Nesting

Our baby chicks are due to arrive one week from today, and I'm beside myself with anticipation.  One dozen Black Australorps will grace this house with their female power.  It'll be nice to have some ladies to keep me company.  You know, someone to talk to.  Someone who understands the intricacies of a woman's mind.  Ben and the boys are great companions, but I expect that the girls and I will have a special bond. 

The little ladies will stay in our multi-purpose room for the first six weeks or so.  I'll move the grow lights out of there and put the brooder in front of the window so that they can get a taste of sunlight in addition to the heat lamp.  We should have plenty of time to finish the Hen House.  Ben is doing an amazing job on the construction, and I have BIG plans for the paint.

 This is what the Hen House looks like now:

South Side

I love the shutters.  They're just begging to be decorated.

North Side

 West Side

You can't really see it, but there's chicken wire above the door.  We decided to leave it open for air flow.  If it gets too cold in the winter, it can be easily covered.

I put in two beds last summer to mark the entrance to the trail in our backyard.  They are filled with irises, lilies, and lamb's ears.  I didn't know at the time that these flowers would also mark the entrance to our hen house.  How fortuitous!  This is one of my top ten favorite spots on the property.

We have everything the chicks will need except for the starter feed and bedding for the brooder.  We ordered most of the supplies online months ago, and we've been saving egg cartons since last summer.  We've had chick fever for a long time.

Greenhouse Update (Oh, Joy!)

I have very exciting news!  The blueberry whips that I stuck in peat moss last week are alive and kicking! The leaf buds on almost every single little stick are swelling nicely after just six days, but they have a very long way to go.  Even after they leaf-out, the roots won't start to develop for another several weeks or a few months.  But I am very optimistic.  They seem to like it in the greenhouse, and the peat moss/sand mixture holds moisture well without getting too soggy.  I'll be pleased if we get just 50 successful plants out of the of 260 we started.

The hops are growing quickly.  The Nugget hops are huge compared to the others.  At this stage of growth, I can see differences between all the varieties that are not apparent during later parts of the season.  Right now, the Nuggets are the most beautiful shade of  purpley-beet red.

Nugget Hops

Willamette Hops

Cascade Hops

Lettuce:

Happy and smiling.  Just a few more weeks until the salad days begin.

Tomatoes:

Still small, but thriving.

Artichokes:

Low germination rate?  Whatchu talkin'bout?

Miles Giles guards the orange tree against peasant intruders.

Can you beat that view?

There are a ton of other things going on in the greenhouse.  See the side bar for a complete list.

Happy growing!

Friday Food Porn

It was a gorgeous day, and I spent most of it outside in front of the oven.  I baked a few loaves using a recipe I found at Farmgirl Fare for Farmhouse White.  I love this recipe, and I'll be using it again very soon.  The bread is soft, chewy, and moist.  I also branched out a bit from my regular thin crust masterpieces and baked a Sicilian style pizza.

Getting her all fired-up

I love, love, love my new infrared thermometer.  It let's me know when my baby is ready to go.  Not too hot, not too cold.  It's super-helpful  See the tiny red dot inside the oven?  Neat, huh?

Bread goes in, door goes on

Loaf #1

 I couldn't help myself, and I immediately tore into loaf #1.  Delicious.

Check out that beautiful bread bottom.

Loaf #2 went to my favorite neighbor.

 This was my first try at Sicilian style pizza, and it turned out beautifully.  I put the sauce on top of the cheese, and it kept the thick crust from getting soggy.  Unfortunately, I forgot to take a pic after I baked it.

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 This was dinner last night.  Ben's co-worker gave us a dozen eggs from his backyard hens (our chicks arrive in about 10 days!), so I made a special quiche.  Homemade crust, artichoke hearts, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, goat cheese, parsley, sage, rosemary, oregano.

On days like this, I dream of all the canning of tomatoes and drying of herbs I'll do this summer.  I didn't get a chance to put up much food last summer, but this year will be different.  We've been using our mud oven a lot lately, and we can really cut down our food costs by using all home-grown ingredients on our pizzas and such.  Also, it will just plain taste better.

The Stunted Albino and Wild Boar

When growing artichokes from seed, a good amount of culling is involved.  Some seeds will produce stunted plants, while others produce albino plants.  Also, you'll want to transplant only the most vigorous of whatever remains.  The germination rate of artichoke seeds can be relatively low to begin with, so I planted about 40 in the greenhouse.  I started the first set on February 14 (gives a whole new meaning to heart day), and another set two weeks later.  The Valentine's Day artichokes have been popping up like crazy for the past few days.  They are looking healthy and happy, but the little guy on the left will have to go.

He is a stunted albino artichoke.  I'll keep him around for a bit out of pure curiousity, but he's gone as soon as room starts to run out.  So far, the rest of the plants look like the lady on the right.

In other news, we finally caught a glimpse of the elusive wild boar.  Mr. (or Ms.) Pig has been wallowing around the farm since winter began.  We had seen his tracks, his scats, and bits of hair, but we hadn't seen him in the flesh until two nights ago when we were on our way to the greenhouse to turn the heater on.  We're going to put up a wildlife camera this weekend to get a better idea of his habits.  Piggy, your days are numbered!

The Next Generation

Today was a big day.  I finally freed the 260 hardwood blueberry cuttings from the refrigerator.  They had been waiting very patiently since the end of December to start a new life in the greenhouse.  Here is the story:

160 blueberry canes stored in paper towels and plastic bags

 I've read that the cuttings can be stored in either moist paper towels or moist peat moss.  I tried both methods and stuffed them all in plastic bags.  Both methods seem to have worked just fine, but the cuttings that I stored in paper towels were cleaner.  All of the cuttings looked to be just as full of life as they were in December.  The leaf buds even stayed supple.

100 blueberry canes stored in peat moss and plastic bags

We used a mix of 50% organic peat moss and 50% sand to root the cuttings.

The propagation beds are about 10" high, and I filled them up to about 8".  I watered the mixture well and waited for the peat moss to soak it all up.

I stuck the cuttings into the beds (UP-SIDE-UP!!!, very important*) so that only about 40% of the canes remained above the peat moss and sand.  Then, I firmed the mixture around each cane.

 I also used my handy-dandy greenhouse bath tub for some of the cuttings.

These baby bluebs will remain in the greenhouse until autumn.  They should begin to develop roots in the next few months.  This will be a long, slow process, but who can beat free blueberry bushes?  Besides saving us money, I think that propagating our bushes from our own cuttings will work well because they are already acclimated to this exact area.  I'll keep you post on their development.