Taking my time

Today I decided I wasn't going to be hurried. I don't like the feeling of always rushing. Today I didn't  interrupt my own work most of the time, and I let things wait for me.  I felt my job slip back into manageable boundaries which bodes well for the busiest months of the year ahead.

I guess I really have learnt something because when the kids were small I didn't have time for pots at the door, not to plant or maintain; Now, I know they're a priority because they deliver so much for so little and you see them all the time.

This pot-full was just one little packet of freesia bulbs. 

The fragrance is another bonus. 

The brocolli above and same plants below, now a little older, are Koanga nutribud. This soil hosts clubroot and I buried a rhubarb leaf below each seedling as I planted them out. It actually seems to work. They're coming away well so my next job is to tickle out the weeds and sprinkle a little blood and bone bonus around each plant.  

This strawberry produces a wealth of little fruits with so much flavour  that I can't bear to grow those big ones anymore. It's more work picking and hulling them. Worth the time for me. 
Besides, they are sited beside the clothes-line and a fair bit of the picking and eating goes on while hanging out the washing. 

Here's one of my little brown shavers standing in the evening sun. They are 3 of a number, in their second year and laying fabulously. Following Koanga advice, I give them (for 5 birds) about 10g, slightly less than a tablespoon of poultry minerals a day in with their budget mash from Pac n Save. They also get 3mls every second day of stock primer in their water. It's easier that measuring out 1.5 mls a day (0.03 mls per bird).
I got them from Environmental Fertilisers  here environmentalfertilisers.co.nz/price-lists/. They sell to farms but there is a price list for the home buyer. Buying the two together reduces the postage. I calculated they will last me over 9 months. 

Here's the two loveable rogues, the Bardrocks, in their third year and laying  modestly and sufficiently for their keep. I also give the chooks 1 C of sprouted wheat a day following Koanga instructions. The wheat is supposed to have 6x more protein when it is sprouted. Means I have 4 jars of wheat in various stages along the bench at all times. May manage it a little differently in time. 

Grand Designs New Zealand

 New extension on  chickie house was possibly the only Grand Design that has ever come in under budget and without a time blow-out. So there will be no need for awkward squirming and prevarication when Chris asks the dreaded question, "How much did it cost?"  

Wood, sliding door, corrugated iron, all recycled, tick; old paint mixed together and used up, tick;  splashed out on new screws and wire netting to keep the project quality right up there. Yip, top specifications all round.  I need the height to be able to get in and out easily to add weeds, and ultimately, remove deep litter. 

Sorry about the fading light. We were assembling the pre-fabricated pieces one evening after work. This is the gap for the sliding door, (above) and the nesting box shot, below. 

The nesting box, without its little curtain for privacy in this photo, is mid-left. I can open it from the back to collect the eggs. 

Here's an idea of how it meshes with the old one. Photos of completed house on next post. Need I say to anyone I didn't build it but I did give B some 'help' which was mostly moral support and ongoing, respectful, appreciation. 

 


Let me mention the recycled sink amongst the new coop's accoutrements. That was $5 at the dump-shop with the whole bench-top to boot. Managed to angle fit it into the little car tippy-touching windscreen to back window. B has trimmed it and given it a solid base. It's a bath for the diatamaceous earth/sand 
mix that the girls enjoy swishing around in.
Life is good. 

I've forgotten what variety of new potato I ended up with this year. They promised to be ready in 90 days and the name reflected that, possibly 'Swift' 
from the looks of them.

Here's a little before and after. Before, I had already cleared the beds of parsnip, carrots and cabbage. Clearly my crop rotation has not been a precision manouvre, rather a higgledy-piggledy re-direction of the troops. I have intentions to one day draw up a battle plan and marshall everything into its correct place; one day.

And after, well i like to plant the potatoes amongst a little bed of pine-needles and to pile up my rows to cover the potato. The pine-needles have helped deter wire-worm to a degree, they are a good soil conditioner, and they give me nice clean skin potatoes. In fact the shoots are already up (photo taken after planting about a week ago).