Executive Coop Accommodations Ready for Occupants

We've been very busy lately. August, with all of it's crickety, hot, harvesty wonderfulness is definitely upon us. A quick garden tour to show you such a pretty combination right now:

Black eyed Susan and Russian sage make a very nice impact with opposite colours and leaf variations. Even though I rip out hundreds of Black eyed Susans every year, I am glad for the ones that still remain because they are such a nice punch of colour right now.

This old Hansa rose was, I thought, deader than a doornail this spring, so I just chopped everything off. Well surprise, surprise, it put forth new growth and is now blooming. Don't you wish that happened with hair? Chop it all off and it comes back better than ever?

Just a little sampling of garden produce at the moment. I now also have some regular sized tomatoes ready to pick.

But here is what is really making me excited (although, a ripe tomato does make my heart flutter). My dear husband has revamped the "old" chicken coop which had not housed chickens for five years (holy squirrels and mice, batman!!) and of course, with everything on our property it became an avalanche project. Far more had to be done to it to turn it into the Executive Coop Accommodations that it is now.

Fresh coat of paint on the door (no, not really necessary...) and the signs that were already there. The rooster on the door was also touched up. The black stuff overhanging the door will be cut off after the last of the metal trim gets put on the edges of the roof.

The wood chips have been spread out in the chicken run, leaving some grass at one end, too. That garden bench was destined for the burn pile (it had rotted and was coming apart at the joints), but I asked husband to cut the legs off a little (don't want it so high that the birds are tempted to fly out overtop of the fence) and do a little patch job at one side to hold it together. Voila! Now it is a cute chicken perch in their run.

The new and improved coop now includes some features like removeable nesting boxes to make for easier cleaning. Husband whipped this up for me after I showed him some ideas on Pinterest. The only thing left to do is to put on a steeply sloping top to prevent them from roosting up there (i.e. pooping on top).

A closer look. This was pretty much constructed with all leftover materials we had on hand (except the boxes which are Dollerama finds - easy to replace if necessary).

The old coop used to have a single roost (going a different direction), but I really like the double roost. We are also hanging the feeder and waterer from the ceiling. We used to have them just set up on blocks on the floor of the coop, but the chickens flung a lot of bedding into them and they always had to be cleaned out. I'm hoping this method works better.

The roost is made out of small trunks of trees that were cut down on the property when we had the woodchipper last weekend.

This is awfully exciting. It's a light switch... right beside the door!! We used to have a light on the ceiling with a pull cord. You would go out there after dark and swing your hand around in the air until you grasped onto the cord. Now there is a beautiful new, easy to find, use your elbow if you have to, light switch. Husband is a very talented guy!

So.... I have been on a chicken quest for a while now. You would be amazed at how hard it is to buy chickens. I wanted interesting, pretty birds. I really don't want to have to drive an hour and half to go look at chickens and decide if I want to buy them. I am not interested in raising chicks and waiting five months for them to lay. Been there, done that. I'm not all that keen on spending $30 for a single chicken (chanticleer, if I'm spelling that right). But today, I am going to go look at some hens that a lady is selling. We shall see. When we first started out, we purchased some Rhode Island Reds out of a trailer from some guys who were more than willing to part with them. Little did we know these were probably hens culled from their own flock for obvious reasons (too old, egg eaters, feather pickers...). Oh well, we kept them and they did lay (not all of them) and we gave them a good home for their entire lifespans, but we got smarter over the years (although that one trip to the farmer's market when we bought four lovely little Brahmas and they ended up being three roosters and a hen didn't attest to our chicken intelligence much). I don't want any roosters anymore. Some of them have "little man syndrome" and I don't need any more hassles in my life. I think six would be the perfect number of hens. Enough eggs for us and some extra to give away to friends or sell to co-workers occasionally.

I will let you know how today's chicken purchases (or not) go. Possible pictures to follow of hens in their new Executive Coop Accommodations!

The Beast

Welcome to Woodchipper Weekend! Friday afternoon, we picked up the woodchipper we rented from a rental company in a nearby town. We needed to use the vehicle with the tow hitch on it because that's how this thing got home. We put it into position by the enormous brush pile and then it began to rain. A little rain wouldn't have stopped us, but this was big, fat rain. The skies opened, the thunder rumbled and it continued in this way for the rest of the day, it seemed. We did not chip wood on Friday.

Saturday morning began beautifully. The sun was shining, the birds we singing, and we were going to get rid of the enormous brush pile! Happy day!!

There it is. Isn't it a beaut? I know it might be a little difficult to get a perspective on how big that pile is.  

There is a different shot. The pile goes around the corner of the chicken run (you can see fence posts to the right of the pile). What's that yellow thing in the picture? That would be the Beast!

The woodchipper is like a snowblower, but scarier. It is sitting in front of the now almost completely refurbished chicken coop that my wonderful husband has been working on just because I said to him, "I kind of miss having chickens."

Before we get started chipping, I'd like to show you some pictures from the side of the Beast.

Holy crap!! How's that for some images!

In all actuality, there are some great safety features that keep most idiot humans from feeding themselves into the woodchipper. (Anyone seen Fargo?)

Truthfully, it was AWESOME. You stick a huge branch / limb in there, and it just grabs it and chews it up and spits it out. We went through that brush pile in no time! What was left was actually a relatively small pile of chips.

Then we began more cutting and trimming and lopping until we had another pile. Husband did a good job of cutting off dead limbs from our very old apple tree. (This is the apple tree that only seriously produces every other year and we don't use the apples because they are quite soft, not a good flavour and we don't spray for any kind of insects. I just keep raking the apples up and dumping them. ) Now, of course, that it has been pruned, I'm sure it will produce even more useless apples. Husband keeps saying he is going to learn to make cider. But that's another project...

Can you see him? He's on the blue ladder. It's like the children's book, "Each, Peach, Plum, Pear". Oh how I love that book. He's using a Saws-All because we don't have a big chainsaw. We are very adaptable here.

In a little while (in the above 30 degree heat) we had created another big pile. The Beast easily ate that up and spit it out, too.

These are some of the woodchips that ended up in the chicken run - not as much as you would think. Today will be a finish up day with a bit more cutting and a whole lot of raking to clean up the bits of branches that have accumulated all over our immaculate lawn (eye roll).  Because this is a holiday weekend with Monday being a civic holiday, we don't have to return the Beast until Tuesday morning. It is so satisfying to use, I'm a little afraid we might start cutting down trees just to see them being fed through and reduced to tiny bits!

A Summer Questionnaire, or Stealing Jeanie's Post

I so enjoyed reading Jeanie's answers on her blog, The Marmelade Gypsy that I asked if I could do the same thing. There is a series of questions that I will attempt to answer, but it is always tough for me to make final decisions because there are so many variables out there. Jeanie included wonderful pictures with hers. I think mine will just be text. Here goes:

1. Walk, Bike, or Ride?  Being as I live in a really rural area and nothing is within walking distance, except maybe the post office, my answer would be ride, as in my vehicle. (Love my "new to me" Toyota Rav 4, by the way).

2. Favourite picnic food:  We honestly haven't done an actual, proper picnic for years. So, instead I will describe what our little family would do when we would visit a farmer's market during the summer. When the kids were little, we would go to this very large market (which also includes livestock sales) and wander around, look at the animals, and purchase specific food items: yellow plums, a baguette, pepperoni-type sausages, maybe cherries, and something to drink (my daughter claims it was rootbeer). We would go to where we had parked our vehicle, open up the back and have an outdoor picnic of our purchases.

3. Pool or lake?  We have a pool, so I would have to say pool because you can lounge, not worry about sand, grab a drink from the pool fridge, and not have to navigate the crowds at a beach. However, we have Lake Huron, one of the Great Lakes about a 40 minute drive from here and have some wonderful family memories of Sauble Beach and Port Elgin.

4. Favourite flavour of ice cream?  See now, that's a particularly hard one. That's like asking who is your favourite child? If I am in the mood for ice cream, and had to narrow it down, I especially love a Dairy Queen Smarties Blizzard, but I also love a chocolate dipped soft swirly vanilla ice cream in a cone.  (It's the combination of crunch and smooth!)

5. Ice cream cone or in a dish?  Well a blizzard comes in a cup. If I was having a scoop of ice cream at an ice cream place where you choose from many wonderful choices, I would probably have a waffle cone.

6. Flip flops or slides?  Here is something you don't know about me. I have to be particular about my shoes due to an old annoying knee thing. If my shoes are too flat (which can be said about most flip flops), my knee will be giving me pain within minutes. So whatever I wear has to have a bit of a heel (I'm not talking high heels, but just not flat). As well, I can't wear any of these new ultra comfortable shoes that have a squishy sole to them because of knee pain as well. To top it off, my feet are fairly narrow, so slides have to be fitted, otherwise I "slide" around in them.  My current favourite is a pair of birkenstocks that go between the toes. I love shoes, but have to do a lot of trying on before I find ones that will suit me.

7. Jean shorts or jean capris?  As with Jeanie, either one, but if they are capris, they must go beyond the knee, otherwise I look like my mother. Dark denim preferably.

8. Favourite summer fruit? Again, who is your favourite child?  Strawberries in season, not shipped from Mexico and the consistently of a golf ball. Peaches - oh dear lord, peaches. Yellow plums that are perfectly ripe. Dark cherries - there is a bowl on my counter top right now that is full of huge, delicious dark cherries and I grab one or two every time I walk through the kitchen.

9. Corn on the cob, or cut off the cob?  One the cob, please. Must have butter (or margarine) and salt. Haven't had my first "feed" of local sweet corn yet, but soon! Sweet corn and fresh tomatoes - nothing says August better!

10. Favourite summertime song?  I decided to narrow it down to two songs, but there are so many from my youth (misspent youth?) - Summer Breeze by Seals and Crofts  and Heat Wave by Martha and the Vandellas.

11. Favourite summertime activity? I would probably say just getting together with friends, having a barbecue, sitting outside, relaxing. Second to that would be vegetable gardening and eating what I have grown.

12. Favourite berry?  I would say strawberry but only local (as in my own back yard). Second place would be blueberry for things like putting on my cereal, having with oatmeal/eggwhite pancakes, or blueberry desserts.

13. Bikinis, tankinis, or one piece?  I have NEVER been a confident bathing suit person. I always wanted to be one of those thin easy going gals who could just frolic around in a bikini, but I never was. I have worn two piece bathing suits but usually on vacations to the Dominican Republic or Cuba where I am in a crowd of many, but ridiculously still feel self-conscious. Now I am more likely to go tankini. I have black bottoms that I pair up with a variety of tops. I do own a couple of one-piece bathing suits, but quite frankly, ladies, am I right in saying that they are a pain in the neck when you have to go to the bathroom? Just putting that out there.

14. Dresses or skirts?  In nice weather, dresses, for sure. I love the ease of putting on one piece of clothing. In fall or winter, (i.e. most of our year), slim skirts which I like to pair up with a great pair of boots (think riding boots).

15. One word to describe summer?  Glorious!

Thanks for letting me steal your questionnaire, Jeanie (and I think you mention you got it from someone else's blog, too). Happy summer, everyone!

Burn Barrel

When you live in a rural area, you burn things. It's just a fact. Our friendly neighbourhood landfill is open one day a week for your convenience and you still have to pay to use it even though we pay taxes. If we want to put out garbage bags (every two weeks in clear plastic bags only) we must affix a sticker for our municipality which costs us $2.00 a bag. Which we do. We don't burn our garbage. We also get recycling pick up every two weeks as well.

I have a compost container which takes almost all leftover food items as well as perennial clippings, etc. I do not put badly behaved weeds in my compost because they survive there quite nicely. As well, husband is a do it yourselfer and accumulates a lot of scrap.

We have a burn barrel. It is a nice tall barrel with holes cut out of the bottom for good air flow. It is sitting on four big cement pavers. The pavers sit on sand. Today I spent a couple of hours burning. I literally stand close by, garden hose at the ready, large bucket filled with water. We had a burn ban in our municipality for quite a while, but with recent rains the ban has been lifted. Still, I am a cautious burner. Dried plant material, cuttings from trees, scrap old chipboard from chicken coop renovation, etc. burn really well, but I don't ever want to be responsible for setting something on fire that shouldn't be. I am especially cautious due to the death of three people in our local area in a house fire. We are not California or other parts of Ontario, who are of course, currently dealing with terrible fires. But I still am diligent.

We have so many cut limbs /branches from trees that we have trimmed or have had to cut down part of due to the fact that Manitoba maples are like weeds that tend to bend over and break off that a burn of all of those would be insane. Instead we are planning to rent ($$$) a wood chipper and make mulch which I will use in all of my perennial beds. The humungous pile of branches and limbs reminds me of a scene I read about in Pet Semetery (Stephen King) and yes, that is how it is spelled for the book. Anyone remember reading about the deadfall in that book? (Teenage years of reading Stephen King).

What about the rest of you? Any burn barrel  or wood chipper people out there?

Key Lime Pie and Late July Gardening

As previously mentioned, I intended to make a key lime pie (with just regular limes). I looked around on the world wide web and found good ol' Ree Drummond's version of key lime pie. I liked it because she doesn't use key limes either and she had great pictures. I printed out the printable version of the recipe and got started.

The only issue I had was the graham cracker crust. What I thought was going to produce enough crumbs for one pie ended up making enough for about two and a half! (with additional melted butter required). Maybe the packaging of graham crackers is different in Canada than in the States, but maybe the recipe was wrong.

Regardless of the crust issue (I just made another crust and froze it for future use), the rest of the pie was fantastic. There was a lot of zesting and squeezing to be done, but ohhhhh the fragrance of lime while I was doing all of this was wonderful. Man, I love lime! So kudos to The Pioneer Woman, Ree Drummond, who I remember when she was just a regular blogger like the rest of us (well, maybe she was never just a regular blogger, but she did start out small and now she takes up part of an aisle in Walmart with her kitchen items).

Here is the pie after it was baked, but before I whipped up some cream and adorned the top.

The little flecks that you see are bits of lime zest.  We had friends over for dinner last night and all proclaimed the pie to be very good. I forgot to take a picture of the completed pie with whipped cream on top, so this is all I can offer:

This is the final piece (broken in half) which had been stuck in the fridge after everyone went home last night. No, I did not eat it for breakfast. I was tempted, however.

Would I make it again? Most definitely. I don't think the kind of lime I used mattered. I don't think I even pay attention to the "species" of lime when I am at the grocery store. Here in Ontario, we get what we get.

Now, onward to gardens. July began hot, hot, hot and dry, dry, dry. This past week, we have had some good rains and this morning it was positively chilly!! (fifteen degrees Celsius - I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit). The rain and the heat got everything growing even more. Here is what is blooming on July 28.

Crocosmia, which has been popping up in a few other blogs (Lynn, Birdie...). I love this stuff. So tropical and exotic.

Daylilies showing off their gorgeous colour combo.

Exquisite veining in this pink hollyhock (with crocosmia being all cheeky and peeking in from behind).

Purple cone flower sporting another fabulous colour combination. Well done, nature, well done.

Window boxes and urns in front of the shed are full and luscious filled predominantly with sweet potato vine, geraniums and impatiens (and some lacy looking white filler that I forget the name of). You just can't go wrong with that sweet potato vine.

Now let's mosey over to the little vegetable garden which has responded so well to recent rains. I've harvested one zucchini, a few cucumbers and keep going out to see if another "baby tomato" has ripened.

Green beans in flower and with very small beans. Tender Green is the specific kind. Shouldn't be too long now. I've also planted another couple of small rows to keep us going through until early fall.

Another potential zucchini. I planted three plants in total. I may regret that, but stuffed zucchini is a good thing.

Some lovely leaf lettuce. I love the purple colour! It is called Prize head.

Peas are just starting to develop. I never grow enough to freeze (and had a horrible harvest last year), most peas get eaten while standing out in the garden! I planted Laxton Progress this year.

There will not be a shortage of cucumbers. Ever. And all I planted was two plants. This kind is Salad Crop. (Note the purslane growing rampantly through my garden - they say you can eat purslane- I think I'll stick with the cucumbers).

I've not planted this kind of pepper before. It's a Hungarian Sweet yellow pepper and coming along so much better than my other New Ace red peppers.

Holy basil, Batman! This has been a fantastic year for basil. I wish my tomatoes were ripe so I could be enjoying caprese salad (tomato, basil, soft mozzarella cheese, olive oil, balsamic vinegar).

My "baby tomatoes". These are called Candyland and they are much smaller than a cherry tomato. They are about the size of marbles and are, quite frankly, adorable. I've only had a few ripe ones so far, but the plant is laden, so there will be plenty.

There are some "normal" sized tomatoes developing as well. This one is Bonny Best. I also planted Beefsteak. It makes me so happy because for the past two years I have had a horrible time with blight and barely had any tomatoes, while in years gone by I've canned and frozen and given away tomatoes. I'm very much looking forward to canning my own tomatoes again this year.

I'm going to go eat something healthy now so I can justify eating that last piece of key lime pie later!

Barbecue Summer Supper

Sorry people, no key lime pie yet. Hang in there.

I love vegetables grilled on the barbecue. I especially love to grill them in this kind of basket.

Ah, no, I don't grill them in the plastic bag. First I chop up, in big pieces, whatever vegetables I have on hand which would work. This is zucchini (my first out of my garden!), red onion, red pepper, green pepper, and mushroom. I put the cup up veggies in a large zip lock bag with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I also throw in some seasoning and give everything a good shake.

This was the seasoning I used this time. Sometimes I use Greek Seasoning. Sometimes I just toss in my own combination of basil, oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, really whatever is on hand.

Tonight, I had some bone-in chicken breasts which I cut open to help them cook quicker and more evenly. I drizzled some olive oil and Greek salad dressing on them first so they wouldn't stick to the grill. I put those on a hot grill first, before the vegetables.

Whilst grilling I had a nice cold beer. Bud Light Lime is a great summer beer. I've been busy all day long dragging branches from the far reaches of our property to be put through a wood chipper.

Then the veggies get tipped into the grill basket and put onto the grill. Every once in a while I closed the top of the barbecue to give everything a good "bake".

Can you smell it?? When I cook meat on the grill, I think of this blog all about Greek life, culture, and food. Local Kiwi Alien is a really interesting blog written by a woman from New Zealand who has lived in Greece for a long time and reading it makes me want to visit.

We are fortunate here in that we don't have to concern ourselves with forest fires, but of course people in Greece, Eastern Ontario, and California are in different circumstances. I'm probably leaving out some areas. My heart goes out to all.

This meal was served on a bed of romaine lettuce, but I've also served it over rice. Sometimes I crumble up some feta cheese with it as well. If you don't have a grilling basket and you enjoy barbecuing, I highly recommend it. I've also done cut up chicken in it and I would imagine shrimp would be great, too. Happy grilling!

Whisker Wednesday?

Just popping in for a quick post on a Wednesday. Just got back from getting propane for the barbecue, arranging to have my rings resized at the jewelers, buying necessary ingredients to make a key lime pie (I've been having a hankering - I'll let you know how it goes), and putting gas in my vehicle which hardly ever gets driven by me (hmmmmm, children...).

Here are some whiskery pictures of Samson (son did not want his face in my blog) and a sleepy Scooter cooling off on a leather couch.