Duck, Duck, Duck….
A few weeks ago a friend posted a photo of her Muscovy duck that hatched a bunch of sweet little ducklings. I commented on her photo that I’d trade her some maple syrup for a few and she took me up on the offer. She said that she was actually going to send some from another clutch on my previous trip up to Maine but decided it might be too much.
On Sunday evening, the Chiot’s Run family grew by another 8 members. We picked up the ducklings and are keeping them in my mom’s garage (did I mention we were back in Ohio for a week for work?).
What type of ducklings did we get? Muscovies. I’ve been reading about this variety of duck for quite a while and had planned on adding a few. Getting some this early is a bonus. They’re champion pest controllers and their meat is supposed to be the best for eating as far as duck is concerned.
We’ll see how many of them end up being males and how many females. We’ll keep all the females and a male or two for breeding and most likely the other males will grace our table. It’s fun to finally be able to start realizing some of the dreams I’ve been dreaming for so long.
So, what new feathered or furred friend should we add to Chiot’s Run next?
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The New Digs
Yesterday, Jaye asked about how all the other cats were doing and I realized I’d only talked about Dexter (he is my favorite after all *ssshhh* don’t tell the others). Samson & Soafie, our two indoor cats have adjusted well. They did their share of exploring in when we first arrived, now that it’s home, they’re back to sleeping all the time.
The Sweets, our little feral cat, is also adjusting well. We kept her in the house for a week with us, though she is not an indoor cat and does not have indoor cat manners. She’s very sweet, but she’s still feral and prefers being outside. We moved her up into the garage and kept it closed for a few days and even left Dexter up there with her.
She now seems to be fully acclimated to hew new larger digs. At first she was leery of coming outside, but she’d follow Dexter on occasion. She’s obviosly back to her feral self as she’s got her little stash of various trophies in a corner of the garage. Looks like no mouse will survive if they enter into the garage or the area around it. No doubt she’ll do just fine.
She’s a very smart little cat and seems to have a good grasp of how to survive in the wild. If you’ve never heard her story, read “A Series of Unfortunate Events”, it’s quite amazing. We’re thankful everyone adjusted nicely without too much trouble. All the cats seem back to their normal selves, I guess the same could likely be said for Mr & Mrs Chiots too. After a month, we feel like we’re finally settling into a routine.
How long does it usually take you to adjust to new situations?
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Small Changes
Way back before I even had chickens, I started reading about them. Of particular interest to me, was the deep litter system. Sadly, I cannot implement this type of system in the coop, it has a wooden floor which prevents it. I can however implement a deep litter system in the run.
I’m in the process of doing this. When we arrived the run was one giant mud puddle. As I’ve been working in the garden, all the weeds have been going into the run, along with other dry material. The results are quite remarkable and the chickens are loving it.
The chickens were also happy to roam freely about the garden yesterday afternoon. I’ve been keeping them in their run to keep them out of the potager since I planted seeds. I finally collected enough little bits of fencing from other areas to put around the edible garden. Now my little seedlings will be protected. Eventually, a permanent fence around the potager would be nice.
Another thing I want to work on is growing more food for the chickens. For the same reason I like to grow the food we eat, I just like to know exactly what’s going into it. I won’t be able to do much until next spring, but I did start some flats of wheat grass for them. I plan on doing this throughout the winter to give them something green to eat.
Hopefully in a few years we’ll have a new coop with a dirt floor, a fence around the potager and we’ll be growing more food for the chickens. Until then, I’ll work with what I have and implement small changes here and there when I can.
Are you implementing any small changes in your garden with hopes of bigger changes down the line?
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Garlic Giveaway from Peaceful Valley
Last week I was thinking to myself that it was time to look through all my garlic and pull out the nicest bulbs for planting. Garlic is one of those crops that I’ve been growing since I first started gardening. It’s so easy to grow and brings such great reward.
Earlier this year, my interest was piqued when I read that softneck garlic stores longer/better than hardneck garlic. As much as I’ve read in my lifetime, I have never heard this tidbit of information before. Hardneck varieties of garlic are all that have been grown at Chiot’s Run, because it grows better in colder climates. Though, I have seen softneck garlic at the farmers market, so I know it can be grown successfully. Most of what I see is hardneck though.
Over the past few years, I’ve grown most of my own seed garlic as well. I do occasionally long to grow new varieties for flavor and to see if I can find ones that do particularly well in my climate/area. Your local farmers market can give you an idea of which varieties will do best, ask around, or just try a few that sound interesting.
With so many questions about planting garlic in the comments of this post, I wrote a Garlic Planting Guide over on the Your Day Blog.
When Peaceful Valley contacted me about doing a garlic giveaway I obliged, knowing one of you would love to win their garlic combo pack for your garden. I’ve talked about why I love Peaceful Valley before, so I’m happy to support a company I appreciate (they aren’t paying me to do this post, though I did get some softneck garlic to try).
What can you win?
A Garlic Combo Pack – Comprised of 1 head of Elephant (conventional), 3 heads of California Early White (organic softneck), 3 heads of Purple Italian (organic hardneck), 3 heads of Russian Red (organic hardneck), 3 sets of French Red Shallots (organic). Should yield approx. 50 plants, needs approx. 6-8 sq ft.
A Quart of Liquid Kelp – Cold-processed liquid kelp Enzymatically digested, concentrated liquid extract of California Bull Kelp (Nereocystis luetkeana), harvested from kelp beds in the Pacific Ocean off the Northern coast of CA. Freshly harvested kelp is rapidly processed at low temperatures, using naturally occurring enzymes isolated from the kelp, to digest and liquify the chopped kelp into a dark liquid extract.
a 10 gallon smart pot – which you can use to grow your garlic in if you don’t have enough space in your garden.
1 Garlic Twist (clever kitchen gadget that minces the cloves when you twist it; easy to use and clean)
and a print of your garlic variety.
So why kelp? Peaceful Vally has a great video that recommend soaking your garlic bulbs overnight in kelp before planting. I used kelp before, but I have soaked them in a baking soda and fish emulsion mix. You can bet I’ll be doing experiments by soaking a few and not soaking a few to see how they grow (similar to my remove or leave the scape experiment). If you’d like to read my post on planting garlic including a few of the varieties I grow, head on over to this post.
All you have to do to enter to win is to comment on this post. Contest will end at midnight PT on Wednesday, October 17. contest closed…check back for more great giveaways in the future.
Do you grow garlic in the garden? If so, what’s your favorite variety?
If you’d like more chances to win, there are 7 other blogs doing this same giveaway, with different varieties of garlic.
Peaceful Valley’s Organic Gardening Blog for ‘Bogatyr’
Gardenerd for ‘California Early White’
A Suburban Farmer for ‘Purple Gazer’
North Coast Gardening for some ‘Russian Red’
Western Gardeners for ‘Purple Italian’
Living Homegrown for ‘German Red’
Dirt Du Jour divas are giving away French red shallots
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Double Duty
Yesterday afternoon was beautiful here. It has been raining for the past few days, so when the sun peeked out in the afternoon I grabbed my Ethel gloves and headed outside.
I need to get weeding on the small kitchen garden that’s located right behind the house. In this spot, I’m hoping to plant overwintering spinach, leeks and a few other things. It has to be cleared out before I can plant.
Luckily, most of the weeds were easy to pull because of the moist soil. For those that weren’t, I scored this fabulous vintage hoe and Liberty Tool for only $3 (I know, quite a bargain). Many of my large garden tools are still back in Ohio. The previous owners also left a sad rusty wheelbarrow, which came in quite handy.
The weeds all went into the chicken run to give them something to eat and to keep them busy. They were in chicken heaven. I’m hoping to add lots of weeds and other fodder to the floor of their run.
It was one big mud hole before I started. Hopefully throughout the course of the next month I’ll be able to build up a nice layer of mulch for them to scratch and work through during the winter.
All-in-all, I weeded for about an hour and was able to take three wheelbarrow loads of weeds up to the chickens. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to be the same and I hope to finish weeding this garden. There may even be time to get a few things planted! The chicken coop needs cleaned first though, that’s on the top of the to-do list.
I’ve never had trouble getting motivated to weed, it’s a chore I always enjoy doing. Now that I’m also gleaning food and entertainment for the chickens it’s even better. I feel like I’m doing double duty!
Do you love or hate weeding?
