2013

Discussion in 'Members' Systems' started by mischief, Sep 10, 2012.

  1. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    haha, love it

    I picked up the sweetcorn seedlings from the nursery yesterday afternoon and was thoroughly disappointed on two counts.First,I had order 100 so I could grow enough for the whole family to put in their freezers.
    I was handed one medium sized punnet with about 30 all jammed in.The reason for the lack of seedlings didnt really make sense which was confusing, but I guess they had others ask for these and sold them just in case I didnt come back....and then they told me this was going to be their last week.Bugger,just after I had decided to get them to grow the seedlings for me for awhile so I could have abit more leeway in getting and staying ontop of everything.
    Just goes to show, if you dont support your local people, they disappear-trying to be too self sufficient has a down side worth taking into account.
    So, I had to go buy afew more from the hardware store and their 6 packs were pretty much the same with 2 seedlings in each of the pottle thingies.

    It was a good thing that it was raining when I got home cos I had to carefully take the plants out and shake out their soil so I could separate them all for planting.Only broke one so that wasnt so bad and they were all looking good when I went up to feed the chooks so with afew more rainy or cloudy days they should recover from their nasty shock.

    We managed to get four of the fenceposts put in along the back corner where the new chook pens are going to go.
    When I had first built the fence I had the posts too far apart which is why the railings warped and bent.The old brushwood has been rolled up out of the way but Im not too sure it is good for anything.This section of it was pretty much falling apart.
    I am not very popular at the moment because we had to, well hubby had to, break out a concrete post that was jammed in the corner and in the way.
    He strained his back severely doing it, but we didnt realise how bad it was til the next morning when he couldnt move.

    I decided that we need to move the chooks out of the garden.
    I havent been able to keep up with planting out enough greenstuff for them to eat by the time the dome is moved, which of course meant they had to be let out for at least the last part of the afternoon to forage and of course they find our vegies very much to their liking.
    Hubby had been asking me for ages, if perhaps it would be better for them to be put somewhere else, but I wanted to try to get our current system to work properly for us and so kept putting it off.I dont think he realised that the only place for them to go was in his back corner.
    We're friends again now tho.
    ....It might well be that they get moved again, knowing me,especially if the neighbours walnut tree is the reason our feijoas arent producing as well as they used to.........he'll probably read this and grind his teeth.....so when I do the internal fencing for the new pens, I'll make them easy to take out again.....
    But anyway, his side is such a mess and we arent ready to put up the workshop yet so it should all work out in the end.

    What I worked out for them was pretty much back to an old original plan I had before we started on the garden; of 2 'orchard' pens on each side of a central run,(better put in soft fruit and vines or dwarf trees, rather than long lived trees...)
    Now that we have worked out how to keep the neighbours dogs out,(and that they didnt kill the chooks when they did wander in afew months ago) I feel happier about them being moved.
    The fence has to be fixed up anyway and looks like less work than we first thought.
    We are going to put the little water tank on a stand next to the fence, with the chook house in front of it.Hopefully the rainwater off the roof will keep the tank filled up and this can then be gravity fed to wherever its needed.
    I thought putting the tank up on a stand that is at least 2 feet high would mean that they could use this as a winter dust bath area-I expect them to try to lay their eggs in here so it needed to be high enough up so I could crawl in to get them.
    The central scratch yard would be their 'official' pen which makes the whole thing legal from the councils point of view as it is more than 6 feet off the boundary.I can see me bringing in all the lawn clippings and compost material from the garden to the scratch yard for the girls to turn over and sort out for me and manure it slightly while they are at it.This could then go straight on the garden to mulch the beds.
    So the compost bins will eventually be moved out if this idea works.
    I need to sort out a rotation system for the garden, that is more in line with our climate.The current drawing has 4 large beds in the first half but I'm not too sure about the rear section yet.This walnut tree has grown amazingly since its partner was cut down and it is now hanging over the fence which of course means its roots are over here too.
    The root secretions from walnuts can inhibit things to grow, so I m seeing a possible problem in the not too distant future with this.

    last year, I planted the maori potatoes in one part of this section.I had thought these had all been harvested but I obviously missed heaps because they grew again this year and are already flowering.
    The purple skinned type with white flesh got planted out down there as well, seeing as they are all doing so well.Maybe if I keep mulching this area and grow the mustard here over winter with other winter green, this will be enough to keep the potato patch healthy.
    It seems silly to fight with potatoes over where they should grow and I dont have the time or energy to do so.
    Maybe the pumpkins will like growing in the shady area on the other side of the orange tree.I havent found anything to say that they are affected by walnuts or not so we'll just have to see how they go this year.

    I have been reading Sep Holzers book 'Permculture' and am wondering if there would be a way of using some of this area for mushrooms..in partially buried logs.

    I pinched my friends idea for making sure tomato stakes are stable.
    One bed has a stake for each tomato spaced two feet apart in two rows.
    Another has been tied at the tops of these along each row, with a small piece tying the two rows together at each end and to make sure it really is stable, one row also has a stake tied on a diagonal along the row.So far so good.
    The plants got put in deep with their little shallow saucers and afew cabbages were planted down the middle of the row with dwarf beans between each cabbage.
    The trimming from the hedge got carefully scattered over the bed.
    I have always done that with the hedge trimming and thought nothing of it, but a friend stopped, looked at the bed and asked what all That was and why was it there....I had assumed that everybody did things like this.Unfortunately, they seem to think that such a messy garden is the reason why I've been such a scatter brain recently, and perhaps if I tidied it up abit I might feel better......I have actually tidied up other areas that have been annoying but this isnt going to be one of them.
     
  2. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    What month!!
    Had afew dramas to sort out before Xmas so not much of anything got done.

    Ran into abit of a problem with moving the chooks permanently in hubby's back corner.
    We were getting the fencing sorted out-got the back part done where the neighbours dogs were resting their chins eyeing up their potential meal, so that problem got solved.
    When we were working on the side fence we hit a snag.
    Things started to go wrong, dropping hammers, nails, hammering the boards not the nails,WW3.

    It was hot and I had taken a water bottle out, along with an inside thermometre to see what the temps got up to.
    When I went upslope to get drink, I glanced at the thermometre and...we are OUT of here.
    This thermometre only goes up to 55 degree Celcius and ....you guessed it, it was max'd out.
    There is no way we can put the chooks in here over summer, they would just die.
    I have no idea what the actual temps were, but have a feeling it was lot hotter than 55.
    Hubby had work and I had dramas so the last little bit of that corner is still waiting for us.
    The chicks are still living in their cage inside the dome, whichis slowly being moved around the garden.

    The chicks are growing really well.
    We took them up to Auckland with us for Xmas in their cage because I didnt think they would do very well on their own for couple of days.
    The big girls were okay, now that we have finally got the back yard secured properly.

    My brother still had the little moveable chook pen I gave him months ago, but still no hens.
    I asked him if he would like to have a couple of the chicks even though they will not be laying for at least 6 months.He wasnt too sure but thought it would be a good idea to put 2 in there and see how they got on with his sons 8 month old pup.
    Seemed to go okay ,so, happy Tuesday Bro.

    He did have a scare when somehow they got out and the pup gave chase,haha
    They couldnt find one of the hens and thought it was lost.
    When they couldnt get hold of me, they called mum and she told them that it would be somewhere close and to look in their shrubs/trees for it.
    Sure enough there it was.
    After the dog got a good hiding (which I dont agree with doing by the way),the three of them are now happily running around the back yard as one happy pack.

    After I left, I got a query as to whether I had left hens or roosters, cos they were facing off with each other. Fortunately, one of his mates told him that his chicks had done the same thing and told him they were just sorting out their pecking order
    I did know this time which were hens and which were roosters because the roosters started growing their tail feathers and the hens hadnt.

    In the garden, its mixed bag.
    The sweet corn has just been keeping up with the soy beans.They have grown much larger than they did last year which had me worried that I didnt have the right seed.
    I have-can see little pods forming up.
    I finally got the blue Hopi corn planted out-one more grew making the grand total of those three,ah well ne'mind.Seed for next year.

    The potato patch looks fantastic,cant wait.
    There is no way in hell of hilling anything thing up, its all covered, so fingers crossed.

    The shallots etc grew well, but...we have nemotodes and these seem to have affected the size of the bulbs.
    Plenty of actual bulbs.
    Just when they were pulled out, the root area was crawling with them.
    These pesky things seem to have spread further than I thought.
    I need to do some serious research and deal to these.More organic matter has not dealt with them.
    In the last month, the plants also developed, I think, sooty mold.I think this is probably because they were stressed out by the nemotodes.

    All those beans I planted around the trellis'd border....alot died or got eaten.
    I think I sowed them too early.I found some of Pippimcac's Georges beans coming up again from where they grew last year.
    These came up much later than the sown ones.
    I'm hoping to be able to transplant these over to the trellises next spring.Not much point in doing so at the moment though.

    The tomatoes are growing well and been tied up properly to their stakes, all laterals removed this time.
    So much for watering regularly tho, I did water them a couple of times and then we had afew days here and there of rain.
    Nothings drooping so I have fallen back into old bad habits of leaving well enough alone.

    We had our first meal of using the day lilly flowers.Not dead so thats a good sign.
    I put them in the stir fry alittle Too early,(didnt want hubby to know he was eating flowers) and they went all mushy, so I still dont know what they actually taste like.
    The first lot of mesclun mix started to bolt so some of those were harvested too and put in said stir fry at the last minute-very nice.

    Oh, I am NANA again, my daughter had her little boy yesterday.He is gorgeous.
     
  3. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Congrats Nana!
     
  4. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Yeah, its really cool cos this time I'm the maternal nana....we is Special.
    The other grand kids are over for the holidays and I have had time to spend time with them.
    You guys must have it tough over there.They were afraid to walk thru the 'secret paths' in our garden in case a spider or snake Got them.
    Took ages for them to understand that we dont have nasty things like that.
    Now they know dandelion stalks are cool to blow through too....tickles.
    I was worried I would be a hopeless nana, but now they know how to climb trees and find pictures in clouds.what fun!!
     
  5. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Ah I almost forgot..
    we had a dragonfly in the garden for the first time ever,a small red bodied one.
    I have only ever seen the metallic blue ones,I was so excited....but nobody else thought it was special, then I saw another few days later.Completely over the moon.
     
  6. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Hi Mischief

    Congratulations on the new grandson. Your grandkids have one cool nana!

    Question about your tomatoes. Why did you cut off the laterals? Is it better for them?
     
  7. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    I reckon you'll rock as a Nana. Tree climbing is an essential life skill!
     
  8. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    My reason for pinching off the laterals, is because they make it differcult to tie the plant to their stake-too many trunks.
    The other reason is that I dont have very much time to look after them with the laterals on.
    I did try to let them grow one extra lot of toms per lateral, but you re forever pinching Their laterals, so its easier not to let them have any.
    Plus with this heat and humidity we have and not much air flow/breeze like we used to, there is a greater chance of them getting diseased.
    On top of that that laterals tend to sag onto the ground, making it hard to reach their fruit and they wind up rotting-waste.
    For the last couple of years we tend to have no real breeze... or a wind that comes out of nowhere like a howling gale so I want the toms nice and secure with nothing that can be ripped off and cause more damage/disease.
    I love trees, as a kid we were usually either in a tree or the creek.Cant wait for the baby plum to grow to climbing size...great place to hide and read a good book.
    They are going home tomorrow so I'm off to take a lovely big armchair up for them to use as a nursing chair- dont have a rocker unfortunately.

    Anyone in NZ want a lovely rooster?? I have 4 to give away.
    Should start waking the neighbours in about 6 months.haha
     
  9. annette

    annette Junior Member

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    Thanks for that Mischief. I had a bit of trouble with my toms so will try this.
     
  10. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Man o man and I thought I was busy before.
    Being mum to a new mum is hard work!(not as hard as hers thank goodness).
    Once again, the garden got pretty much left to fend for itself and so far has been doing surprisingly well considering we are in the middle of a drought and under water restrictions.
    Its been interesting to note that none of the fruit tastes as sweet this year, which I have assumed is due to the lack of moisture in the soil.

    Our baby Plum tree gave us 13 lovely BIG fruit this season. Not bad for its first season.I really wasnt expecting it to fruit for at least a couple of years when I bought it.Did it fruit because it has a mature graft?

    The sweet corn isnt as sweet this year but is still much better thn the store bought stuff.There are afew left to pluck but most of it has been harvested with half cut of the cob and popped in the freezer for winter.
    Not too sure why, but this year the chooks decided to trample the soy beans flat and ate it all.They didnt even pay it any attention last year, so that was a ...surprise.Oh well.

    The chillis once again have done much better than the capsicums nd one in particular is tagged to collect seed from cos its such a luscious looking shrub compared to the others.There was one capsicum but the chooks must have eaten it while I ws away.Almost ready to give up on these,unless I can find out what the secret is to getting them to fruit properly.

    The tomatoes seem to love there new style stake system and none have fallen over or broken under the weight.
    I buried them extra deep this year and filled the holes up completely with compost.They only got watered til just before Xmas and looking good. Afew of the first lot of fruit had blossom end rot but for some reason that seems to have cleared up.
    Because the girls start eating these when they just start going reddish, we have collected them while they are light green and heading towards red, then witing patiently for them to ripen inside.I found ontop of the bookcase in the hallway is the best spot. Everywhere else seems to be too hot and they go funny.

    The wheat experiment area got left standing so I could see if this is a better thing to do, rather than harvest it,then thresh it, bag it and feed it out to the girls.
    I'm not sure.They seemed to enjoy harvesting it themselves but then so too did these lovely little finch type things I hadnt seen before.
    We have left it as a let go area to see what turns up out of the seeds that got tossed in there.(mainly because we just didnt get time to do anything else with it).
    What I found amazing was the amount of leaf mold forming up from the nearby trees.In most places, its almost 2 inches thick.

    Once again the dome got stuck in one spot and hs been there since before Xmas.The next spot that it was supposed to go onto, had the Maori potatoes self sow/grow, so I had planted the white fleshed/purple skinned ones next to them.The only other spot I could have moved it too still had the wheat ripening and then of course every other spot was taken.
    The white flesh type have already started to die back but the small purple fleshed ones re still going strong.We harvested the first plant of the white fleshed ones after I noticed that alot of them were sitting onto of the soil. 2.1kgs and only watered once.
    I did check to make sure they hadnt gone green inside and they hadnt, but do have a purple ring inside.hmm not supposed to be like that, its supposed to be all white flesh.Going to have some for dinner tomorrow so we'll see what some of the others are like.

    Because we were away again so much, I left the dome open so everyone could come and go as they so chose.A couple opted to roost in the Orange tree again.I think that look so cool.Years ago, I had the girls penned in in an area with a lemon tree.they much preferred to roost in that til it succumbed to borer and collapsed under the weight of them.Visitors always used to wander on up to the tree to find out what those strange white blobs were.I'm sure my neighbours are quite convinced that I am utter mad, but thankfully quite harmless.

    The stinging nettle I got from my cousin died, but then some seedlings started up in the same pot.I hadnt realised that she had put in some seeds as well, so all was not lost.They re still really little cos they are still in the same pot and I am not very good with pot plants, I should plant them out, but dont dare in case the girls spot them.
    I am puzzled as to why they are not eating the comfrey or the fat hen plants.They havent even attacked the Aloe vera plant.Was I supposed to teach them that these are good to eat? They ate them when I chopped them up and popped them in the dome for them.

    Finally we have tomatillos, I though they were supposed to be a reddy purple type but they still look green and then start to fall off, so today, I decided to start harvesting them.Daughter wants them for salsa and a friend is demanding them for a relish she makes.

    One of the new things I planted in the beneficial insect border this year was teasel.I dint realise that the flower looked like the dried one.For some reason I thought it grew differently and then as it ages it produced these spikey looking heads.The bumblebees absolutely love them.
    They also love the orange watsonias.I had cleared out quite afew of these from various places around the yard and tossed them all in the bit behind the garage.This looks glorious from inside. It hadnt noticed the bees on them before, but this year they have been swarming with both the honey and bumble bees.They last for such a long time too.

    We havent got the water tank yet, and still need to save bit more money for it,fingers crossed that we can get it before winter arrives,looks like we are definitely going to need it.The council are going to be metering the water supply soon.

    My brother is not too happy with me, it seems that both the 'hens' I gave him are roosters.One started crowing full on and has been dispatch of to the freezer. The ones we had didnt start crowing til May and had been hatched out around the same time as these ones.Thankfully ours havent started yet.
    We are going to have to catch them one at a time and check their feathers to see if any have rounded shoulder feathers...(big groan).

    A visitor asked me why we let the violets grow out of the bed and halfway across the wide path to the front door.What can you say, 'because we can,... because it actually seems to stop the flow of the rain running down the path and onto the driveway,...Because I like the look of nature trying to take over,... and because it doesnt stop anyone from walking on the path or trip them up?'
     
  11. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    I decided that we are going to put the chooks pens in the back corner,we will just have to provide shade for them til we can get afew trees to grow for shade.
    So far the fenceline has been redone with timber palings. Afew of the railings had to be replaced and a post added because the gap between the existing posts was too far(a girl fence, or so I've been told).I've got one more post to put in before the first half can enclosed, but its raining-goodness, almost forgot what that was, clearing up now by the looks of it, so I should be able to get out there and finish the fencing off bit today.

    Our neighbour-puppies' dad, seems quite pleased with how it looks so far.He's not going to have to worry so much about those fierce southerly winds in winter any more and he's probably quite relieved that I didnt ask him to pay half of the repairs,haha. To be honest, I was relieved when he told me it was looking good/a great idea, cos he is a such a tidy freak and I did worry he might not like the fact that some of the material used was recycled and..um alittle bent in places.

    I explained to him that the official chook pen will be the legal 6 feet away from the fenceline-that is the central scratch yard and that we were going to put the small water tank next to the fence, then in front of that, the chooks house.Hopefully, the roof of this will be big enough to fill the tank up so the girls have their own water supply.
    The old little water container hubby bought is working a treat and isnt getting filled up with mulch being scratched into it, so finally they have clean water All the time.
    To make the whole area as airy as we can, we are putting mesh up rather than palings on each side of the scratch yard-getting those today and I thought if we put something over the top of this and grew grapes up and over, the girls would have somewhere to get out of the summer heat.

    Mum was getting quite excited about all the tropical/sub tropical things we could grow in this corner, til I gently explained that they would die in winter cos winter would just be too cold for them even in that spot.
    The first half of their new yard and there house should be finished this week, so finally I can get them out of the garden and start reworking that.

    Our latest 'great score' is an aluminium/ glass conservatory that a friend had leaning up against the side of their house for years.This had been attached to their house when they bought it but they found it was too hot and took it down, finding the remaining deck was much better.Got the lot for $200.
    One side will go to fill in the open end of the porch and the rest will be turned into a glasshouse.Just going to have to work out how to do the roof for this.
    Bit by bit I think we are getting alittle more organised.
     
  12. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    We had a rep from a local water tank manufacturer over this week to check out the back yard.
    We needed to make sure that their truck would be able to get up the back and that there was enough room for it to maneuver.
    Its a go!.
    I refuse to have anything to do with plastic tanks, even though they are cheaper.We are getting a concrete one.
    I had been told to get the largest one we could fit on site- 25000 litre tank. Apparently our roof and average rainfall will fill it quite nicely.
    I'm pretty sure the garden will love me for it.
    This little beauty is going to be a curved wall in one section of the courtyard and the steps up to the garden will be going up around it.
    Arent curves supposed to be good feng shui?
    The easiest place for the truck to deliver it to was right next to the parking area, but after having afew nightmares about certain family members backing into it and ruining it, I decided that was not a good spot for it.
    Just little more to save up and um, afew trees to move (again)-that poor grapefruit tree gets to go walk about again, the mandarin has had its first haircut they have both had a 1/4 of their roots pruned back severely.
    I'm determined to do it right this time, so all the fruit on the mandarin have been cut off to encourage it to spend energy on repairing its roots instead of growing fruit.
    Between now and mid winter, I'll trim back another 1/4 of the roots each time til its the big move day for them.
    I have been looking at what grows under a friends Walnut tree and how they do.The citrus dont seem to mind the proximity so these will be going down the back long the fence line.
    Since our back neighbour cut down one of his walnut trees, the one growing on our boundary has taken off completely hanging over our two feijoa trees.
    I'm wondering if this is the reason why they have not been producing very much fruit these last couple of years.
    I havent been able to find any info to confirm this tho.

    With the fence and new chook yard.I got the boundary fence put up along the long length along with the 2 metre bit where the new woodshed is going.The back wall of the woodshed is up- thats most of the front fence that walls off the 2 front forage yards. The last two metres of that ws supposed to go just behind the cabbage tree in a straight line, but.... it looks like its going to have to be alittle dog legged to get round this.
    Remember how we cut this 15 year old cabbage tree down....what, 4 years ago? Well its just about the same height already as it was back then and much bushier.
    The chook house is finished and looks very tidy.Only one of the central scratch yard walls is finished cos I am waiting for the Mulberry tree to go dormant and for the choko vine to stop smothering it.Not too sure where I should put the Mulberry.
    This whole thing is my project, no tradesmen allowed to interfere, I mean help.
    It takes me while to get things done compared to guys, when I hit a snag, it tends to sit for afew days while I think about it.
    That wouldnt have been much of a problem, I thought my winter work was going to have late start so I've been taking my time, only to find out ...we start on Monday, not next month like I thought.
    Meanwhile we have no fence between our very tidy neighbours and us and I had to let them know it might not go up until after winter now.

    Part of the problem with getting it up was that I realised that the retaining wall between us would need to be replaced at some point. Our neighbour didnt think it needed doing now, but when I pointed out that when it definitely will need to be replaced in 10 years time- we will be too old to help and may not be enjoying the same level of income and so not be able to pay towards it either.So we supplied the materials and he is going to do the work. As they will be looking at the retaining wall everyday, I'm sure it will be done properly-he's a carpenter by trade and very meticulous so it should all work out. Cost me a couple of weeks tho, but just as well I held off otherwise the woodshed would be built already too and I've since found out that the truck that will deliver the tank will need that 2 metres to turn more easily into the courtyard.

    The rep that came out has a brother in law who has converted his whole house onto a 12 volt system- I learnt this when he hesitatingly asked how we intended to get the water to the house and I said 12 volt pump on solar panels with a header tank.
    I got to hear all about what BIL has done which made me more confident in us going the same way.

    Another tick on our 'to get' list is an old style wringer washing machine.I had wanted to get a twin tub thing which I uses to have when I first went flatting and loved, but we just couldnt find one.
    Hubby turned up one day with the wringer instead and it looks like it all works-well it did so far but thinking about it maybe we should have checked it out with water in it before it went into the shed.
    Anyway, at some point the laundry will be reconfigured to accomodate this.
    I did spy an old concrete laundry tub in my travels but I dont know that might be taking the back to basics thing alitle too far.

    Our roosters have started to crow.They seem to be taking turns and dont all do it at once which is good.I checked with the neighbours and they said they could just her them but then went back to sleep cos it wasnt very loud.When I stand on the otherside of the yard next to grumpy neighbours place, you can hardly hear them at all-whew. Maybe we will be okay keeping one of them.Funnily enough, the white rooster thats seems to be doing all the bonking doesnt seem to be crowing much- well I havent seem him do it but 2 of the others are.
    We got confirmation that one of the 'roosters' is actually a hen, so that makes 3 definite hens now.Unless roosters are gay or bi-sexual.
     
  13. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Last week I ordered some more fruit trees as well as a native tree fushia and a couple of native vines...oh and a stone pine.
    These will probably be the last lot cos I cant see where any more will fit.
    I kick myself for not getting a stone pine when we first moved in like I was going to.If I had, it would be providing lots of lovely pine nuts by now, oh well, the kids and grandkids will probably enjoy them in 15 years time.

    Its that Feijoa time of year again and for some reason we have absolutely enormous fruit from our two trees.I dont know why they all of a sudden changed from the scrawny long fruit to these wonderful fat things.I certainly havent done anything to them at all this year.I am wondering if our incredibly hot summer had anything to do with it.
    The chokos on the other hand did not produce the insane amount they normally do, which, to be honest is a relief.It can be hard to find homes for them sometimes and you can only stand so much chutney and relish.

    I was surprised to see that the lima beans were actually producing pods (could see them once I cleared off the choko vine).
    These didnt sprout for ages, well after all the other bean types and are still madly flowering even with the onset of chilly nights.
    The flowers are so puny compared to the other bean flowers and when you see the size of the beans themselves, it just seems odd that their flowers should be so small and insignificant in comparison.

    On sunday, I killed one of the roosters.He just had to go, his clarion call was so piercing that even I couldnt stand the noise.(Is it possible to breed chooks to produce a low key crow?)
    It wasnt particularly pleasant experience but I think it went as well as killing anything could go.
    As soon as it was definitely dead, I sat in the porch and madly plucked away before it got too cool.
    I cant stand the smell of wet feathers and didnt want to have to dip it in hot water to loosen the feathers.
    Next time I do this, I'm going to do the wings and tail first.They seem to cool down faster than the body and it was a bit of a mish to get the tough feathers off.
    I wanted to keep the feathers dry so I can use them as stuffing(when there are enough of them).
    At this stage I have no idea what they will go in.I think it would tke a few years to get enough to fill a duvet so maybe a pillow.
    I'm sure the body feathers were more fluffy than the one my son in law dispatch for me.Winter coat?
    I always thought chooks had to molt in order to get a new set of feathers or maybe its just due to being a slightly different breed,they feel really nice and I did have a good look through them to make sure there were no bugs in amongst them.

    I still cant get over the difference in size of real chicken breastmeat to what you buy in the shops.
    As SIL says, those ones are blobby boobs and the smaller homegrown ones are how they are supposed to be.
    At the time I did get a mental image of the difference between Pamela Anderson and my good self and felt some what happier about myself even though it wasnt my unblobby boobs being discussed.

    It does make you realise though, just how much marketing plays a part in what we think is good or better.Preserved foods with those startling bright colours, big breasted chickens...they used to be Normal and now when I walk past them in the supermarket, I wonder what it took to get them to that size.

    Rooster makes great soup and the chicken breastmeat was just as tender as the shop bought ones but with alot more flavour.

    I thought I had found a home for the second one, but his new dad didnt come to pick him up last night or tonight,not sure what happened there and hope it wasnt that his wife changed her mind about them having him.I'll find out tomorrow.

    The three beds that got planted out with naked oats look like they re doing quite well.I should have got them in alot earlier than I did but better than not at all.
    I wish I had sown more of this.I thought there were enough plants to do afew more beds, ne'mind.

    Next week is root planting day so all the garlic cloves I have been hiding from my daughter will get planted out.
    Last year(?) I spied a couple of heads of hardneck garlic in the supermarket, bought them both and planted them.I had never seen this type there before-actually, I have never seen this type before, fullstop.
    They grew really well.each head had 5 cloves which multiplied my haul be exactly the same amount.Better still, they are all around the same size and nice and fat, so no more struggling to peel little bulbs or being embarrassed by the puny size of my crop.
    I'm not going to bother with the other type from now on.
    I havent figured out how to string them up properly tho.Will have plenty to practise on next summer I guess.

    I decided that I will plant out the elephant garlic this year as well.The last crop had that proper garlicy flavour, unlike the first crop which just tasted sort of oniony.Wonder if they got watered too much.

    Oh, grumpy neighbour waved out to me the other day, I just about fell over.I had been worried that he was going to get hissy over the fact of us having rooster yet again, but they must be far enough away from him not to upset him.
    It could have been that he overheard me telling a visitor that out of the 9 eggs that hatched 7 of them were roosters(or so we thought at the time, 2 rooosters wound up being hens), maybe he feels alittle sorry for me and is just glad he only got to listen to 3, from a distance.
    hope we dont have to dispatch of the 2nd one, he relly is quite lovely, I did want to keep him, but his call is much higher pitched than ...Henry's is.Yes we named the rooster.
    I want to keep him so we are going to sound proof the chook house so those early summer morning cries are muted.Not such a problem in winter but even 4am is alittle early for me.
     
  14. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Mmmm feijoa - my tree is now in its 4th year and still no fruit. Not sure what I'm doing wrong. So I buy them at the markets instead. Sadly my teenage daughter has just discovered she likes them so now its a race to make sure that I get to eat some too.

    I saw a nice sound proof chook house on a Geoff Lawton DVD once - can't recall which one - possibly the urban one. It was a straw bale construction with wall so thick that no sound got out and no light got in!

    I'm yet to taste home grown rooster despite having dispatched 2 when I did my PDC. I can't wait to see what all the fuss is about.
     
  15. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Some feijoas need a pollinator and the ones that dont, fruit better when they have a friend.
    Talking about fruit things not fruiting...we have an old kiwifruit vine on the back fence.I have never seen any flowers on it at all so dont even know if its a male or female.It was there when we moved in in '96.I did try killing it( not with weedicide tho), but it just grew back again.I have since heard that you can graft these, so mybe we should look at doing that to this one.
    The cocktail kiwifruit we planted should be fruiting next year-supposed to take 4 years to get its act together, so maybe its the same for your feijoa.

    Our sound proofing (hope it works!!!) is ...nah, I'll wait til its done and tell you if it worked or not.
    Why did you not eat the ones you dispatched of on your PDC? I would have thought the plucking, gutting and eating would have been major part of 'utilizing existing resources'.

    Apparently Henry #2 didnt get picked up cos his new dad got called out of the area for work, so maybe tomorrow night.
     
  16. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    The roosters belonged to our PDC teacher. Given that he had fed and housed them to maturity it wouldn't have been right to ask if I could take them home!

    I did buy a second feijoa to keep the first one company. Maybe I could buy another but if I keep going along those lines I risk having a large number of rather attractive but completely nonproductive feijoas.
     
  17. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Eco,
    I did a check and your Feijoas should start fruiting this coming summer, hopefully our cocktail kiwifruit will be doing the same.

    Last week, the white rooster went to his new home.
    His new dad brought in a cat cage for me to pop him in and he was picked up on 'dads' way home. Yay!!!!

    I think one of the baby hens is starting to lay even though its coming in to winter now-I keep finding eggs in odd places or just outside the nestbox.
    Its as though she doesnt quite know where to lay them or isnt too sure about hopping in the nestbox with one of the big girls already in there.

    My neighbour let me know that he's ready to replace the retaining wall this weekend, so I bought the materials he needs and dropped it all off yesterday.Now he saying he'd like to help fix the fence up too....hmmm, no thats my project and I am going to show the boys that we girls Can put a decent fence up.I know exactly how I want it and where I want it, then again,maybe I should let the guys to the hard work.

    The trees arrived, looking beautiful.Some were bare rooted so they have been potted up with gorgeous black compost-I m impressed with our compost, its completely broken down and looks lovely.

    The garlic all got planted out yesterday- a root day apparently.
    As I was planting them, I did notice that some of the bulbs felt alittle soft and wondered if I should not have been so pedantic about when to plant...they could have done with going in last week when they were still hard. Ahhh! cant wait for harvest day.

    Cos its a long weekend this weekend, we are going to get the chook house sound proofed-I bought the sheets of ply board to line the inside of the chook house in readiness.Just hope this fine weather lasts til monday night so we can get it all done.

    One thing I forgot to mention last time was when I was clearing out the bed that now has the Oats planted out,I found some pole bean pods had split open and scattered their seeds around the plant.These had started to sprout.
    I didnt want them to set roots down there cos they would be in the way so they all got potted up and put on tray in the courtyard.
    I was going to put them in the porch but want to see what happens to them out in the open in a similar situation to where they would have grown.Will they just die or will they grow?
    They did grow and quite quickly too. We've just had the first real frost which has made them go all droopy-they're actually under the mandarin tree to try to reproduce the little frost protection they would have got from their parent plant.
    If this is what happens with wild beans then technically they should struggle on for alittle while longer then die back and resprout next spring.
    A handful of the sprouted beans- the ones that hadnt quite set roots n the ground- got tossed under the baby plum tree sort of as a control group.....We shall see what happens.
     
  18. eco4560

    eco4560 New Member

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    Go you fence building girl you! Show those chaps that you can do it....
     
  19. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Well!!!! The boundary fence finally got finished.
    It looks fantastic and I will post pics of it soon. One of my neighbours aunties visited just as I was putting up the last few boards and all I could hear was 'Oh, its soooo beautiful!!". They are Hell Impressed.... So am I, it looks better than I thought it would.

    A Real !!!Girl Fence = Mischiefs' magnificent monument to marvelous mothers.

    I bumped out the middle part where the arbor is going, just to break it up a bit. I thought one long fence with no breaks would look oppressive. As it turns out, this is right opposite the entrance to the neighours' back verandah, giving the whole thing a nicely balanced feel.

    I was going to do it the other way around with the garden beds narrower on each side of the seating area, but when I marked it out, I realised that I would lose one hell of a lot of space, so I swopped it around so the beds would be wider and the seating area alitle narrower.

    I have a trellis at each end of the seating area and at the very end of the garden- the actual trellis is some of the reinforcing mesh that was already being used in the garden, framed with 4x2's and a very sturdy post.
    I used my trusty angle grinder with its diamond cutting disc to cut the mesh down to size.

    On the drivewayside of the arbor, I planted a New Zealand Clematis. This should grow up the trellis, over the top (which isnt actually there at the moment, cos I havent worked out exactly how I want it to look) and drape gracefully over the other side.
    Southernwoods nurseries have a native plants section that is getting me thinking about how I could have a flower garden using just NZ natives.
    I am psyching myself up to wean off european garden flowers in favour of Kiwi wunda downunda's.

    The garden beds have been made with some retaining wall timber. There was some sort of mix up with the wrong sort of retaining wall being delivered- it was supposed to be the tongue and groove sort but we got straight boards sent instead.
    I was having such a good winter season, I didnt have time to send the wrong stuff back and decided to use it elsewhere instead.The ground is sort of higher on my side of the fenceline,so the bottom of the fence was framed with retaining wall rather than fence railings, so I could use it to help level the garden, for example.

    I decided to have a trellis at the very end, down by where the woodshed will be because we are going to have the stump to split the firewood tucked in behind this and needed something to stop flying firewood from damaging the garden.( should hide the wheel barrow as well).

    I used alot of the weedmat that my son in law gave me to cover the whole area from the retaining wall to the edge of the garden to try to keep the convovulus OUT!
    On top of this (on our side), I have put down a mulch of bark.
    Each of the two beds have exactly one baby pear tree right in the middle....and thats it so far.
    It looks really nice, but a part of me cringes because it looks so bare and modern... and empty!
    I need to keep it that way for a while to make sure the convovulus does not grow throughout this area again. I need one space at least that I dont have to keep weeding this stuff out.

    I am going to have a go at espaliering the Pear trees. I have the wire for their supports in the garden shed. An uncle gave this to me a number of years ago but I hadnt had a use for it til now.
    The book I have just been looking at suggested putting the bottom wire 38 cm above the ground. I'm thinking thats alittle low and that 60cm would be better to make sure there is good room for underplanting.

    Now I just have to finish the dividing walls in the chooks pens,so I dont have to keep letting them out for all those lovely extra greens they need and get rid of the peach tree so the water tank truck can get in with our tank.
     
  20. mischief

    mischief Senior Member

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    Finally got the pics up on my photoblog of the fence and the almost finished four rotation chook yards.
     

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