While I was mowing a section of our lawn with our push-mover this afternoon i realised I haven't updated with garden pics for a while.
So I pushed my dreamy way through the swarms of baby dragonflies flirting with the breeze (ooohhh i love living here!) and grabbed the camera to take some pictures.


We have finished the raised bed!!! Altogether finished it, except for the final bits of planting.



It's pretty long, but I'm already out of space and trying to figure out where to plant the corn and carrots and other beans....
Here is the best spot according to DH - out of the way and stuff - but oooh! all the work I have to do to make it happen is a little scary. I need more power tools - only i don't have them. And there's black plastic and scoria buried under all that..




Also, we have to contend with these critters...








The red-legged earth mite. Yes, they are eating the weeds - but they also eat my spinach, and other things that I wish they wouldn't!

This is the aviary that is falling apart. Putting the chooks in it was a good idea until we realised just how much it was falling apart.




My aim for this week is to carefully cut off all the wire and roll it up for other uses (more chook tractors probably LOL) and then wire the frame for growing cucumbers, zuchinis and gourds and luffas up.
I have to try and figure out a way to improve the soil in there too. All i've got left of my supplies are a couple of bags of chook manure and the litter from the guinea pig houses.





Mystery flowering tree - remember last time it was all pink? Now it looks like this



Still no idea what it is.

So here is my brocolli - happily heading up (or whatever it is called). Unfortunately it's the only one that is so far..



Tomatoes - they will go in the empty end of the raised bed once they are big enough



Thyme - man, it's hard to beleive that the parsley next to it was planted from seed at the same time. They must call it thyme because of the sheer amount of the stuff it takes to actually grow!




This is pot luck. I planted out some seeds. And I didn't write them down. I can't remember what they were! Obviously some sort of cucumber or squash or pumpkin or... hmmm, you get my drift. Although I'm pretty sure I didn't put climbers in there... who knows!




For some strange reason, out of about 4 large pots I'm sure I put various capsicum seeds in, only this one seems to be growing. And I'm not positive it's not a tomato.
Given the amount of capsicum that gets eaten in this house, I think I need to put in some more




NOw back to the strawbale bed. Good news! The broad beans that lucretia and her girls helped us plant have actually popped up! I thought they wouldn't at all. ANd yes, I know it's too late. I know broad beans are a winter crop. But I like watching things grow. It might work! The seed packet said it might!





These are the seedlings I bought from the farmers market last weekend. I went back and bought more garlic this weekend, but haven't put it in yet.




And this is the potatoes under straw bed that I did. I am actually thinking it might not work. It seems too dry.. i shall have to sneak out late at night with my watering can, so that the people driving my don't dob me in for illegal watering. We have a huge rainwater tank that I use, but you can't see it from the street...




Also, here is the other side of the bed, where you can see the beginnings of my path system. I have laid down cardboard from old packing boxes, and covered it in sawdust from my uncle.
He has a half a wool bale of sawdust waiting for me to go and pick up now, which MIGHT fit in the back of the van.. but will probably finish off the paths rather nicely!





Well that's probably enough for now. SO my jobs for this week are to get the chook wire down and new support wire UP for the vine plants, and dig in something good in there so they will actually grow.
THEN I have to massacre the enormous weed patch out the side somehow, so I can dig something into that and let it sit and become a good place for corn, peas, beans, and pumkins.
THEN I have to mow the other side of the house - because it's Rory's birthday on Saturday and we're going to have a house full on Sunday. Can't have them getting stung by the nettles!

Hmm and don't forget all the other million and one things LOL

I will leave you with a picture of the chickens. I'm even more positive that we have 3 roosters. This is going to be interesting!!!

At the very least, you can see how much they have grown!

Right.
My idea WAS a good one! AND I learnt how to unstick a staple gun all by myself. AND ... well, the chickens are in their new tractor.

Only, it aint really a tractor. Because while my idea had lots of merit, my techno-design skills fell down in a heap when it came to figuring out how to attach wheels.

I think I will leave that important bit to my DH.

Here are some photos






This is the inside of the closed section - they will need the light for a few more weeks yet!






This is it from the top - see how that WAS a cupboard door til I took to it with a power saw? NOw it's split in two, half over the covered section, and half with a big wired-on window.




Here you can see the run section - it doesn't actually have a floor, but since it's in the garage I put cardboard under it to slightly insulate little toes and make it easier to clean up thier mess.

DO you like the circular entrance hole to the warm bit?? *grin*


WEll, there is it. Just needs wheels and handles, then it's in and out whenever!

So the chickens are inside. But they are getting big, and engaging in chicken-type behaviours. Which means that there is sawdust and food and... other unmentionables ... being scratched out of cage and onto carpet. Not a good look.

Saturday decided the issue - new housing was needed, and quickly. Something that could sit outside on the grass- ummm weeds - during the warm days, and go inside the garage during the cool evenings when little chickens still need a light on to keep them warm.

So by the time Sunday afternoon rolled around I decided some action was required!

Armed with a power saw in one hand, a power drill in the other, and after some judicious use of pencil and ruler on an old, back-less cupboard, we have.....

a half finished, non-photographed chicken tractor.

OK, so the lead-up was good. But seriously, I never knew playing with power tools could be so much fun!

Hammering fencing staples onto badly supported timber, over recycled chook wire, however, isn't at all fun. Hence the thing is only half finished.

I determined this morning that i needed a staple gun to finish the job. Handy things, staple guns. So i bought one (only thing i bought for the entire project, so I figure that's pretty damn good. Tools don't count anyway, because they can be used for sooo many things, right?) and got to it.

Staple gun worked wonderfully. top and one side fully enclosed with chicken wire. Then the staple gun jammed, and for the life of me I can't un-jam it!

So since part of this project is to a)prove to DH that sometimes my ideas DO work and b) prove to DH that not only to they work, I can build them, i got intensely frustrated with said staple gun, and called upon my bestie's DH - who will be here shortly to un-stick the staple gun for me.

I WILL Have this thing finished and the chickens in it by tonight! There will be no more chickens in our house when DH comes home...


And then i will have photos too!

Ali

Yes there are more pets at my house
These are some feathered ones we adopted from kindy. I don't actually know whether they are girls or boys yet - nor do I know what we are going to do with the boys. I have been reading up on how to break a chooks neck but I think I'm too squeamish.