Urban Agrarian

Brewers Grain

2009-12-20T18:14:00.004-05:00

Free Lunch for ChickensA few weeks back a friend offered me the barley that was left over from his beer making. I know brewers grains have a good amount of protein but less carbohydrates than before the process. I had done a bit of research about the amount that can be fed to chickens, but I thought I would just try free feeding it alongside their layer pellet and see what happened. I received a

Novella Carpenter is Coming to Boston

2009-11-10T14:07:00.007-05:00

I really had fun reading Novella Carpenter's new book Farm City. It is probably not a big surprise that I enjoyed it and found it so interesting. After all, someone who writes a blog called Urban Agrarian is kind of already sold on the idea of urban farming and has probably already slaughtered a chickens or two. In addition to my love of her subject matter, I think that Carpenter is also a

Grilled Chicken Hearts

2009-10-20T19:39:00.010-05:00

This fall I raised some broiler chickens again with my community garden cooperative broiler group and I also raised some at home in my backyard. Not only does this mean lots of chicken for my freezer for the winter, but it means I have ALL the parts of the chickens including giblets and feet. After raising and caring for an

Community Garden Broilers

2009-06-15T21:22:00.003-05:00

For the last two years I've raised broiler chickens in my community garden plot. This year I'm doing it as a cooperative project with 3 other people. We're growing 20 Cornish Cross together in the community garden. They are 7 weeks old and when I weighed one today. It weighed 7.25 lbs. We won't be processing them for 2 more weeks. Too bad because they are plenty big enough right now. We may have

Bees Building Comb

2009-06-15T20:51:00.004-05:00

I got 2 hives last year and 3 this year for a total of five. In one of my new hives the bees are building their comb in the wrong place. It's all my fault. I was short an inner cover and they built up up up. This is going to take a while to clean up and probably neither the bees or I will be totally happy with the process.

Back to blogging

2009-05-31T10:17:00.002-05:00

Well... After a year an a half of no blogging, I'm hopefully starting again. There are many reasons blog posts can dwindle, but for me it was a good reason. After the birth of my new grandson, I was helping my daughter and son-in-law out with day-care for Nicholas about 20 hours a week while they were both at work. It was lots of fun, very fulfilling and exhausting! He is quite attached to me

Cold and Frost

2008-01-05T09:02:00.001-05:00

Lately it's been cold. Cold enough that my car window has frost on the inside, as does my house and many other places that have breathing beings inside creating moisture on very cold windows. Frost seems to form in many patterns. Here is the feathery type as seen below on my bedroom window in the morning.There is also a swirly type as seen on this chicken coop door. It's not my chicken coop door

Nicholas

2007-12-25T08:40:00.001-05:00

Nicholas, one day oldI'm now a grandmother. My daughter and son-in-law are now parents and my mother is now a great-grandmother. Meet Nicholas, born December 19th, 8 pounds 14 ounces, a health baby boyNicholas, home with Mom by the Christmas tree

hatching chicks

2007-12-24T17:19:00.000-05:00

About three weeks ago I got a new incubator. I'm planning on doing some hatching in the spring. The incubator, a hova-bator 1588, holds 42 eggs, but I thought I'd give it a little test run with 8 eggs. Because I have no rooster there would be no point in using eggs from my hens, so I headed over to Codman farm where I volunteer, and collected the 8 eggs you see below. They are all shapes, sizes

First Snow

2007-11-20T14:25:00.000-05:00

It's a damp raw slushy day out, just right to stay home and bake for ThanksgivingToday is the first snow of the season. It's the slushy kind. not the nice fluffy stuff and won't add up to much. It's predicted to be in the 50s for the next couple of days so I guess it won't even last the week. Here it is not really unusual for it to snow on November 20th. What is unusual this year, is that the

A Blue Egg

2007-10-28T10:21:00.000-05:00

The type of chickens that lay blue eggs are called Easter Eggers. They are Araucana mixes and can lay blue, green, brown or white or a blend of those colors depending on the genetics. The gene for blue eggs is actually dominant. It is a seperate gene from the ones that control white or brown egg color. So the egg can have both blue and brown color. That can make them look greenish or kakhi.I was

Dust Bathing Chickens and Dog?

2007-10-25T19:55:00.000-05:00

Chickens like to take dust baths such as here , but last week one of my dogs Kahlil decided to join some of the broiler chickens in a dust bath. Luckily I had my camera, because it was an odd thing to see a dog rolling around with chickens.

dahlias with bees

2007-10-24T15:49:00.000-05:00

This year someone gave me some of their extra dahlia tubers. I ended up with showy dinner plate sized yellow ones, spiky burgundy ones and my favorite one, a salmon with petals that curl. I'm now hooked on dahlias and will save and replant the tubers next year. I took these photos a couple of weeks ago before the frost turned the plants black.I am happy to see that the honey bees like dahlias

chicken tractor in the garden

2007-10-15T20:06:00.000-05:00

This year I decided to try raising something a little different in my community garden plot, Cornish Cross broiler chickens. I've raised these before but not in my community garden plot. I got permission to do this and am calling it a pilot project. Hopefully next year other gardeners will join in also.I started out with 13 female chicks, I brooded them in my garage for about 3 weeks. One

Frost in the Garden

2007-10-14T18:44:00.000-05:00

Yesterday morning when I went to my garden in Lincoln, Massachusetts, I discovered the first light frost of the season. The dahlia leaves were black and the pepper leaves were droopy. I decided to pick the rest of the peppers. With hot dry weather this year I've had a great year for sweet red peppers. I'm not a big fan of green peppers, but they are unlikely to turn red before rotting so I'll

Cheep Housing

2007-05-12T08:27:00.000-05:00

What if you have a few chicks that are are ready to go outside and you haven't had time to build that chicken mansion you've been designing? If you have an old plastic dog crate you are in luck. Get some welded wire, a wire cutter and a pair of pliers and create a quick and dirty version of the fancy igloo type chicken coop. I did this one in 45 minutes. The door is on the end away from the dog

Microclimate

2007-04-08T09:11:00.000-05:00

A microclimate is a local area where the climate differs from the surrounding area. This area on the south south east side of my eastern Massachusetts house forms a small microclimate. Due to the exposure, the cement foundation, the bricks of the house and it's proximity to a heated home as well as a westerly wind block it is much warmer than the rest of my yard. The daffodils just 20 feet away

12 Day Old Baby Chicks

2007-04-01T07:10:00.000-05:00

It always amazes me how quickly baby chicks grow and feather out. At 13 days old, they seem to have tripled in size and are sprouting wing and tail feathers. They also easily fly up onto a low perch. An Easter Egger chick hams it up for the camera while her fellow Buff Orpingtons and Sliver Laced Wyandottes eat dinner.

New Baby Chicks

2007-03-21T15:23:00.000-05:00

The baby chicks have arrived. They made it all the way from Ohio to Waltham Massachusetts in one day. The regional facility in Waltham called me to come get them there because my local post office was already closed for the day. They've done this before and it really speeds the chicks along. They're in the new brooder in the cellar for now, but will soon be moved out to the brooder house (aka

Amaryllis Time

2007-03-18T20:17:00.000-05:00

I enjoy taking pictures of flowers but about the only thing that blooms now are my indoor amaryillis bulbs that I save from year to year. The red one is the last one that will bloom for the season. The pink one was impressive and is even interesting (to me) in its decay. Now I'll need to wait for the crocus and daffodil bulbs which were poking up, but are under snow once again. Last year I

To Everything There is a Season

2007-03-13T21:17:00.000-05:00

We are now in the season of mudLace your boots tightly or the mud will suck them right off your feet.

Boston Area - Backyard Chicken Class

2007-03-09T16:37:00.000-05:00

Some of the eggs recently produced by the chickens at Codman FarmToday I just want to let people in the Boston area know that Codman Community Farm in Lincoln Massachusetts will be running a class this spring on raising backyard chickens. This will be a great opportunity for people who want to raise their own chickens or just find out what's involved. I've included a description of the class

Three Dogs

2007-03-04T20:27:00.000-05:00

Here you see, from left to right Cocoa, Bogie and Kahlil. Cocoa and Kahlil are my dogs and Bogie in the middle is my daughter and son-in-law's dog who was visiting for the day. I thought I'd practice sit-stay with three at a time. It actually went better than I thought it would.In case you can't tell, Bogie and Kahlil are brothers. The are also son's of Kia who lives hereCocoa's job is to be

Mini Ohio Boooder

2007-02-19T19:36:00.000-05:00

Baby chicks need to be kept very warm for the first weeks of their lives. Providing heat for them with heat lamps or other means is called brooding. The first week they need to have the temperature at 90 degrees F. Each week the temperature can be lowered 5 degrees.The other day when I had plenty of other things that I was supposed to be doing, I decided to build another chick brooder. I’d been

Chicken en Croute and Egg Thief

2007-02-16T17:43:00.000-05:00

If you've landed here looking for a chicken with crust recipe, keep googling because this is a chicken coop encrusted in ice.I haven't had time to work on the new chicken tractor/coop. The only thing different from my last post is that it's encrusted in ice. It may only look like snow on the top, but it's very icy and solid. It still needs wheels. If the wheels were already on, I could have

Chicken Tractor - Step 4

2007-02-04T17:54:00.002-05:00

Today I needed to make the new tractor habitable because tomorrow roofers will be working on the building where their old coop is located. I tacked some plywood onto the back and covered it with a tarp. This is the west end and it is the direction most winds come from here so I wanted it to be draft proof if possible. The bricks holding the tarp should prevent some wind from coming in from

Chicken Tractor - Step 3

2007-02-02T19:55:00.000-05:00

Too many other household projects have kept me from working on the new chicken tractor. Today my nephew Philip helped out. We finished screwing every thing together and moved it out of the garage. It's heavy so it's a good thing Philip is strong. It has no roof yet, no doors yet and no wheels yet, but it's all together. The next step is doors, because even without the roof and wheels it will be

Chicken Tractor Step 2

2007-01-29T22:07:00.000-05:00

One of the future occupants of the new chicken tractor, a Welsummer hen I’m continuing to build the new chicken tractor, egg mobile, mobile coop or whatever it's called I started it last week. Finally, I finally found the 1x2 inch wire for the floor. It took 7 places, but I found some at Masse Hardware in Cambridge MA. I stapled the wire onto the bottom frame. Then I screwed the plywood onto the

New Chicken Tractor - Step 1

2007-01-21T20:13:00.000-05:00

My 4 hens have a little coop that I built about three years ago. It was one of the first things I ever built. It's OK but when I move it into the garage during winter. I feel the need to fashion a little pen around it for snowy days when the chickens can't go outside because the coop is only 4x4. The coop is fine in the garage, but the pen just takes up too much room. I also want something that

An Easy New Years Resolution

2007-01-16T20:12:00.000-05:00

Among the other things that I got for Christmas, was bronchitis. My cough finally seems like it’s going away. I’ve been taking it easy and my blogging fell a little by the wayside, but hopefully I’ll be back to blogging more now.I thought of a New Years resolution that didn’t take much effort. It’s so easy that I already did all the required “work” by the last week of the old. year. My resolution

Kahlil and Herman

2006-12-16T21:11:00.000-05:00

In order to avoid some Christmas shopping I needed to do today, I decided my dog Kahlil needed exercise. So I walked him down the lane next to the cow pasture at Codman Farm. The pasture is full of "normal" cows and this one little water buffalo steer named Herman. I'd met Herman before when I had to go into the pasture for the White Rock broiler chicken project. Cows scare me a bit. They are

Chicken Butchering – Part 4 – Evisceration

2006-12-13T20:47:00.000-05:00

Part 1 Prep Part 2 SlaughterPart 3 PluckingPart 4 Evisceration andChillingPart 5 Eating & Freezing Part6 Final ThoughtsAfter trying to write this post, I concluded that a movie would make a lot more sense. Maybe next year I'll try that, but for now, this is it.Eviscerating a chicken is the process of removing the insides. It's one of those things that is much easier to show someone rather than

Chicken Butchering – Part 3 – Plucking

2006-12-06T23:21:00.000-05:00

Once the chickens have been killed and bled out, the next step is plucking. Before the chickens are plucked they need to be dunked into hot water to loosen the feathers. We set up a large pot of water on a propane burner and heated it up to about 150 degrees. If you gather together five people who have plucked chickens, I suspect you will get 6 opinions as to the correct temperature and amount of

Chicken Butchering – Part 2 - Slaughter

2006-12-03T18:38:00.000-05:00

In my first post on this topic, I explained how the chickens were fed and brought to the area where we slaughter and butcher them. This post is graphic so click away if chicken slaughter is not something you wish to see or read about just now.There are a number of different steps involved once the chickens are rounded up. The first is the actual killing. There are a number of humane ways to

Warm Fall

2006-11-28T19:13:00.000-05:00

We've had such a warm fall here in Massachusetts. I just noticed this dandelion blooming in my front yard and it actually looks like the grass needs cutting. It's practically December!Just a few weeks ago I brought this geranium inside to winter over. I probably could have left it outside if I had covered it on frosty nights. There really hasn't been a hard sustained frost yet. My rosemary and

Chicken Butchering - Part 1 - Prep

2006-11-26T18:58:00.000-05:00

As you may remember from earlier posts, I'm involved in a pastured poultry project at Codman Farm. We are raising some White Rock chickens out on pasture. They spend their days outside in the cow pasture and at night they go into the mobile coop to sleep and be safe from owls and other flying predators. Ground predators are stopped by the portable electric fence that surrounds them. Every few

Thanksgiving Squash

2006-11-24T23:51:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Helen of Beyond Salmon for giving me an idea of what to do with the delicata squash that I grew this summer. I made a variation of her recipe for Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm Still Here - New Camera on the Way

2006-11-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

Wow It's hard to believe it's been almost a month since I posted. I've finally ordered a new camera to replace my old one that bit the dust. I've borrowed a camera in the mean time, but it's just no fun using it and I don't like posting without a photo. I've decided on a Canon Powershot A710 to replace my Nikon Coolpix 950 that I did love despite the fact that it was a 2 megapixel camera and

Chickens on Pasture

2006-10-13T12:55:00.000-05:00

finally, a few weeks ago the broiler chicks were moved out to the pasture. They are locked up in the mobile coop at night for protection and let out during the day. They are surrounded by electric fencing to protect them from predators or overly curious cows with whom they are sharing a pasture. The vast majority of chickens raised in our country never even go out of doors for their entire lives

How to Weigh a Chicken - The Easy Way

2006-09-26T16:46:00.000-05:00

Before today, each week I used to catch some of the chicks, put them in a cardboard box and weigh them and record the average weight. Today I couldn't find the cardboard box. The chickens showed me a much easier way to weigh them. Less than 30 seconds after putting the scale down, a little rooster would jump up and weigh himself. I'd record his weight, shoo him off and wait for the next one to

Little Cottage?

2006-09-12T16:37:00.000-05:00

Camera angle can mean so much. What appears to be a little country cottage is really an A-frame pig shed. The other side of the fence is mostly mud with a couple of very pregnant Tamworth sows wallowing in it. If my camera had not broken, I was going to take a photo from the other direction. This is one of the perennial plots (not mine) where I have my community garden at Codman Farm in Lincoln,

Okra

2006-09-05T20:42:00.000-05:00

I like okra a lot. I love the taste and I think its tropical looking flower is beautiful. It's not exactly a staple of a typical New England diet and I often meet people who have never eaten it. It's not consistently available here in the market so I try to grow it. During our very cool very wet spring this year, I had to seed it three times before I was successful. I sowed it once inside in pots

Chicks 18 days old

2006-09-02T19:21:00.000-05:00

The chicks are now 18 days old. They aren't old enough to go out on pasture yet, so we pull weeds from the garden and to give to them. They really love them and even eat the dirt. You can see in the photo below that they are starting to get their wing feathers.

White Rock Chicks

2006-09-01T13:18:00.000-05:00

[[[ Sorry for the lack of posts. Things are busy in the garden, at work and most importantly I’ve been involved with my daughter’s wedding plans. The wedding will be in a couple of weeks and things are getting a bit hectic here.After some hatchery and post office delays the chicks finally arrived two weeks ago... They are 125 White Rock rooster but a few seem to be something different. They are

Pastured Poultry - The Pen

2006-08-10T13:11:00.000-05:00

One obvious problem being an urban agrarian is the lack of land. I squeeze what I can into my small suburban yard, grow plants where there’s a little sun, keep 4 laying hens and have a large community garden plot further out towards the country. Raising broiling chickens to fill my freezer would seem be out of the question. However, this will be the third year that I will be doing it. It requires

Tomatoes

2006-08-09T06:21:00.000-05:00

If I could only grow one thing in my garden, it would be tomatoes. I've been eating them everyday for the last few weeks and also giving many away. Last night I picked about 12 lbs and made them into sauce to freeze. This year I've planted 50 plants in 14 varieties. Some of the heirlooms like Brandywine and the purples aren't quite ready yet. If I could only plant one type, I'd actually have to

Spigariello

2006-08-06T18:33:00.000-05:00

Today is Weekend dog blogging over at Sweetnicks. Check it out Spigariello in the field (no the dog is not named spigarello) Spigariello with some of today's harvest Spigariello serving suggestion (just kidding. It needs cooking. ) Spigarello is a new vegetable for me this year. A friend gave me some seeds and I tried them even though I'd never actually eaten spigarello before. It turned out to

Zucchini

2006-07-24T20:33:00.000-05:00

The homegrown food for today is zucchini.Home grown zucchini, like Rodney Dangerfield, seems to get no respect. It’s the butt of jokes and people act like it’s harder to give away than a litter of kittens. It does have a habit of hiding under its leaves and growing too big which is a shame because, in my opinion, size DOES matter. Smaller is better for zucchini. I like zucchini best about an

Home Grown Dinner

2006-07-24T05:03:00.000-05:00

I’ve decided to try and feature something I grow, catch, forage or harvest each day and see how long I can go with that theme. I’ll certainly interrupt the theme if a wild turkey plops itself in front of my camera and sits still or something interesting happens that I actually get a photo of, but I am curious just how many things I actually do grow and how long I can go with this theme.Today’s

Fava Beans

2006-07-10T20:25:00.000-05:00

After seeing a friend in Vermont grow fava beans a few years ago, I decided that I'd give them a try. Fresh fava beans are not often available in the store and I really like them so I figured why not grow my own. They are a cool weather crop and should be planted in Massachusetts as soon as the soil can be worked in the spring. I started mine indoors because the place I garden is often wet in

Artichokes Day 118

2006-07-01T15:35:00.000-05:00

I wasn't sure I'd ever see a bud on my artichokes, but one of the artichoke plants has just formed a bud. It's still very small even though it looks huge in the first photo. This is the first year I've ever tried artichokes. Although artichokes are certainly not a typical Massachusetts crop, I've seen them in other's gardens that know that it is possible. The plants must be tricked into thinking

One Fish, Two Fish, Striped Fish, Blue Fish

2006-06-29T11:25:00.000-05:00

I don’t know where the time goes. Lately, each day it seems I run out of time before I get a chance to blog., too much work, too many weeds, too much rain. Tuesday was a workday but I skipped out of that, got up at the ridiculous hour of 4 am and I went fishing with my brother. I was lucky and that night got to have fish for supper. Outside of sand sharks these were the largest fish I’ve ever

A Tomato is Born

2006-06-16T19:53:00.000-05:00

If I could only plant one thing in my garden it would be tomatoes. Today I discovered the first tomato fruits starting to grow. They are both so young that their flowers haven't even fallen off yet. They are nowhere as big as they look, are pea-sized and barely noticeable if you walk in the garden. The one above is a Costoluto Fiorentino. It's one of the varieties that I grew from seed. and is a

Too Much Rain

2006-06-10T15:13:00.000-05:00

Middlesex county in Massachusetts where I live was declared a federal disaster area May 12th due to flooding and it's been raining even more since then. I've planted green beans twice, chard and zinnia seeds, but haven't seen any sprouting in a few weeks and think they have rotted. It's just too cool and wet. For some reason the winter and summer squash have actually sprouted. The tomatoes and

Two Wild Turkeys

2006-06-09T06:59:00.000-05:00

Even though it rained yesterday, today and will again tomorrow I decided to go to my community garden, mostly just to putter and see what’s growing. I needed to bring some tomato cages that I’d been making from welded wire in my garage as my latest rainy day project. This time I remembered to bring my camera thinking I’d maybe take another photo of my verrrrry slooow growing artichokes or my flea

Back to Blogging

2006-05-29T18:19:00.000-05:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I've posted. I was usually posting in the evenings. Suddenly the sun is setting so late that there's not much time between the time it gets dark and when it's time to sleep. There were times I had my photo ready. There were times that I even started a post when either the phone rang or something else interrupted me. When I started blogging last November I

Uninvited Dinner Guests

2006-05-06T07:21:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I discovered my first pest in my community garden plot this year. I think they are flea beetles, but please correct me if I am wrong. The were really enjoying the broccoli. I've never been bothered by them before, so I don't have much experience getting rid of them. The first remedy that I tried was to spray them with some water. That only worked for about 30 seconds. They were soon

Child Supporting Agriculture

2006-05-05T12:19:00.000-05:00

Recently my daughter told me she was considering buying a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. That’s an arrangement between a farm and customer where the customer pays the farmer a fee for the season and gets a share of the harvest each week. It’s a great idea and I highly recommend it. However, I’m an avid gardener who always grows more than I can eat myself. I think my daughter may

Artichokes Day 57

2006-04-30T18:57:00.000-05:00

I've written before about the artichokes I'm trying to raise this year. On March 12th they were just germinating. Later on March 24th they were still little sprouts with seed leaves. After 57 days they now have four true leaves each. They don't exactly grow quickly, do they? Although I think it is warm enough to transplant them into my community garden plot, I think I want to wait a little

Pear Pollination

2006-04-23T19:24:00.000-05:00

My dwarf Bartlett pear is in full bloom. It looks beautiful and smells wonderful. You would think that having the tree loaded with all those flowers would insure that I will have lots of pears in early September. It may, but not if my pear blossoms do not get pollinated. My crop of pears from the tree last year was only 14 pears. I'm not complaining because they were delicious. It's a small dwarf

New Garden Bed

2006-04-15T06:56:00.000-05:00

One of the things on my to-do list yesterday was to buy lumber and make a new garden bed in the back yard. Most of my vegetable gardening is done at a community garden. There I have a plot that's about 25 by 25 feet. Of course that's not enough for me and I'm on the list for another plot. There are many people on the waiting list for their first plot so I won't be getting extra space there soon.

Sign of Spring

2006-04-13T21:49:00.000-05:00

This is a picture of the egg bin in my refrigerator. As you can see the eggs are piling up. That's because it's spring and my four hens are on overdrive laying eggs. In the last 4 days they have layed 14 eggs. I can't eat them that fast. Today I had 2 for breakfast. My two dogs and my daughter's dog who was visiting had 3 each and I sent home about a dozen with my son-in-law when he picked up

Funny Pepper Seedlings

2006-04-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

This year I vowed I would label all my seedlings. For the most part I have. Apparently I didn't always labeled them correctly. After planting new tomato seeds Friday to replace the seedlings that I froze last week, I came across these among the real peppers as I was rearranging pots. I was overjoyed to see them. Based on their potato looking leaves, I think and hope they are a Franchi Seeds

Tomato Frost :(

2006-04-07T09:55:00.000-05:00

This week it snowed. It didn't really stick, but that night the temperature dipped down to about 29. That, coupled with the lack of sun for a few days allowed the cold frame to get rather cold. The min/max thermometer read 33 as a minimum temperature even with the cellar window cracked open that night. If you click on the photo and make it larger and look in the lower right you'll see that most

First Harvest

2006-03-31T17:04:00.000-05:00

Today I harvested my first baby lettuce from some of the lettuce plants that I'd started inside the house and planted in the cold-frame. It wasn't much, but as I ate it I felt gardening season had begun.The lettuce, broccoli raab, and baby spinach seeds that I planted in the cold-frame last week have already sprouted and will soon need thinning. From my temperature readings, I have noticed that

Spring Bulbs

2006-03-30T21:12:00.000-05:00

The weather warmed up into the upper 60s today, and the spring bulbs are starting to come on strong.The crocus flowers are starting to lose their petals.The spring iris bulbs are at their peak, and the narcissus, hyacinth and tulips are ready to burst forth.

Tomatoes Tomatoes Tomatoes

2006-03-28T17:34:00.000-05:00

The tomatoes at the top of the picture are the same ones that I was transplanting to bigger pots in this POST three weeks ago. Although I planted them much too early, I am still surprised at how large they've gotten. They were part of the fertilizer experiment the I described. I had to end the experiment early because it was taking up too much room. Because I did not want to mix the fertilizers

Training Kahlil

2006-03-26T19:22:00.000-05:00

More Weekend Dog Blogging over at Sweetnicks later tonightIn the past Kahlil was good around chickens, but when I was laid up with pneumonia last spring and he wasn't getting enough exercise or work, he developed the bad habit of chasing the chickens. Chickens who are chased, freak out which just excites the prey drive of the dog who is chasing even more and reinforces the dog's bad behavior.

Artichokes Day 20

2006-03-24T20:57:00.000-05:00

A friend and I have decided to try to grow artichokes this year. Until last year I thought it was impossible to grow them in Massachusetts. However, I saw someone else growing them last year and now we're taking on the challenge. They need to be vernalized which means that they must have a cold period of a certain length. You can read about vernalization of artichokes HERE. My friend bought the

Cold-frame Vent Works

2006-03-23T21:33:00.000-05:00

In the previous two days since I plugged the cold-frame leaks, it has not gotten warm enough in the cold-frame to determine if the automatic vent mentioned in this POST worked. This morning I was watching the remote thermometer, but got distracted. When I remembered it and looked it was 92F! Fearing that the plants inside would start to cook and also a little disappointed that the vent hadn't

Cold Frame - Leaks

2006-03-21T20:24:00.000-05:00

Today I plugged the leaks in the cold-frame. The only thing I could think of using was foam rubber. I'm not sure how it will take the moisture, but there was nothing else I could think of using. I scrounged up some left over pieces from a project of my mothers. I cut it in strips and stapled it onto the frame where the doors rested. It seemed to work. You can see some between the two windows

Dewclaws - Yes or No

2006-03-19T18:01:00.000-05:00

Don't' forget weekend dog blogging over at Sweetnicks later today.I've decided that today instead of continuing on the cold-frame topi I'll save that for a later post and write a dog post instead. Reading Walter's POST this morning about one of his dogs, Kavi at Sugar Mountain Farm made me think of dogs and dewclaws. He did not mention dewclaws. Rather, part of what he wrote about was his dog's

Cold-frame - Done But...

2006-03-18T18:02:00.000-05:00

Well, the cold frame is completed and out in the garden. I was worried that with my lack of carpentry skills and the fact that all the angles were not 90 degrees that there might be some problems. There are, but I’m hopeful that they can be fixed. If you want some history on this project you can look HERE and HERE. Below is a photo of it in place. The base is 8 by 3 feet. The front of it faces

With Luck

2006-03-17T06:59:00.000-05:00

OK this time I mean it. If luck goes my way today , then tomorrow I will post pictures of the new cold frame mentioned HERE and HERE. Today a friend is coming by to help me carry out the thing and I promise a photo even if we drop it and its a crumbled mess.The above photo is another one that I took when I VISITED the Wellesley College greenhouses. I saved it for St. Patricks Day which is rather

Clabber and Bonnyclabber

2006-03-14T23:07:00.000-05:00

I like eating clabber. I like making clabber. I even like sound of the word clabber. It’s a word that’s kind of archaic and rather obscure. I’m always waiting for it to come up in a crossword puzzle. It hasn’t yet. The American Heritage Dictionary on my shelf defines clabber as follows; clabber n. sour, curdled milk. –tr. & intr.v. –bered, -bering, -bers. To curdle.[Short for obs. bonnyclabber

Artichokes

2006-03-12T21:09:00.000-05:00

A friend and I are taking on the challenge of trying to raise artichokes this summer. It's a challenge because we live in Massachusetts. In a warmer climate they are a perennial and produce buds the second year. Our climate is too cold for them to winter over so we have to trick them into thinking that two seasons go by in one season. They need a period of vernalization where they have a certain

Moving to Bigger Digs

2006-03-07T19:38:00.000-05:00

I'm not the one moving. It's some of my tomato seedlings that are being transplanted. I planted them in a nine cell tray and I decided it was time to transplant them to four cell trays where they will stay until it's time to transplant them to the garden. Around here Memorial Day is when we set out peppers and tomatoes, so they have quite a bit of time to wait. I'd planted 2 seeds in each cell

Coldframe 2 - a slight problem

2006-03-06T19:12:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I made some progress on the coldframe. As I mentioned in my last POST, I decided to have two hinged windows because I was afraid that the automatic opener might have trouble with the weight of one big window. Below is the first window with its "glazing". The glazing is not glass, but is 4mil plastic. I cut one big piece big enough to wrap both sides. I'm hoping that the air space

Coldframe Update 1

2006-03-04T19:40:00.000-05:00

I've finally started to build the cold frame that I plan to use this year. If it were what I think of as a standard coldframe, it would be finished by now because it would be easy. I would have just made a rectangular frame from, 2x6 or 1x6 boards. I'd then place an old window on top of it and that would be it. My new coldframe is going to be a lean-to style with an automatic window opener and

Cabin Fever Cure

2006-03-04T07:13:00.000-05:00

It's been cold and VERY windy here lately. Yesterday as an antidote to this, a friend and I visited the Wellesley College greenhouses in Wellesley Massachusetts USA. It's free and open to the public and I recommend it to anyone who needs a little tropical break from winter or who just likes looking at lots of plants from all over the world.

Lettuce Seedling

2006-03-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

When I started my seeds, I started a few individual small pots of Romaine lettuce. They've grown faster than my other lettuce seedlings and they are ready for transplanting outside. The only problem is that I haven't finished building my coldframe and it's too cold for them to go directly into the garden. So I went to get more lumber and spent part of the afternoon working on the coldframe. It's

Seedling Update

2006-02-28T19:44:00.000-05:00

I started some seedlings back in January. Below there are lettuce, basil, cauliflower, pepper, tomato, parsley and broccoli seedlings. There are growing very slowly. I'm not sure if they need more heat, sun or fertilizer. They seem healthy. They are just slow which is probably OK because I haven't finished building the coldframe and after a warm January, we're having quite a cold spell now. Here

Finally Starting to Bloom

2006-02-27T22:50:00.000-05:00

Two weeks ago one of my amaryllis plants was 9 inches tall. Today it was over 22 inches tall. You can see a small hint of color as the bud has finally started to open giving me an excuse touse the macro setting. A close up photo shows the bud just slightly open, and a top view shows some stripes that I didn't see until I took the photo.

Central Heating is Back

2006-02-26T19:03:00.000-05:00

Late Sunday night Sweetnicks hosts Weekend Dog Blogging so head on over later.My dogs Cocoa and Kahlil get to be featured in Weekend Dog Blogging a lot so I thought I'd feature a guest dog. Pictured below is Roscoe. He is a coonhound. I didn't realize how big coonhounds were until Roscoe came to visit and I got to see him up close. I'm pretty sure if he stood up he'd be taller than I am. Roscoe

Backups

2006-02-21T20:33:00.000-05:00

In the real world I write software. If my work is not backed up, it's possible to lose weeks of work in the blink of an eye. My employer creates backups to prevent this and I also have extra personal backups because, well, things happen at the worst possible moment and all systems can and will fail at some point. This I have learned the hard way.Either because it's my nature or because I've been

Food Obsession

2006-02-19T19:02:00.000-05:00

Weekend Dog Bloggin hosted tonight by AlicatGet well soon SweetnicksIf you been reading this blog any length of time you probably know I have two dogs, Cocoa, a 12 year old German shorthaired pointer who is still full of spunk and 1 year old Kahlil who is still a pup, but shaping up well. Like people, every dog has their good and bad points. Cocoa's good points are that she is a sweet, dependable

Manual Automatic Door?

2006-02-17T22:19:00.000-05:00

My town hall is a beautiful old building. It was built in the 1880s, has a slate roof, leaded windows and many interesting brick details. As you can see, it even has a turret. It's a sturdy building with character both inside and outside and I could easily spend a whole afternoon photographing it.A few nights ago I was at a meeting in the town hall. As I left the building through the side door

Reaping More Than I Sow

2006-02-16T19:52:00.000-05:00

Here are some of my seedlings. They're just getting started. Most only still have their seed leaves. With some luck and the cooperation of nature, I'll be reaping a harvest like the picture I took below on July 28th of my harvest that day.It's so nice to harvest fresh and tasty healthy vegetables. No store-bought tomato comes anywhere close in taste to those I grow myself. However that is not the

Little Lambs

2006-02-14T21:07:00.000-05:00

Yesterday's post was a young lamb. Taken straight on it didn't really look very lamb-like. The lambs in both today's and yesterday's photo belong to my friend, Farmer Judy. These lambs are Merinos which are known for their fine soft wool.Black wool is usually discarded by commercial buyers because it can't be dyed Good-quality dark fleece is highly esteemed, however, by handspinners and knitters

What is It?

2006-02-13T21:06:00.000-05:00

It's more fun when you guess. Go ahead guess. What's to loose. Of course I'll post the answer tomorrow. Have fun.

Amaryllis Collection

2006-02-12T19:30:00.000-05:00

I have a collection of amaryllis plants. Actually the word collection implies more thought than I've given the spent amaryllis bulbs that I've saved or been given over the years. Most people don't want to keep a bulb that will take a whole year to produce another flower and whose foliage is not very good looking. I think they are worth saving. I counted them today and discovered that I'm up to 9

How to Clone

2006-02-10T18:21:00.000-05:00

Last summer I had a big bushy pot of geraniums out by my front door. I brought it inside last fall to winter over. My daughter's puppy Bogie, had a different idea. When I wasn't looking, he pulled some out and chewed the others off close to the base. There was almost nothing left. I moved the plant into a cool, bright room in the cellar hoping some of the chewed off stems would have enough left

Fence Eating Trees

2006-02-09T19:15:00.000-05:00

Norway maple starting to grow into fenceFence running through crab apple tree A tree may eventually engulf anything in it's way as it slowly grows. I've seen gravestones, fences, nails and clotheslines all 'eaten' by trees. For years I've used a small area north of my garage between the garage and a chainlink fence as a good out-of-the-way place to compost leaves and weeds. A few wild tree

Thinking in Another Dimension - Espalier

2006-02-08T21:09:00.000-05:00

I’m trying to squeeze a few more dwarf fruit trees onto my small lot. I’ve been studying how many hours of sun is available in each potential spot and trying to figure out where I can put them where they will get enough sun and not block out the sun for something else, and where they will not get tripped over. Sometimes you can think about something too much and miss the obvious. North Country

Paris Shop Windows

2006-02-07T20:33:00.000-05:00

It looks like my cold is easing up a bit. The fever's gone, but I've still taken no new photos so I'll continue with the photos from my archives of Paris. The theme for today is sweets, and what better sweets than candy, jams and pastries. As always click on the photo to get a larger image Jams in a shop window, Paris France Chocolates in a shop window, Paris, France. Notice the chocolate artists

Spring Flowers

2006-02-06T18:17:00.000-05:00

I'm home from work still sick today and still have no new photos, so here are a few spring flowers from the archives. One of my favorite museums, the Rodin Museum in Paris, France. Taken from the garden in backAllium, Belmont, MA USATulip, Belmont, MA USASpring Blossoms, Notre Dame Church, Paris France

Big Trucks

2006-02-05T19:43:00.000-05:00

I've come down with a bad cold and have no new photos to post. So I went back though some of my old photos. Usually that means I end up in my folder of Paris pictures. Isn't it funny that you see new things whenever you look again at old photos. These two pictures were not taken on the same day so I don't think I'd looked at them together before. There is such a contrast between the relationship

High Carb Cooking

2006-02-04T19:11:00.000-05:00

This is the kind of supper I'm almost embarrassed to say I made. It was total comfort food, lots of carbs and little redeeming value, but oh so yummy. It's a nutella crepe.At noon I'd eaten a delicious lunch of soup with homemade chicken stock, the kind that's all jellied when it's in the frig. The soup also had escarole and carrots. It tasted great, but, as I was to find out almost 6 hours

Tiny Basil

2006-02-03T19:42:00.000-05:00

It's probably too early to start seeds, but it's been such a warm winter that it always seems like spring is just around the corner and I had to start some seedlings. What you see here is basil finally starting to germinate after being planted on January 18th. Basil is usually slow to germinate for me. Maybe it's because I keep the house cool and it loves warm temperatures. The basil is

Not Just for Shoes

2006-02-02T20:27:00.000-05:00

Like many others, I am on an eternal quest to be more organized. Recently I noticed a great way to organize all those hats and mittens. and other things that seems to accumulate in a post at Sugar Mountain Farm. There, Holly came up with an idea for a Hanging String Rack . I really liked the idea and want to make one for my home office to clip the bills that I need to pay and other papers that I