Compost

The City of Lawrence are having their Spring Compost Sale today and tomorrow. It started at 8:00 this morning. We decided to stop by Panera first and enjoy breakfast. By the time we arrived at our compost destination, a line of trucks at least a mile long had formed. Well at least we have the radio and each other!

We have chickens!

Today we added another six members to our family. That's right, we got chickens!

Last weekend was the start of Chick Days. For those who don't live in a rural area, Chick Days is precisely what it sounds like, days when chicks are available. Since we were out of town last weekend, today was our day to pick out chicks. We decided to go with one of each for a total of six: black sex link, red sex link, Rhode Island red, New Hampshire red, buff orpington, and a bard rock. The bard rock was a straight run, meaning that it wasn't sexed. The rest are pullets so we know they are all ladies. I actually hope the bard rock turns out to be a rooster. Roosters will guard the flock and make sure the girls are safe from predators. He also kind if looks like a Klingon so, if he is indeed a male, I might name him Worf.

Setting up for the chickens was quite simple.

1. Pick out your chicks.
You need to decide what your goal is with your chickens. We are interested in eggs so we chose layers. Now chickens are social animals and need to develop a hierarchy. A minimum of three hens should be kept to start off with. Since we have the space and love eggs, we simply doubled that number.



2. Food, shelter, and warmth.
Chicks can't simply be tossed into a chicken coop and survive. Young pullets are not capable of maintaining proper body temperature. I'm sure you've seen cartoons where chickens sit on their young. Now you know why! So as you can imagine, it's pretty important that you keep them warm a well as fed and watered.

Our solution was to take an old tub and turn it into a brooder. To do this, Shari lined the tub with newspaper, both flat and shredded.


Then she placed the feeder and waterer in the tub.


Toss in a handful of chicks, cover with an old window screen, and you are set!


The only thing left to do is provide them with a source of heat. Since our brooder is so small, we decided to go with a simple incandescent bulb. Now there is something you need to know about chickens that may shock you. If one of them gets injured and bleeds, the rest will peck at it until it dies. In other words, chickens will cannibalize each other. The best way to keep this from happening is to provide them with red light. Since we didn't have a red light, we placed a bit of red tissue paper over part of the screen covering the brooder. Simple solution!

3. Enjoy!
Happy chickens make the sweetest sound! And don't forget to play with them! Being social animals, it's easy enough to become a member of the flock. Build up trust and you can pick up you chickens without having to chase them.

New Compost Bin

What do you do during the winter?

Quite simply, we build and repair things. You know, general maintenance. Sure it can be cold outside but that's part of owning a farm! You get to experience each season as it is.

For our first project, I decided to put together a compost bin. We already had most of the wood we needed squirreled away in our pole barn and we were struggling with a loose pile of food scraps. It only made sense!

Gather the materials.
 

I decided to build it 3' high and 4' wide. No formula or anything. I just thought about how I'd rather not have to dig into a super deep pile. But that's just me!

I also decided to make the corners out of 3' long pieces of 2x2. But since I wanted to make the front of the bin removable, I need a total of six 3' pieces. I'll explain this a bit later. After a trip to Home Depot, I was ready to head out to the pole barn to pull out pieces that would make up the sides of the compost bin. Each one was about 12' long so I could get three 4' pieces out of each. I wasn't sure how many I would need so I decided to just grab a bunch and start cutting. If you don't have the scraps to do this, you might want to do some measuring and some math.

Cut it out.

Using a circular saw and a couple of saw horses, I cut the 2x2 pieces into 3' lengths and the 12' lengths into 4' pieces. Each piece of scrap lumber ended up being just under 6" wide so I needed six pieces per side. Four sides times six pieces equals 24. But whatever. I also decided to cut little triangles out to put in each corner for reinforcement. I assumed that this would be necessary but I don't know for sure that it is.

Lay it out.

Space out the corner pieces and lay the side pieces between them as you cut them out. This is actually what let me know that I would need six pieces per side. I laid everything out before I started screwing anything together.

Put the pieces together.

Once the pieces were spaced out evenly, I started screwing them in using deck screws. This is easier if there is a flat surface for you to work on. I started out on the back deck but ended up moving into the garage.

Make a box

Once I had one piece put together, I built a frame upon which I can start adding pieces. This ended up being a bit clumsy and maybe there's another way to do it? Or if you have a friend to help, s/he can hold pieces for you while you screw them in. Notice that in the front, I put two pieces of 2x2 lumber. The purpose of this was to create a track. The reason why I did this was to make it so I could remove the front slats to make accessing the compost easy. I just pictured trying to get a shovel over the walls and what a pain that would be. Just check out the first picture and all will be clear!

Garlic time!

Apples, pears, and plums are gone. We never planted fall crops so our work has been focused on just living. But now it's time to put in garlic. With the help of an old tiller, we were able to break up our crusty ground.

Pear bread time!

Shari's Pear Bread

We are overflowing with pears so you know what that means? Yep! Shari is baking bread again! And man is it yummy!

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 3 eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 2 cups peeled shredded pears
• 1 cup chopped pecans
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Make a well in the center of the bowl.
2. In a separate bowl combine the oil, eggs, sugar, grated pears, pecans, and vanilla. Blend well. Add to well of dry ingredients. Stir until just moistened. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8x5x3 inch loaf pans.
3. Bake in a preheated 325 degree F (165 degrees C) oven for one hour and 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack before removing from the loaf pans.

Pear pickin' pleasure!

Fall(ing) Fruit

It's pear picking season here at Smallville Farm. Actually, the fruit has been ready for a couple of weeks and this is the second harvest. The first harvest happened a couple of weeks ago although we didn't do it. Rather, we donated our pears to Shari's school where kids came out and took what they could. Roughly 200 pounds if this sweet treat was turned into pear butter, to be sold as a fund raiser. As a thank you, the students gave us twelve jars full. Guess what everyone is getting for Christmas!

Needless to say, pear pie and and jelly is on the menu.

Fog on the pond.