Sage's First Egg

I had some nice break from the watering duty in the past several days as the monsoonal moisture paid the desert a visit with a generous amount of precipitation. :D  It's not fun for the kitties and chickens to be cooped up all day, and the amount of mud that gets tracked into the house is no joke.  Still, rain in the desert is much more than just the much-needed water.  It gives us relief at a much deeper, psychological ... probably spiritual level.

After an overnight rain and cloudy morning, I went to open the chicken coop doors for the girls a little later than usual after the rain had stopped yesterday.  Much to my surprise, there was a speckled brown egg inside the younger girls' coop!  I knew it was Sage's first egg since she's the only brown egg layer of the three (Vanilla and Mocha are Easter Eggers, and their eggs will be green to blue.).  For a first egg, it was not weird like "membrane without hard shell", "malformed", or "puny".  Sage's first egg was maybe a little on the 'slim' egg shape, but evenly shaped with a nice hard shell!  The pullets are roughly 14 & 1/2 weeks old right now, so it's rather early, but they get to free range all day, eating lots of greens and whatever bugs they catch.  They seem happy and definitely healthy, so it's not surprising that they would start laying early.

Pullets outside of their run, but staying close to their coop.

We started letting the girls free range with supervision at first.  Dorito was a little aggressive at first, followed by some challenges made by Fiona to Mocha (because Mocha is physically largest of the younguns).  The establishing of the pecking order is natural and nothing was excessive.  No aggressive pecking to cause any kind of injury.  So we kept lengthening the amount of time the pullets stayed outside.  In about 5 days, we were letting them out during daylight hours.  Aggressive behavior by  the two grownups have subsided.  Now, on a good day, we see all five of them foraging in the same area of the yard.  But for the most part, they are in two groups of two and three in different parts of the yard doing their own thing.

Pullets venturing out in the grassy area of the backyard.  Now they move around all over the backyard.

The other day, I saw Sage catch a grasshopper.  She immediately started running away from Vanilla and Mocha.  Before Sage could make a getaway, the others started off running after her.  There it was!  The chicken football.  LOL  So much excitement and commotion.  It's a delightful sight to watch these girls run as fast as they can.  In the end, Sage successfully outran the other two (She has always been the most athletic, most curious, and most brave of the three.), and munched on the grasshopper happily.

Now the pics from the garden. :D

The fruits of the Goliath tomato plant have started maturing nicely.  My first crop was used to make one of my favorite summer dishes of all time - tabbouleh.  The tomato from the garden adds so much flavor to this all fresh, simple dish, I always feel it's the best thing ever. ^^;

Ichiban is my favorite eggplant.  It's the skinny Japanese variety.  I think the flavor is sweeter and smoother than the big fat Italian types that are prone to grow lots of seeds inside.  This is one vegetable I grow year after year and never get tired of.

I've spotted dozen ore more LARGE fruits ripening on my German Queen tomato out back.  The plant is over 4 feet tall now. ^_^

The sunflower fence is producing lots of blooms now.  The tallest plants are probably somewhere between 9 1/2 to 10 feet tall now.  It is at least as tall as the garage's eaves.  The Mammoth Russian sunflowers are still growing and I finally see them forming buds, but no flowers yet.  They're still growing. :D

Took this close-up of one of the blooms.  Isn't it mesmerizing?  It's almost like staring into a mandala...

August's Super Moon.  I love full moon in the morning.  I love the crisp cool air, the gently hazy sky with pastel tones... just so peaceful.   ^_^

Late Update

I take pics and then intend to sit and write up a post so many times before it actually happens. T_T  Something, usually an e-mail from someone or a call, distracts me, and before I know it, days go by.  I have to get better at keeping my garden and chicken journal up to date.

We're now seeing triple digit daily highs.  Now, this is just plain uncomfortable at this point.  I can only stand to work outside early in the morning (or if I feel so inclined, after sunset).  Morning hours between 6 and 8 are very nice, especially before 7 when the temperature is still in the mid 60s.  Once the sun comes up though, the dry air of the desert west heats up fast and sun is scorching hot.  My skin hurts when I don't get myself into shade.  No fun, and I've got plenty of pigments in my skin and don't usually burn, but tan really easily...

I actually managed to get some nice pics of the 4th of July fireworks for the first time. :D  (I did get a lot of duds, too... ^^;  )

Pretty much all the spring veggies in the one SFG has gone to bolt.  Onion flowers are cool to look at... but they reek.  The pretty blue daisy flowers belong to some of the greens that were in the salad mix. :D  These plants are taller than I am now.  Ridiculous. LOL

Still getting visits from many different kinds of bees.  We see huge bumblebees out in the old part of the backyard where these wild larkspur plants are growing.  They love the purple flowers.

English lavender in the Bees and Butterflies box is doing well.  In fact, pretty much everything in that box is doing wonderfully. ^_^

Still demure in stature, the Indigo Rose tomato has a lot of fruits on the vine.  A few of the ones that set early in the season have started changing the bottom color from green to red.

This Fever few clump was transplanted from north of the house to a summer veggies/herbs box last year.  It was tiny and had a hard time getting going after transplant, but it's doing a lot better this year.  I love the scent of this plant.  This year, we have a much larger clump of it come back in the northern shaded area of the house where the soil is dry and poor.

Getting there slowly... :D

Chickens at 7 weeks.  Mostly feathered in and looking very much like pullets now.  Still chirps like chicks, but every now and then, they make 'chicken' sounds.  The sound vocabulary is expanding.  Still haven't learned to stay out of the water bowl, though. XD

"German Queen" heirloom tomato on June 24th.

Same plant on July 1st.  This tomato is growing fast and doing well in the barren lot that has not been used for many seasons.  The soil was amended with some organic garden soil and compost, with handful of bone meal and blood meal, and a doze of Sea Magic.  I don't use chemical fertilizer on our food stuff.

Forgot to insert this when I was talking about the Bees and Butterfly Garden Box!  This bee balm clump is in there.  Somehow got so tall this year ... like 4.5 feet.  Looking a little out of control, but I love the scent of the leaves.

Chickens at 8 weeks (Pic taken on July 1st).  Clockwise from top left: Vanilla, Mocha, and Sage.  Sage is still the smallest, but she's the head bird of these three.  The two older chickens come by often and take sand bath right next to their run.  I think they've gotten used to the idea of 'more chickens'... finally.  I'm still not taking chances and won't be releasing them out until they're fully 16 weeks old.  We're more than halfway there since they just turned 9 weeks old on the 6th of July.  Vanilla is a wheaton Easter Egger.  I don't know what Mocha's feathers are called, but she's black, gold, and brown.  Very pretty.  And Sage is a classic Barred Plymouth Rock with black & white wavy stripes appearance.  She is till the most curious and the sweetest!  These are special birds.

The sunflower fence on the south end of the backyard.  These guys got such a late start in the season, but they seem to be doing OK.  I'm using some tumble weeds for mulch.  This area has tumble weed infestation of gigantic magnitude on some properties - you'll see Christmas tree size tumble weeds on a regular basis.  :(
I'm actually allergic to the pollen of tumble weed flowers, so I pluck or cut them down whenever I see them.

Not a good comparison shot at all! LOL  *mega fail*  This was taken on July 1st.  The tallest sunflower measured 37 inches.  This is a mixed planting of at least 5 different varieties of sunflowers.  Some were Russian Mammoth seeds, so I'm hoping to see some giants... eventually.   ^_^

Backyard Update

Chicks have turned 6 weeks old on Father's Day (June 15, 2014).  Time flies.  I have not been able to keep up with the blog.  It's been almost 3 weeks since my last entry. ^^;  Chicks are not the only thing that have grown in that time...

Here's a pic of Sage at 5+ weeks.  They have outgrown the old watering bowl.  I have bought the larger waterer.  It is placed slightly raised above ground level, but it still gets dirty from the chicks bathing in the dirt, kicking it everywhere.

Mocha and Vanilla at 5+ weeks, with Chaba the cat photo bombing.  LOL  She and a couple of cats just can't get enough of the chicks.  ^^;

Swiss Chard in the Spring Veggies Box looking beautiful.  My salad greens have started bolting in the heat.  Various flowers are about to bloom.  I kind of have fun watching them grow flowers.  Adds to the color.

Because it has gotten so hot, the broccolis have no time but form a rather small head before buds start to open.  This is what you have to deal with when you have a rather short spring (and late start in the garden).  ^^;

Because it is consistently in the 90s for mid-day high these days, I have a record short pea plants.  At least they're producing.  ^^;

I have some chrysanthemums interplanted in the Summer Veggies Box and found these baby ladybugs.  They're good for eating aphids that are bothering the broccoli plants.

The "Indigo Rose" tomato plants have fruits forming. :D  Purple on top and green at the bottom.  More fruits are forming.  The plant is still rather small...

The "German Queen" heirloom tomato that was planted way back in the old garden plot with plenty of room.  We have the tomato support, and on the outside of it, chicken wire fencing to protect from our free-ranging chickens.    Last year, we had a tomato plant grow wide in the SFG box and it was touching the fence.  Chickens were pecking on the tomato fruits through the fence material.  They do like tomatoes.  At any rate, this tomato plant is doing well.  Currently about 18 inches tall.

The sunflowers along the back fence line are doing well.  Most are about 10 inches tall and have been thinned once.  When they reach a foot tall, I will thin them again for 1 per spot.  They are still so short, compared to the volunteer sunflowers that grew from last year's seeds.  I have neighbors with sunflowers that are already blooming, too.  ^^;

Hubby and I made an exciting addition to our baby coop - a chicken run! :D  It's 8 feet long and 2 feet wide.  Connects to the end access door of the coop we purchased.  This is painted to match the coop.  It's been a big hit with the babies.  Sage was the first to come out past the threshold and venture out into the new run.  I see the girls running back and forth.  They do some funny hop-step-jump kind of stunts, and do a lot of chest bump with running starts. XD   It seems Sage has established herself as the boss bird of the three.  Brave and inquisitive, despite her small size.   These last two photos were taken today.

Mocha is starting to develop a rather cool pattern.  She also seems to be growing crest-like feathers on the sides of her head.  After the run was set up and the babies were venturing out, Dorito, once again, acted all annoyed and upset, squawking like a rooster, trying to peck at the little ones through the wirecloth...  The babies were just so curious about the big ladies that roam freely around them.

At the end of June, they will be 8 weeks old and we will be switching their food from 'chick starter' to the 'grower' type.  Although they seem to have grown so much since they first arrived, they're still a fraction of the fully-mature chickens in size.  But these babies will most likely start laying eggs at about 5 months, which will be end of September. :D

Update on the Garden

The chicks have turned 4 weeks old on Sunday, and they're doing really well.  Sage (Barred Plymouth Rock) is a sweetie and an adventurer, wanting to sneak out every time I open the door to change water and refill feed. ^^;  Luckily, she's quite content to have a visit on Grandma's lap for a while.  It's so unbelievably easy to scoop her up.  The other two always have a bit of a shenanigan of running madly around before settling down.  So I usually just spend extra time with Sage as I change the water multiple times a day.  They are getting larger, with Vanilla still being the biggest and Sage being the smallest.  But Sage definitely has a big attitude. LOL  Will have their photos next time.

Today, I have mostly garden photos as things have really picked up the pace outside with high temperatures on a regular basis.  With the high temperature, sometimes comes wind, which increases the frequency of watering for me. T_T  As I'm still recuperating from my recent illness, I can't do things quite as quickly and as easily.  Water feels heavy in a 2-gallon watering can, and the distance to the 'Sunflower Fence' seems longer... under my current condition.  But I have good news.  We have germination in every spot (20 along the fence).

This spot was sown with two different kinds of sunflowers.  Eventually, they will be thinned to one of each in a spot.  I have successfully managed to keep the soil moist during germination, so it only took 5 to 7 days, and I have drip irrigation hose in place along the fence, so I will be able to start using it.  The sad thing though, is that we have an old Elm tree that sheds so many seeds every spring.  All the little seedlings are them in the photo.  I'll be eliminating them in the coming days. T_T

Just on this side of the "Sunflower Fence" is the purple meadow.  These are volunteer plants (originally larkspurs that I grew from a seed package of blue flowers).  As long as we've been at this house, these guys have managed to self-seed and perpetuate in this somewhat sparse and bushy form for years.  The bees love these purple flowers - in particular giant bumble bees.  I've tried to capture in a photo at least one of the multiple giants that come to our backyard for the past three days, with no luck.  As soon as I start to walk toward them, they seem to sense it and fly away, only to return later. ^^;

Walking towards the house, here's the summer veggies box.  I've somewhat casually planted it this year with the broccoli plants making a semi-circle around an eggplant and tomato.

This morning, I noticed the beginning of a crown on 3 of the broccoli plants.  :D

Right next to the Summer Veggies Box is the Bees & Butterflies Box filled with flowers both annual and perennial.  Chocolate Mint proved to be extremely invasive last year, but the Bee Balm clump that didn't do much last year has come back with a vengeance, and they're about ready to start blooming. :D  Even more bees.  Speaking of bees, one got stuck in my hair right by the left temple.  Initially, I felt a slight panic, but I just hoped the bee would manage to untangle himself and he did so rather quickly.  :D   I just stood still while he returned to freedom.

The onions are out of control! LOL  The flower buds have formed and the stems have really shot up.  They are doing some kind of contemporary art thing by twisting and bending.  They're always changing. LOL

Next to the Spring Veggies Box is the Strawberry Box.  This photo was taken May 30, 2014.

And this was taken today.  Yum!  :D :D :D  Exciting~!!!

On Saturday, this arrived in the mail and I, like a garden nerd, was giddy. :D  My favorite tomato food!

It's basically a powdered sea kelp from North Pacific, that provides micro-nutrients to the plant.  The first time I used this, I had an heirloom tomato grow to 8 feet tall and out of control.  It eventually got blown over on a windy day, support and all.  Even though the main stem was damaged, it kept producing fruits like nothing happened until it got too cold.  It was an amazing experience. :D  So I'm hoping we can duplicate that kind of fun this year.

And, as I had hoped to show you one day, I cracked open one of our girls' eggs and one store-bought egg.  The one on the left is Dorito's egg with richer orange color, perky yolk... generally so robust and wholesome. :D  I let the girls eat a variety of greens in their diet, along with seeds and nuts, aside from their standard layer feed.  They scratch and forage all day long in the backyard, and they are happy.  I think it shows in their eggs. ^_^  (To think that the garden grub they find and eat with such glee is a protein that transforms into eggs... LOL)

Next time, I'll have chicks photos. ^_^

First Blooms

   After having a few straight weeks of triple-digit daily highs with no rain, we finally started getting some monsoon moisture coming our way in the last few days.  The tallest sunflower in my patch (pictured here on the right) measured 53 inches this morning and during sometime in the afternoon it bloomed and endured a pretty strong rainstorm.  The ground got so wet and the wind must have been blowing strong enough that three of my tallest sunflowers were almost horizontal to the ground.  I propped them up for the photo today. The one on the left was a volunteer plant from seeds scattered from a crop I grew years ago.  The soil in this patch was getting regular moisture, so I've got a lot of volunteer plants.  They usually show much smaller 'seed head' compared to the purpose-grown freshly-harvested seeds for the season.

   When I saw these buds this morning on the Four O'Clock plants in the summer veggies SFG box, I was so excited.  These were supposed to be a multi-color, variegated strain that would have yellow and pink stripes or white and pink stripes, according to the seed packets the seeds came in.  When I was browsing the Burpee Co. web site and looked up this item, I did notice multiple customer feedback stating they got nothing but solid yellows -- no stripes.  I was a bit concerned...

   It was around 7:30 pm that I noticed some bright color in the middle of greens, so I checked it out and saw a solid pink flower. T_T  *sad*  Oh, Burpee, you failed me big time.  I guess I'll have to add my own customer feedback of the disappointed kind on their site.  I have these plants planted in different locations throughout the backyard.

   Among the sunflowers, I have about 6 of them planted also, and the first to bloom today showed a solid white flower... *fail again* T_T  It's still pretty and they smell nice, so that's their saving grace, but I can't say that I'm not disappointed.

   After a couple of disappointment though, here's a healthy flowering kale plant.  I had 6 seeds that I planted in May.  Of the 6, 4 of them successfully transplanted, and they are now at different sizes for some reason.  I used the same compost and peat moss medium for pots and the one in the SFG box is in Mel's Mix.  The one in the SFG box is lugging behind the potted ones.  The one pictured here is growing the fastest.  The raindrops look so pretty on the leaves!! ^^

Corn, Eggplant, Strawberry, and More

   The first crop of corn's ears are maturing.  Here's a picture from today.  This ear is measuring about 8 inches long.  I have the second crop starting to flower and attracting honey bees once again.

   The Summer Veggies SFG Box is starting to look like it's being overtaken by the giant broccoli.   Also growing rather tall is the eggplant.

   The eggplant has started producing beautiful fruits.  This is the Asian-type eggplant "Ichiban", which is my favorite with slender cylindrical fruits and mild flavor.  Reminds me of the eggplant I grew up with in Japan.  In summer, we ate eggplant in one dish or another every day.

   Close to the Summer Veggies Box, I have three pots of flowering kale plants I started in mid May from seeds I bought on eBay.  These are called Pink Kamome hybrid.  Once mature, the center leaves will be pretty pink color and look like a giant rose (at least, in the pictures I have seen).  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  For some reason, the one I transplanted into the SFG box (in the Summer Veggies Box) is way slower in growth.  Maybe the potted plants get more sun and also the soil warms up more?

   The Strawberries SFG Box has been steadily (although not in large amount) producing.  Not too bad for the first year I suppose.  I remember growing strawberries years ago in Japan and they really took off the second year.  We had berries going bad right on the vine.  They produced so much and a family of four couldn't keep up the consumption.

   My tallest sunflower at the moment is at 3.5 feet this morning.  I have many different varieties planted in a strip in the backyard.  This one pictured here is not the tallest variety, so I guess it can be expected that it's already forming buds at this height.  They only started to take off, growing couple of inches every day, in the last week or so, after I started drip irrigation in the area since the daily high has been consistently in triple digits and things were drying out so fast.