You Have Got to Dig It

Here is my latest project. It is somewhat still pieced together given the time sensitivity of planting things like food.

We have a lovely fenced area right off the back door. The old owners used it for a yard, I am trying to turn it into a cottage garden. The ugly old fence will be torn down and replaced with some cute little number. Well, may be not so little as it has to keep out the deer and chickens. I don't think there is a fence yet invented to keep out the raccoons, but that is a whole different story. We are just staying away from the growing of corn and crossing our fingers with that one.

This winter I locked the geese in the little yard and let them go to town on the grass. I was really pleased with their work as nothing has come back up as of yet. Now I am putting raised beds all through the garden with mulch around them for access. I have 6 beds in right now with plans for 5 more. To cut the price I have been scavenging wood from behind the chicken garage for flowering plants. I can use any old treated wood for the plants I am not going to eat, and I think it will add interest to the area if it is not just a food garden.
I really hope it turns out a pretty as it is in my mind.

Bingo !

I can't believe it has been a week since I have made a post. Things around Skunky Acre have been busy and we have all but 8 of our chickens in now.

The Wyandottes arrived the other day. They are so cute and sweet, not to mention tiny. Here is a picture of one of the little guys. They look just like the picture in the catalog so hopefully we got what we ordered this time. The giant feet in the picture are the mystery chickens we received when we ordered Dark Cornish chickens. With a little help from the feed store we identified them as Black Broilers and are now researching to see exactly what that means.


This little fellow is our newest mystery. He is definitely not a Black Broiler, but what is he. At first we thought him to be just a runt, then he sprouted that lovely mohawk down the middle of his head. Once again the people at the feed store came to the rescue and helped us identify what we think he could possibly be. We are leaning toward a Crevecour, but are uncertain at this time. It is just so hard to tell until they feather out. If it is a Crevecour we will be lucky people indeed. They are rare and really pretty.

My Husband is Tolerant ...or How Bad a Wife am I

Yesterday as my husband arrived home from work it dawned on me how tolerant he really is. You see, around the back of our house is the utility area. That is where the second garage, chicken coop, vegetable garden, clothes line, etc. is. If it is a little ugly, some type of storage, or not fit for the public to see it is back there. So, yesterday I was back there turning the compost heap while I watered it down and wacked any left over mice. We have definitely learned our lesson on how important compost maintenance is around here. I have also begun to shred any financial documents that come to the house and toss them in there. We had our identity stolen last year and it was a small pain in the butt to fix it. I decided any thing to do with credit cards, or personal business is better off rotting in my back yard in shreds than in a trash sack at the dump. Ok, so back to why my husband is so great....

Imagine this,

You come home after a long day of terrorist, mega disaster training at work only to find your lovely wife out back in mismatched clothes, mixing your shredded mail in the compost heap, while your youngest child squirts it with the water hose and at the same time screaming " mommy wacked a mouse until it's brain squeezed out". Oh, and I had cleaned all the past it's prime produce out of the fridge and feed it to the chickens, so your yard it full of groceries.

My lovely husband just smiled and went in the house for a little while, I think he may have even mumbled that he loved us under his breath. What a guy !

Name That Chick

We have a problem...

and here is it's face !




You see we ordered Dark Cornish chicks from the hatchery, and this is what we got. At first we thought they did not look quite right, but most baby chicks look a little alike so we did not think much of it. Now we are fairly sure that this is not the face of a Dark Cornish chick.

What is it ?

Who knows.

Let's just hope they are edible because we have 24 of them in the back garage growing like crazy.

We Brake For Spring

Spring is here and it has brought our lives here on the acre to a screeching halt. Yes, we stopped our busy lives and just tried to enjoy.

The orchard is just gorgeous, and I have been spending a good part of every day just wondering through it. The kids have just seen Bee Movie and were fascinated with the difference between real life bees and movie bees. It was a wonderful time to point out how many things are not how TV and movies present them. We went to the zoo and spent a good part of a day watching animals we did not have to feed. We also grilled every meal we possibly could.

The chicks have arrived. We only received the Dark Cornish, the Wynadots will be in soon. They are cute as buttons and we are having the best time watching them grow. There only seems to be one snag in the grand plan to raise our food. These chicks look nothing like any of the pictures we have seen of Dark Cornish chicks. I will have to say things could get very interesting around here as these little guys grow and we discover if we received what we ordered.
I was sorry it ended this morning with the rush to preschool and elementary school. I am now looking forward to free flowing days of summer.

Simple Pleasures

This week is spring break for the little members of Skunky Acre. Instead of taking a big expensive trip we have come to believe we have everything we need right here. So we spent the very first day of this very special week eating watermelon. Even the chickens got in on the fun as we gave them the rinds. The boys insisted that they have these giant pieces and they ate every inch of them.












The fruit trees are in bloom, the baby chicks should arrive, and all is right in the world. I think it should be a wonderful week as we slow down and enjoy the simple pleasures of our lives and our little town.

The Haunted Trash Can

I have been suffering from a sinus infection this week. As you can imagine things around here are sliding a little and one of those things has been the trash. On trash day getting it to the curb completely slipped my mind. About half way through the day I noticed the can at the curb and thanked my husband for remembering when I had forgotten. He of course took full credit and smiled. That is when I knew, deep in my marriedness, that something was amiss. I drug out of him the fact that he had not done it. I proceeded to question everyone in the house and no one knew anything about it. So, somehow, my full trash can made it all the way up my drive in time to meet the trash truck.

Strange, but true and a bit convenient. If I did not feel so bad it might just freak me out!