Monday, 29 August, 2016

We tried out the new pressure canner. It certainly does take a long time what with getting it hot enough and then the cool down but the actual processing time is MUCH shorter. Only 25 minutes instead of 85 minutes in the hot water bath for tomatoes. We did one batch in the hot water bath and then the next batch in the pressure canner. One of the jars did not seal and this is probably the first time this has happened. The jar may have been a bit too full and that is why it did not seal. Have put it in the fridge and will likely just freeze the contents.

Drought continues. Watered a couple days ago but we have really had no rain at all.

Sunday, 28 August, 2016

The chicken run is completely finished. We have the fencing done to over 5 feet high so I can comfortably walk inside and also the top is covered with a very strong bird netting so they are safe from flying predators. They are just loving the run. When I open the pop hole in the morning they all come tumbling out. I just love to watch them.

Got a 12 liter box of dill cucumbers and made 11 jars of bread and butter pickles. Have not made them in years and I cannot think why as I just love them. 

Thursday, 18 August, 2016

We managed to get the fencing done all around the chicken run to the 4 foot high point. Frank blocked the gate with a large piece of plywood and we opened the pop hole.

Very surprisingly the 4 white Jersey Giants were the first ones out the door, followed by Naked Neck, then the 3 black Australorps. Poor little Hamburger was the last one out. She was so timid until she was left all alone in the coop and then she ventured out.

The 3 Australorps got the hang of it right away. In and out multiple times. Naked Neck was not too bad either but I had to physically put the Jerseys, Hamburger and Andi back in. Andi was a problem and we ended up almost chasing her around to get her back in. Right now since there is no netting up over the run I did not want to leave them out on their own. We hope to finish up that part tomorrow.

Sunday, 14 August, 2016

Got an incredible amount of rain yesterday. At one point the driveway was completely underwater until it could all be absorbed. Same with several areas of the lawn. The area between the house and the chicken coop was also submerged and unfortunately the driving rain got into the coop a little bit. The wood 6x6 is wet just by the door and I had to almost close the south window as it was coming in there a wee bit. The poor birds were freaking out as they have never experienced a storm before. I put an extra flake or so of straw in the coop to absorb any excess water. Checked this morning and the wood is of course still wet. Unfortunately it is very humid this morning so I see no chance of the wood drying out any time soon. Will need to keep an eye on that.

Also plan to move the dust box and roost today and will add more "soil" to the dust box as the coop is unbelievably dusty. I will sweep down the windows and the top of the nest boxes to clean things up. Actually, since they are not yet even using it, I may remove it completely for the time being and install it outside. 

The garden looks LUSH after all that rain. Much as I water all the time, I think that merely keeps things alive. The natural rain is what makes the garden thrive.

Saturday, 13 August, 2016

The heat has broken somewhat and we getting desperately needed rain. Forecast says that it will rain all day long. Fingers crossed.

The poor chickens had a struggle through this last heat wave. It was ghastly. I was taking them frozen courgettes shreds and frozen berries and changing their water 4-5 times a day and adding ice to it to keep it cool. I also misted them down every time I went out. It seemed to help as they would stop panting after I had misted them.

Have not been in the garden for two days due to the heat. Frank has been out and harvested courgettes, tomatoes, potatoes and carrots. Everything is delicious.

We are still building the chicken run out back of the coop. All the upright posts have been installed and we have done the lowest round of 1/4" hardware cloth on two of the three sides. It is splayed out at the bottom and buried and I will lay stone all around the sides for added protection. We certainly have enough stone here to do it.

Thinking of moving the location of the dust box and the roost to switch sides. I think that with the south window open they may get a bit of a breeze on them at night if the wind is blowing from the east. Better to be safe. I am sure that will freak them all out to have everything moved. Poor chickens.

Wednesday, 10 August, 2016

Horribly hot today.

The poor chickens were feeling the heat. I repeatedly took in frozen courgette and berries for them which the LOVE! Also spray misted them with very cold water which they did not love. I found that a very gentle mist sprayed a couple feet above them was most effective. It falls on them very gently but it is enough to help to cool them for a short while. Needed to repeat about every hour.

I have put a thermometer into the coop to check whether the ceiling vent helps to cool the coop or is making it worse. Will check tomorrow as it is supposed to be utter hell with humidity and temperature reaching 106F. Will need to go in every hour or so and mist them and give them frozen treats. If they seem in too much distress, will dunk them bodily in cool water if necessary. Hope it will not come to that.

Watered the garden early in the morning and then it was far too hot out there for me to do anything else.

Frank harvested the first potatoes. Yukon Gold. Utterly delicious. Some were small but one plant provided enough potatoes for two meals.

Also harvested a couple of the heirloom carrots. Again, really delicious.

And of course, we are eating the heirloom tomatoes. That is real tomato flavour.

Tuesday, 9 August, 2016

Frank purchased some patio slabs and levelled them in the spots where the post for the chicken run should go. He attached metal brackets to them which will hold the supports. All five are in place. He has nailed together some spruce 2x4s for the supports as we did not want to use pressure treated 4 x 4s.  Work will continue tomorrow in the blazing heat. 

We are at the start of yet another heat wave. Temperatures to get into the high 90's with humidity into the 100's. I loathe summer.

It would appear that the buckwheat has begun to germinate but I believe that the birds have snatched a good bit of the seed. Note to self.... cover the beds with row cover next time until germination.

We are ready to begin to harvest some of the potatoes. Fingers crossed.

Raspberries have been good. Plentiful, but again, we are fighting the birds for them.

The apples are getting larger and look pretty good.

Tomatoes are all doing pretty well but we have a good bit of  blossom end rot on the newest fruits at the top of the plants due to the watering issues. The fruit at the bottom of the plants appear to be unaffected.

Courgettes are ailing. Despite watering the plants are severely struggling. To be honest, I believe that I have eaten quite enough courgettes for this year and will begin to remove the worst of them. If we have just one or two for the remainder of the season it will be quite enough.

Have learned quite a lot this year and will make notes of things to do differently next season.

Monday, 8 August, 2016

Have missed a few days as we had company staying over.

We tried to dig the holes for the last posts for the chicken coop run  but hit solid rock about 2 feet down and that was not deep enough so we just filled in the holes. VERY FRUSTRATING! Did the work on a miserable hot day so that just made it all that much worse. 

Have decided to use different method. Will not dig holes but will attach 4 x 4's onto metal plate designed to hold porch posts that are secured to concrete porch only we will attach them to large 24" patio slabs. We already had three of them so only needed to purchase two more.

The chickens are doing well. They definitely suffered somewhat during that last heat wave and another is on the way in a couple of days. I have been freezing raspberries and blueberries and pieces of cucumber and shredded courgette for them. They LOVE it. Have also been misting them with ice cold water. They do not much care for that but it is a very fine mist and I have noticed that they stop panting when they are misted. I have been doing it 2-3 times per day, along with giving them fresh ice cold water several times per day.

Have picked courgettes, again. A few of the plants are dying. Not sure if it is the cucumber beetles that are weakening them or if it is the drought. I water every second day but even with 2 hours of watering, it is not near enough. A lot of the tomatoes have blossom end rot so have been pulling them off. 

Also began to remove the tomato plants that are lying all over the ground in Bed 2-Row 2. They should have been staked and it is now a great whacking mess in that bed. As we will shortly be completely overrun with tomatoes, we can afford to let the plants in that bed go. A great many of them have blossom end rot anyway.

Monday, 1 August, 2016

Picked all the beans that I could find in the one full bed. Mixture of all three kinds.

Picked courgettes and the side shoots of the broccoli plants. Will leave them in there for another week or so to see if we get anything else from them. Then out they come and I will send them through the shredder.

We began work on the chicken run today. Frank line trimmed the grass which I then raked up into a big pile. Frank cut down overhanging branches and had to cut down one pine tree that was in the way. I piled up the debris which we will take to the dump on Wednesday. Frank then ran the lawn mower over the area to clean it up a bit.

We then laid out the size of the run, corrected the measurements and began to hand dig the holes for posts. We have 5 holes dug. We will put in the posts (either 4x4 or natural cedar post) and then we can determine where the last two holes will need to be and dig them. 

What a lot of work. Hard graft and no mistake about it.

Saw a snake in the kitchen garden this morning.

Added some hardware cloth on the inside of the pop holes in the coop as it was stifling hot in there. Were then able to open the pop holes and also opened the ceiling vent and with the bit of a breeze, the coop felt much better. Will remove the hardware cloth from the pop hole on the north wall when we have finished the run and they can go outside. Will leave it on the east hole for the time being.

Sunday, 31 July, 2016

Thoroughly cleaned up the four Rhubarb beds.

Pulled out the Broad Beans.... failed experiment.

Picked cucumbers.