The Girls Come Home to Roost

Mid September......

We welcomed home our 4 laying hens in mid September. But before they could come to our house, we needed to secure their coop and get the feeders, nesting materials and all of that in order.
First thing was to get the ground leveled out and add a bit of foundation where the Coop-Mahal will sit.

Jenni working on the leveling and foundation

The hardware cloth wire is laid down first. This helps to prevent animals (raccoons, opossums, dogs) from digging under the structure to get to the chickens. Sand and gravel is for leveling the block.

Once the hardware cloth wire and leveling is completed on all 4 sides, dirt and mulch are added to level the ground inside the coop. Then the coop is placed over the secure spot.

The inside of the coop nesting area can now be prepared. Isn't this a cozy little place? Heck, if I ever get in trouble with Rowan, I can even sleep out here! :o)

We are using two different kinds of pine shavings as nesting material. A little denser and easier to maintain than straw.

The water and feed containers.

 The runway to the sleeping/laying loft.

This is Kim, The Chicken Lady. Our neighbor referred us to Kim, who lives just outside of town and has a couple of acres where she raises all sorts of interesting chickens.

She has recommended the Easter Egger breed as they are very social, friendly and we will have the potential to get blue, green, white and brown eggs from our flock. Go here for more info: http://www.mypetchicken.com/chicken-breeds/Easter-Eggers-B145.aspx  Each chicken in this breed possesses the blue egg gene, but won't necessarily lay a blue egg. We will see what we get when they are old enough to lay (that should be in December).

Here is a photo of just part of her flock of 9 week old Easter Eggers we had to choose from. We spent quite some time following the flock around trying to pick out the four hens we wanted. Once we decided, the next major task was trying to catch them. It was hilarious as we ran around the yard trying to pick up our choices. Kim was very helpful on the easiest way to catch and pick them up. She says, once they get to know you they will actually come to you which will make this task much easier in the future.

Here is Rowan with our first choice. We instantly named her Sweetie Pot Pie, as she is very sweet and will taste good with gravy and vegetables one day. :o)

The girls went right into the coop when we arrived home and seemed to be very excited about their new digs. We fed them right away with some scrap vegetables that would normally go into the compost.

We discovered right away that Sweetie Pot Pie likes to be held and petted.

Here are all four of the girls: from left, Chicken Nugget, Chicken Dumpling, Sweetie Pot Pie, and Chicken Noodle. You may notice that they all have food names. Well, we decided to do this so that when it is time to eat them (after they stop laying in about 3 years), it won't be so hard. We shall see :o)

We are really having fun with this. We decided we would try free-ranging the chickens when we are out in the yard doing yard work. So, one day when Rowan was working on laying some stepping stones along the front of the house.............

.....we let the girls out of the coop and they followed us right out to the front yard and started scratching around in the thicket of bushes and trees on the north side of the house.

Every insect was running for their lives! They just loved eating bugs, berries, grass, leaves......EVERYTHING! Who needs goats when you have chickens! And, we get the extra benefit of chicken poop fertilizer in the garden!

It only took us one week of having the chickens before we just had to give them more of a run to hang out in during the day when we are away at work. We laid out the yard timbers as a foundation and secured them with 24" re bar into the ground.

We decided to use 1" PVC pipe to construct the tall part of the run/aviary. This way, we can pick it up an move it around easily if we decide we want o move it to the other side of the house. We secured it with screws to the yard timbers.

Of course, the girls were very curious about what we were doing, so we let them out to investigate. They stayed right around us and helped to clean up any crickets still hopping around in the garden.

We built a shorter raceway coming from the coop to the larger aviary. The small door at the bottom of the coop opens up into this new run area. When the girls come into the coop at night, we close the small door for security, as the aviary doesn't have any underground wire for protection from those nocturnal predators.

You can see how we laid down 12" concrete pavers around the exterior of the entire coop and run. It serves as a walking path and also as extra security from animals trying to dig under to get inside.

Here I am getting all origami-like as we start covering the entire new run with chicken wire. You can see how the chickens are behind me looking in at me. Now I know what it feels like for them when we stand around and look in at them! I felt like I was literally 'in' the zoo :o)

Of course, the girls couldn't resist helping to hand me screws and tools as we were putting the thing together. It was hilarious!

We decided to build a mini cooper down at the other end of the run so the girls would have shelter down there during the daytime (I will now call it this in honor of my sister, who drives one) :o). The whole coop thing suddenly seems to be taking on a life of its own! We are again using the old redwood siding from the house to build it.

 The girls seem to be very happy to lay down right next to me to supervise the construction.

 The inside of the mini cooper.

 From left to right, the day coop, aviary/run, the A frame night coop and the wood/garden shed. We really do suddenly have a Coop Mahal!

 The girls seem to LOVE it!

 Here is a photo I took of the strangest bug we have ever seen. We noticed it crawling up the side of the aviary as we were working on the coop. It about scared the pants off of me! It looks like it is from another planet. It's called a Wheel Bug and is a true assassin in the bug world as it literally sucks the life out of its prey. Ewe! Here is the link if you want to know more about the bug: http://www.hiltonpond.org/thisweek030901.html  I chose this link because the author has a really cool and entertaining way of describing the bug and it's life.

 Back to the chickens............here are the girls in their coop getting ready for bed. There is always much clucking and jostling for position before everyone gets settled in. They seem to be really happy.

 We can't wait till they start laying eggs. Look for exciting news on that sometime in December.

All kinds of other interesting stuff coming to the blog very soon...............as you can see, it is never a dull moment here at our urban farm.

Seasonal Delights

As late summer and early fall come upon us, we always get into our hunting and gathering mode and start collecting lugs of tomatoes and other fresh vegetables from the garden to sauce, chop and blanch for the freezer. Nothing like some fresh tomato marinara, sweet corn from the cob, local peaches, etc. to give one the taste of summer during a snow storm in January.

We went out to our local farmers market and got 50 pounds of these.............

...then, for the next two days, we threw them into boiling water to get the skins to come off easier........

.......the peeling and seeding took so long we got the pruney finger syndrome..........

........crushing the tomatoes in the food processor. We did so many, the counter started to look like someone had been murdered in the kitchen........

........we added fresh herbs from the garden, spices, carrots and lots of love to the double pots of crushed tomatoes........

.........some of the finished product. We also made up jars of plain chopped tomatoes to use in other recipes over the winter. We went around the neighborhood sharing jars with our neighbors. The rest went into our freezer for use over winter.

Some of the organic vegetables harvested from our own garden: kale and carrots

Something we cooked up using the fresh vegetables from our garden. Nothing tastes better than fresh, organic produce picked fresh from the vine. YUM!

Stay tuned for exciting news about our new laying hens in my next post. Yes! We have chickens!!

Northern Ireland - Mussenden Temple & Downhill Demesne

July 18, 2012

Today we went on a little hiking adventure right around the area where we are staying. We started in Castlerock, at Julie Anne's place, and headed off through the fields towards the ocean and Mussenden Temple/Downhill Demesne. We walked along the most beautiful barley field (the key ingredient for whiskey) as we left the house, we could almost hear the bagpipes playing a whiskey drinking song as we went along the path.

Here is a video of the beautiful barley field waving in the wind.

We continued along the path and came upon this hilarious sign hanging on a fence. I think I will have to make some of these for the park by our own house when we get home. :o)

And, of course, the litter bins around the area are made from old whiskey barrels. I guess when there is a surplus of them, they are used for literally everything.

The barley fields suddenly changed to the most beautiful Lord of the Rings, Hobbit type mystical rain forest. As we entered the forest, the entire forest floor was covered in ferns and sorrel.
 I swear there were gnomes watching us as we walked along the path.

 

All at once, we came out of the trees and there was the ocean with beautiful fields of green grass all around. Julie Anne's dog, Charlie, an adorable Brittany Spaniel, was sooooo excited to run through the grass and fetch anything, even the imaginary ball we kept throwing him. Just look how happy this dog is in the video. That tail is about to wag off of his body, and he really is smiling! :o)

We walked along the sea cliffs and came upon this beautiful sight --Mussenden Temple, perched precariously on the edge of the cliff..

Mussenden Temple is located in the beautiful surroundings of Downhill Demesne near Castlerock in County Londonderry. It perches dramatically on a 120 ft cliff top, high above the Atlantic Ocean on the north-western coast of Northern Ireland. The view you see here offers spectacular views westwards over Downhill Strand towards Magilligan Point and County Donegal.

History of Mussenden Temple

The temple was built in 1785 and forms part of the estate of Frederick Augustus Hervey, Bishop of Derry and Earl of Bristol. The temple was built as a summer library and its architecture was inspired by the Temple of Vesta in Tivoli, near Rome. It is dedicated to the memory of Hervey's cousin Frideswide Mussenden. The inscription around the dome by Lucretius, 'Tis pleasant, safely to behold from shore - the rolling ship, and hear the tempest roar' presents something of a challenge of nature. Perched on the cliffs overlooking Downhill Strand it was once possible to drive a horse and carriage around the temple. The forces of nature have over the years brought it closer and closer to the edge.

Both the Temple and the surrounding views are among the most photographed scenes in Ireland. In 1997 the National Trust carried out cliff stabilization work to prevent the loss of this lovely building.

The brick lined interior of the temple. As a library, the walls were once lined with bookcases. A fire was kept constantly burning in the basement and an enclosed flue meant that even in this very exposed location the books never got damp.

The view from the west window.

Here is the view looking to the east of the temple toward Castlerock beach, Portstewart, Portrush and Fair Head.

As we made an about face from the temple, there was the outer wall of Downhill Demesne, http://www.abandonedireland.com/Downhill.html
Downhill House was a mansion built in the 18th century for Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol at Downhill, Northern Ireland. Much of the building was destroyed by fire in 1851 before being rebuilt in the 1870's. The house was lived in by the Bruce family until 1922. It fell into disrepair after the Second World War. Downhill House is now part of the National Trust property of Downhill Demesne and Mussenden Temple.

A photo of the original house 

The view from Downhill of Castlerock, just behind Rowan, Charlie and Julie Anne.

I have this thing for stone paths. I found this one to be really fabulous.

Back to civilization, a photo of the beautiful flower plantings we found in every town, all over this part of Northern Ireland.

 Portstewart: a small town in County Londonderry, just a short drive from Castlerock, with a population of roughly 10,000. It is a seaside resort right next to Portrush and is probably best known for it's large sandy beach, popular with surfers.

I just had to stick my hand in the cool, clear waters of the Atlantic here on this side of the pond.

We went to Portstewart especially to have dinner at this FANTASTIC seafood restaurant 55 degrees North (yes, that is it's latitude). We met Julie Anne's work mates here for a night out with the girls.

Here we all are cackling away inside the restaurant :o)

My dinner brought tears of joy to my eyes. The BEST (hands down) salmon I have ever eaten. Right out of the Atlantic, poached to perfection, served on top of new potatoes in a pool of butter and white wine. YUMM! YUM! YUMMMMM!

Here is a crusted halibut on top of peas & mashed potatoes in a seafood cream sauce.

I can't even explain the crazy delicious desserts we had, but here are the pictures......

Here is the pavlova..............YUM!

We eventually rolled out of the restaurant and back to our B&B to start packing up. We will fly back to the States tomorrow will full hearts and bellies. The places we have been and friends (old and new) and family we have spent time with have made this trip one to remember. We are definitely coming back across the pond for more fun in the future.  Tally Ho!