C-331 CHICKEN SHACK

Spent the last two days adapting, improvising, and overcoming (in a heated garage with some power tools).

Issue: The current chicken coop is a static structure located feet from the barn.  The chickens obliterate anything approaching the color red or green within a day of it sprouting.  They have a fondness for pooping in the barn and laying eggs anywhere where more than four leaves have gathered.  This is not ideal.

Discussion: Things that are less than awesome about the current chicken situation include: mucking out of the static chicken coop. With so many awesome places to lay eggs in the barn, it could be years before we discover all the places that they have. The coop's current position allows them access to eat any cash crops they can get to which is all but one of our fields.

Recommendation: A way to FOCUS the power and energy of the chicken into an area that suited both them and us would be ideal.

I present to you, the C-331 ChickenShack:

Given a set of pallet forks for the tractor, and a solar charged electric poultry netting rig, this setup allows us to move the flock around the farm to focus their chicken-powers in areas that suit both them and us.  In the Spring the C-331 will follow the cattle around and partake in the goodness that pastures exploding into life will produce.    In the Summer, the C-331 can be placed into areas where early crops had grown and already been harvested where the chickens can clean any beds of bugs that might have popped up.  In the fall and early winter the C-331 can be placed into the orchard and harvest fields to clear it of fallen fruit and seed heads.  In the winter, we'll move them back into their 'winter lodging' seen here (the one on the left):

Here's a pic of the inside:

It's still a prototype so there's a bunch of tweaks to be made but I think it's a step in the right direction and the chickens already seem to like it.  Keep an eye out for future updates on how we tweak the system and the results for better or for worse.

Ghetto Greenhouse Fail

So uhhhh.....rollin up on the Ghetto Greenhouse and seeing that the low temp reading on the thermometer (the one that sits RIIIIGHT on top of the seed flats) for the last 24 hours is a balmy 17 degrees means three things.  1. Current design is an EPIC FAIL. 2. One half of our early seedlings just got wiped (meaning I still have trays that had just been seeded and thus were non-light dependent in a heated garage) 3. I'm going to be able to select some pepper and tomato seedlings that could be grown in the Arctic as not ALL of the seedlings in the trays that underwent 17 degree F temps shriveled up and died.

Good times.  There's some kinna feel good quote out there that says something like lack of 'frequent and epic failures' indicate too much time spent on the sidelines with your "Lil' Sally Lad Pants" on.

Oh what the heck.

Gonna try some Quinoa and Okra this year in far corners of the fields cause the stuff is supposed to be hard to kill and it'd be cool if it works.

A plant order today...

is better than a rapidly devaluing dollar tomorrow.  Or at least that is the attitude I seem to be taking with respect to ordering from various nurseries this year.  The MEGA-tree order I put in at the in-state nursery was only able to be half filled due to them being out of stock of some of the cherry, plum and apple trees that I wanted, so I had to re-order those from http://www.raintreenursery.com/.  I threw in a few bamboo trees as well for garden stake production and so that in 5 years when I am growing 70' tall 7" in diameter bamboo trees, I can take the logs and begin construction of my bamboo tree-city in the upper story of the tall maples and poplars down in the valley.  I also went ahead and ordered a metric ass-ton of mushroom starts.  We started some Shitake last year that should theoretically begin fruiting this year but that was really just a test run.  What I ordered today was two different types of Oyster, two different types of Shitake and some Lion's Mane oysters.  Each order is enough to inoculate 25x40"x4" logs which means I now have to go find 150 40"x4" logs which is no big deal cause it's not like I have to get spring crops in the ground or prep planting sites for 20+ fruit trees or anything.  Okay then, bye bye for now.