Getting ready for winter

Yes, we are still here but it's been hard to find time to write anything for the blog lately.

Winter will be with us soon and we use our open fire a lot. We had a few trees chopped down last year and the wood has been drying near our garage over the summer. I didn't take a "before" shot of all of the wood on the driveway but I did manage to dig up a photo from last December when we were netting the Mulberry tree. It's not that clear from the photo but there are two full rows of wood there.

The plan was to make our wood shed a bit more weather proof, then put all of the wood in the shed. This is the woodshed from behind as we were starting. First we put up some reinforcement mesh and tied it to the woodshed frame and the garage to give the back of the woodshed some more strength. We then measured out the black plastic that will make up the back wall.

This is the woodshed nearly finished. We used gaffer tape for some extra strength then nailed it to the garage and the posts - hopefully this lasts the distance. We also hooked the plastic to the roof of the woodshed so that the wood is completely protected from the winter rain.

Once it was finished we moved all of the wood into the shelter so that it stays dry over the winter.

And here is the driveway looking all nice and clean. While we were moving the heap I also discovered that chickens love to eat skinks. One of them would catch a skink then they would chase around fighting over it.

Looks like a good berry season

We have a number of different types of berries growing wild in our yard - and we've never worked out what they all are. They don't get much attention so anything we get from them is a bonus. A lot of the unknown berries are eaten as they are picked or end up as jam. There are also red currants which are a bit of an acquired taste.

Our favourite is definitely the raspberries which grow just outside our back door. The first year we were here there was quite a good harvest. Last year was a warmer, drier season and we were competing with Sofia and the chickens so we hardly saw any. This year we have had a very wet winter and spring and all of our berry bushes are covered in fruit.

The raspberries are almost ripe so to make sure we actually get to eat some raspberries this year, this afternoon I netted them.

In fact, the first few raspberries are already ripe but we haven't eaten them yet.

I also went to check the berries that have found themselves inside the netted veggie patch and there were a few ripe ones there too, but not exactly sure what they are (Loganberries?).

I picked five and we all tried one, including Otto. They probably could do with a little bit longer to sweeten up but they were very yummy.

The red currants are also almost ready to go and Sofia has noticed, so I imagine there will be plenty of red currant munching sessions in the next few weeks as she loved them last summer.

So much more yummy food to come...

Our new netted veggie patch

It's been on the wish list since we moved in but there has been so much else to do in the garden that I have only just got around to making a veggie garden.

The patch is 3m x 3m and is covered with an arched tunnel net to protect our plants from chickens, blackbirds, possums and anything else that wants to steal our yummy veggies.

Step 1 - clearing the grass and weeds

The patch is built mostly over where there was a previous veggie patch and partly over some of our "lawn". It was much harder than I thought it would be to dig all of the grass and weeds out of the patch.

The girls were constantly there helping me and grabbing all of the juicy worms that I kept digging up. They are quick and not that bright so a few times they were lucky they didn't get a garden fork through them.

Wherever possible, I dug the grass up in blocks and used it to fill in the holes where we had tree stumps removed earlier in the year. There were about six of these around the yard and when they were all full I moved grass to some of the bare patches that had until recently been covered with leaves. Here is one of the patches - clearly visible now but these should mostly be pretty hard to find in a month or so.

While I was doing all of the digging there was quite an unpleasant smell, like dog food, coming from somewhere. It lasted for days and I assumed it was the neighbours' festering swimming pool but eventually Miranda worked out that it was the pear tree. It's kind of pretty but produces small, grainy pears that aren't particularly edible.

Step 2 - adding in the compost

I added in the contents of two compost bins - probably close to 500 litres of compost - and the ash from the fireplace. One of the compost bins was mostly grass and leaves and had been airing for about six months. The other was mostly kitchen waste and was still in the bin.
 

I had lots of help adding and mixing the compost. Sofia wanted to find the worms...

...and the girls were there to mix it all in and eat the bugs.

 

Step 3 - building the chicken proof cage

There are many different designs on the internet and I'm not convinced that they all work. We settled on arches of poly pipe with a bird net stretched over the top. We haven't gone with any chicken wire around the base at this stage as we don't have wallabies in our backyard - and have only once seen one in our front yard.

We had a plan that we found on the web for netted tunnels using poly pipe and adapted this to our site. The plan had an arch every two metres but our patch was three metres long so we put one every 1.5 metres. I cleared rubbish and grass from around the patch, then added the three star droppers on each side. The ground is reasonably level along the sides but isn't level between the two sides, so it was important to get the droppers on each side level. We decided it didn't matter if the two sides weren't quite level with each other. First I got two droppers level (almost).

Then I used a long piece of wood as a guide to where the third dropper needed to be, then checked that it was close enough afterwards

Once everything was in place, putting the arches and net up was the easy part. First we had to cut the pipe into six metre lengths.

Then the arches went up (there are no photos of this process as photographer Miranda was helping). It's pretty simple though - just slide the poly pipe over the dropper on each side and pull it down as far as it will go and make sure the arches look roughly even. Then hop up on a ladder for a better view of how the arches are sitting. They were all pretty level with each other and form a nice tunnel shape for the net.

The net was just as easy. We used a 10m x 10m net which is a little too big but the next size down would have been too small. We laid the net down in front of the arches then pulled it over the first one.

The net easily unfurled as I pulled it over the other two arches and down to the ground at the back. It was even easier than it looks.

We put a few bricks around the base to make sure it doesn't blow away. Originally we had planned for the berries (along the right side of the patch in this picture) to be outside of the net but as we tried to put the net between the arches and the net it seemed easier to just put the net outside the berries and this way they are also protected. Now it's almost ready to go with just a bit more tidying up and pegging down of the net required.

Step 4 - plant it and watch it grow

The plan for this year is just to get some stuff growing as we are a bit late and disorganised, and then give some more thought to what we grow next year. Hopefully this weekend we'll get onto it...

Chicken proof fence

Now that we've had the chickens for three or four months, we'd noticed that one of their favourite places to hang out was just outside our back door and they were making quite a mess of it. Something had to be done so we decided to build a chicken proof fence to keep them off the driveway area and away from under the washing line. The chickens can still access most of the yard but we now have a cleaner area near the back door. It also has become clear why the council regulation says they shouldn't be within six metres of the house.

We had a big roll of mesh in the shed that had previously been part of a dog fence and it was big enough to do the job. There were also lots of star droppers around the yard. We'd given up on the existing enclosed vege patch so we dismantled it to get a gate. This meant that the fence could be built entirely out of recovered materials apart from some wire and nails to hold it all together. There was even a piece of mesh left over that was just the right size for the gap at the back of the shed near the woodheap.

There were a few issues with the fence. The first is that Sofia would hold the gate open and tell the chickens to come through. That seems to have stopped. The second is that the wind would blow the gate open and the chickens could run through but this was easily fixed. The third issue is that every time we turned our backs, the black chicken (Barbara) would appear inside the fence. We never saw it happen and couldn't work out how she kept getting through the fence. The chickens can both fly a little bit so we thought she must be flying over so I went looking for anywhere she might be getting a helping hand.  I noticed that there was a gap under the fence where it changes height between the garden bed and the lawn and this looked like it could have been big enough for a chicken. Of course, when I was watching she wouldn't go through and confirm this.

So I blocked the gap with a plank of wood...
 

...and since this plank was put in place the chickens haven't been inside the fence once!

Lots of eggs

The eggs keep coming and we've just clocked our first dozen.

The eggs weighed 586g, averaging about 49g each but there is quite a bit of variation. One of the chooks seems to be laying smaller eggs although it could just be building up to bigger eggs as the other one has done.

We had to choose how to eat the first eggs and went with the very simple fried eggs on toast.

Nothing fancy but very yummy.

Eggs!

In mid-September we bought some chooks. to live in our chook house and hopefully produce some eggs for us to eat. They were too young to lay back then - they were around 15 weeks old. The man who sold them to us said they should start laying around 20-21 weeks which would have made it a race to see whether Miranda or the chooks laid first. Others have since told us that 25 weeks is more normal. Otto is six weeks old this week so Miranda won hands down.

The chooks' behaviour started to change over the last week or so and we thought it must be nearly time. So we'd been checking the chook house but also in their favourite places around the yard as we'd heard lots of stories of people thinking the egg count was down then finding a stash of a dozen eggs under the mulberry tree. A few days ago there were some not very well formed eggs in the chook house - they may have been the first attempt. Yesterday I went for an expedition under the camellias and through the red currants but without any luck. Then Miranda checked in the prickly berries at the back of their run where she'd seen the brown chook hanging out a few times. We were very excited to find that there were two eggs there. They look just like real eggs!

 

 

 The chooks are so clever they even managed to put dates on them ;)

The two eggs together weighed 100g so they're a bit smaller than your standard supermarket egg.  But they are mainly made from our kitchen scraps and any seeds/fruit/bugs that the chooks can find in our garden (plus some pellets). The eggs are now in our fridge waiting to be consumed.

You may also have noticed that we bought three chooks but there are only two in recent posts. Don't know exactly what happened to the poor chook - it was sick one day, then looked a bit better that afternoon but the next day was no longer with us when I got home from work. I buried her - the roses next to the damson plum are now looking particularly lush.

Green

It's a beautiful time of year in the garden. This is the same time as we first looked at the house last year and the agent certainly chose the time when the yard is at its best to advertise the house.

Everything is so lush and green.  The fruit is on the trees but its still a few weeks until the first fruit kicks off (and six months til it finishes). The red currants are starting to get a red tinge. We also found a berry today that was ripe and in a few weeks the berries will be in full swing.

It was a beautiful day today so we decided to have a picnic under the plum tree. The chickens kept trying to steal our food when we weren't looking and they also drank our water. It was a bit glary which is why we're all squinting a bit.

After we'd finished eating we went on an expedition and found some peas in the vegie patch which we then ate raw - they are so sweet. Needless to say, Sofia loves them.

There was a fairy wren around while we were having lunch. It's such a treat having these beautiful birds in our yard.

 

Walkabout

The chooks have been in residence for a week now and the plan was to let them explore the whole back yard once they had settled in. Saturday was a nasty day with constant rain and an icy wind (snow down to 400 metres) and being outside was no fun at all so we waited for Sunday which was a beautiful sunny day. You know you're acclimatised to Hobart when a 14 degree day feels hot.

Before we could let the chickens out Sofia had to give them their instructions.

It took a little while but they finally came out when we put some food outside the gate.

As they became more confident they explored further afield but were still definitely up in their corner of the yard.

The black chook (Barbara) seems to be the tamest one and walked right up to Sofia when she was sitting next to the apple tree.

All this exploring was thirsty work so they found some rain water in an old lid. Sofia thought his was such a good idea that she gave it a try too. She's going to have a super strong immune system.

The garden also has much better places for dirt baths than the pen so the girls spent some quality time in the dirt.

The plan is to let the chooks out into the backyard every day. We've fixed the gate so that we can open and close it more easily and keep them shut in. All we need now is the cheesy sign "Beware of the chooks - please shut the gate!".

Chooks

It's taken a while but finally we have chooks! It has been months in the planning, four weeks since we had the first big working bee on the chook house and three weeks since we finished building the main part of the structure. Finishing off the house and fitting it out over the last few weekends were much more fiddly and time consuming than we expected.

We found a guy on Gumtree selling chooks at Bridgewater which is about 20 minutes drive up the highway. (I really wanted to find some on ChookNet because I love the fact that this website exists, but there were no point-of-lay pullets being advertised there). Ken's chooks free-range, but he'd put some in a cage for us to choose from. They are around fifteen weeks old which means they will start laying in a month or so.

We bought three and brought them home in a big box - apparently turning up with a box made us more prepared than most of his customers. They didn't seem to mind the trip apart from the roundabouts. Then we put straw and wood shavings in the house and filled their food and water.

Then opened the box and they just sat there.

So we had to grab them and put them in the house by hand.

They seemed pretty comfortable straightaway and not stressed by their journey at all. Sofia was fascinated but not quite sure what to make of them. If only they understood what is coming their way once she gets used to them...

When we gave them some food scraps they got straight into it and were scratching around finding their own too.  

The run is a bit of a mud pit as we've had 30mm of rain in the past three days and it is clay soil. We may have to work on drainage, but once the chooks have settled in they will be able to roam more widely in the backyard during the day where there is grass and all manner of tasty plants and insects.