Sunday, September 22, 2013

The Coop Stoop

Okay, I admit. Hindsight being what it is, the entry stoop to access the front of the coop should have been much bigger. Due to the addition of misters (it gets hot here, you know?), the area Around the original stoop became one big mud pit when the misters were on. This may or may not have led to one of my neighbors busting her arse in the mud (and reportedly being heckled by the chickens). So............  Today was 'expand the stoop
 day'.  Since I am a cheapskate at heart and have plenty of old block and brick lying around, I used what I had.
Midway through. Unhelpful chicken is unhelpful.

The finished product. Mud free.

Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Veggie Garden - Update

as bought
Although it has been a prodigious first year for the veggie garden, the spring/summer crops had begun to fade into oblivion (plus, who needs that much eggplant when most of your neighbors hate eggplant?).  So, last weekend I dug out all the fading/non productive stuff and tilled up the beds for replanting with FALL and WINTER veggies!!  I know, I know, it's still 100 degrees and yadda yadda, but seriously, I am jonesing for fall and reviving the veggie garden will help save my sanity. Which is in precious need of saving due to the amount of work I've put in this summer in my *cough* corporate (ugh) job...... Thank goodness for chickens and cherry tomatoes.

prepping the space
 So far the following have been torn out (either because they were unproductive or I was just sick of eating nothing but eggplant for 3 months straight) - eggplant (one lone shrub survived the purge - you are welcome Pat); radishes (fungus and wilt problems lately); cantaloupe (only 1 plant survived), carrots and corn (damn you rodents!).  And now the following are getting an early start on fall......  Spinach, arugula, yellow onions, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, more curled parsley (because I like it in my omelettes), and w more thornless blackberries (because, yum.).  These join the standards that made the cut to stay which include - green beans, orange and green bell peppers, fresno chilies, basil, honeydew, cherry tomatoes, raspberries, blueberries, grape tomatoes, old german heirloom tomatoes, pineapple tomatoes, cucumbers, strawberries, asparagus and the necatarine and lime trees.
as of today, scraggly

cucmbers

hot hot chilies

beans

previously eggplant, now spinach starts

Lets face it, these girls get more of the goods than I do. Ingrates.