My tiny u.p. farm

Downey & Atat

May 7, 2015May 7, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

My dogs - Downey and Atat — My dogs – Downey and Atat

I have two dogs, and I realized the other day that I have not posted about them for some reason. That is very strange because I really love dogs – I just have a lot of other stuff to write about, I guess.

I got Downey in 2010 when we lived in Los Angeles; we got him jointly with my sister. I had a very old dog named Drake at the time, and he wasn’t able to go on real walks anymore, because he had really bad arthritis. My sister thought it would be nice if we had a dog we could take with us on our daily walks around the neighborhood. One day a coworker posted some pics of a Shar-Pei mix that his friend was getting rid of – they had 5 kids and no time for the dog, and their landlord wouldn’t let them bring him inside. He was 11 months old. I sent the picture to my sister thinking she would say no, but she surprised me and said we should check him out. We took him in and I’ve had him ever since. Drake was not a fan of Downey. He was 13 years old and couldn’t see or hear very well, and Downey was a very playful pup. My Drake died a couple months after Downey came to us. Eventually my sister and I moved to different places and Downey came with me and my family; and then he came with us to Michigan.

We kept the name he came with – Downey. He’s a great dog – he loves other dogs; He can be a little aggressive with people he hasn’t met – we’ve worked with him and he has gotten better over time with that; It’s mostly a fear response, we’ve found. He was always very playful, and a bit lonely. I wanted to get him a friend for a long time. When we moved into our current house, we decided to get a second dog.

I was looking for a puppy, but not a small breed dog. And I didn’t want to pay a breeder for one. I’d rather adopt. I saw a really cute fuzzy face on Petfinder – an Akita mix; he was in Northern Minnesota at a shelter. We called them and decided to go get him. He was 4 months old, but 40 pounds already. We brought Downey with us to meet him; they got along well that day, so we took him home. His name at the shelter was Landon. He was a little smaller than Downey at that time – about an inch shorter and only 10 pounds lighter.

A week after getting him, my son thought he looked like an At-At from Star Wars. So we changed his name to Atat. (Pronounced At-Tat). He is now almost 1 and a half years old. He is very large – he weighed 98 pounds at his last checkup about a month ago. He’s a great dog; very friendly with people – sometimes a little overzealous. We are working to get him to stop jumping up on people since he is head height with me when he jumps up. We think he is part Shepherd as well; he looks like a giant German Shepherd with a curly tail. He’s probably twice Downey’s height. He went through a very destructive phase, as most puppies do – he tore up the back of our couch, that we had gotten about a month before him. His destructiveness has gone down a lot now. He is still very playful – he and Downey are great friends; Downey gets a little upset with him sometimes because Atat always gets his way when they play. Atat is just so large, Downey can’t compete sometimes.

Here are some photos of my awesome dogs:

Playing - Downey was growling at Atat here. — Playing – Downey was growling at Atat here.

Atat jumping around in their fenced portion of the yard.

The dogs playing on the porch - I'm not sure if Atat is kissing or biting Downey here. — The dogs playing on the porch – I’m not sure if Atat is kissing or biting Downey here.

My, how they’ve grown.

May 5, 2015May 5, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

My middle batch of chickens (the older chicks, that I got in the beginning of March) are enjoying their life out in the coop. They have grown a lot and some have changed quite a bit since I first got them – it’s really remarkable how much feather color and patterns can change. There is just not a good way to tell what they will look like as adults when you get them, unless you know the exact breed beforehand. They may change a lot more before they are full grown – they are maybe about half the size of my adult chickens now. I’ve done an update for their previous “update” pics that I posted in late March, so you can see the changes. I have one that was orange as a chick, then looked like they would be pale, and now is a dark brown color. Here are the updated pics to show you how they’ve grown, from 2 days old, to 3 weeks, to 9 weeks:

Here is my little rooster - he keeps trying to crow with my big rooster - they call back and forth. He has a scratchy little crow. — Here is my little rooster – he keeps trying to crow with my adult rooster – they call back and forth. He sounds pretty funny trying to do his cock-a-doodle-doo -he has a scratchy little crow. His comb is gigantic already, not sure how big it will actually get – hopefully not too big or he’ll be in danger of it getting frostbite in winter.

Here's my little yellow chick that turned into a larger white chicken with black feathers mixed in - still not sure if this is male or female. — Here’s my little yellow chick that turned into a larger white chicken with black feathers mixed in – still not sure if this one is male or female.

Here is my little feathered leg guy (girl?) I like the coloring this one has - caramel colored with black. — Here is my little feathered leg guy (girl?) I like the coloring this one has – caramel colored with black. She looks a lot less like a tiny vulture now than she did at 3 weeks old. My suspicion is that this is a hen – I could be wrong, though.

Here's the orange one I spoke about in the paragraph above - she's now a dark brown / reddish chicken. She's very curious and friendly, where the rest are still pretty flighty. — Here’s the orange one I spoke about in the paragraph above – she’s now a dark brown / reddish chicken. She’s very curious and friendly, where the rest are still pretty flighty.

This one was showing the speckled feathers at three weeks. She did NOT want her picture taken - she tried to hide behind some boards and the other chickens. — This one was showing the speckled feathers at three weeks. Today she did NOT want her picture taken – she tried to hide behind some boards and the other chickens.

Here is my little black chick that turned into a white-headed chicken. His (her?) comb is very similar to my adult rooster's - like a blob thing on their forehead. I'm still not sure the sex of this one. — Here is my little black chick that turned into a white-headed chicken. His (her?) comb is very similar to my adult rooster’s – like a blob thing on their forehead. I’m still not sure the sex of this one.

They are definitely growing quickly. I read that around 10-12 weeks is when their full-on adult feathers come in, and roosters will get their fancy tail feathers around then. By then I should be able to tell for sure if they are hens or roosters.

Adventures with seedlings

May 4, 2015May 4, 2015Jen Powell2 Comments

I’ve been busy getting ready for my summer garden. I have an elaborate plan for this year, and I’m starting pretty much all of this year’s plants from seed. I’m working with a staggered-out planting schedule – I started some seeds in early April, and yesterday I planted my Early-May seeds.

I had a lot of success so far with my seedlings from April. Most things did well, but I did have a couple of things not even sprout. I started some aster seeds, and none of them sprouted – I’m not sure why, except maybe my seeds were bad. They were a leftover packet from last year. I’ve usually had great success with asters, they are one of my favorite garden flowers. I love their little colorful puffballs. I usually start too many seeds on purpose, just because sometimes you get some that don’t sprout – i.e. I planted 6 tomato seeds but really want 4 plants. My tomatoes are growing well, I planted three different kinds, I ended up with 5 plants of two kinds, and six plants of the other. Most of the April seedlings are now replanted into pots – they got too big for their original peat pellets.

I only have one spot to start seeds inside, a table in a south-facing window that’s about 5 feet x 2 feet, with a grow light hanging overhead. I needed that whole space for this new Early May batch. Which meant that I had to figure out what to do with my older seedlings. I can’t put them outside yet. But I do have another grow light. I devised a plan: To hang the extra grow light underneath the table, and put the older potted seedlings below that. Here is my new setup:

I also have a cat that likes to eat plants – I found this out while potting some of these up – he came up and started chowing down on some. We have some extra window screens in our bedroom that aren’t in the windows currently, so I used them to block his access:

In the pictures, the sheets of paper hanging down below the seed trays on the table are my charts of seeds in the trays – otherwise I could end up lost with mystery plants. Some things I would recognize, but I’m trying a lot of new plants this year, so I need a map.

Here is the whole setup:

I have a few small seedlings that are still small enough for their peat pellets, so they are sharing the far left tray with some new seeds – about half the tray is seedlings, half is seeds.

Here are some of my little guys close up:

Tomato pots. — Tomato pots – I have 5 plants in each pot for now – they are small so they can share space.

Comfrey - this is a new plant for me, I'm excited to see how it does. — Comfrey – this is a new plant for me, I’m excited to see how it does.

Black Eyed Susan Thunbergia - a vine with little orange/black flowers. This is new as well - I had to give it a trellis, and separate them from everyone else - they were trying to climb my tomatoes. — Black Eyed Susan Thunbergia – a vine with little orange & black flowers. This is a new one for me as well – I had to give it a trellis, and separate it from everyone else – they were trying to climb my tomatoes and even the cord for the grow-light.

I love plants, they are a ton of fun to grow. I just hope that nobody gets too big before I can get them outside – their beds won’t be ready till probably the end of May. Plus it may be too cold before then – my plan is to get them outside over Memorial day weekend. We’ll see how the weather is. I got a mini pop-up greenhouse I can put them in later this month. I plan to harden them off out in that before actually putting them all in the ground.

Escape artist

May 1, 2015May 1, 2015Jen Powell1 Comment

My newest batch of chicks are now almost 2 weeks old. They’re doing really well. I change their bedding each day (I use paper towels), and when I do, I move everyone to a different box while I clean up their brooder box.

Earlier this week, when they were just over 1 week old, I had put them into the other box to change the bedding, and suddenly one popped up onto the edge of the box and perched. I have never seen a chick this young do this. Granted, I have not been raising chickens that long, but this is my third batch of chicks and I didn’t think it was possible for any to get out this early. It’s a paper-ream box, so it’s a good 10 inches tall. The chick perched on the edge, and then wandered over to a little plastic drawer that is set up next to the boxes, and then to the floor – he wandered around outside the boxes until I was done setting their brooder box back up. I started to put the other chicks back – he saw this and jumped back up onto the drawer, and then into the brooder box. So I didn’t have to put him back at all.

This batch and my last batch were “mixed rare breeds” orders. This means I am still trying to figure out what kinds of chickens I have – it’s fun to try to figure it out. I have been hoping for a Black Sumatra, which is one possible kind they could ship with my order. I was wondering about this one, because I saw pictures of Black Sumatra chicks and they look like little penguins, like this guy. Black & white. But other breeds’ chicks can look very similar, so it’s really hard to tell at this stage. Once I found out this one can hop out of the box, I did some reading and found that other people with Sumatras have had them jump out of the brooder at this age, and as adults they can jump 6 feet. They also like to roost in trees. So it’s very possible that this is a Black Sumatra. Time will tell. Below is a series of pictures of one of his escapes this week – some of the pics are not the best because I was taking them quickly as he moved, trying to get the best picture.

Wildcrafting in our yard – Wild Leeks

April 30, 2015April 30, 2015Jen Powell2 Comments

I found out from my mom last year that we had a patch of wild leeks (also called ramps) growing in the woods behind our house. We have a ton of daffodil patches in our yard and the woods surrounding it, and last year I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for. I figured it out this year though because the leaves are quite different. Our neighbor confirmed it for us because he pointed them out to my husband. So I went and picked some, and looked them up online to make sure that they were, in fact, wild leeks. It’s always a good idea to definitively confirm things before eating something that may not be what you think it is.

I picked some tonight to cook with dinner, and they are really good. I had read that they taste kind of like a mix between onion and garlic. I fried them up with some pork steaks we had, and they had a nice mild oniony-garlicky flavor to them.

In the picture above you can see, mixed in among the leeks, some little mottled/spotted leaves. I’m not sure what they are. If you read this blog and you know what these may be, please leave me a comment. I don’t remember seeing them last year. There are a ton of them and they don’t seem to be something that just has a disease, it appears to be the natural coloring of the plant. Here is another picture of just the mottled leaves:

mystery spotted leaf plants — Mystery spotted leaf plants.

Like I said above, we have tons of daffodils, all different kinds, all over in our yard and woods. My mom planted different varieties over the years. When my parents would divide them, they would throw the old plants in the woods, and the daffodils have just taken off. It has a nice effect, especially this time of year when there’s a tiny bit of green and a whole lot of brown – there are splashes of yellow and white and cream (and mixtures of those) all over the place. Here’s a nice yellow one:

And then we had 26

April 22, 2015April 24, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

We now have 26 chickens – I received the new babies today! They were replacements for the dead chicks we received in March. The ten we received today are all alive and doing well. Luckily it was a lot warmer this time for their travel, although we did get an inch of snow this morning. A couple of the chicks were a tiny bit sluggish this morning but are now eating and drinking ok, and running around with everyone else.

Here are the new chicks:

This little one has a top-knot, which means it will have a fluffy feathered head. Most likely some type of Polish chicken.*

A little small yellow and gray chick - this one was a little sluggish this morning. He's smaller than everyone else. — A little small yellow and gray chick – this one was a little sluggish this morning. He’s a little smaller than everyone else.*

This one is pale/white with a darker grayish head. Its fuzz seems a tiny bit loner than most of the others. It also has feathered legs — This one is pale/white with a darker grayish head. Its fuzz seems a tiny bit longer than most of the others. It also has feathered legs.

A little orange chick. This one cheeps a lot and very loudly.

These two look like twins, they are both brown with feathered legs, like my older feathered leg one from the last batch.

This is a Dorking - you can tell by its toes - it has 5 instead of the typical 4. — This is a Dorking – you can tell by its toes – it has 5 instead of the typical 4.

A close up of the Dorking's toes. — A close up of the Dorking’s toes.

This is a brown stripey chick. It has black stripes down its back.

Here's a little black and silver chick. — Here’s a little black and silver chick.

I made a brooder box for them out of 3 cardboard boxes that I taped together – smaller than the last brooder, so it will be a lot easier to deal with and to disassemble when they go outside.

They’re all doing great so far.

* Update 4/24 – The two chicks that had been sluggish when we first got them died. The little yellow one (2nd single-chick picture, above) was gone by Thursday morning, and then the little Polish chick (the top-knot chick, first single-chick picture above) died Thursday afternoon. I wish I knew what happened, but I think sometimes there is something internal that just doesn’t form correctly. Everyone else is doing well as of tonight (Friday).

The chickens have left the building!

April 18, 2015April 18, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

I have been scrambling to get the chicken coop ready to house my baby chicks, and keep them separate from the adult chickens. My goal was to get it done by the end of this weekend – I ended up ahead of schedule, and it was done (enough) by today to put them in. That leaves me tomorrow (Sunday) to start with the yard work I’ve been wanting to get to.

Our chicken house is an old sauna building, split into two rooms. The back room is where our adult birds are. The front room was used for storage until today. When we originally started working on the sauna to get it chicken-ready, we gutted it down to the wall studs, and then lined the whole thing with plastic. We had some nice plastic tarping that I figured would work as a wind break, since the building is so old. The back room was then lined with plywood & particle board to make actual walls. We left the front room unfinished until today.

I had a lot of smaller scraps of particle board that my dad had saved for who-knows-what, so that is what I used to wall up the front room. I did most of the walls, but there are a few that still need the upper portions covered. We have some other wood that we will cut to use to fill the spaces that are still left, but for now, it is covered enough for the chicks. We didn’t want them chewing the plastic. Here are some photos – the sun was glaring into the building so the pictures aren’t that great:

New Chicken room 1 — Part of the new chicken room, where most of the bedding is.

The other side of the new chicken room - the door shown here leads to the back room (the adult chicken's part). — The other side of the new chicken room – the door shown here leads to the back room (the adult chicken’s part).

Our plan once everyone is integrated together is to take down the door that separates the two rooms, create a closet space to the side for their food, and make it one giant chicken palace.

I also built a temporary outside run for the chicks, just a little 8×8 (approximately) with some chicken wire. Here they are enjoying the outside:

Another shot of them in their pen - it was late in the day so the sun was messing up my pictures. — Another shot of them in their pen – it was late in the day so the sun was messing up my pictures.

I want to keep them separated from the adults for the next several weeks – I’ve heard 10-12 weeks is a good age to integrate them. But at least they can see each other outside and hear each other inside the coop, so they’ll be somewhat familiar with each other by the time they are old enough. Now I just have to figure out how I’ll integrate the new chicks I’m getting sometime this week. They will be in my spare bedroom like these babies were, but hopefully for not as long.

Today I also ended up giving away one of my adult roosters. I had two, and my neighbor had asked if we had an extra, since he only had hens. I was planning on keeping both of them, but they have recently started fighting. My big orange Buff Orpington had started picking on my Silver Laced Wyandotte, and then they’d fight. They don’t have spurs (I’m not sure if those develop at some point later?) but they have nubs on their legs where spurs would be if they were to grow. I traded my Buff Orpington to the neighbor today for some horse manure; He’s going to drop it off sometime in the next few weeks so I can use it in my compost.

My remaining rooster seems pretty happy since he’s not getting picked on anymore:

Wizard (the Purrface).

April 15, 2015April 13, 2015Jen Powell2 Comments

We got a cat last fall, because we have mice and I needed a way to get rid of them – traps had not worked and I didn’t want to use poisons. I found our cat’s picture on a website for a local shelter, and they said he was good with dogs, other cats, and kids. He is great with my son, but he hates other cats (I found out at the vet’s office) and he is deathly afraid of my dogs. We named him Wizard, and he lives in the upstairs of our house. He stays up there because the dogs are downstairs. My son Daniel added “the Purrface” to his name – Wizard the Purrface.

The shelter said he was found in the woods near someone’s camp. They kept him with them while they were there and then dropped him at the shelter when they left to go home. They told the shelter he was great at catching mice at their camp. Since I’ve had him, he’s been an excellent mouser, and we no longer have mice upstairs. He sometimes leaves us little “gifts” on the floor as proof of his hunting skills. It turns out one of my dogs can catch mice downstairs, so that helps the downstairs mouse situation.

I’ve kept him inside since we got him, because at first I was afraid he may run away, and since he’s afraid of the dogs I didn’t think he’d come back inside. He is a big lovey-dovey though, and he loves us a lot (or at least loves us petting him), so I figured he would come back to us if I let him outside. He has his claws and his rabies shots, so he is relatively safe outside unless he runs near the road. This weekend it was beautiful out, with sunshine and temps in the 70s, so we brought him outside – I had to carry him past the dogs, him clinging onto me for dear life, till we got out the door. Then he immediately wanted down.

He did really well outside, wandering around checking out the woods near our house. My son followed along to see what he was doing. Daniel was afraid he’d try to run away, but I told him that if Wizard wanted to run, he’d would have run immediately. He kept coming back to get petted and then wandering away again. I let him outside for about an hour on Saturday, and then a few hours on Sunday while we were out doing yard work. Our yard is pretty mucky from the snow melting, so there were big chunks of the yard he avoided, but I think it will be nice this summer for him to come out while we’re outside. If he can ever get over his fear of the dogs, so he would come in on his own past them, I would just let him be “inside/outside,” but for now he is just going to come out while we’re doing work outside.

Tiny Rooster

April 13, 2015April 13, 2015Jen Powell6 Comments

My 6 chicks are getting pretty big. They have been hopping up and perching on the edge of their giant box. I am starting to plan out how to move them outside.

They are still too young to go with the adults, but they have their feathers in mostly, and it’s getting warmer now. I have an extra room in the chicken house that I’ve been using for storage – that is now getting cleaned out and we’ll be expanding that this summer to make room for all the newbies. I think we are going to put the babies in there early, possibly next weekend if we can get it ready in time. We’ll have to time the letting-out of everyone to keep the big chickens away from the little chickens, but it’s do-able. I need to also make some kind of small fenced-in area for the babies for awhile, so they have somewhere to go during the day. I need to get them outside soon because they are getting large and trying to escape the box, and they are making the room they are in very dusty, and also we have new baby chicks coming next week – AND, because this guy has started crowing:

The black chick with the large comb is now crowing. — The black chick in the middle with the large comb is now crowing.

It’s a very strange sound, because he’s not fully grown. The first time I heard it, last week (when he was only 5 weeks old), I was afraid one of them was hurt – I ran into the room and they were all fine. I sat for a minute to see if they would make the noise again, and he made the noise – it’s not a full on “cock-a-doodle-doo” crow, but more like a hoarse “eee-awww” noise. It’s pretty cute. I’d like to get him outside because we are starting to be able to hear his crow across the house. I hope at least a few of these babies are hens.

Seedlings

April 5, 2015April 5, 2015Jen PowellLeave a comment

My seeds are sprouting! Its exciting. I have them in the seed trays and keep the domes on most of the day, taking them off for a couple hours, just to keep the moisture from being too much – I don’t want any mold to form. They are in a sunny window and also have a grow light.

I’ve got charts for each seed tray, so that I know which plants are which. I have noticed that the strong sunlight coming through the window attracts them a little more than the grow light above, so the tomatoes have been “reaching” for the sun. I have been turning the peat pellets instead of the trays, just so I don’t get lost in my grid of seedlings, and forget what is where. I also decided to try to keep track of germination, or at least how long each kind of plant takes to germinate. Here’s my chart for this round of seedlings:

seed germination chart — My germination chart

I just marked down the date I planted the seeds, and the first date I saw sprouts. It will be helpful in later years in case I come across a batch of bad or old seeds or something.

Most of our snow is now gone also, so I’ve been thinking about how best to start the new garden beds. I’m going to need some cardboard so I can do a lasagna-style garden. It’s a lot easier than digging up grass. Lasagna-style gardening is where you first layer paper (cardboard, newspaper, or paper bags) over the grass, and then layer compost, leaves, and soil to make a garden bed. The compost-type things break down under the growing plants, and the first layer of cardboard/paper keeps the grass and other weeds from growing up into the bed. You end up with a really nice rich soil.

Here is part of my yard, almost completely snow free as of today!

I took this picture out our upstairs window. In the foreground, the fenced bit is our dog run. There is a bit of snow still in the dog run area, and a tiny bit near the woods. My new main garden will be adjoined to the long edge of the dog fence in this picture.