MORE on the Chicken House.......

So the project is moving along now at quite a rate and is getting close to finished... luckily since as the calender moves on so does the cooler weather.... but of course the chickens and ducks are fine where they are at the moment... really it is only snow fall that we have to watch out for..... and that seems to be a fair way off yet....



Progress so far.... today we had to actually go get more materials while hubby was around with his van so the larger sheets of 4 x 8 can be brought here.....

if you are wondering why he ceiling lining boards don't cover ALL the insulation and the whole of the inside of the ceiling it is because it was originally put there to prevent the chickens from pecking at the insulation.... and they can't reach that high.... it will be covered later as funds permit ... for now it is purely functional.....


Door frame is made and the only thing left to get is the hinges! We forgot them.... another day.

Winter Chicken and Duck house..... Barn.

We have been working on the new chicken and duck house in our barn... it affords some great advantages over the paddock location... feed is close by... and it cannot be cut off by snow during winter and is significantly larger.

Added a window for natural lighting during the day....

A window we recycled from the house... it fit almost perfectly with only a little building up of the space... still needs detail finishing....

Simple Pleasures of Harvest time....

So we are still harvesting the delicious produce from the garden.... and are at the drying, canning, freezing the goodness for the long winter days....

Also lot's of kitchen time and trying new recipes....

One that i recently added to my repertoire is Welsh Cakes! Pear Sauces to use later on..... sunshine in a bottle i believe.....

The large red tomatoes this year turned out to be QUITE TREMENDOUS.......

Sustainable Country Forums

Sustainable Country Living

Not just the WHY but the HOW

As the Administrator Alex put's it....

Suffice to say many of us believe that the need to live a more sustainable life is about to become a necessity (instead of a luxury).

So for all the readers that are working on living a quality life more sustainably a new forum is now on the web dedicated to working out the details of HOW to do it from those actually endeavouring to make changes in the way they live.

So if that sounds interesting to you please check it out. HERE

The setup is well organized and clear and I believe it is a community that will answer some of the specific issues with decoupling from the system at the same time as being supportive for people working on their own particular projects. If you grow your own food or raise chickens or home school or just want to understand how to go about those projects then I believe this online community might be for you.

Creative people living in the here and now and redreaming and reassessing what is important.

At the same time of course we are knee deep in several projects here at home.... we added more ducklings to the flock..... we are harvesting daily.... and of course with that comes the canning and the drying and the processing of the bounty. The weather has been mild and cloudy good gardening weather.... and we are also beginning to think about rehousing plans for winter for the poultry... it is high time we re-evaluated the way they are managed over winter.... and we believe we have a good plan,,,, Upstairs in the barn.... we are building them a new home... its amazing how much space there is up there,,, photos to follow,,, the boy's are very motivated.

HARVEST TIME......

From early morning until late at night it seems there is always an element of working with the produce going on..... picking, washing, cutting, canning, dehydrating. bagging, freezing.... then of course the clean up...... rinse and repeat.

This year the garden is producing heavily the weather has been kinda and there is no blight to contend with. More produce planted means more work going into preserving it.

One of the best resources i have come upon for supporting canning efforts is THIS

WHAT an amazingly useful sight for information and of course the best part for me is the photos that go with each of the recipes and methods and the step by step format. WONDERFUL discovery that supports and adds to the knowledge i have already gained from doing it for myself.

More photo's to follow.... sneaking in time when i can as the tomatoes are really producing strongly at the moment. Partly drying and canning are my preferred methods of storage with also some frozen cooked pulp as vegetable bases for winter stews.

REDREAMING.

 I made a small collection of my photographs to express my perception of the world and the way i look at things..... there is a purpose behind it.... it is about REDREAMING.... that is to take yourself into a position of starting anew each day.... almost recreating your self on a daily basis as a way to see anew and fresh the things around you and beside you and within you.

I hope you enjoy.

Some inspiration for the end of the Month

So this month i managed to keep the vegetable garden under control and it is now producing! More photo's to follow.... our chicks are hatched safely and we have increased our flock of ducklings with some more Muscovy ducklings. I started another painting... a LARGE painting called Redreaming Antipodes.... photo's to follow! It is turning out lovely. So we are flat out harvesting, drying, canning, storing wood and generally living a rich life. I found a FANTASTIC new book for homeschooling that is just stupendously useful called How to Home school For Free. The beauty of this resource is the data that is up to date regarding web sources for QUALITY internet experiences for learners. (adult or child).

So enjoy the images below and be inspired going into August!  

JUNE WHERE DID IT GO?

Seriously... it disappeared in a puff of forgetfulness. I know we lived it... but things seemed to pass so quickly and now it is July! The garden is growing strong, we have baby ducklings in the smokehouse and eggs in the incubator. We have started harvesting cucumbers, lettuce and herbs and hit a really hot spell here in upstate New York. 


We also have a new isp... a much improved change that means i don't have to count my usage like before and so this should make it possible to post more regularly. 


We have had dog attacks on our chickens and ducks and lost two. So saddening for us all.


Right now I am working on gardening and when it is really hot putting some time into my art...... and increasing my stored food supply. I don't feel comfortable letting it get too low with so much uncertainty in the world and a real sense of the fragility of the supply chain and superstructures that support it. Moving to as local as possible is sensible in many ways.. food security is a priority in my daily life. Enjoying the moments are too.

SAXONS AND CAYUGA CHICKS

We have some new baby ducklings!

 One Cayuga Duckling and three Saxon ducklings. Very cute.... both on the Critical List of animals. I also commandeered the Smokehouse to be a poultry Nursery.... it is easy to control the temperature... has a secure door and is close to the house and power. It is great! we can keep the little one's in there and know they are safe and secure.

REDREAMING GOLDEN VALLEY

Soooooooooo i finally finished the painting that has had me trapped for some 3 months.... what a horror show it turned out to be..... it is finally finished. Why is it some paintings just won't END!? I am sure it is something that happens to other people now and again by this was the most extreme case that ever happened to me. Many hours later and it is complete.

Some details and a full shot... it is incredibly hard to photograph dimensions wise as it doesn't like to be framed by the camera! but it is 36 x 12 inches x 3 inches..... box canvas.

GULF OIL DISASTER Pandora's Box is full of Petroleum.

Where to start? Mostly it starts with Hubris. from there spirals into one of the most destructive criminal acts directed at the natural world.It appears to be  beyond  our current ability to fix it.

There is no going back. 

On a visceral level it is an outrage and the beginning of events we cannot in any way control or even imagine the long and short term effects and will continue to grow as time passes. And the solution? to add more poisons to the oceans! What is it about closed loops BP doesn't understand?

On a personal level I think that fire monkeys have gone way too far and i see this as a dire situation. I wonder where this will end?

 Tick Tock.

Some useful links:

Boston Globe photos.

Live stream

A blogger doing a great job deconstructing and discussing the Live Cam of the ROV in the gulf.

Megadoom's Channel on youtube

The Ongoing discussion at LATOC

May Meanderings

So we have been working on a few jobs around the home dependent on the weather at the time as it has been typically all over the place from cold to hot and wet. So FIRST THING i tend to do is check the weather to see what to expect and see if it is an inside or outside job kind of day.

This has meant three different projects running at the same time.... not to mention the fact our chickens have been sick with a contagious bronchitis and we have lost so far three to the infection despite our best efforts. Been quite the learning curve... mostly introducing a new member to the flock needs to be rethought as that is how we developed the problem in the first instance. One of the chickens bought at auction was obviously infected and before we knew it..... we had an entire coup of chickens sick!

Identifying what was wrong was the primary concern from there it was a question of separating out the sickest animals for special attention.

Headed out to Grisamore Farm for plants for the vegetable garden and while there we met a cute little lamb that posed for the camera.

MAY MADNESS

What was i thinking..... preparing for spring in the garden and getting things ready to plant....... unfortunately our spring has been unusually cold and we even had snow on Mothers Day!


The keyhole design by Drew and Jye...... the straw is the pathways for the vegetable garden this minimizes soil compaction and allows greater access to the growing sections..... keyhole design principals and it LOOKS GREAT too!





Removing the last of the single pane windows... we have four to do.... this is the first one...... in the learning room......






The boys and I made this garden art from an old clock and some glass beads and pebbles.... it was fun!Part of our homeschooling activities......





More to come.......

Broken Arms, Seedlings and Ocean

What a busy time the last few weeks have been! Getting seedlings started inside making riffles with rocks in the creek ..... spring cleaning the house..... doing the quarterly reports for homeschooling and also administering the boy's P.A.S.S. tests in language, reading and mathematics. On top of that it is tax time....and that means locating obscure pieces of paper that my filing system swallowed for etax filing at the last minute cause that is the way Patrick rolls...... you know.... the whole err let's do it tonight before midnight kinda thing. NOT the way i like to do things but we are all different and it was still done on time so no complaints.

Doing a lot of sorting and simplifying is also important to note that during this time my darling car Ocean was run over and killed. I was totally DEVASTATED. It is actually hard to even think about as he was the BEST CAT EVER..... and i loved him.

ZAZZLE BO DAZZLE

Design personalized gifts at Zazzle.

The Spring to yet come

Wondering what your growing plans are for this spring? Do you have an idea already of the things you wish to grow and the amounts and types of plants you are interested in growing both for yourself and family or to sell at local markets.

This year my plan is to grow:

Tomatoes

Peppers

Eggplant

Lettuce

Bok Choy

Turnips

Broccoli

Kale

Onion

Carrots

Beets

Coriander

Basil

Parsley

Asian Greens

Sunflowers

ALL SEEDS are open pollinated heirloom  seeds from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds who i have bought from several times in the past and have always been impressed with  their product, their service and their philosophy of seed saving.

A good site for information is SPIN FARMING  

SPIN FARMING stands for small plot internsive farming. It is an organic method.

From their site:

SPIN-Farming is a non-technical, easy-to-learn and inexpensive-to-implement vegetable farming system that makes it possible to earn significant income from land bases under an acre in size. Whether you are new to farming, or want to farm in a new way, SPIN can work for you because:

Its precise revenue targeting formulas and organic-based techniques make it possible to gross $50,000+ from a half- acre.

You don't need to own land. You can affordably rent or barter a small piece of land adequate in size for SPIN-Farming production.

It works in either the city, country or small town.

It fits into any lifestyle or life cycle.

SPIN is being practiced by first generation farmers because it removes the two big barriers to entry - land and capital - as well as by established farmers who want to diversify or downsize, as well as by part-time hobby farmers.

I hope you find this useful and i am sure down the track i will be adding more as i progress and winter fades.... at the moment i am looking out at some 5 foot PLUS snow on the ground....... but it is melting and i hear dripping water finally! 

THE BOOK

FEBRUARY HOME SCHOOLING ACTIVITIES

 

PHOTO EDITING

 

LIGHT LASERS AND FILTERS

SPECIAL EFFECTS

COOKING

 

KLONDIKE DERBY WINNERS

 

SWIMMING TC3 PHYSICAL ED