Wednesday, April 28, 2010

2010 Kansas Chicken Massacre

Ever seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre? I saw pieces of it one time while in high school. A couple of my friends thought it would be cool to start up chainsaws inside the house to scare everybody. Well, they succeeded and even though I was not in the same room I jumped at the sound of a chainsaw being fired up inside the house.

Sunday I also jumped at the sound of dogs barking and chickens squawking. After looking out my upstairs window and seeing chicken bodies laying on the ground and the demon Charlie dog in the middle of it all I ran outside before putting my shoes on to break up the fight. It was a sad evening because there was no fight, but a massacre of chickens in a matter of moments. The dog was like a cat in a field of butterflies, jumping after every moving thing. He killed, for sure, 11 chickens and three are written down as MIA. I was doing so well. Order 26 chickens in the mail, 7 weeks later only one initial death, until April 25th, 2010. I'm down to 11 chickens. They're the strong ones, the ones that fled the scene and left my mother, sister and I to chase/hunt down chickens in tall grass, trees, and random implements in the dusk of evening.

Sunday was their first moment of daylight, first step onto the real earth, grass, and great outside the chicken coop. It only took about three hours for them to venture out that open door and then about an hour later the majority of them to meet their maker.

I know they're just chickens and there will be more. Good thing is the demon dog is gone. Now I just have to work on a more substantial fence so demon animals can't climb under and get to my chickens. I want some freakin awesome eggs to eat!

Finally, a photo of the chicken coop.

Yes, that little demon killed half my flock in a matter of minutes. He has a dead chicken tied around his neck as somebody said this method would freak them out and they would never do it again. However, the joke was on me as morning after chicken is tied to neck, chicken is no longer, feathers only litter the ground. I never liked that dog anyway.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Progress

My mom and I spent the entire day on Saturday slaving away on the chicken coop. I was pretty darn proud to see the accomplished four side wall frame all attached to the sled base. Tonight we put up a couple pieces of plywood and it is on the road to solid walls. Hopefully these next couple of evening will be enough to complete.
I have recently discovered that there are more rocks and gravel in our garden area than in our driveway. Something really must be done about this. I decided to pick them all out of the carrot/parsnip bed and that took quite a while. Darn gravel. Apparantely there used to be a granary and a road where the garden presently is. This would explain the gravel, but I want to know who decided to do that?

Anyway, we now have a row of turnips, beets, carrots, parsnips, and rainbow swiss chard all seeded into the garden. Mom and I also tackled a new installation of a strawberry bed this weekend. The strawberry plants I ordered a month and a half ago finally arrived after we acquired ample additional strawberries. This will bring the strawberry bed total to three! Can't wait but shall have to wait a couple of years to have strawberry bounty. Hopefully sometime before then I can master the strawberry jam.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Growth!

We have definite progress on the abundant garden in the making. The tomato seeds I planted have officially entered growing stages. We have approximately 120 tomato seedlings, 40 brussel sprouts, and the beginnings of peppers. It is so freaking exciting to see the new little plants peeking their way up through the soil. Mom and I also transplanted about 80 red onion seedlings also. I have a feeling starting onions from seeds might just be ridiculous, but then again we also have some thriving onions in the garden right now that apparantely wintered the winter after we missed harvesting last year.

Tonight Tara and I had veggie stir fry. I can't wait to eat veggie stir fry with everything fresh from the garden! My taste buds are so ready.

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Thank God for Spring!

Spring has definitely arrived and I have been so excited to spend all extra moments of the day outside. There is nothing quite like the green grass shooting up in the yard, the wheat fields come out of dormancy and turn bright green, the fruit trees that are now in bloom giving promises of an abundant fruit harvest, baby chicks growing like weeds, turning of soil in the garden for planting, overflow of ladybugs, and daffodils bright yellow and cheery. New life is so amazing and beautiful to experience and if I didn't know any better I would think that somebody had a master plan when giving us this season of new growth and life right after the season of cold and darkness.

What an amazing way to celebrate Spring time today and new life with Resurrection Day. How lucky are we to celebrate Easter in the Spring time, the day Christ offered us all a new life in Him? It's not about the bunnies and pastel colors, although they had a nice touch, it's about our Savior coming out of the tomb and giving us the opportunity to celebrate an eternity of spring time and new life.

I mentioned baby chicks because we do have two week old chicks on the farm now. We are still in the construction phase of the chicken coop and the urgency for a complete chicken coop is definitely here. I think they may last maybe another two weeks before they start flying out of the stock tank they are currently in and roosting on my car in the garage. They are quite exciting for us all. The garden area is also well under way and I have several seeds started in the greenhouse at school to be planted soon. I made a really great flip chart diagram of the garden space plan and I have already out planted the space alloted for potatoes. So, we'll see how it continues to go. I'm imagining the need for an extension of the garden and quite possible a great abundance of fresh veggies this summer. Definitely exciting!

I'm hoping to keep up with my blog this summer and give great details of happenings out here as I discover creation, experience new life, and grow much!