Out the Back today...

*.¸✿¸.*✿¸.*✿ In the hen house ✿¸.*✿¸.*✿¸.*

These little bantams are the best brooders, and they make the best mothers.

We now have three clucky hens J

These two are even willing to share the load.  They are sisters that we reared from babies.  

The other hen is one of their offspring...

 So they have been separated and fertile eggs brought in from outsiders and placed under them. This is the first time we have had double decker pens J

We really don't need any more chickens, but try telling these girls that...

 We are still getting plenty of eggs J 

They come in all different sizes and colours...

I reckon that big one in the front will be a double yolker, 

we have had a few of them this year.

 *.¸✿¸.*✿¸.*✿  In the Garden ✿¸.*✿¸.*✿¸.*

To the left...

To the right...

This morning in the garden was yet another one of our regular visitors.  He wasn't so keen to hang around today.  I really don't want him in the garden, because they like to eat the veggies, especially strawberries, so I was pleased to see him continue on his way out of the gate.

 Plenty of bees a buzzing J

 Even had a few little native bees hanging around...

(Click pic to enlarge)

Potatoes...

 I have my tomatoes in. I put eggshells in the hole under the plant to add calcium, and put a layer of newspaper down followed by a thick layer of mulch...I usually have trouble growing the bigger tomatoes, so have been doing some reading and hopefully, this year will be more successful.  This is the only veggie that gives me grief.  The tiny toms grow like crazy!

I have more sweet potatoes growing...

Kale still growing although it is struggling a bit with the warmer weather and is shooting up to seed...

The onions are almost ready to harvest J

Sweet potatoes growing well in a bath.  Hubby has managed to get three more baths and at the moment is making frames for them.  We are going to replace one of the larger garden beds with these baths as they hold moisture really, really well...

 I have cut the capsicums back...

you can see how well the olla's work by the weeds growing J

Two beetroot plants that were too small to pick when I harvested the others. When they are ready I will use this bed for something else. I have seeds planted in punnets and am waiting patiently for them to grow...

 

The lettuces as they are now.  The weeds you can see are oats and vetch.  I let it grow a little before pulling them out and laying on top of the bed. I believe they add nitrogen to the soil...

 Strawberries...

This is the bed we are going to replace with baths.  It is a wicking bed, but I think because it is so big, it does not work well. It dries out really quickly. Hopefully I can transplant the rhubarb successfully, I would hate to lose it now it is so big...

 Potatoes in a pot...

I have yet to plant anything in these beds, I am still testing the olla's to see how moist they keep the soil in the heat. So far so good...I think I need to add more compost to this soil though...

Potatoes and capsicum...

 Carrots...

 Tiny tomatoes and carrots growing happily together.  

These are all self sown...

The strong winds have knocked the spring onions about...

 The zucchinis are not going so well.  

I think I have been keeping the shade over them too much.

I have four plants but only one is doing any good, so

 I have put some more zucchini seeds into punnets...

Today is a lovely day with nice warm sunshine.  The temperature is suppose to be 33C (91.4F). 

Tomorrow will be a whole different story with the temperature rising to 

38C (100.4F).

Another hot, windy, dirty spring day!

Wed

Oct 9

17

38

Dust. Becoming windy

Wishing you all a lovely day, hope the weather is being kind J

xTania

Water Saving, Chickens and Critters

This is the best news yet!

I have rainwater in my vegetable patch!

And wearing a grin from ear to ear  J

We have lots of rain water in storage, (I think about 15,000 gallons) so this will make good use of it.

Hubby has been busy catching up on much needed jobs around here.  

Apart from putting a tap in my garden, he has installed chicken nipples in the hen house.

 He bought the nipples off eBay, and put them into poly pipe, but he is not completely happy with it.  The water is seeping out around the nipples so he is thinking of replacing the pipe with something else.  Hubby took the main water supply away, and being the inquisitive type, the chooks soon worked out that water came out of the new bright shiny things in the hen house...the bricks at the bottom are for the baby chicks to stand on to reach.  

Hubby asked a mate to pick up one of these barrels while he was in Adelaide to use for water storage for the nipples.

The barrel is hooked up to a rainwater tank behind the shed.  

To the barrel, he added a float.

Hopefully with this setup we will cut down on our water bill.

For those who have not seen.  This is our chicken pecker.  We purchased one of these a while back to try and stop the sparrows and pigeons from eating a lot of our grain.  It stops the sparrows, but the pigeons are still tall enough to reach it.  The chickens didn't take long to figure out how to use the pecker. They are clever birds J 

We hang the grain bucket from the roof with wire. 

I previously blogged about it 

here

Hmmm think it is time I raked out their pen again J

In the hen house, we have two more broody girls.  

We are waiting for the delivery of some fertile eggs from a chicken breeder.

We do own a rooster, but are wanting to bring in fresh eggs and try some different breeds.

The rest of the girls are doing what they do best...

This was the view from my lounge room window the other day.

A lovely day for a dust bath in my (dying) front garden. 

I have not been watering the flowers to save water.

Drinking the run off water from the hot water service.  

We collect it and use it to water plants to stop wastage.

The baby chicks were out and about enjoying the day.

I could just sit for hours watching them...

There was a bee buzzing near the chicks, but they somehow knew not to touch it...

A couple more visitors have passed through...

This fella didn't like me getting too close for a photo...

This is his warning sign to nick off!

There is also a snake hanging around, but he has proved to be very elusive.

It has been really windy on a few occasions recently, which is typical for our Spring...

It has been strong enough to cause some slight damage around the place, but not anything too bad...

There are more winds due today.  

It has only been two days since our last wind bashing.  Gusts were very strong, between 75-100 km/hr (46 - 62 mph?) at times.  

It picked up dirt and debris and dumped it all under my verandah!

 I am getting quite used to sweeping up the mess J

Remember my outside thermometer/clock I painstakingly painted?

Well this is it now, thanks to a big gust of wind!

I guess I can use the pieces on top of my olla's in the garden J

Hubby has declared war on the sparrows!

He is so sick of them nesting under the verandah and pooping on every thing...

They make a terrible mess!

So this is what he has come up with, cylinders made with gutter guard and zip ties...

And he is placing them all the way along the verandah...

He needs to find a better way to secure them because the strong winds and sparrows (we call them spoggies) keep knocking them down.

 He uses this contraption and a ladder to put the cylinders up into the spaces.  

He has completed about half way around the verandah.

So for now he has won the battle, but will he win the war? 

Time will tell J

What has been happening in your neck of the woods? I hope the weather is being kind to you J

xTania