glenncottage

Glenn Cottage is in The Great Southwestern Sonoran Desert of Arizona. I refuse to accept the fact I live in a desert.

I hope you will enjoy my ramblings on my garden and my chickens (which will be here soon.)

Weather

Fall. The Best Season of the Year!!

I get to plant all the cool weather crops! Things grow much better here in the winter than in the summer. My husband suggests I pretend in the summer that there is snow on the ground and nothing will grow. So far.... My imagination has not been that good. I continue to attempt to grow things in the summer here.

Recipes

First Dust Bath

Today I let the chicks play in their chicken tractor. One of the little Buff Opington chicks was the first to do a dust bath. Then everyone wanted to get into the act. It is amazing how quicky they become dirt balls! Instead of fluff balls. They are all clean now sleeping in their coop.

Why is there a light on in the coop tonight?

Today I stopped by the feedstore to show the girls pictures of my finished coop. While we were looking at the photos, I remarked "I wish you guys would hurry and get some chicks." They said "We have some new chicks in the "baby chick" house right now!" I about fell over!! I was just there a few days ago!

Well they had Buff Orpingtons, about 25 to 30 of the little fuzzy butts!! I said I would take two, they are 4 days old!! The feed store was my first stop on doing my errands, so I told them I would be back so as not to have to leave the chicks in the hot car.

My next stop was to water the garden at the congregation building. While I was there I called the other feedstore where I had a $5.00 deposit for an order of 4 chicks. I told them I found some Buff Orpingtons, and how long would it be before they ordered some Barred Rock chicks... She said, "We have some Barred Rock chicks right now!" I about croaked!! This feed store is a good 20 miles from our house. I told them I would be there in about 30 minutes or so to pick up two Barrred Rock Chicks.

I made it though the rush hour traffic, I got the chicks, went back to the feedstore right by my house, picked out two Buff Orpington chicks. And came home.

The only thing I HAD to do was make a lid for the big plastic container I bought as a brooder for them. When I was telling Rick I got the chicks, all four of them! And how I had to hurry now and figure out some kind of lid for the brooder box since one of the little Barred Rocks had already tried to fly out of the box she was in!

He said, "Isn't the coop all secure from preditors? Why don't you just put the chicks in the coop with the brooder light? After all, you spent so much time making a coop why have them be all crowded in a plastic box?"

So I did just that! I put them in the coop. Here are the very first pictures I took tonight.

Getting ready for bed. They seem to have hit it off famously!! They are all being very nice to each other.

Recent pictures

The Old Tree Stump Had to Go

...was a tree stump that had been in the way in the back garden for almost 20 years.

Here is a photo of me with the saw after cutting it down, it took 2 whole hours to cut that stump off!! I forgot to take photos as I was cutting it down. And many thanks to my friend Louise with the great saw!!

It was petrified!! The tree had been hit by lightning and that is what killed it.

For a few years it had served as a the base for a scarecrow in the vegetable garden.

This last spring I planted some Morning gloriy seeds at the base of the stump and it looked pretty festive with flowers in it's hair for it's last photo with it's face on.

The day after putting the face on the pine tree, I was on the phone to my daughter, and I was telling her about moving the face, she said to take a picture for her, I got the camera out, and I noticed... his nose was now running!!

Camping

We had a great time camping. We were at around 8,000 ft. on Mt. Lemmon. Which is about 27 miles from where we live. Here is a photo of the view of the city of Tucson taken from the end of the trail where we were camping.

Here is Spartacus with Michelle, one of his favorite people.

Spartacus had a great time!! He was the official Security Guard. Anyone that approached the

camp had to first be properly introduced to Spartacus or they were not going to get by him.

The first day one of the Park Rangers came to clean out the fire pit. He was carrying two

shovels. Well, Spartacus decided this fellow was not allowed in camp with any "weapons."

The fellow had to put down the shovels before Spartacus would let him come into the camp

to be introduced. Then later as the people were gathering firewood, anyone that were not

well known to Spartacus, was not allowed to bring sticks/weapons into the camp!!

He would bark at them and not let them pass, until Rick or I said it was ok for them to

bring in the sticks.On the last night, one fellow who had been there the entire previous

four days, got out a hot dog fork, it was one of those that are able to get longer by

pulling on them. It makes a sound much like a sword coming out of the sheath. This fellow

was sitting in a chair by the fire. Which put him right at eye level with Spartacus. As

soon as he opened up that fork, Spartacus was right beside him. The fellow turned his

head, and Spartacus "chuffed" right in his face, as if to say, "Put down the weapon!"

It was funny how serious Spartacus took to his job of keeping eveyone safe from what he considered to be a threat.

During the day there was lots to do, like playing chess...

Sitting and just enjoying the nice weather. See our camp kitchen in the background?

That was one of the best things we ever bought for camping.

Everyday there was wood to chop.

And more wood chopping.

Can you read Rick's shirt?

Here I am with Spartacus just relaxing.

Spartacus got to meet an 8 month old puppy named Gretel. She wasn't sure she wanted

to meet him at first. Here they are getting to know each other.

Mt. Lemmon has some really interesting rock formations.

And here is one Happy Dog on the drive back home.

Being a Securtity Guard must be very hard work. Spartacus slept for pretty much

three days straight when we got back home.

Motorcycle Weekend

On Friday Rick rented a motorcycle for the trip we had planned to drive up to Mt. Lemmon this last Sunday. We had a great time!! It had been 23 years since Rick was on a motorcycle. Of course we rented a Harley Davidson, it had to be a Harley! For grins Rick got down some of his old motorcycle garb from the attic. He even posed for a few photos! Here is one.

Here we are on Saturday night leaving a friend's house that lives about 30 miles

out of town

The weather on the mountian was nice and cool compared to down here in the valley.

This was our view as we ate lunch on the patio of the Ski Lodge.

We enjoyed watching the hummingbirds fight over the feeders. There are two of them eating

from this feeder

Last week I let the chickens out to play in a section of the garden that was

a bit overgrown with flowers. They had a great time. Spartacus loves to watch

the chickens. He lays down beside them and watches for hours on end. Once

and a while he gets up and does a "play posture" to the chickens and they all

get wild and crazy. He loves that!! I tell him to "knock it off and be nice!" Then

he will lie down all quiet again. Silly animals!!

Here are Roxanne and Olivia

Here is Rosalind taking a dust bath.

Here are Roxanne, Rosalind and Olivia, Ophelia was camera shy that day.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Mother's Day!!

On Mothers' Day we went out to a special Mother's Day Breakfast. My daughter Jennifer and her husband Christophter got me the cutest garden statue. I think we look alike. I need to get a better picture of the Bee's legs. She has the most adorable shoes!! Maybe tomorrow I will get a new photo with her shoes included.

Last week I added a couple of new plants to the garden. One is a vine that will grow up a trellis in the front garden. It is called Scarlet Pimpernel Mandeville.

I got another plant, a Pink Dalia. They are really quite pretty too.

I am fighting the heat this week to keep things from wilting in the later afternoon.

It has been over 100 for the past few days now. I really hate summer herre!!!

Well that is all the news that I have for now.

My Project This Week

A couple of months ago I got an idea. Every week for the past year I have been noticing the artificial lawn at a local Radio Station. It looks really nice, with the added bonus of not using any water.

So... I don't know if anyone remembers my front walkway...it is, or rather was... flagstone and dichondra. The photo at the top right of the heading on this page is one of my favorite photos of it.

Anyway, I got this idea that just maybe the company that installs the artificial lawns might just have some small scraps that I could use between the flagstones and save money on water. I called them, and the owner said he would give me some scraps and they would even deliver them. I was really happy.

When the fellows showed up with the scraps, instead of a bunch of small pieces, they left me two 5ft X 30ft rolls of the stuff!!

I about croaked!! So since Monday this week I have been trying to make a new walkway I decided it would be really hard to cut out all the holes for each stone. So.. I thought I would just place the stones on the top of the grass. I worked and worked to lay flagstones. It is not easy to do!! I had to keep pulling up the carpet of grass, and level the soil so the stones would lay properly.

Here is a photo of what I did.

Rick thought the stones were too far apart, and that they might cause someone to sprain an ankle if they didn't step on the stones just right.
So.. I made the gaps between the stones smaller by rearranging all the stones again.

As I was working, I noticed I really liked the look of the grass without the stones on it.

Here is a closer view.

Here is how it looks from the front door. I made the path to the birdbath more narrow.

Well, what do you think? I used to have to water the dichcondra at least twice a day in the summer. Now I don't have to water this stuff at all!! And it was FREE!!

The Secret Garden

My next door neighbor invited me to her "Secret Garden". The Irises are in bloom. I thought I would share some of the flowers with you.

Here is one bed of Irises and poppies.

Here is the same bed looking from another angle. There is a circular patio with planters coming out from the edges of the patio like spokes of a wheel. Right now it just has baby seedlings in the beds, except for this one with the flowers.

Here is a close up of it, I wish the camera could see what I see.

These are Desert Blue Bells

These next photos are of some really pretty Irises.

I especially liked this one. The sun was shining in such a way to make it look like the center of the flower was a sunbeam.

This is a bronze Iris

This is a true pale blue Iris.

And here is a pale pink one

These looked like twins

I envy this garden. When they bought the land they had a Agricultural water meter put in since they planned to only use it for a garden area.The water is much less expensive that way. Last year one of their watermelon vines put out about 30 watermelons, still producing well into the fall. The garden beds and trees are all on an underground drip system. Of course it helps to have a resident irrigation expert in the house.

From time to time I will show you how the secret garden is doing. There are grapevines, fruit trees and lots of vegetables. It is a nice place to have a cup of tea.

Been Busy in the Garden

How time flies by these days!! This year my flowers by the mailbox are tumbling into the street.

The backyard smells beautiful!! The Honeysuckle is blooming. I have two vines that I planted last year and they are quickly filling out the trellises. I was able to root a piece of one of the vines that I accidently broke off earlier this year. so by next year I ought to have three nice Honeysuckle vines in the backyard.

I replaced the rock and succulent garden by the backdoor ... Here it is, or was...

Photobucket

The succulents I moved to the side yard with the other succulents. I think flowers make me happier than succulents. It will be a few weeks before the tiny sprouts look like much of anything.

I planted a varigated Alyssum, Bachelor Buttons, Cosmos, and some other little flowers I don't remember their names right now.

Yesterday, my neighor Pam treated me to a manicure and a pedicure!! Just for being a good neighbor!! Here are the results, I chose two different colors, one lighter one for my fingers,

and a darker one for my toes.

Well, I will try to come up here next week if not sooner to post some fun things for you to see.

Have a great week.

Five Eggs in One Day!!

The other day I got five eggs from my four hens! And one is a double yolker for sure!!

I am getting enough eggs now to give some as gifts to my friends. I came up with a label for a six egg carton that make a nice little gift. Here is the label.

I think it turned out pretty good! Yesterday I got one of the cartons back, empty, with a strong hint they brought it back for a refill!!

Yesterday when I went to check up on the chickens, who were out in the yard playing, they were all in a line, taking dust baths in the dirt. By the time I went in to get the camera, and got back, two of them had decided to go do something else. But here are two of them in a photo I titled "Hens in Hog Heaven"

They love to dig indentations in the dirt and and then throw the dirt up on themselves.

I am working on a new water conservation project. For the past year, I have been noticing how nice the new artificial lawn in front of the Radio Station looks. I got an idea! They must have scaps leftover from jobs, and what do they do with them? So, I called and they said they would be happy to give me all the scraps I could use. And they even deliver them to me!! Can't beat that! I was expecting small pieces. But what I got are two big rolls!! I am starting back by the chicken coop, I will put a flagstone path going to the chicken coop and to my potting shed. I am happy now!! No more flooding the chicken run when I have to water the dichondra between the flagstones!! And I will save lots of water. The next phase is to replace the dichondra in the front pathway. That will be a much bigger project!!

Here is the grass, it is not put down yet, I just laid it there to see how it will look. We have had lots of wind lately so I need to vacuum the grass!! The shadows on the grass are from a new overhead screen I put up to shade the plants a bit during the heat of the summer.

Here this looks better now!! I didn't vacuum it..

I used Photo Paint to take out the straw and pine pollen and needles!

I could just not put the flagstones back, but I think it will help the grass last longer if I am not walking on it.

Have a good week!!

Pink Jasmine Vine and Other Fun Stuff

Things are really starting to bloom here now!! This week we have had such wonderful weather. It is hard to stay inside during the day. We are having beautiful blue skies with white puffy clouds. The citrus trees are in bloom and the air is filled with a scent of flowers.

Last year I planted a Pink Jasmine vine. It is suppose to grow about 12 feet tall!! I planted it in the corner of the back garden against the fence. It smells so prety! I think it is called Pink Jasmine because the buds are pink before they open.

This year the dandelion leaves are HUGE!! Good thing too, because it is one of the favorite chichen snacks!

The Nasturshims in the back garden also have huge leaves this year.

Now that the chickens are all laying eggs, they have to wait in line to use the nest box.

Oh, I boiled a double yolked egg. I can tell right away now if an egg is a double yolker. Theyare so much larger than the regular size eggs. It makes an interesing boiled egg.

I tried this week to get some photos of Spartacus playing frisbee. It is not easy with my camera. The shutter is somewhat delayed. So I got a ton of photos with no dog in them at all, or just a blur. Here are a few that turned out ok.

He is watching how high it can go.

He is jumping up to get the frisbee.

Here he is right after catching it.

I wish I could get one so you could see just how far he gets off the ground!! For such a big fellow he can jump pretty high. He seldom misses catching it.

Have a great weekend!

Working in the Garden

Yesterday I built a trellis. If any of you remember, a couple of summers ago I made a trellis from two Sunflowers and some Morning Glories. In fact it is one of the photos in my header here. Anyhow. A day or so afer that photo was taken, we had a thunderstorm with winds and rain that caused it to fall over! It was very sad. This year I decided to try again for a Sunflower and Morning Glory arch. But this time I will reinforce it. I was very proud of it, until Rick came home and told me it had no "Sturctural Integrity".... So, I asked him what I needed to make it stand up to the winds we get with our summer storms. (He figured the way it was, the thing would fall over on his truck at the first good wind that blows.) I got one side fixed tonight just before it got dark. Tomorrow I will have to go to Home Depot and get some more PVC fittings, since I figured out a better way to make the support leg for the other side. I will take new photos when I finish it. Once it is covered with vines, you won't see that it is not perfectly straight.

Here it is...

Well, I finally had two eggs in one day!! I think now both Rosalind and Roxanne are laying.

Here is what I found the other afternoon in the coop, they didn't use the next box, but they were very close to it.

I did have a very weird egg this week. I was cleaning out the coop and thought at first it was a feather, but, when I picked it up, it was like a wet, deflated balloon! And it had nothing in it!! Very odd looking, I think it might have "popped" on the way out of the chicken.

Here is a photo of it.

I found a new way to keep the chickens entertained when they have to be in the chicken run by the coop instead of out in their Tractor. I used a wild bird feeder, that is suppose to hold suet and seed blocks. I fill it with greens from the garden, dandelion greens are their favorite, and they like cabbage and grapes a lot too. Anyhow they love to pick the greens out of the holder.

Here it is all filled with different weeds and lettuces.

Then I hang it in the chicken run, and they play "volley ball" with it.

Sometimes if they are really hungry they can empty that little hanger in just a few minutes. Then they look at me as if to say, "Hey, we want some more!"

This year we had a very mild winter. I still have tomato plants and basil that survived the winter. The other day I made Rick a salad with two tiny tomatoes that I found in the garden. My "oak leaf" lettuces are really dark this year! I thought this salad had a funny face.

That salad is in a custard cup, the tomatoes are between three egg slices, not our eggs, they were eggs I made from a recipe that Eck gave us. It is really good!! If I ever get the time I will type out and post the recipe. It is a sort of sauce you use to soak the eggs in. It has Soy Sauce, Ginger, Lemon Grass, and a couple of other things. I plan to keep a jar of eggs in that sauce in the fridge for snacks. Are those tiny tomatoes or what? Rick said they had lots of flavor for such tiny tomatoes. The are "Sweet 100's" I hope the plant perks up and makes lot of tomatoes this summer, it only made a few tomatoes last year. I did notice today I do have lots of voluteer tomatoes coming up. I am waiting for Zoop to appear that means winter is over for sure when he comes out.

Got to go.

Have a good weekend.

Nagging Pays Offf!!

After eleven days of putting straw back in the nest box after they kick it all out, and putting the plastic egg back in the next box, and telling them ...

"This is where EGGS go, NOT in the corners of the coop!!"

Finally!! Rosalind laid an egg in the nest box this am!!! I am SOOOOOOO Happy!!!

Here are some photos I took of the EVENT!!

I think you can see the little brown egg better in this one.

I am so happy my chickens can understand English!!

Spring Has Sprung!!

I really love this time of year!!

We can grow so many things here in the Winter.and early Spring. Lettuce is one thing the loves cool weather. Each year I plant lots of different kinds of lettuces. This time of year I am able to make nice big salads to serve at our weekly "nosh" at the congregation. Here is a close up photo of the one from yesterday. I decorated it with Desert Honeysuckle(The bright orange flowers, Nasturshims, Johnny Jump Ups, and Rosemary Flowers (the very tiny lavendar flowers).

I had never used Rosemary flowers before. They have a very slight Rosemary flavor.

Which is to be expected I guess.

On Friday I was able to get a series of photos of Rosalind laying an egg!!! Here they are for those of you who have never seen a chicken in the process of laying an egg.

I took these photos from the door of the next box, which they don't appear to understand that iw where I want the eggs to be laid, even though I did go to the trouble of making a nice sign to go above the nest box.

Here is Rosalind in the process of making a nest in the front corner of the coop. Olivia is coming to check out what is going on.

Here is Olivia coming to see what I am doing. You can see the nest box at the bottom of the photo. I just cut it down a bit last week so they could get in it easier.

Here is Olivia checking out the nest box, I am hoping when she begins to lay eggs she will lay them in there.

Here Is Rosalind with her newly laid egg!

and here is a photo of the egg in the straw.

The other day I thought I would take a photo of the difference between a store bought egg and one of my home grown eggs. I used my largest egg from the hens. This one was about twice the size of the eggs I had been getting. To my surprise when I cracked it into the pan it was a double yolker!!

Notice the difference in the color of the yolks. And the whites are different too. Notice how the white in my egg stays nice and high near the yolks, and the store bought eggs white is all flattened out.

You all have a great week!!

"EGGCITING" NEWS!!

Yesterday At 22 weeks and one day.....
Lady Rosalind laid her first egg!!!

Lady Rosalind 2/5/09

Rosalind at 15 days old. Taken Sept 25, 2008 Wasn't she a cute chick!!

I was so surprised!! I was in the run with them, feeding them some dandelion greens, their all time favorite things to eat!!

I left for a few minutes, came back for some reason, looked in the run and there under the broken chair they use for a outdoor roost in their yard was a brand new little egg!!

Here it is under the chair, I had just put down a nice new layer of sand the day before.

Here are a couple of close up photos of the egg so you can get an idea of it's size.

Dark background

Now just yesterday in the morning, I put some hay and eggs in the nest box, but left the screen up so they could see into the nest box, but not get into it.

Here is the next box all ready to go....

They were curiously watching me from inside the coop as I arranged the straw and plastic eggs, I held up an egg and showed it to them and said "This is an egg. Pretty soon you will be making these!"

And sure enough that afternoon, I had an egg!!

Maybe I should have showed them an egg sooner?

New Furniture!!

Last night they delivered our new furniture for the livingroom. I am sooooooo happy!! We were concerned it might not fit, but it fits just perfect!! It is sooooo comfortable. It is micro-suede that looks like leather. It is just so soft and comfy!! I had to lighten the photo a bit, it was too dark to see any details on the funiture. Poor Spartacus looks a bit washed out!!

Here it is.

That was my big surprise for you!!

Salad With Violets

Yesterday I made a salad with lettuces from my garden. I added some edible flowers. I think it looked very pretty. It smelled good too!!

Well on Wednesday... I will have something fun to show you!! I can't wait!!

Silly Chickens

Last night when I got home it was dark, and I went to shut the coop door,

since the chickens are usually in there as soon as it gets to be dusk.

But to my surprise I found three of them outside the coop roosting on

the "pop" door!! If the door was bigger I bet all four of them would

have been on there!!

Here are Roxanne and Rosalind the other day, being bookends. in the

Chicken Tractor, for those who don't know what that is...

it is a big cage that moves around the yard so the chickens can eat weeds

and bugs, but still be safe from preditors and they can't escape the yard.

My garden is doing well Here is the lettuce at the base of the Apricot tree.

It is a special mix of lettuce from a famous restaurant, but, now I have

forgotten the name of the restaurant!! Notiice the purple cabbage,

it has been growing since LAST year.

Here is more lettuce in the little green house by the back door

And here is the Wheel Barrow Garden I planted last spring,

the Italian Parsley has about taken over!

Here is my first pea!!! It is an Oregon Giant.

They will get bigger as the weather warms up a bit.

Good News!! We used half as much natural gas as we did last year. The new heater and water heater are much more effecient!!

And.... next week I will have a big surprise for you!! I can't wait to take pictures!!

Sunset Snapdragons

Winter has arrived in Tucson!! I will have to cover my plants later this week.We are due for some really chillly nights on Thursday and Friday, so they predict. .

Here is one of my favorite snapdragons in the front yard. I just love this color. It reminds me of a sunset.

Yesterday Rick put in a new light fixture in the kitchen. For about 20 years I have had the same lighting in the kitchen. A florescent tube over the sink, and a ceiling fixture the held two 60 watt bulbs.For the past few years now, the ceiling fixture has been turning on and off by itself. Many people thought the house was haunted when that kitchen light was on!! I now have a adjustable three bulb fixture!! Each bulb is 75 watts.

Here is a close up photo of the fixture.

I couldn't believe the difference more light makes!! But, the drawback is.... I can see all the spots that need cleaning!! The fixture holds bulbs that are floresent and they take a while to come up to full brightness. That is odd to get used to.

I couldn't get a photo of it turned on, it is way too bright and sends my camera into real fits!!

A few days ago we got a new vacuum cleaner!! That too makes a real difference!! Somewhere I have a photo of Rick using the last vacuum we bought, about 10 years ago now. He has to use them when they come out of the box.

And here is how the chickens sleep in the coop. All cuddled up to stay warm. Olivia stood up right as the camera flashed.

The coop is nice and snug. Yesterday it rained on and off, but the coop stays nice and dry. Even the run area stays pretty dry since it is under a huge pine tree in the backyard. Some time in February I should start getting some eggs. Oh guess what! My coop was tied for first place in a coop contest on Backyard Chickens!! I won a $20.00 gift certificate!! The contest was based on this posting of the construction of my chicken coop. If you haven't seen this page before, here is a link to it. Glenn Cottage Eggery Construction

I won two contests last week actually, my photo of Irving the snowman won "Photo of the Week" on a gardening message board I belong to. All my life I never win anything, then in a week I win two contests!! Here is the photo of Irving that won that contest.

Irving, in case you don't know, is a snowman I kept in the freezer a couple of years ago now, when we got some snow here. Which is a rare thing. Here he is in the freezer.

As you can tell he had begun to melt a bit in the photo with the Johnny Jump Ups. His Kippah was getting too big for him.

Well, I better go let the chickens out of the coop!!

Have a great week.

What A Week!!

This has been a very interesting week. We finally are getting a new water heater,

furnace, and air conditioning unit.

Spartacus and I have been spending this past week at the congregation

buildings during the day. I needed electricity to do the gifts I am making for the

holidays. Since the front and back doors were open with 6 to 10 guys

going in an out every few minutes during the day, we thought it would be

less of a hassle if Spartacus was not here under foot. Rick rented a

generator so he could continue to do a few things here at the house whlie

the power was off.

They began on Monday, putting in the new water heater.

Here is the new water heater in the side yard near the kitchen.

I didn't get before pictures of the hall closet with both the water heater

and furnace in the closet, which is no longer allowed since the codes

have changed. This house was built in 1951 and back then you could

do many things that are not done today. Here is the empty closet.

Looks pretty bad huh? I wanted to paint it while it was empty, but...

I didn't get a chance. I thought for a while I would get a whole new

closet out of this deal, but I was wrong!!

On Tuesday and Wednesday things began to get really busy here.

There were five different kinds of trucks in front of the house most

of the day. There was no electricity in the house while the Power

Company was putting new wires from the pole to the house and we

got a whole new breaker box on the side of the house.

Here is a photo of the bucket truck working on the pole by the house

Here in an in process photo of the new unit. In the closet.

Here it is almost finished

This is a photo of the new compressor on the roof next to the old swamp cooler,

we will most likely replace the old cooler at some point. That way we can use the

swamp cooler when the weather is hot and dry, and save some money on cooling

the house in the summer.

Tonight, we have heat!! And the new thermostat gives us the temerature

outside! That is a nice feature. They put in all new vent covers today.

There are still a few things they will do tomorrow. This furnace is so

quiet compared to the old one!!

Winter Garden 2008

Yesterday I took some photos of the backyard gardens. They are all doing very well. We had guests for dinner last night and I was able to make a very nice sized salad from the greens in the garden.

Here is the greenhouse by the back door. There is Sage, Parsley, Garlic Chives, Beets, Stevia, Greek Oregano, red, white, and blue potatoes, several types of lettuce, and a clump of violets.

This year the potatoes seem to be doing very well in the little green house and the violets seem to be very happy growing with the potatoes.

Now on to the back garden. The other day I decided to plant violets along the path in the very back garden behind the Peach and Apricot trees. If you look carefully you can see the tiny transplants of violets. The plan is that in a couple of years The area between the stones will be filled in thick with violets. They are good in salads and for a nice garnish on desserts.

The violets look like this when they are happy!

This is the special blend of lettuce I planted under one of the Apricot trees. It was a seed blend from a famous restaurant, but I forgot the name of the place!!

This is the square foot garden in a ladder in the back garden. It has different types of lettuce, cilantro, and spinach. And a Basil plant that is still making it through the winter so far. Opps! I didn't get the Basil in the photo!!

Do you remember the little Pomegranate Tree with all the flowers? I think I posted it on here a while ago... Anyhow, here it is today with lots of tiny Pomegranates. I should have counted how many there are. Wait I will go do that.. there are 20 small pomegranates, and a few flowers that might produce fruit.

Here is the baby citrus bed. It doesn't look like much at the momemt. The trees are really small, and the flowers are still just coming up so all you see is green. Do you see my peas on the fence?

This year I planted some Red Habenero plants, I took a photo of the one I have in a pot on the back patio.

It is loaded with peppers, so are the other plants that are in different places in the garden. Over the years I have found I have better sucess if I don't plant things in rows, but put different plants in different places each year. And I study "Companion Planting" so I can fool the bugs.

Well, Spartacus was "helping" me in the garden. I had carefully removed a Amaranth plant that was loaded with seed, and I shook a few seeds in the citrus bed, just so next year there would be some different color of leaves in with the spring and summer flowers there. I set the Amaranth stalk down, and Spartacus decided to spread the seeds all over the backyard for me!! Here is is once he was finished sowing the seeds.

And here are the chickens this morning just being chickens

You may notice I replaced the cute blue and white ladder going into the coop, I was tired of trying to keep it looking nice and clean!! Now I will save it for "special". I put in a scrap piece of wood for them to use as a ramp. It is much easier to clean!!

Anybody know of a way to "potty train" a chicken???

VACATION!!!

For the past few years Rich has taken the month of December off from both his day job as a Design Engineer with United Technologies/Otis Elevators, and the congregation. It gives him time to really rest from the busy schedule he has all year.

This is how he spends most of his vacation time.

Spartacus loves to sit on people, since he is not really allowed on the furniture, this gives him a "loophole." He has a shirt on not because he is cold, but because he has an 'owie" on his elbow, and the shirt keeps him from licking it.

Spartacus has become quite a big fellow. This is a picture of him on the first day

we got him.

The past couple of years we have been having "staycations" trying to save up to replace the water heater, furnace and air conditioner. They have been on their last legs for a few years now. So, we finally saved up the close to $15,000.00 it is going to take to do all that! They are to begin in a week or so, the Electric Company was out here yesterday to check on what it will take to boost our service to handle an air conditioning unit. We have only had a swamp cooler before. I hope our electric bill doesn't go up too much in the summer.

Not too much is new. I think later today I will take some photos of my garden, I did quite a bit of cleaning up of plants that will not make it through the winter yesterday afternoon. Now watch, we won't even get a freeze and I could have let them grow!!

My lettuce, spinach and other winter crops are doing well. Soon as I am dressed I will take some photos to show you.

Winter Comes to the Eggery

Since we seldom see snow here in Tucson, I have to pretend it is winter. I got some really

cute snowmen and put up some snow flakes to make my 80 degree days seem cooler!!

Here are some photos of the Eggery all done up to celebrate winter.

Here are the snowmen close up, I thought they had cute faces!

This one is on the gate.

And there are two of these guys, one hanging from each end of the roof

With the warm weather my garden is still very happy!! I have flowers finally after three years of watering these vines! This is a type of morning glory that doesn't put out any seed. It grow from cuttings of the vines. And it become a "weed" very quickly if you don't keep an eye on it.

Notice my baby lettuce, spinach, potatoes in the little "green house"

Here is a close up of flowers on the arch. They are out all day, and change color during the day from light blue to lavendar and dark pink colors.

And of course there must be a chicken photo!! Here they are playing "Volleyball" with a cluster of grapes. It is a fun game for them. I tried to get a picture of them as they peck at the grapes, but my camera wasn't fast enough.

Have a good weekend!

Love you all bunches,

Heidi

Chick Pix

On Friday I got my car back!! It was a very nice job of body work!! I will take pictures tomorrow. The only thing that is a problem is the door sensor is not working right, so it shows a light on the dash that indicates the door is open when it is closed. So.. I will take it back to get that fixed on Monday.

The other day I took some new photos of "the girls" Hope you enjoy them.

Here are Ophelia and Olivia, you can tell which is which very easy on these two. Olivia still has some of her "chick fluff" on her head. And she is a bit lighter in color than Ophelia.

Rosalind and Roxanne are much more difficult to tell apart. Roxanne is a tiny bit bigger with a longer tail, but you have to really study them to see any difference.

Here they are sitting on a old chair I let them have in their tractor.

Here they are "preening" their feathers.

They look do a good job of keeping clean. They love to take "dust baths". They throw dirt upon themselves in a very wild fashion! Then they lay there in the indentation they create and take a bit of a nap. I will have to get some new photos of the dust bath ritual.

I thought I would get more done around here with no transportation, but.... my neighbor Pam came to make sure I got out a couple of days last week. We went shopping and out to lunch. It is very nice to have good neighbors! We trade plants, seeds, and when we make meals that turn out especially good we take each other some! She is still getting watermelons from her garden!

Today is cool and windy. I have a roast beef in the crockpot, and just finished a gingerbread for dessert. I put pieces of candied ginger in the gingerbread. I think it will taste good, I will let you know.

My plan for the afternoon is to clean out the chicken coop and put new straw in there. I need to go to Ace Hardware and buy a dust mask for that job. Last time I did it the dust from the straw made me cough.

Off to Ace now!!

What a Great Way To Start The Shabbat

Friday evening, I was in my "office/computer/craft room. Rick was practicing his songs that he wanted to sing at Havdallah. We both heard water begin to run. He thought I war running a bath, I thought he was in the kitchen, we have a wireless mic, so I thought he was running water for some reason in the kitchen and singing, odd thing to do but... hey he could have been rinsing out a glass or something, but then the water seemed to be running a long time, maybe 3 to 4
minutes. I went to see what the heck he was doing singing and running water... (maybe doing dishes?) But, he was sitting in his chair singing...

uh, oh... I turned and then I saw the bathroom floor was an inch or two deep in water and coming up into the hall carpeting!! YIKES!!

Of course the handle on the valve was completely stuck, I had to run quick and turn off the water at the main valve, on the front of the house obsecured by the ivy on the front of the house! Not easy to find in the dark since we had the porch light off since it was Halloween night! Thankfully I knew about where the valve was and found it pretty quickly, got the water off. I came back in the house to Rick trying to figure out what the heck was spraying water all over tthe place. (the little hose that goes up to the tank sprung a leak, it is plastic, but has not been moved for at least 25 years now.

I got out a couple of towels to try to stop the water from going into the carpet. I went to get my carpet machine, (which is a glorified shop vac in reality) It, too, is ancient, but Bissel made a good product that year! Rick was the one that cleaned up all the water. I think for him it was a fun science experiment to see which nozzle worked best, and what angle he needed to hold it to make the water go up in the hose better. It took a good 45 minutes to get all the water up off the floor!!

What a great start to the Shabbat!

Jenn Your Wish Is My Command!

This week the chicks are really changing into chickens. Every morning now they are perched on the roosting posts when I open the coop door. See how big they are getting?

Their voices are getting deeper and instead of making baby bird chirping sounds, they are starting to go "Brwack" when they get excited. One thing that excites them is when I bring them nice grubs from my compost pile. This photo is not for the squeemish...

those are some huge grubs!!

Now that it is fall, and I have removed all the Morning Glory vines from the fence that divides the back yard, I can see the coop clearly. There are peas coming up that will in a few weeks hopefully cover the fence. Here are a couple of photos of the coop from across the yard.

This is what my neighbor behind me sees when he looks over the back fence.

Jenna, remember you asked about the apricot and peach trees? That skinny tree with almost no leaves that is casting a shadow on the coop is one of the Apricot trees, and if you look at the other coop picture above, in the far right side you see the green leaves of the Peach tree. The peach tree seems to keep it's leaves all year. I hope in a couple of years to actually get some fruit from these trees!!

Next year I think I will put the same PVC roof on the potting shed, I just have a shade cloth cover on it now. But a solid roof would look much nicer I think. Don't you think the chicken coop made a nice addition to the backyard? I think everyone should have some "backyard chickens", they are such fun to watch.

I finally finished my entry in a Chicken Coop contest. The people at Ace Hardware think I should enter the coop in the county fair, (if they have such a thing as a Chicken Coop display.)

We were to give as much information as possible on our constuction of our chicken coop. The winner gets a $20.00 gift certificate to be used in the BYC Gift Shop (BYC=Backyard Chickens)

If you would like to see my entry you can go to this link.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=8389-coop-construction

Let me know what you think of my entry.

The car is in the shop being fixed, and it is to be finished Nov. 19th!! That is three weeks with no car!! We don't have rental car coverage on our insurance. But, to be honest I am not minding staying home in the least. I have a much calmer day.

Have a great weekend.

What A Week!!

Tuesday was just not my day! My perfectly wonderful car iwas "customized" by a city bus. Thankfully nobody got hurt. The bkie rack on the front of the bus hit the side of my car. The bike that was in the bke rack was damaged. I now have to deal with the insurance company. They were suppose to send someone down from Phoenix last week to look at it. But, that didn't happen. Here are a couple photos of the car.

On a happier note. The chicks are growing nicely. Here is a photo of me holding all of them. The lighting was not the best. In a couple of weeks I'll do another on so I can see how fast they are growing. The Barred Rocks are just nine days older than the Buff Orpingtons. It is amazing what a difference just nine days makes when they are so young. The Barred Rocks have all their feathers now. Poor Olivia is the last to get real feathers. She reminds me of "Woodstock" in the Snoopy comic strips. The feathers on her head are still baby chick fluff and they poke out in all directions. Ophelia has most of her feathers now. I am hoping they are all hens and that I won't have to deal with how to get rid of one if it turns out to be a rooster. We can't have roosters in the city. They say there is only a 10% chance of one being a rooster. But, with my luck lately... I hate to think about it at all.

Yestereday I worked all day in the garden. Getting ready for winter. Here in Tucson winter is the best time for growing many crops. Like lettuce, spinach, cabbage, radishes, peas and many flowers. I will take some "before" pictures later today. They are pretty boring, since they are just bare dirt at the moment.

Look What's New in the Garden

A few months ago I bought a dwarf Pomegranate Tree at Trader Joe's. It is now loaded with fruits and flowers. Here are a couple of photos for you to see.

This is the tree

Here are some of the fruits

Here is the size of the little pomegranate fruits

The other day I looked out the back door and saw a spider had made a web all over the top of one of the windchimes. The sun was just right so you could see how pretty the web looks.

And of course there have to be a few chicken photos for you to see!!

Here are Ophelia and Olivia in the garden.

Ophelia is the darker of the two. Olivia still has mostly baby chick fluff. But, the feathers Oliva is getting are lighter in color than Ophelia's feathers. Maybe they will stay two different shades. That would be fine with me, makes them eaiser to tell apart that way.

Here is a good picture of Ophelia.

I need to get a good one of each of the chicks while they are still young.

Hope you all have a good week.

Chicks at Play

Everyday I put the chicks out to play in their tractor for a few hours.

They have lots of fun!!

Here are some photos I took yesterday.

Some are in the yard attached to the coop,

others are in the chicken tractor.

Here are Olivia and Ophelia playing follow the leader

Here are all four on the back of an old chair I put in the run for them to play on during the day.

Here are two photos of them perching on the old chair I put in the chicken tractor.

I picked up some old chairs people were throwing away a while back. I planned on painting

them, I still might do that.

Here are all four perching on the chair, but one is flapping her wings so you can't see her very well.

And here are just three of them perched on the chair watching the world go by.

Here are Roxanne and Rosalind up on the top of the old chair.

Here is Roxanne on the porch of the coop, notice Spartacus standing guard in the background.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, I am off to recover one of my little greenhouses

Rick made me a few years ago. I am putting chicken wire on it. It was Rick's idea

to give the chickens a alternate place to look for bugs. There is nothing growing

in the little greenhouse at the moment except some herbs that I think are big enough

the they won't be able to do much damage to them with their tiny baby feet. Once

they are big chickens, well that is another story I would imagine.

Introducing Lady Rosalind

Today one of the chicks stood out as being more curious and more adventuresome than the others. I spent a good hour watching and "interacting" with the chicks. I can now tell them apart. And have named them. Lady Rosalind is darker and weighs less than her sister Roxanne.

Here are some photos of Lady Rosalind.

Sitting on the edge of a basket

Sitting way up on the handle of the basket.

she looks like she is sitting on the head of the other little chick.

And here she is taking a nap on the edge of the basket.

Also today, my neighbor Pam brought over a Coop Warming gift. It is a watercolor of some Hollyhocks in bloom. She said it had been in her garage and when she saw it she knew it belonged in my coop. So... I mounted it on the inside of the entrance gate to the chicken yard.

Here are some photos of the watercolor

Here with the gate open

Here with the gate shut

and here is a close up of the watercolor, it is of Hollyhocks in bloom.

I thought this photo ws neat, notice there is lattice around the Hollyhocks, and see the refection of the lattice in the glass of the photo

Today I also mounted the word "Eggs" above the nest box. I had to do a bit of modification on the letters to get them to fit in the space The "S" had to be a bit tipped, but I think it looks ok, being not quite straight..

Well off to bed now. I spend most of the evening cleaning up a "Hazmat"

problem in the kitchen, I accidently broke the florescent tube over the sink!

So... in case any of you didn't know, they contain Mercury. And it is not

good to be breathing and touching Mercury. It is all cleaned up now!!

For Jenn, Me with the Coop

Ok, Jenn just for you, so you can better tell how big

the coop really is. Here is the coop and me beside it.

This is me standing on the sidewalk that goes to the back

Vegetable garden. This is the short side of the coop,

It is taller than me when I am in the chicken run. I dug

out the soil so I can replace it with sand every so often.

The coop is set on concrete blocks. On the sidewalk side

they are set about half way in the dirt up against the

sidewalk, so no critters can dig under the coop or run.

Here I am opening the nest box, where sometime next year,

I will get eggs!! I bought some wooden letters today to go

above the nest box. That side of the coop was severly lacking in

any kind of deoration.

In the next couple of days I will get the word "Eggs" above the nest box. And I will

post how that turns out.

Have a good evening,

I am off to fix dinner.

Glenn Cottage Eggery is Finally Complete!!

On Thursday I finished putting up all the hardware cloth on the chicken run. That was a job to be sure! I still have cuts on my arms!

Friday morning I had some good friends come and visit the garden and eggery. I gave them the guided tour! We then went over to my next door neighbors house to see her grape arbor that is loaded with beautiful purple grapes. She gave us a snack of watermelon. Then we went to her "secret garden" across the street to see her three waternelon plants that have produced about 40 waterneloms so far in the past three months. They are the best watermelons I have ever tasted!

I took photos of the coop and chicken run. I put it in a filmstrip that begins with Spartacus looking at me through the sliding glass door, then we proceed down the sidewalk to the gate, we look at the fall display on the fence that separates that side of the yard. The plan is that someday the pallet fence will be covered with ivy. Then we go down the side walk, around the back of the coop, through the chicken run gate, down the side of the coop, we go in front of the coop and look inside of it. Then back down the side of the coop and around the back of the coop to the house again.

Now I am patiently waiting for chicks.

Have a good weekend, what is left of it that is....

It is late now and I am going to go to ....

Names for Chickens

I was telling my husband, the names I had picked out for my chickens. The Buff Orpintons I plan to name Ophelia and Olivia. He said "What goony names are those? Why don't you neme them something more practical like... Deliciious and Deletable? Just think you could be the only person in the world with a chicken named "Lunchmeat."

I took pictures of the coop this morning, they have yet to be downloaded and edited. I have a TON of stuff to do today! Housecleaning mostly, which is not my favorite thing to do. I am taking Spartacus in to have his nails cut at a grooming place. His nails are now too big and hard for me to do it. Well, y'all have a good day now. I'll post new photos of the completed coop and run later, probably way later tonight after I get all my other chores done.

Today I Put Down a Deposit On Some Chicks!!

On my way back from the Airport I decided to stop by a feedstore at that end of town. I had never been there and I was a bit leary of going there because it is not in the best area of the city. I was pleasantly surprised to find it clean and bright, very organized, the livestock they had were in spotlessly clean cages. It was the cleanest feedstore I have seen so far.

They are way more organized than the feedstore that is just a few blocks from me. And a big plus, they take orders for chicks!! Something the other feedstores don't do. I am well on my way now to getting my baby chicks!! I put down a big $5.00 for my four chicks!!! I am so excited!!

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be posting baby chick photos!! I wonder if I can make some cute bonnets for them to wear for photos?

A bonnet and an apron would look very nice on a chicken I think!

Off to the Airport

This is a busy day for me. Taking a friend to the airport, cleaning up the constuction mess in the back yard, and doing some much needed work in the garden. I have negelected both the housework and the garden while I was concentrating on getting the coop and run finished. I will take pictures once I get the coop and run "presentable" for photos.

Now the search for baby chicks begins!!

I had plans to make a Tomatillo sauce for dinner tonight. Last night I made some chicken stock, for the recipe... But this morning I noticed I forgot to put it in the fridge!! YUCK!! Now I will have to go buy some chicken stock.

I am so mad at myself

Glenn Cottage Eggery Almost Complete

The photos at the top of the page are some of my favorite photos from my garden.

As many of you know the past few weeks I have been very busy building a chicken coop! I plan to get four chicks, two Buff Orpingtons, and two Barred Rocks. This has been an adventure! I have never really built anything like this. I will post the pictures as soon as I get them organized. Today I got the chicken "run" complete. I learned the hard way there are definate ways NOT to do things!! I spent more time pulling out staples today becasue I needed to have access behind a section of Hardware cloth I had just securely stapled!! I do believe I have made it preditor proof. All I have left to do is putting up some trim pieces tomorrow.

The weather is here is feeling like fall. It is still in the high 90's. But it is less humid and the monsoons are over.

I will work now on the Eggery photo album.

Hope you will enjoy this blog.

Love you all bunches,

Heidi

Featured pictures

Welcome

Weather

Fall. The Best Season of the Year!!

Recipes

Spaghetti Pie

First Dust Bath

Why is there a light on in the coop tonight?

Recent pictures

Finished Coop

Glenn Cottage Eggery

The Old Tree Stump Had to Go

Latest news

Camping

Motorcycle Weekend

Mother's Day!!

My Project This Week

The Secret Garden

Been Busy in the Garden

Five Eggs in One Day!!

Pink Jasmine Vine and Other Fun Stuff

Working in the Garden

Nagging Pays Offf!!

Spring Has Sprung!!

"EGGCITING" NEWS!!

New Furniture!!

Salad With Violets

Silly Chickens

Sunset Snapdragons

What A Week!!

Winter Garden 2008

VACATION!!!

Winter Comes to the Eggery

Chick Pix

What a Great Way To Start The Shabbat

Jenn Your Wish Is My Command!

What A Week!!

Look What's New in the Garden

Chicks at Play

Introducing Lady Rosalind

For Jenn, Me with the Coop

Glenn Cottage Eggery is Finally Complete!!

Names for Chickens

Today I Put Down a Deposit On Some Chicks!!

Off to the Airport

Glenn Cottage Eggery Almost Complete

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