One Year on the Farm

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. 

The summer is drifting away down south and autumn is sauntering in from the north. It was a busy summer and at times quite hot and humid. Aaron and I accomplished many things, but not as many as we had hoped. I suppose that's true for most people. Here's the basic summery of what's happened this summer:

The greenhouse is still standing but is now gutted and being prepared for phase 1.5 of the aquaponics plan which will involve a flood table and gravel bed and a lot of tomatoes. We are already beginning the phase 2 of the plan which involves building a geothermal greenhouse. We're both very excited about it and hope it will be completed by the spring next year.

The two ducks turned out to be two drakes. I really wanted duck eggs, so I adopted two more ducks for them, only to find out one was a young drake whose drake feather had yet to curl. So that's three boys to one girl. I've named them Peter, Sasha, Kevin and Penelope. Lucky for Penelope, Sasha and Kevin have entered into a homosexual relationship. I'm not sure it's entirely consensual, but drakes in general are kind of a rape-y bunch anyway, so there's not much I can do. In any case, she doesn't have to deal with all three of them trying to have sex with her. We built them a pond and fenced them in a nice little area behind my studio. They have become the bullies of the farm and can even scare off Wiley!

L -> R: Kevin, Penelope, Peter and Sasha. This was taken on the first day they met.

Everyone swims together happily in their new pond!

Penelope (on the left) and Kevin. Kevin came to us undersized and with what's called "Angel Wings". It is when the wings droop and it's a sign of nutritional deficiencies. But since he's been here, the problem has gone away and he's a big, robust boy with healthy, normal wings.

A close up. This is after they ate all the lovely plants I planted around the pond. 

Our great cat huntress, Hilda, has most definitely passed away. She hasn't been seen or heard since the late spring and the last time I saw her she didn't look so healthy. I didn't get a chance to take her to the vet. I'm being more proactive with Chairman Meow who has been taken to the vet and updated on all his shots. The Goon Squad is still doing well. I'm pleased to report that Carl- who has FIV- hasn't gotten any worse. And Lucy, his sister, is still fat and pretty. The mysterious Himalayan still has no name but has taken up residence in the attic space above my studio. She is a night hunter and quite good I think.


We now have a total of 18 guineas- 1 keet (baby), 12 young adults, and 5 full grown adults. The adults had a clutch of keets in early August and I counted 7 originally. I killed one accidentally by leaving a bowl of food out overnight while it rained. The next morning I found one had drowned. Another was killed by Atticus. He was trying to play with it and he's so big and strong- one tap of the paw and it was dead. We couldn't get to him fast enough. The others I assume were picked off by cats, snakes, owls and hawks. Now only one survived but I am confident he will grow up and continue to thrive. He's fast and can fly and is getting bigger every day.

Wanda regards some of the young guineas. They don't roost in the coop anymore by their own choice. They roost in the big oak tree across from my kitchen window. They come and go in the coop as they please.

This is during a time when one of the adult guineas took on looking after the young ones- it was as if he was giving them a tour of the farm. This lasted for a week or two. He'd herd them all over the place and they followed him wherever he went and did whatever he did- all while making an enormous amount of noise. You can spot him at the far left in this photo. He's the one with the clearly white face. Whenever they would come around to where Aaron and I were working, Aaron would say, "Look! Here comes the idiot parade!" 

They love hanging out at the pond and snatching up bugs.

They are no longer so very cute.

The six chicks I bought in the early spring are now the same size as the adult chickens and I've already found 3 small chicken eggs from them.... which is better than finding 3 small alligator eggs from them. I call them "The Chicklets" like they're a girl group from the 60's.

Wanda the one-eyed wonder chicken is still singing and having adventures all over the farm. My Mom has written a few children's stories about her and I've illustrated one and will be doing the others too. I'll have to figure out how to post it so I can share it with you all.

Wanda (background) and Betty help us dig the pond for the ducks. Betty is still missing feather, as you can see. I've tried everything but it seems that this is how she is now and that's final. I tell people she has emotional problems.

Wanda sits and waits to be taken to bed. Every evening she sits right here and waits for me to come and pick her up and put her in the coop on the roost. 

A close up of my special girl back before the ducks had the fence penning them in.

Aaron and I have decided that we hate taking care of the "lawn" here. It's not actually a lawn. There's all kinds of weeds, which are mostly quite pretty if you let them grow. The reason we hate it is that there are no flat spots of ground. It's full of small ruts, divots, big rocks and muddy patches that are easy to get stuck in. And of course, you don't want to mow when the grass is wet- it will clog up the mower so we have to wait till the grass is dry. But by the time the grass is dry in the summer, it's 90 degrees and insanely humid. And the zero turn mower keeps breaking down, to top it all off. We can't win!

My backyard garden was an interesting experiment and I learned a lot. Next year I'll be working in raised beds and turning my backyard into a flower and fern garden. I did get a lot of watermelons and a few squash, eggplant and one little pumpkin. The corn didn't do very well and now that I know what I know- it should do much better next year.

The first zuchinni!

The first watermelon radish!

It looked good! 

And here are more photos:

Chairman Meow in the cat barn with Lucy in the background.

Atticus loves to swim!

The chicken I call "Pretty Chicken" (I don't want to name her for real because she's gonna get slaughtered soon) went through a phase of getting out of the coop and laying her eggs in the cat beds. I have no idea why.

Sunrise

We had an audience during our pond digging.

Day one of pond digging.

My parent's dog, Callie, and Atticus are best friends.

My Mom got me this great table and chair set for my front porch. Wanda is inspecting it from afar.

Aaron and Atticus cuddle on the couch.

Atticus in my weeds. After I took this picture, I pulled all those weeds out and planted begonias. They looked beautiful until the chicklets came and ate them all. 

Atticus and Aaron in the pool. 

The evening hang out. Now the ducks are in their own area, this doesn't really happen so much anymore. 

The ducks chasing Wiley. Actually it's Peter who chases Wiley and Sasha serves as point man. Kevin and Penelope don't seem to think it's a good idea and only come along because they don't want to be too far from the flock.

After a hot afternoon running around, it's nice to lay down and put your snout in a bowl of ice.

Atticus and Callie napping together at my parent's house.

Love Thy Fowl

Oh I love my ducks! They just make me so happy!

Last weekend we had our friends, the Adams' come for a visit all the way from Ohio. Mike, Beth, Lexi, Ella, and Linc made the weekend extra fun and special. Our parents were also able to come out and spend the day. It was grand. I have to say how impressed I was with the Adams children- such well behaved children are a delight! They were polite, helpful and so good around all the different animals. They listened patiently and politely while I took the whole family on a tour around the farm. They thanked me for the pool toys I got for them without a parent reminding them! I look forward to them all coming back for another visit as soon as they are able.

One of the funny stories to come out of that weekend is as we adults were sitting on the pool deck and the children were playing in the pool, Beth and I were talking about the ducks. Their pool is not far from where we were sitting and they were doing their ducky thing around it. I was telling Beth that we had hoped we got a pair of ducks but it seems that we ended up with two girls, which was fine with me since I loved them no matter what. She asked how could I tell, since the Swedish Blues are not sex-linked; meaning the drakes and ducks have the same coloring. I told her about the drake feather, which is a small feather on the tail of a drake that curls up back towards the head. I pointed out that both my ducks had straight feathers on their tails.

Fast forward to that evening- everyone had gone home (Mike and Beth and the children stayed over at my parent's house for the night) and I'm going around cleaning up and doing my evening chores. I see the ducks and watch them for a bit until I realize.... one of them has a drake feather! It was almost as if he heard me talking to Beth and said, "HEY! I'm not a girl! Check this out!" and promptly started puberty.

They are getting close to the time when the duck will lay her first eggs. Within the next month. So I've put dummy eggs in their nest box and started offering a bit of oyster shells along with adding a bit of layer pellets to their feed. not too much at first. Mike and Beth are the ones who clued me in to the dummy eggs. They said that if I want to encourage the chickens to lay in the nest boxes I made for them, I should either put real eggs or dummy eggs in them. Ducks are the same! I got a few wooden eggs and placed them there while the ducks were in the yard. I didn't want them to see me and become suspicious.

I cannot decide weather or not I will let them have a brood of chicks or collect the eggs are they are laid. A bunch of baby chicks running around would be wonderful, but I'm not sure if we're ready for all that.

Also, the ducks need new names. I have decided that the drake should be named Peter. He just... looks like he should be called that. The duck... I'm still thinking about it.

Here are a few photos of the Adams' visit:

Where to begin?

This is the longest I've gone without posting some sort of update. I'm sure I've lost some, if not most, of my readers. Well, it's my own fault.

For those of you still interested, there has been a lot of new additions and updates around Three Oaks Farm.

I'll start with the aquapoinics system. The bush beans are being ravaged by a variety of bugs, but it hasn't effected the crop of beans all that much. I've done what I could to try and control the bugs. I can't use any insecticides since it would contaminate the water and poison the fish. But I've set out traps and purchased a package of ladybugs that have taken up residence and do what they can to help.  I leave the spiders alone and wish them luck- and that's really all I can do. The plants are all growing, but not as quickly as we'd like and not producing as much as we'd like either. The system is a balancing act and we are still figuring it all out. The fish went through a rash of suicides recently- 4 jumped out of the tank. There are a number of reasons for this, and we've tried to do what we can to prevent it from happening in the future.

We have decided that in the next phase, we would like to have a lot more control over the environment we are growing in. So Aaron has found a system that we both like very much and can incorporate into an aquaponics system. It's a geothermal greenhouse style and it will allow us to grow year round without using much, if any, electricity and keep it relatively free of pests. It will be dug partially into the ground, which is why it's called geothermal.

We are still working out the details of when to start construction, but it begin this year for sure.

The chicks and ducklings that I last wrote about are now happy members of the farm. The chicks are now pullets. Pullets are chickens that are no longer chicks but under a year of age and not yet laying eggs. The ducklings look like adults but haven't yet started laying eggs and though the lady at Poultry Hollow tried to get me a pair- male and female- it seems I've got two girls! I'm happy to have them no matter what their sex. They are a constant delight and always put a smile on my face. I just think they're hysterical- from the way they walk to the way they pause, tilt their heads and regard me with one eye. They are not terrified of me anymore, but they get out of my way if I move towards them. I'm sure over time that will lessen even more. Since they are girls, I've decided to re-name them after two of my dear friends: Lori and Alyse. I've decided I'll have to get two more ducks to name my friends Josh and Sharon after, since we were a tight group of friends from way back in my NYC days.

The pullets have gone through a lot of changes. They look like adults until you see them next to an actual adult chicken and realize they are still pretty small. They don't grow as fast as the ducks, or live as long, which is odd to me. My ducks can live up to 14 years max, but the chickens (I have been told) will only live for 6 or 7 years max. Anyway, the pullets started getting out of their pen and I decided that they needed to be moved up the hill to the main chicken coop. I had been rearing them in Wanda's coop, next to the cat's place. So with some help from Aaron we caught all six pullets and put them in two boxes and tromped up the hill with them. I released them inside the coop where the adult chickens were and in the beginning all went as I assumed it would. The pullets are very curious and adventurous and ran around checking everything out. The adults were flabbergasted and watched as a group from afar. But soon they started letting the pullets know who was boss and pecking at them. That's totally normal and I was expecting it. So after a while of watching them, I had to get to doing yard work and thought they'd all be ok. There was plenty of food, water and lots of space to run around in.

But.... (you knew there was one, right?) While I was mowing the grass near the coop I saw that two of the adults had cornered one of the pullets and were beating her up. I had to step in and stop it. This is where I went wrong: I got so mad at the adults that I kicked them all out of the coop. I told them they could be stew or food for the coyotes. The adult chickens were happy about this because they love to free range and they don't understand English, so they weren't disturbed by my threats. That first night of all adult chickens being outside (Wanda and her companions were securely roosting in her coop as usual) didn't result in any deaths. All it did was get a lot of chicken poop on my porch and eggs randomly laid all over the farm. Another side effect was that the pullets didn't know where to roost because I had removed all the adults who would have shown them by example where to sleep at night. So they were all clustering together in the run, which is not healthy or safe. This scenario lasted for two more days until finally, after coming home from Knoxville at 9 PM, I found 3 of the pullets had flown over the fence, run down the hill, flew over the duck's fence and were back in Wanda's coop. I threw my hands up and decided to undo what I had done because obviously I had done it wrong. So I went around and found all the chickens and grabbed each that belonged in the main coop up the hill and, one by one, I put them back where they came from. Then I scooped up the remaining three pullets and brought them back down to Wanda's coop to be with their sisters.

Extra Photos

Wiley and Atticus in the backseat of the GTI. Wiley started out on the far left side and kept scooting back till Atticus didn't have any room at all. We had to pull over at that point because Atticus decided that he was going to jump into Aaron's lap while Aaron was driving. Fun times!

Atticus got himself stuck in the barn.

I climbed up on the chicken coop to trim the dogwood tree. This was after I had already fallen off the ladder trimming another part of the tree. While Aaron wasn't home. 

So, as I was climbing up onto the roof, I thought to myself, "Wow, I'm really pressing my luck today!"

It was Aaron's birthday on May 11th. I got him travel Yatzee and these stunning glasses. They came with glow sticks too!

I got Atticus a baby pool to cool off in. It gets pretty filthy fast, but he loves it on hot days.

Mom came over to help me garden. All of the bulbs we planted that day were dug up by a variety of animals. Dogs, cats, chickens... rodents too I'm sure. I'm glad I worked so hard to give everyone something to find in the garden. 

The boys.

Another great view. That jeep is Aaron's new vehicle. 

Bees!

Three weeks ago, at 7:30 AM, I went and picked up my first of three nucs. Originally I was only going to have two, but I got the opportunity to get one more from the president of the Cookeville Beekeeper's Association and I couldn't pass that up!

A frame of bees

The new hive.

I've got them set up in the corner of the yard and there will be room for the other two hives. Those bees are coming to me in what's call a package, which is smaller than a nuc. But that's just fine. The two packages of bees will be arriving sometime next week- mid May.

For about a week I was doing really well with my bees. I've even found the queen twice! I wasn't even looking for her and hoop! There she was.

Then I went and did something terribly stupid. I was worried they were making a queen cell, which is a sign that they are ready to swarm and half the hive splits off and finds new digs.  It was threatening to rain so I thought I had better get to the task quick. Well, that was that was the first stupid thing. Never race against the rain when bees are concerned. The second stupid thing is that I didn't have a strong enough smolder in my smoker. Basically, not enough smoke to calm the bees. So that combination of stupid things got me stung twice... both in my inner thigh. Which is not a fun place to be stung when your home is a far way off and up a hill and your pants keep rubbing on the sting site. Also, I was wearing overalls. I did have the special jacket, hat, mask and gloves on.

One of the stingers came right out but the other one I couldn't get out. That sting site turned into a huge itchy welt. It's starting to go down... a week and a half later.

I've learned my lesson. If rain is threatening- stop and put everything back quickly and leave the bees alone. They don't like their hive getting wet. Not even a little bit. Also, make sure your smoker is well lit and smoking good before getting to the hives.

Mistakes Were Made

It's been over a month since the last time I posted anything and in that time a lot has happened. I'm sorry to those of you who enjoy getting more regular updates.

So much has happened in just this past month, that I'm not quite sure where to start! The greenhouse is up and running and we've got vegetables growing happily. It didn't start out that way. The seedlings we put in to the system right away mostly died within 24 hours. It was a huge disappointment to me, especially since I am the one who proclaimed to have the green thumb and would be in charge of making sure the plants were growing and producing.

I went back and mulled it over- what we planted, what the temperature in the greenhouse was, the air, the chemical balances of the water.... And I realized that they all died from shock. I didn't give any of the seedlings time to adjust to their new environment. The only ones that took it like a champ were the sugar snap peas.

We have the sugar snap peas set up with strings hanging from wire that is hung across the length of the greenhouse. They use these to secure themselves to something instead of each other. They still cling to each other, of course, but not as much as they used to. In the future, we plan to have a netting system up for the next crop. It will be easier for them to climb and for us to harvest.

Since the sugar snap peas are doing so well, we have decided to focus on peas and beans as our main crop. We have also started growing a variety of different vegetables just to test out what grows well and fast. So far we have purple cabbage, romaine lettuce, bush beans, jalapeño peppers, bell peppers, a LOT of genovese basil, pickling cucumbers and yellow squash.

The bush beans and the basil are happy plants and not much of a target (so far) for the bugs. The cucumbers are not so lucky. They smell wonderful, but SOMETHING loves their leaves and nibbles the edges which gives us some raggy looking plants. They are slow to grow and I don't think they are going to be a main crop for us. The cabbage is doing wonderfully too- I don't see it as being a big seller, but I love it.

a wide shot of a bunch of our test vegetables

bush beans

Aaron attaching the sugar snap peas to the trellis system

Our first sugar snap pea flower!

We are cultivating other seedlings in the greenhouse and feeding them the nutrient rich water that the plants in the system get. So far, the watermelon is taking off in a big way. All varieties of corn are growing fast and strong. The one variety that is still too small to be transplanted into the ground is the pink popcorn variety. I can't wait to try that! All the vegetables that might get too heavy or rangy for the aquaponics system are going to be planted in my studio's backyard. It's fenced in, so the dogs and chickens and guineas can't easily stomp all over my little vegetable garden.

Already I have planted two varieties of corn. A sweet corn and a multi colored ornamental variety. When the pink popcorn variety is ready, it will go in the row with the rest of the corn. The backyard is sloped, so I'll have to do a bit of work to make it ready for the watermelon.


In animal news, we have some additions to the farm. A week and a half ago I went to Poultry Hollow with my Mom and Aaron and we got 6 new chicks and a pair of ducklings. The chicks were only 2 weeks old and the ducklings were about 5 weeks. The chicks are a mix of 3 varieties: Ameraucana, Barred Rock and Silver Wyandotte. The Ameraucana are also known as "easter eggers" since they are known for laying eggs that have green and blue shells. The two Ameraucanas are different colors- they come in a variety. I have a cream one and a brown one. The Barred Rocks are a black chicken with some white on them- their feathers look almost striped. And the Silver Wyandottes are a black and white chicken too. Here are some photos I found online to give you an idea of what they will look like as adults:

brown Ameraucana adult hen

beige Ameraucana adult hen

Ameraucana eggs

Silver Laced Wyandotte adult hen

Barred Rock adult hen

Swedish Blue adult duck. The males and females look the same, generally. The males are bigger. Mine have markings very similar to this duck.

Swedish Blues can have a variety of color patters. 

I was going to get a lot more ducks actually- 3 pairs, or 6 ducks, total. But once I got to Poultry hollow I realized I should start with two and add to my flock if I enjoy keeping ducks. Aaron suggested the names Joanie and Chachi for the ducklings. 

As far as the chicks go, only the beige Ameraucana has a name- Star. She's the biggest of the bunch and also the prettiest. I'm hoping they are all girls. When you get chicks so young, it's hard to tell when they are breeds that are all the same color at a young age. I'm pretty confidant that the ducklings are a male and female. One is clearly bigger and more defensive than the other. Maybe next year we will have a flock of ducklings of our own!

Here are some photos of my new birds:

The ducklings stayed in a large dog crate for the first two days so I could get their coop ready. They didn't care. They were scared of everything. 

This the brown Ameraucana chick.

Joanie and Chachi in their new coop swimming pool! Which they only use if I put them in there. But Aaron and I did create a ramp in and out for them, so when they are ready, they will go in on their own.

One of the chicks- the brown Ameraucana I think.

Hanging out at the watering hole! That's Star on the left and the other Ameraucana on the right, with one of the Barred Rocks behind her.

A Barred Rock chick peeks out of the hole in 100 gallon trough they are being raised in. We closed up the hole after Aaron took this photo.

I also have some videos:

The ducklings enjoying their new digs and having some water. They drink A LOT of water and it gets EVERYWHERE!! Ducklings are cute, but they are very messy. I thought chickens were messy.... boy was I wrong. The chickens seem like neat freaks compared to ducks!

Here are the chicks eating and just hanging out. I have changed their feeder to a different style one- so they can't sit on it and just poop all over their food. Wasn't I just saying chickens were like neat freaks? I need to re-think that.

The other big news is that I finally have some bees. But there's a lot to say about them, so I think I'll save that for the next update.

In the meanwhile, here are some photos:

The front of the property

Strawberries

Atticus enjoys laying in my creeping jenny plants

Atticus and Lucy hang out on the pool deck