Month: May 2020

Potato planters prep and irrigation

Yesterday we started the potato planters. I added some scoria and dirt to the planter frames, Jenn planted the seed potatoes, and I added new irrigation for them.

Here is a base of scoria (for drainage) and a wheelbarrow load of very damp dirt (3-way mix):

Scoria and dirt

Previously we had a soaker hose for the potato planters, but that didn’t do a very good job of delivering water to the plants (and not all around them). So I added better irrigation, starting with a convoluted pipe off the tap of the nearby bed:

Irrigation piping

The underground pipe to that tap actually goes right by the potato planters, complete with an expansion point, so one day I might add a separate tap for the potato planters, instead of splitting off this bed. But I decided to take this approach for now.

Since I mentioned that, a minor digression: here’s an old picture from 2014 showing that portion of the veggie garden pipes; the potato planters are just beyond my toolbox:

Veggie garden pipes

Another old picture, showing the aforementioned pipe expansion points:

Pipe expansion point

One day I should do a post with plumbing projects like this one from before I started this blog.

Anyway, back to present day.

The irrigation pipe goes behind the potato planters, with emitter leads for each planter, so they can be moved as more dirt is added:

Potato planters with irrigation

I used a new kind of emitter that has a wider coverage than the sprinkler kind I’ve previously used, so one emitter gives even coverage of the whole thing:

Potato planter with irrigation

Hey why not… here’s a GIF edition of that picture, showing it working:

GIF of irrigation emitter

Here’s a wider view of the planters and piping:

Potato planters with irrigation

As the potatoes grow upwards, we’ll add more dirt and retaining boards, resulting in several layers of spuds.

Cat update for week ending May 16

This week, a couple of cam screenshots (showing all five cats), a couple of GIFs (showing Poppa at the cabins, and a day inside the house), and more for your weekly Caturday.

Poppy drinking, Porcini watching:

Porcini and Poppy

Pommie oozing out of a cabin:

Cat in cabin

A screenshot of my iPad cam app (with the outside cam offline), showing all five of the cats: one in a cabin, three in the house, and one eating:

Five cats

Another screenshot of all five, this time two in the cabins, one in the house, and two eating:

Five cats

Porcini watching a bird:

Porcini

An animated GIF of the male alien we call Poppa visiting Pommie at the cabins, and even going inside the other cabin. I continue to be amazed how well they get along:

GIF of cabins

Another GIF, this time a fast-paced summary of a day inside the cat house:

GIF inside house

So much cuteness!

A couple of snuggles from that:

Snuggles

Snuggles

Finally, Porcini watching me from the swimming pool area:

Porcini in the pool area

Porcini in the pool area

Flock Friday for May 15

This week: followup on Gert, news about ducklings, a duck and bird GIF, and various chicken pics. Yep, it’s Flock Friday!

As you may have seen mentioned last week, we lost our female Buff duck, Gert. We’re not sure exactly what happened, but think a raccoon or larger wildlife grabbed her. The last sighting of her alive was when both ducks swam towards the waterfall shortly before dawn, looking curious about something:

Two ducks

Then a few minutes later Bert swam back alone:

One duck

An hour later, when it was light, I saw Bert on the island (upturned pot), looking like he was searching for Gert:

Duck on island

And he kept swimming over to the waterfall area and looking around:

Duck

As described in that post, I later found her remains in the middle of some tall grasses next to the waterfall.

We are of course sad to lose another duck, though know full well that it’s a risk of free-range ducks.

We’re sad for Bert being all alone now, too.

But we certainly aren’t giving up on keeping ducks. We were hoping they would breed and make more ducklings, but now that that isn’t an option, we have ordered more. Seven ducklings, for arrival in the beginning of June.

Firstly we got a replacement female Buff, like Gert was.

We also got male and female Khaki Campbell ducks:

Khaki Campbell ducks

Male and female Rouen ducks, which are interesting for looking similar to common wild Mallards, though do not fly:

Rouen ducks

And male and female Blue Swedish ducks:

Blue Swedish duck

(Click those links to learn more about each, if interested.)

Hopefully we’ll have a better survival rate this time! The duck house I built is sized for four adult ducks, but since the ducks prefer to live outside, it’ll be plenty big enough for seven ducklings.

Of course, in preparation for ducklings again I’ll need to close up the duck house and convert it back to a duckling nursery, but I’ve noticed that Bert doesn’t go in the duck house to eat anyway; he seems to get plenty to eat from free-ranging. I have started to hand-feed him in the mornings, instead of giving him mealworm treats; perhaps not as tasty, but better for him.

So, look forward to lots of cute duckling pics in future flock updates!

Anyway, back to the pictures. It’s getting warmer, so I opened some of the chicken coop vents:

Coop vents open

I picked up some supplies at the feed store (after getting bee nucs), including straw and chick feed for the ducklings, chicken food, flock block, and chicken bedding. So the storage area of the new coop is rather crowded at present:

Crowded storage area

Bert wandering around the edge of the flowerbeds:

Duck

Bert visiting the chickens:

Duck and chickens

As mentioned, I’m hand-feeding him in the mornings now:

Duck

An animated GIF of Bert going onto the pond island and flapping his wings, while birds swoop over the pond to drink:

GIF of duck and birds

A still of Bert flapping his wings:

Duck on island

Broody Kiwi and Martha:

Broody chickens

Chickens:

Chickens

Eggs in a nesting box:

Eggs

Planting veggie garden and adding irrigation

Yesterday we did our traditional Mother’s Day activity of preparing and planting the veggie garden. I also added some improved irrigation.

Over the winter, the chickens get to enjoy going in the veggie garden, providing a helpful service of clearing out the plants and keeping it weed-free. So the first thing was to close the gate and hole in the fence from the chicken runs, so they no longer have access, which always confuses and frustrates them for a little while.

That done, Jenn brought the veggie plants out of the greenhouse, while I used a mattock to break up the compacted soil:

Breaking up compacted soil

I also added some fresh soil. Here’s a prepared bed:

Prepared bed

While Jenn planted the veggies, I added improved irrigation on a couple of the beds:

Irrigation

We had previously used soaker hoses, which don’t really provide the water in the best spots, and tend to fail regularly. This irrigation tubing and emitters should work better:

Irrigation

Here’s a view of the whole garden from the west gate:

Whole garden

We rotate the crops each year. This time, the southwest (SW) bed contains roma and cherry tomatoes:

Tomatoes

The NW bed is still using a soaker hose for now, though I’ve bought some irrigation emitters for it and other beds yet to be converted. It contains a single pumpkin plant (since one is enough to take over half the garden), plus lettuce, kale, and a couple of corn sprouted from seeds:

Pumpkin, lettuce, etc

The NE bed contains corn (a different variety) and onion:

Corn, onion

SE: tomatillos, jalapeños, and zucchini; the second bed with the new irrigation:

Irrigation

One of the reasons for the berry cage is to keep the chickens out, along with wild birds, so the plants don’t get eaten each winter. The SW bed contains everbearing strawberries:

Strawberries

The NW berry cage bed has Hood strawberries:

Strawberries

The SE bed has gooseberries, red currants, and huckleberries:

Gooseberries, red currants, huckleberries

The NE bed has blueberries:

Blueberries

And the north bed has hops:

Hops

This morning I briefly flew my drone for an aerial view of the veggie garden and berry cage:

Aerial view of veggie garden

A closer view of veggie garden side:

Aerial view of veggie garden

And part of the berry cage side:

Aerial view of veggie garden

An angled view of both (and part of the chicken runs):

Aerial view of veggie garden

Two new nucs

Yesterday we drove two hours to Eugene, Oregon (and two hours back) to pick up two nucs — nucleus bee hives, i.e. small starter hives.

The bee pickup was quite a streamlined production, with a line of cars, and people loading the nucs into vehicles:

Bee pickup

Interesting plastic nuc boxes:

Plastic nuc boxes

A sign of the times on the way home:

Stay Home, Save Lives sign

We stopped by the feed store on the way home to get some chicken and duck supplies, which resulted in some escaping bees (here our truck is parked on the grass near the hives):

Escaping bees

The straw and other supplies squeezed the left nuc box enough to let some bees escape. The lids weren’t as secure as they could be. It looks like a lot of bees, but isn’t all that many really:

Escaping bees

We’ve ordered components for a sixth hive, but they haven’t arrived yet, so we used a temporary base and a bit of plywood for a lid:

New hive

Opened nuc:

Opened nuc

Frame with queen. Can you see her? We didn’t spot her at the time, but noticed her in this photo, at the bottom just right of center (the long dark bee):

Frame with queen

A brood frame:

Brood frame

The new hive with the five nucs frames added, and a pollen patty for extra food to get them started:

New hive

Nuc for the “hot pink” hive:

Nuc for hot pink hive

Some nice brood frames:

Brood frame

Brood frame

Brood frame

We spotted this queen; the long dark bee on the left of the picture:

Queen

A closeup of some bees:

Bees

The empty nuc box; we shook most of these bees onto the top of the hive, so they’d find their way inside:

Empty nuc box

We took a look in the older hives. In the cedar hive, we saw their queen (near the top):

Cedar hive queen

Nice new comb in the yellow hive:

Nice new comb in yellow hive

We didn’t see a queen (or sign of one) in the yellow hive, but saw many queen cups, so they’re working on making one. Remember, we recently split the yellow hive to the cedar hive, so now we know which one got their queen, and which one is making a replacement. We’ll check again later to make sure they’re successful:

Many queen cups

A nice honey frame:

Honey frame

We now have six hives:

Six hives

A closer look at the purple, temporary new one, and yellow hives:

Hives

A closer look at the cedar, hot pink, and orange hives:

Hives

All six from the other side:

Six hives

Cat update for week ending May 9

A later than usual Caturday this week, since we went to get a couple of bee nucs this morning. I’ll probably post about that in the next day or two.

This week, another visit by an alien cat, some cuteness, and a cameo by Paladin.

Sleepy Pommie in a cabin:

Sleepy cat

Two cats inside their house:

Two cats inside

An animated GIF of an alien cat, that we call Poppa, arriving at the cat house. We call him that as he looks like our feral cats, especially Spud and Pommie, and could well be their father. He looked in the feeder, then was startled as two cats rapidly exited the house. Surprising to me, Poppy came back and sniffed his nose before going inside, indicating that she’s familiar with him:

GIF of alien cat with two inside

A still of Poppa the alien cat with two inside:

Alien cat with two inside

Poppy and Poppa sniffing noses:

Poppy and alien sniffing noses

Poppy going inside:

Poppy going inside

Comfy cabin cat:

Comfy cabin cat

Relaxed Poppy inside:

Poppy inside

Three cats:

Three cats

Porcini early for breakfast:

Porcini

Paladin watching a cat outside, on the edge of the garden:

Paladin watching cat outside

And then there was one

This morning when I did my rounds I only saw one of the ducks, which is rather unusual. Bert was there to greet me, but no sign of Gert. I thought that perhaps she was nesting somewhere, so I searched all around the pond, but couldn’t find her. Ungood.

When I went back inside, I reviewed the pond cam recordings. I saw them both head off camera by the waterfall at 04:42 AM, then only Bert return a few minutes later. And no further sign of Gert.

I went back out and looked again, and found her in the middle of some tall grasses next to the waterfall. She was dead, and somewhat nibbled.

My guess is they saw some animal on the bank and went to investigate, as they often do. But it was a raccoon or other nasty wildlife that grabbed her and dragged her into the grasses, and things didn’t end well for her.

We are of course very sad about losing another duck, and the first to a predator, probably. Especially since now Bert is all alone.

We had hoped they would breed and hatch ducklings, but now we’ll need to buy some more. One duck isn’t enough for us, and ducks are social creatures, so he’ll be sad for a while.

Flock Friday for May 8

This week on Flock Friday, replacing the chicken run roof netting, and a bunch of pictures of ducks, chickens, and fish.

The new chicken run is fully enclosed. When I originally built it, I used lightweight netting on the roof, but it tended to collapse under the weight of snow. I had a plan to replace it with welded wire fencing, though that would have been difficult and expensive. Then a comment on the blog inspired me to use knotted rope netting instead, which I did last weekend. A 25×50’ roll of 2”-spaced knotted rope netting was perfect to cover the run:

Knotted rope netting

Knotted rope netting

Hopefully that’ll cope with snow much better. We’ll see next winter!

On to the usual pictures. Here are the ducks coming to greet me next to the old chicken coop:

Ducks

And looking to my right, the chickens waiting for me too:

Chickens

Lola (the introverted chicken) has been feeling broody in the new coop of late:

Broody chicken

Standing at the back of the pond, looking through the tree branches towards the duck house and deck. You can see the ducks below the deck:

Pond

A koi in the corner of the pond:

Fish

Ducks:

Ducks

Ducks

Ducks

The ducks coming to greet me on another day:

Ducks

Ducks

Did you see the video of them quacking at me?

The pop door on the duck house has been having issues over the last few days, not closing at night. Here’s me replacing the batteries in the door opener:

David replacing batteries in duck pop door opener

Fish:

Fish

Ducks and fish:

Ducks and fish

A chicken on the roosts above the nesting boxes in the new coop:

Chicken

A bunch of chickens waiting for their mealworms:

Chickens

That isn’t where eggs are supposed to be laid:

Eggs

Eating in the duck house:

Duck

The duck house pop door opening, and a duck going in before it fully opens:

Ducks

Duck

Transplanting volunteer trees behind the shop and pond

This afternoon I dug up some smallish self-seeded fir trees from behind the shop, and transplanted them around that area, and in a couple of places by the pond.

Previously I’ve transplanted volunteer trees from the “back 40”, what we call the wilderness area on the east side of our property. There are lots of self-seeded trees there, but when I surveyed them today, they were all either too big to dig up, too small, or too hard to access due to blackberry vines.

So instead I went to another seedling nursery, near the south boundary behind the workshop. There are lots of seedlings of various sizes there, so I dug up a bunch that were too close to more established trees.

Here is one of those areas, after I dug up the seedlings. There are actually piles of rocks under the grass and dirt; this area has been left to naturalize, so is rather overgrown:

Dug up trees

I put the trees to plant elsewhere in my cart:

Trees in cart

While I was there, I transplanted five small seedlings into the adjacent grass area behind the shop. I used to mow this area, but have decided to extend the wilderness area by several feet, as I want to encourage trees around all of the boundaries:

Trees behind shop

Part of me thinks there isn’t much point in doing that, since we’re unlikely to be here long enough for them to get to a decent size, but you never know. As the allegedly Chinese proverb goes, “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is now.”

I transplanted four of the tallest seedlings in a gap left of pond, where we can see a neighbor’s house from the duck house. If they all survive, they should eventually provide good screening:

Seedlings left of pond

Another angle of the seedlings left of pond, plus existing trees (I know it’s hard to see green against green):

Seedlings left of pond

I added two of the shorter seedlings in another gap behind the pond, replacing a taller one that died:

Two seedlings behind pond

Finally, I was pleased to see a bunch of small self-sprouted seedlings popping up in the slope of the back 40:

Seedlings in back 40