Just playing around...

I got my new-to-me camera on Saturday, so have been having a wee play with that too. I haven't used a manual camera before, so it's been quite a learning experience. Thought I'd capture a bit of the action and colour going on in my garden at the moment, while learning something new.

Yay! All 3 chickens are now laying.

Loving the aperture setting, just need to figure it all out now!

Sunday

Well, the school holidays are over and we had a really nice, relaxing time.

I was talking with the kids how Imbolc will be on Tuesday, and what we'd like to do to celebrate it. Imbolc symbolises The First Light - the start of the return of spring and new growth. The kids really look forward to a family meal (although Simon won't be here for this one), a story about the seasonal changes, and a few decorations that help us tune into nature and the seasons. I'll be heading off for a meet up with my women's group.

All that talk inspired Danielle to pull our our Earthwise activities book, find the winter activities and browse for something to make. She settled on these little paper decorations (although they are for valentine's cards and the wrong season for that ... as well as the fact we don't do anything for valentine's anyway lol).

Simon arrived home with another trailer-load of sand from a Freecycle offer. The base for our garden shed is almost ready lol. The chickens thought it was great having us all down in the garden - especially since there were bugs on offer! The kids spent ages sifting through the sand to find tasty treats for them to snaffle.

And there was plenty of sand left over to refill the sandpit! Enjoying a little play until they were shooed inside to get warm!

I'm now onto the fourth Earth's Children book - The Plains of Passage. I zoomed through The Mammoth Hunters last week while on holiday (and no computer in the evenings...). I realised while reading The Mammoth Hunters that I hadn't read this far into the series before.

I'm going to get back into my drawing this week and hopefully finish off the course.

Garden - mid winter

After all the wet, mild weather, I reckon the garden is in a pretty good place. It's looking lovely and green, with the some bright splashes of colour throughout. I think we've got some frosts arriving this weekend though...

Front herb garden with veges mixed in -
lettuce, spring onions, silverbeet and spinach

Lower garden - calendulas brightening things up

My little lemon tree - finally producing abundantly after 3yrs. Needs a good
weed, and those blue lupen are almost ready for digging in.

The chookies! Caramel (on the left) with her lovely bright red, plump comb. She's the layer.
The other two's combs are still pale, dry and shrivelled while they are off the lay.

My plum bursting into blossom.

Love the red of this geranium. I got a little cutting from my
great-aunt about 18mths ago, it's nicely established now.

I found this cute wee dress at an op-shop a few months back as a dress-up for Danielle.
I recall owning one of thee kilt/dresses back in the '70s. She decided she wanted to wear it to school tomorrow. 

Chook space

Back in 2007, I read Linda Woodrow's The Permaculture Home Garden and got all enthused about getting chooks. I was super keen to get started, but felt that the dome style coop was a bit unattainable for us at that time (and I really wanted to use recycled materials from around our home as much as possible). So I designed a square coop 2m x 2m and just under 1m high. We had quite a large bamboo grove with thick bamboo growing in it. So we chopped them down, sawed them to length, and I went about lashing and cable tying them together. Simon then went through with and put cross bars at the corners with screws, bought some chicken wire, found some thick plastic wrap in the garage to wrap around the back half, attached some corrugated iron on for a roof over half of it, closed off a part for the roosting/nest area and it was good to go. Well, 4yrs later we still have the original coop and it's still going strong.

Initially, we moved it around the yard as a tractor and the chickens remained cooped and content on their fresh patches of greens munching and scratching away. My first year of gardening saw us with fantastic crops and healthy soil. I then started to find it tricky to maintain the crop rotation and successional planting though, so the chickens eventually got "parked" up on the side of the beds and just moved up and down the yard as required, but no longer directly placed over the garden beds (my growing times seemed to be quite a bit longer and I couldn't really get it to match up easily).

All the moving around meant that the coop did sustain a bit of wear and tear from our lumpy, uneven ground, and the bamboo stakes snapped in a few places. It was around this time that I decided to go with a fixed area for the coop (the chickens were basically free ranging all day by this stage), so we weren't getting contained "poop" to benefit from. So, after choosing our spot, and deciding to provide them with a better "house", we worked on attaching the kids unused plastic playhouse to the back. It was perfect in that it had a door to lead through to the original coop, several windows for gaining access to eggs and scooping out the poo, and could be fitted onto the back of the coop with minimal modification (with a perch fitted inside between the walls). Super easy and still works really well. The only issue we have when there has been torrential rain (once or twice a year), is that the area they are in is prone to surface flooding for a few days. This is something we may need to reassess if it continues to happen.

I went down to get some recent photos and discovered my camera battery was flat...

Around the home and garden over past week...

Chickens: I bought a new bale of straw for the chicken coop. We've had a lot of rain over the past few weeks and things are getting pretty soggy down there. So, after a good clean out and fresh straw they were back in happily kicking around. Needing to throw a lot of extra greens into the coop to give them something extra to nibble on now that they're contained for more hours (with putting them away a little earlier so they don't roost in the trees).

Seedlings: I potted up my seedlings since they have reached the two-leaf stage - it appears that I had mixed success with the broccoli and cauliflower seeds so repeated these with a fresh packet.

Garlic: Making plans to buy some garlic for planting in about 2 weeks time. I'll also do another lot on the Winter Solstice.

Seeds: Sowing more above ground leafy green seeds as per my lunar calendar.

Herb/Weed ID: I've been wanting to find some mullein to get a visual ID on, and make sure I don't mix it up with foxglove. Well, I was fortunate when away for my first women's weekend that I was able to ask a fellow wild weed user to point them out for me - perfect!

Technology: Well, it seems the kids finally have a game console that brings them into the 2010s. My mum the Baby-Boomer is more onto it than us lol. She gifted Nathan one of her WiiFits (she had 2!) for his birthday. Last year he got her hand-me-down digital camera that was better quality than my one lol. I've not really been hanging out for them to have something like this, but it is kind of nice that they aren't the completely missing out due my own disinterest. So I can see a bit of a game-buying session coming on.

Happenings from the past week and idle chat...

Hanging out time:
~ We've just completed 2 wks of school holidays. Our first! We had a lovely low-key holidays - mostly hanging out at home together, playing board games on rainy days in front of the fire, catching up with friends, stargazing on clear nights, a trip to the art and culture museum, a bit of crafting, and catching up with our unschooling friends (Danielle declared to them that she is a School Kid AND a Homeschooled Kid - she wants to claim both labels still lol).

Blokus - a game for adults as well as children, where once you know the
rules and figure out how to make strategic moves, age is not an advantage.

~ Apple Magic: Find the secret inside.

~ Nathan pondered whether Kapiti Island (just off our coastline) is taller than the Eiffel Tower - so we did a bit of googling and found out that Kapiti Island is 197m taller.

Garden:
~ Minimal garden happenings this week - my seedlings are coming along well (when I remember to water them and take them out/or air out the greenhouse so they don't overheat). Chicken coop got a clean out and poop added to one of the garden beds in preparation for my seedlings when they are a bit older.

~ Continuing to harvest enough silverbeet to bulk out and add to most meals. Feijoas appear to be coming to an end - but we've gorged ourselves every day and haven't had any excess (aside from sharing with friends we visit).

~ Chickens are off the lay for winter it seems.

~ Simon's built a bike shed. The kids bikes used to live up on our covered porch by the front door - but now that the table and chairs are there, the bikes have just been shunted around. Since this photo was taken he's added a wooden post up the side and top to protect us from the the sharp edges. He's left the bottom section open so it doesn't get too damp in there. It's a long shed and the open end will mean that it should be mostly sheltered from any rain driving in in that direction. And that's my poor very under-used bike in there too.



Around the home stuff:

~ Ick, tax pack has arrived to complete. And homeschooling paperwork to claim a bit of "payment" for the part term when we were still homeschooling. I won't go on too much about the parking fine when we met up with a friend elsewhere and forgot to check for limited-time parking signs! Oops.

Herbal Healing:

~ A friend had a nasty cat-bite on her hand. After being tended to by the doctor and medicated up, I also suggested the chickweed poultice for the swelling. After 2hrs of having the poultice on she said she noticed the swelling down and could move her fingers more than she could before. The wounds also oozed a little as Susun Weed said would likely happen.

~ I had my third chickweed success in as many weeks - Danielle got 3 huge mozzie bites on her ankle over the weekend that really swelled up the whole area and itched like crazy. After returning from being away for the night, I popped a handful of chickweed on and wrapped it up for a few hours. Voila! Upon removing it 2hrs later, we discovered the swelling had completely disappeared. 

~ And another chickweed story. I really seem to be attracting these! Nathan came home from school with a sprained ankle yesterday - painful and quite swollen. So at bedtime (for some reason it still seems to take a while for my brain to click in that I could be using something herbal instead of doing nothing), off I trotted to gather some chickweed and a bit of plantain, which also has anti-inflammatory properties. I crushed and broke it up and strapped it on as before. The swelling was downa  bit and will repeat it again. Love that stuff. I reckon I've well and truly learnt a good deal about chickweed now.



We've dubbed the white cloth (old nappy cut up into squares) and one of Simon's
stretchy sweat straps from inside his bike helmet as the chickweed wraps. 



Gardening and home happenings from the past week...

Chickens: I've had to make sure I get down to the garden to put the chickens away by around 4pm lately. If we leave it any later they climb the pear tree and prepare to roost for the night. Then we spend ages encouraging them down again so they're safely inside for the night (and also it stops them squawking loudly early in the morning). I did leave one chicken up the tree one night as she wouldn't budge and it was dark already, only problem is at daybreak she flew down and then proceeded to stand at the outside of the coop calling the other two!

Seeds: I've found that some of my packets of seeds must be no good. Several varieties didn't germinate - only problem is I don't know which packets are the problem (I have several open ones of each). I will need to make sure I keep them aside next time to see which ones are the dodgy ones so I can toss them out. We had gusty winds last night, so I sent Simon outside to strap the little greenhouse to the washing line pole it's up against.

Handy little fire-starters: Our lovely Cabbage Tree drops a large amount of dead leaves. I read a while back about gathering all the leaves together and tying them up into bundles and using them as kindling/tinder to get the fire started. I used one of the bunches last night and it worked great!

Buying power: We switched to Powershop a few months ago after being cold-called on the phone. I usually don't like to receive calls like this, but I'm not particularly loyal to my power company, and I must have been in the mood to listen to their speil. It's kinda fun purchasing the specials for power in advance, and so far have partly-purchased right up to December (eek to the $300 worth of purchases I made though to get the long-term savings). We haven't really been with them long enough at this stage to see if we will be saving much money though. We are low-energy users, which means we use less than 8000kw per year, but they guarantee a savings of around $10 per month from memory. Our power bills year-round only fluctuate between $90-130 per month. Even if I factored in the cost of buying firewood for 7-8mths of use, our average year-round monthly energy bill would be around $150 which is pretty good really when I hear of some $300-$400 winter bills!

Further fire-safety: Danielle's been really bothered by the house-fire story of a few weeks back, so I've been really working on trying to reassure her. We went over the plan again, and I also removed the security latches off the kids windows so they are free opening now. The phone call to the alarm company confirmed my suspicions - the only way to check our mains-wired alarm is to test it with smoke. They suggested buying a can of smoke from a hardware shop, but I realised I'd overheated my oil till smoking point during the week so Simon used that held up under it. Yep, that set it off.

Pumpkins: I didn't intentionally grow any pumpkins over summer, but I had quite a few pop up as per usual. I had one lovely looking pumpkin that I've not seen before (and therefore no seeds in the compost to pop up). I cut it open on Sunday to make a yummy pumpkin soup for lunch. We kept all the seeds from inside so I could a/ grow some this year, and b/ save the seeds for doing an Autumn craft with the kids. I can see this will be a once off craft - even with Nathan helping me, cleaning and washing the seeds took ages lol.

Autumn garden to-do list - Sunday update

Today was a very productive day with us all out in the garden!

~ Weed a couple of garden beds (ones which will be slighted shaded over the depths of winter), lightly turning the top layer of soil (don't want to do too much so I don't damage the structure of the soil at this time of year) and sprinkle on handfuls of Blue Lupin seeds so I can grow a winter cover crop, and then rake the soil over. This will be the first year I have done this, but have been meaning to since I learned about them when I did my Organic Hort Course 3-4yrs ago. - check. We ended up with 3 beds of blue lupin, and the remaining 3 are relegated for winter plantings.
~ Add compost to the beds. - check (we got a trailer-load and liberally dumped it on and turned it in. We haven't bought a trailer load for the lower gardens before, so they were due for a big boost. Usually I just add it from a bag or from our compost bins).
~ Put up some seed trays (or buy the seedlings): lettuce, spring onions, peas, carrots, spinach, silverbeet. Onion seedlings are already in. - tomorrow's job
~ Bulbs and sweet pea seeds need to go in. - check
~ Clean out the chicken coop and sprinkle all the poo on the garden bed I've set aside for my garlic - check
(these beds will also get a good dose of fish meal, woodfire ash and compost). check
~ Replant calendula and borage seedlings that self-sowed (and put extras on freecycle for others to come and take away). - check
~ Add carbon back to the soil - dig in carbon by-products such as corn stalks, brocollis, peas and beans. Also mulch with straw (great if it comes out of the chicken coop with food scraps and chicken poo mixed in) and dry material from around our property. - check.
~ Replant the strawberries and any new runners into well composted beds. - check

The upper kitchen/herb garden still has an abundance of silverbeet growing for our use (I notice that the chickens are self-feeding off the plants down here). The tomato plants and courgettes were finally pulled out. And the last of the beans were harvested before being pulled up.


Before (with 2 cleared beds from during the week)

 



A fresh start.

We harvested some pears, apples and rhubarb to make a yummy fruit crumble for dessert!

Garden Shed Preparation

Simon's been working here and there on preparing the foundation for the shed over summer - still has a little work to go, but it's getting there. We're now just waiting for the shed (currently at my parents' house) to be dismantled and brought around.

A few days back I visited our local Junk Shop at the dump. I'm not sure how long it's been there, but I've only recently heard of it. I was wanting to gather together some bits and pieces to deck out the shed with. I found this wee shelf unit (I plan to paint this with one of our leftover "greens" from our interior colours), a few pots/storage containers, a little native plant picture, a plaster hanging, and a fold down table that just had to come home with me (now set up in the kids end of the lounge with a table cloth on it).

The glass jars I got so I can make some lanterns with the kids some time.

All up I paid $9.

It can be dangerous business visiting 2nd hand shops though - it's a fine line between getting things for cheap (and often quirky that I couldn't just "buy" in a shop) and to suddenly start cluttering up the house with stuff that's not really wanted/needed even if things only cost a few cents or dollars. Argh!

I wonder if my chickens will become shed-climbers instead of tree-climbers?

Autumn garden to-do list

I've finally made it out into the garden! There are still quite a few chores that need doing though, but I've made a little start. With a bit of help from my Organic Garden Calendar by Kath Irvine, and a few other books I have on hand I've put the list together.

~ Weed a couple of garden beds (ones which will be slighted shaded over the depths of winter), lightly turning the top layer of soil (don't want to do too much so I don't damage the structure of the soil at this time of year) and sprinkle on handfuls of Blue Lupin seeds so I can grow a winter cover crop, and then rake the soil over. This will be the first year I have done this, but have been meaning to since I learned about them when I did my Organic Hort Course 3-4yrs ago. - check

~ Add compost to the beds.

~ Put up some seed trays (or buy the seedlings): lettuce, spring onions, peas, carrots, spinach, silverbeet. Onion seedlings are already in.

~ Bulbs and sweet pea seeds need to go in.

~ Clean out the chicken coop and sprinkle all the poo on the garden bed I've set aside for my garlic - check
(these beds will also get a good dose of fish meal, woodfire ash and compost).

~ Replant calendula and borage seedlings that self-sowed (and put extras on freecycle for others to come and take away). - check

~ Add carbon back to the soil - dig in carbon by-products such as corn stalks, brocollis, peas and beans. Also mulch with straw (great if it comes out of the chicken coop with food scraps and chicken poo mixed in) and dry material from around our property.

~ Replant the strawberries and any new runners into well composted beds.

I found another cute project with tutorial that I thought would suit the hessian I am trying to find uses for! Was a neat little project to slot in amongst everything else we had on today and I love the results.

And a picture of where the garden's at - I got stuck into weeding and tidying up a few things yesterday.  I put another tray of seeds up and set the chickens back on the garden beds opposed to going around the outside(I've really noticed in the past 18mths that I haven't been as structured with having the chooks directly fertilise the garden and it's really suffered for it). It's even felt like summer the past two days and it's pretty sad that I'm having to count the good days!

Chickens

My poor older girl Moon has scaly leg mites. Yuck, poor thing. I feel so bad that I hadn't noticed anything amiss until I was sitting watching them on Friday as they were hanging out in the sun. I've spent so much of this year being distracted on other things other than the garden that I haven't really paid the girls much attention. In the morning they are fed and let our to roam for the day before I head down in the late afternoon to feed them again and shut them in for the night. I noticed Moon looking very quiet and a bit wobbly on her legs and realised something was up with her. On observing her I noticed her poor nobbly legs.

So a bit of googling had me rushing out after lunch to get some mite powder (they've been so good at dust bathing that they don't seem to have these sorts of mites) and vaseline. In the meantime I bought down a bowl of warm soapy water and washed her legs down and put some olive oil on her legs. Then after returning with our goods I dusted her all over (although she appeared to be ok as far as her feathers and skin goes) and then slathered vaseline all over her legs and pushed it under all the scales in the hope that it will smother the horrible mites.

Today we moved the coop and scrubbed down the nesting box and perches. I then poured a jug of boiling water into the nesting box (not sure if that would penetrate any eggs that had fallen into the cracks of the wood or not though), threw in a bowl of water with tea tree oil in it, let it dry and then dusted it down with the mite powder and reset in the clean coop. I re-dusted the girls and re-vaselined their legs in their clean enclosure.

I found this site with good all-round info that was also confirmed elsewhere.

Where are you Magpie??

Magpie the chicken did a runner this afternoon.

We wandered down to the garden to let the chickens out, Magpie was acting a bit odd, but opened up the coop and no sooner had I turned my back that I noticed the head chicken Moon calling for one of her brood. The kids and I scouted around looking for Magpie but she was not to be seen.

Hmmmm, I had noticed some missing eggs yesterday after hearing one of the chickens squarking like crazy which is the noise she makes when laying an egg. So assumed she had set up a wee nest elsewhere.

After about 10mins I spotted her hiding in the hedge underneath some trellis and after shooing her out, I found 4 beautiful eggs in there. I have decided not to keep them though since there have been a few days where they've not been out so for there to be four there makes them kinda old. But at least I know where to check now.

And that 10mins in the summer sun is just what our skin needed - Nathan has been found to be Vitamin D deficient due to the nephrotic syndrome, so I'm working on getting short daily doses of good sun onto him.

Just meandering along...

Have staked the tomato plants, tied old pantihose around them and been nipping off the lateral shoots to maximise my crop.

Simon made the broody chicken a special little coop which is now situated inside the main coop (a heavy wooden lid is just placed over the opening) and propped it off the ground to keep her bottom airy lol. Poor girl, I do feel a bit mean doing this, but feel just as mean dragging her off the nest squarking at me and getting her all anxious. So I donned some leather gloves and picked her up out of the nesting box expecting the worst but was a lot easier than I expected, I think she's been getting less fiesty as each day goes by. She was straight into eating and drinking. So I'll give it a few days and if all else fails, I will leave the gloves for my friend to retrieve the eggs from under her if need be.

Some of my potato plants are flowering already. Don't recall that happening this time last year.

Have put the final courgette and all my capsicum seedlings in the garden. Have sown more carrot and onion seeds in a spare patch vacated by some gone-to-seed silverbeet.

I have some lovely sized peas almost ready to harvest from my front garden bed.

Found a little crafting apron in my nana's things which I had bought home knowing it could be put to use somewhere. When I was vacumming the other day I decided to put it on so I could collect up all those random bits and pieces that get found all around the house in corners and under curtains.


I picked the kids some flowers from our garden the other night and popped them in their bath to enjoy. Afterwards we scooped them out and arranged them in a bowl that I've left sitting on the vanity - days later and they still look lovely.


Made another skirt for a wee friend of the kids who turned 3 on Saturday. Why can I not feel that it was "ok" to just give the skirt and felt the need to pump the gift out with something bought too...sigh...

Loving my easy to make and super quick mayonnaise (and gluten free since a lot of store bought ones seem to contain wheat) to add to potato salad (fortunately no pregnant friends to worry about due to the raw egg in it).

1 egg
2 T vinegar
1/2 t mustard powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t sugar
1 cup olive oil

Whizz it all together and done! Add to cooked potato cubes and chopped boiled potatoes, add in some fresh herbs (parsley or mint are good) or spring onions.

Blimmen broody chicken

OK, so chicken experts, give me your tried and true methods of dealing with chickens who want to sit on the nest all the time?

My littlest girl (who has suddenly grown in size, but I think she's just puffing and fluffing herself up) went broody yesterday and I spent a little bit earlier on today trying to keep her off the nest after collecting one egg and allowing the other girl to lay. She certainly isn't like the previous older girls were when they were clucky - they'd just let me reach in, pick them up and put them on the ground and take the eggs. Not this one, she squarked, pecked, scrabbled and fought her way to stay on the nest. I wouldn't mind so much, except that we're going away soon and have a friend coming to collect the eggs (and Simon has just fixed up the little door through the side of the coop and into the nesting box for her to do that), but there's no way she'll be able to do it with her in there defending the eggs like that.

I tried covering the box with a blanket for the rest of the day to keep her out, but nope, she pushed her way past that and sat in the dark anyway.

Chook house modifications

Well, we are due to go away for 4 days before the end of the year and I've been concerned how to manage things with the chickens.

In the past I've had a friend or my mum come by to collect eggs (if there were any) and to give them some fresh scraps and check water if we've been going away for more than a few days (and leaving them enough pellets inside to help themselves).

However, last time we went away for 10 days back in March one of the chickens freaked out at my friend, flew past her at the door and over into the neighbours backyard. So, my friend isn't keen on collecting eggs any longer and it wasn't an issue over winter when they were off the lay. But, now that I'm getting 2-3 eggs a day and we'll be gone for 4 days - that's a lot of eggs to just let accumulate. I'm worried that they'd get squashed and turn my hens into egg-eaters.

So, Simon's planning how to make a little access hole in the side off the coop, and then a hole in the nesting box to reach through and collect the eggs without having any escape artists! Should be an easy job.

Spring!

What a lovely day it was to welcome in Spring.

I spent most of it just pottering around. I'd sit down to read some more of my How to Grow More Vegetable book and come across an idea that just had-to-be-done right there and then, so I'd get up and wander off to do that. The whole day went like that.

Simon took the kids out for a couple of bike rides - I need to find my own bike-love, but garden-love is there right now. Especially since the time is right to get things going in the garden. Although I get quite a bit of time during the week with the kids to pop down to do things in the garden, I try not to spend ALL my time down there since it's not the kids most favourite thing to be doing (although they do love being outside I am mindful of their needs too!). And as the days warm up, we will have plenty of time between 10am-3pm out of the sun to do other stuff, so better try and get in as much work now while I can.

It's amazing how much time can be lost just looking at chickens lol. I love watching them pottering and scratching. Both the little ones had a dust bath today which was neat to watch. Moon decided to come and join them and just plonked herself in the tub of sandy soil with Peach and rolled around with her and on top of her.

I planted out some Maori seed potatoes I'd been given (I forget which variety, but they are purple skinned and yellowy inside) into an empty patch of garden trying out an alternating pattern from the How to Grow book. I popped 5 tomato seedlings into tubs up on my deck. I will move them all around to my front porch where they get more shelter and all day sun though. I then popped 5 tomato seedlings into my front garden amongst my daffodils and sunflowers. They will also get great sun and complete shelter - only issue is they will need constant watering since the soil is still quite sandy despite the heap of compost in there and the rain doesn't drive in on that side.

Tomorrow afternoon after playcentre I intend on dividing some of my herbs up and putting them into spaces within the herb garden as suggested in one of my other gardening books I was reading today. It will keep the herbs going and help keep the weeds at bay by filling in any spare spaces!

I need to get some beans and pumpkins started soon so when I pop the corn seeds directly into the group in October they can all work together to form the Three Sisters.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster of feelings this weekend.

Yesterday one of my dear older chickens (Mouse) was killed by my neighbour's little dog (it must have jumped a few fences alongside where it lived, travelled up higher and come back down to where it could get to them). Not a nice way to go - but fortunately quickly. I've rarely even see this dog, so it's not like it's there constantly watching the chickens...

Now strangley, the rest of the chooks have settled down. The remaining older girl (Moon) has pretty much stopped picking on the two little ones (Magpie and Peach) and hangs around with them for company (or to keep them in line lol), sits next to them on the roost, lies down in the sun with them and generally acting quite friendly (but has given the little black one the odd peck if she's seemed too confident ;)). She was pining and calling for Mouse quite a bit yesterday and was subdued but seems to be coming right.

So since I could see the change in the way they were relating and I had Simon at home as backup today we decided to let them all out this morning. Until now, the little ones have been inside the coop since the escapades on the first day. I figured they were no longer going to be chased away by the older one and they knew their environment, knew me and Simon (the kids were staying at nannie and grampies for the night) and knew their coop was their haven. So out they came and they did great. They spooked a few times but not majorly and I was able to round them all up easily enough to put away inside when I was leaving the garden. No chance of letting them out to free range without me there now since the dog over the fence has the taste of chicken blood.

The situation is full of irony really (including the fact I was breaking the local bylaw by owning more than 3 bantams without having concrete floored housing for them) - but may just all work out ok.

Garden stuff...I bought a tamarillo tree and planted it, planted out some raspberry canes I was given yesterday, dug up/prepared one more vege bed, noticed heaps of tiny plums starting to grow, piled up soil against one self-seeded potato plant which is located in a really random place but at least free from frost, spotted some of my onion seedlings popping through the surface, tried to find a Jasmine plant to grow up our bamboo shade structure in the herb garden but they were out of stock, my first daffodil opened just in time for the first day of spring tomorrow and looks so pretty on my front path up to my door - I look forward to the other 5 plants flowering too.

Wish me luck!

We get our two new chickens tomorrow. I've been reading up on how to introduce new birds to the existing flock. Seems that most times there will be problems, but there are a few things to try.

Since I have only one coop, I think we'll move it onto a fresh patch of grass so it appears "new". We'll pop the new girls in onto the roosts after dark. Simon is making a new nesting box to add in, so if need be there won't be territorial issues over the old box and the new one will be suspended underneath.

Funny how I still get concerned for the girls when there is stormy weather and hope they're not too scared down there with their iron roof taking the brunt of the rain and hail. At least it's dry and would be reasonably warm with them able to snuggle together.

On with garden stuff...

We had a beautiful day today - seems like it might have been the lull between storms since there is another arriving tomorrow apparently.

While Simon was out with the kids riding bikes down at a local pine forest and collecting pine cones. I made a cup of tea, sat in the sun on the kids swing admiring my garden and planning my spring garden.

~ I planted about 60 onion seedlings. I'd picked up a pack from the supermarket which promised me at least 30 plants - wasn't expecting *that* many, but would be great if they all do well and can be stored. My onions were a sad disappointment last year.

~ I dug over another 2x2m patch and added in a bunch of straw/chicken poop from the coop when we moved it.

~ We moved the chickens in preparation for "putting them to work" as spring approaches. The last time I actively had them working was during last winter/spring and then had their tractor to the side just being moved around biding time over summer and autumn. But now, I want to get my potato patches all primed for planting HEAPS! I am thinking 6 plots of 2x2m. Last year I did 3 plots that didn't last long at all. Potato experts - do I need to use soil to mound up the plants or can I use mulch/straw or something else? I'm wondering if we were to put planks around the sides of the plots and just fill them up with whatever is going will do the trick? What are people's thoughts on using tyres and possible contamination?

~ I sowed a bunch more seeds into my propagator - cauli, tomatoes and cucumbers(giving them a go now to see if I grow them in my bedroom which is like a glasshouse lol) and onions.

~ Nathan and I popped some sunflower seeds and peas into the ground around the front of the house.

~ I checked the silverbeet and spinach which looked like it might be preparing to go to seed. Not yet, but when they do, I will be nipping the seeds out to prolong the production stage.