Crusty McPottydoodle - It never rains, it pours

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Well, it seeems that I have made the transition from urban chicken lady to urban quasifarmer having dedicated my front yard to food production. This being the case, I guess it was time to actually have a journal of my own.

I've never been much for gardening. Animals have always been my thing. While we never had animals growing up (the step-monster wouldn't go for it and my mother is a chameleon - basically likes and wants the same things as her partner), I spent most of my teen years on the farms of friends, so managed to get my need to be around animals met.

Once i moved out on my own, I had pets for more years than not, but never lived anywhere that I could keep livestock.

Last year, our city decided that it would allow backyard chickens (although it has taken more than a year for the bylaw to actually change and make them legal), so after a huge amount of research, and a supportive (read remarkably tolerant) partner (who built the temporary, and then later, the amazing permanent coop), I got a few hens.

A few weeks ago we made the decision to get rid of the lawn in our front yard entirely. It has been infested with European Chafer Beetle larvae, which feed on grass roots and then later torn up by crows in their search for those larvae. We had already replaced the lawn once and were not interested in doing it again.

So, we decided to turn it into a big productive garden.

After spending hours and hours turning the soil by hand (we've only got one side of the yard turned), we finally got to planting.

We have a barrel of potatoes (the extras went in the ground on the unturned part of the yard)

Then on Monday, we planted 4 rows of Quinoa. Each row is about 20 feet long, so based on the spacing of about 1 ft apart, hopefully, we should end up with about 80 plants. This is an experimental crop - if it works well, we will increase the size of it for next year as we eat a lot of Quinoa.

We have some tomato seedlings and we will be growing bush beans, bush peas, cucumbers, lettuce, parsnips, carrots, basil and pumpkins. We will be planting my containers of raspberries, rhubarb and blueberries from their containers into the unturned side of the yard along with the strawberry plants we picked up from the nursery this past weekend.

Our Australorp went broody a little more than a week ago and pushovers that we are, we took pity on her and got her some fertile eggs on Friday night and tucked them beneath her. We shall see whether she ends up with any chicks.

Now we are on the look out for a freezer for the stuff I don't can.

Once feller is done with post doctoral research and moves into the realm of the regularly employed, and I am finished my batchelor's degree and teaching diploma, we will make the shift to acreage somewhere and become more self sufficient.

In the meantime, I have chickens and a garden. It's a start.

 

[tamlynn]

Sounds great! How many chickens can you have? I think baby chicks are a great idea.

I'd love to hear how the quinoa turns out. I've never considered growing grains.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Sounds great! How many chickens can you have? I think baby chicks are a great idea.

I'd love to hear how the quinoa turns out. I've never considered growing grains.

I have 3 chickens. Rosie - ISA Brown, Gussie - Australorp and Juanita was sold as an Araucana, but she is most likely an easter egger.

Gussie is sitting on 7 blue fertile eggs that we got locally.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the Quinoa goes. It is supposed to be easy to grow and drought resistant.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

I just went out and had a look at my garden and there are signs of life with the Quinoa. Little sproutlings randomly poking up along the rows.

Hooray!

 

[TanksHill]

Congrats on your Quinoa. I know you said you cook with it a lot. Could you give some me some advice on the basics. I bought some a couple weeks back and have not used it yet.

Basically I can substitute it in place of rice? I met a little old lady who said she cooks it as cereal? Whats the scoop?

Maybe start a thread in the kitchen section?

gina

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Congrats on your Quinoa. I know you said you cook with it a lot. Could you give some me some advice on the basics. I bought some a couple weeks back and have not used it yet.

Basically I can substitute it in place of rice? I met a little old lady who said she cooks it as cereal? Whats the scoop?

Maybe start a thread in the kitchen section?

gina

Hi Gina,

I use it as a substitute for rice (especially if I cook without meat, as it is a complete protein)

I have also taken to making Tabouleh with it instead of bulgur wheat.

You can also throw it into soups and stews, etc.

I've sort of made the recipe in this link, Ihave added more veggies (prepared so they steam quickly), omitted stuff I didn't have in the house (like wine) and then when it is all cooked, I add feta cheese.

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Today was a somewhat productive day (during naptime) - I started 36 parsnip seeds, 9 pumpkin seeds and 16 cucumber seeds and 11 basil seeds in peat pots. I have a feeling by the time I am finished, my kitchen table will be covered with seedlings.

I still have a bunch of plants that I bought from the nursery last weekend to transplant out in the garden, but hopefully, I can get that done sometime in the next couple of days provided the weather cooperates.

The potatoes are looking like they might be doing something. Feller is away until Saturday, so it would be awesome if the garden was really doing something for when he gets home - he worked really hard out there.

 

[TanksHill]

Oooo thanks!!

I do so badly with starting seeds indoors. I can never get anything to grow. I do have the luxury most of the time, of just throwing my seeds out directly and having them take.

This year it has been kinda ydown south. But yesterday we had a day of sunshine and I ended up with little green bean sprouts all over the place. Now :if I can just protect them from the bunnies.

gina

 

[Crusty McPottydoodle]

Well, I guess it is time to post an update on the craziness that is my life.

Last Saturday I was going to plant the rest of the front garden - transplants and seeds.

10am Saturday, due to stellar hand/eye coordination, rather than remove the goop from the corner of my eye, I drove my fingernail into my cornea. Okay, so that hurts like crazy and I had a watery eye for a while, but it all settled down (just felt like I had something in my eye ALL the time).

As the day progressed, my eye got worse - felt more irritated and watered and really painful, so I called the "nurse line' and was told that I should go to the hospital.

7pm, I get to the hospital (of course, I drove <--- Idiot) and tell my tale of woe. Amazingly, in a heavingly full waiting room, I was about the 4th person called. I see the Doc and he looks at my eye and says, yep - cornea is scratched. He prescribes antibiotic drops to prevent an infection as he said these kinds of things can ulcerate (EWW!). 9pm, I was out of the hospital, I was feeling fine at this point, as he had put a topical anaesthetic in my eye, so I drove to the drugstore, got my prescription filled and dutifully took it as directed - 2 drops every 30 mins whilst awake - this meant I took about 3 - 4 doses and then tried to sleep (yeah right). At 5am, I went to do another dose and managed 1 drop and decided the pain was just too much. I managed to sleep on and off for a few hours.

Sunday, I got up and looked at my face - all around my eye was swollen. Oh yeah, I should mention that Feller was away at a wedding for the weekend and would be leaving for his post doc position on Monday and so I was going to cook dinner for his parents, sister and nephew that day. So I phoned feller's sister in tears because I knew there was no way I could cook and my eye was swollen and my eyesight was a little blurry (which I attributed to it being constantly teary) and she told me to get my bottom back to the ER, so I called a cab (no chance of me driving this time) and was back in the ER at about 9am.

I saw the Dr and he decided it was definitely an allergic reaction and don't take the drops anymore (duh). He patched my eye and prescribed me demerol and gave me a few to be heading home with until a prescription could be filled. 1.5 hours total. The decision was made that everyone would converge at our house and go out for dinner at our favourite vietnamese restaurant around the corner from us. I said hello and went to bed, phoned the parents of the kids I look after to explain the situation and that I wouldn't be able to work Monday and loaded up on demerol and had a half decent night's sleep.

Monday comes, Feller's dad came to take us to the airport (I was originally supposed to drive him) and then when I got home, I took the eye patch off as instructed. OMG! Now I had a blister spanning my upper eyelid and descending down to the corner of my eye and my vision in that eye was impossibly blurry.

I called my neighbour, who took me back to the hospital. The doc this time was really concerned about my blurry vision (as was I - it went from 20/20 to 20/80) and he set me up with an appointment with the eye specialist for 8am the next day and sent me home with more demerol.

Tuesday, I saw the specialist and after 90 minutes of examinations, she is convinced that the the blurriness is from the reaction to the eyedrops and I should see her again Saturday (tomorrow) morning to see where things are at. Oh, and my scratch had shrunk to 1mm x 2mm (that just seems might big to me) and was healing nicely.

Well, today my vision is improved, but it is not right. Still blurry and my eye stings. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

So, needless to say, my garden still hasn't been planted. UGH. Just as well because my landlord is having my roof redone. He told me this on Monday morning and they came yesterday to do some preliminary stuff and then started work today. Right now a pallet of plywood and 2 pallets of shingles are sitting where all my berry bushes, pumpkin and cucumbers are supposed to be living!

Back to yesterday's visit by the roofers - I told them specifically that while I expected that whilst they were here working, they would need to leave gates open, when they leave the property, they need to ensure they are closed because of my dog and also to keep other dogs and undesirables out of my yard (and away from my chicken coop). An hour after I left, I let my dog out (I know, I should have checked the gates specifically) and went about my business. 5 minutes later, I looked out the window to see my back gate WIDE open and no dog. I couldn't run off to hunt her down because I have 2 toddlers I look after and I was in the middle of feeding them. Long story short, she came home on her own about 20 mins later, but I sure phoned the roofer and took a strip off!

So, I have a bunch of cucumbers, pumpkins and parsnips growing in my kitchen and a bunch of other stuff outside waiting to go in the ground.

My mother comes on Monday (maybe she will take pity on me and do some gardening whilst I am at school in the evenings).

On top of all that, feller hasn't even been gone a week and I miss him like crazy. December seems impossibly far away.

Oh yeah, Gussie my broody hen. She managed to hatch 1 chick out of the 7 eggs last Friday/Saturday. Hopefully, I can work on integrating them with the other two hens a bit over this weekend.

Oh, for a quiet life....

ETA:

The roofers are still here and will be until about 9pm and they have really bad taste in music (which is coming down my chimney)

Okay, whine-fest is done.