed.  Bob and I moved the chicks and their nursery out to the space we have been working on for weeks.  Gate latches and locks were put on, furring strips around the top and posts over the ends of the chicken wire roof.  Thursday they will be one month old.  They weigh 10 times what they did the day we got them from the post office.  Now to finish the design of the actual coop.  My inner Martha has a strangle hold on me.  So it will be beautiful as well as functional.

The old hanging waterer, and a temporary outdoor feeder. 

So many people helped make this dream become a reality.  My husband  has been there every step of the way.  He said:"If keeping chickens again will make you happy, okay, let's get some."  He's so invested in keeping them safe, and has complied with my over kill on construction. Every seam top, sides and bottom has been sewn with steel wire, then horse fence on the outside of the run, and furring strips added on top of the ends of the chicken wire (making a sandwich of chicken wire between 2x4 and furring strip. He made a wide gate I can get a wheelbarrow in and out of.  My friend Ami worked in a windstorm with my son one Sunday while I lay in bed with bronchitis.  My son came twice for gravel moving and putting up most of the chicken wire roof.  My friend Charlie stood on one side and I on the other of the entire pen sewing the floor to the sides, and the hog fence to the chicken wire so no critters can dig or squeeze between them.  Our pharmacists,  a grocery store manager, our ceramics class, friends saving paper, egg cartons, and celebrating at the Chick Party, gifts, cards and flowers given-- they have all been there.

Buddy would prefer to be inside, but has found his watchdog point.

I plan to have a "coop warming" when their nesting coop is complete this fall.  We have about 4 months until they start laying. So there will not be the intensity to be ready that we had with Fort Chicken.  Today when it was done and they were diving out of the door of their nursery, I sat on the ground on my kneeling pad and leaned against the shed drinking from my water bottle in the shade.  One by one they came up to me. Some hopping over me, gently pecking my pants.  4 large buff Cochins crawled on my lap and went to sleep.  I put my head back and closed my eyes. The cool of the shade and the warmth of these 4 feathery birds on my legs felt wonderful.  This is what it's all about.

Their first walk on the ground.

Rose bushes will be planted along the front wall.  They will provide shade, as well as thorny barriers for the coyotes.  Bob is going to build a "sandbox/bathtub" in that corner for them to dig and roll in.  We used wood from my days on "Wildfire" for the transom over the gate.  We'll use more of the barn wood for the nesting coop.  I am searching for an Etsy vendor to make a "Fort Chicken" sign to put on the transom above the gate. Chicken silhouettes have been ordered to put on the posts tops in back.  I love my ravens on either side of my gate to the garden.  So I am sure roosters and hens will do very well too.
Is there such a thing as contented exhaustion?

Rose bushes will be tightly planted along the front.

Thanks for reading.
Each day is a gift. Open now.
xo,
Suz

What Are These Birds?

"Tallulah"

Here is the latest video.  I shot it with my pocket camera.  They are the funniest looking things.  I am absolutely in love with some of them who have earned names.  "Tallulah, Irma, Renee" for starters.
I think I need help with names.  Today was one of those days that nothing went as planned.  I made no progress on "Fort Chicken."  Hoping tomorrow will bring the end.  My friend Charlie is coming to help.
Bob doesn't know it, but I'm snagging him in the morning to help put the horse fence on the two small sides.

"Myster E"

Click on the link below for the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYR615djb9M

The large blonde who comes the closest is "Tallulah" (the real Tallulah, you know who you are :-)
"Irma" is the prettiest of the black Cochins.  "Renee" is the first Dominique to really feather out in a barred pattern.  One moment they look like prehistoric dinosaurs, and the next emus with long out stretched necks.  The feathers are so tiny.  And Myster E the "surprise" bird looks nothing like a chicken. He looks like a house sparrow.  Sort of the "Ugly Duckling" of the chickens.  When I open the cage, Tallulah flies into my lap, and Irma follows.  They get that "the Mama"  look in their eyes when they see me.  The Brahmas look as if they have leather flying goggles on.  I have to get a picture before their feathers come in.

"Yeah, we can make it...fly!"

Thanks for reading.
Each day is a gift. Open now.
xo,
Suz

Getting To Know Them

The chick in the middle is Ethan's favorite.
The standard buff Cochin on the left is a giant.
 The brown dark Brahma on the right.

It's been only 5 days since the chicks arrived.  They are all doing well.  We are beginning to see personalities in many of them.  Ethan has his favorite who is the "surprise" chick the hatchery sent that is a Seabright.  He picks this chick up (I think it's a boy) and rubs under it's ear, and the chick lays down and sleeps on E's chest.  It's a very calm bird.  My favorite is still the black Cochin.  When we open the door of the nursery several of the same chicks come running to me.  They haven't learned to put on the brakes, so they sort of crash land when they need to stop.  It's pretty funny.

My favorite has many feathers now. You can see that her
"type" is perfect Cochin from the side.

Here she is full on...

Tomorrow we are going to our friends ranch in Magdelena that I have written about before. Communing with cows and calves.  I can't wait.  For now we have no water...tonight something happened to the well. In the light of day, we will figure it out.

Good Night!

Thanks for reading.

Life is a gift. Open now.

xo,

Suz