Chickens-outside!

As a prior post noted, we are raising chickens.  After nearly a month inside as chicks they are, blessedly, outside in their own large run.  We decided to go with some pre-fab coops that we ordered online and then assembled once they got to us because we concluded that it was just more cost effective than converting a large building that we have on the property in to a coop.  Plus we wanted to utilize the large yard you see the run in.  That amount of grass is not useful to us and was just eating up valuable water.  So we constructed a run with two chicken wire fences:  a tall outer perimeter and a shorter area that has the coops in it.  It was fairly cheap; although pounding the posts was not the easiest thing.   No foxes or coyotes have gotten in, but we may have had a few losses from hawks, but adding a top would be too elaborate at this point.  Plus, they'll grow and that threat will diminish.

The whole chicken run.

The double fence set up

Inside the coop

One of our cats "guarding" the chickens

Some Produce

As the summer wears on, different veggies and fruits become ripe and are ready for harvest.  One new experience for us starting out (which is of course obvious when you think about it) is that everything of the same kind more or less comes ripe at the same time.  What to do with it?

Case in point, lettuce.  It's one of those plants with tiny seeds that can be easily over planted and has a bigger reputation for being yummy than it actually is.  By that we mean, even if you are a fan of salads (which we are) there is only so much lettuce you can eat in a 3-4 week period.  And unfortunately lettuce is virtually impossible to preserve:  you can't freeze it, drying it makes little sense, and, unlike spinach, it can't be cooked. So eating like a cow is really the only option.  We ended up with way too much.  Even after trying to eat it quickly and store it in the refrigerator, much of it went to the chickens, which is too bad but better than just rotting.

Preparing lettuce for the fridge.  This is a fraction of what we grew.

 The next item that came ripe in a big way were the green onions.  Fortunately, these are far easier to preserve.  We have frozen them (pre-cut) and dried them out using our convection oven.  That works quite well, but does make the house smell like onions for a while.  Of course green onions last a while in the fridge in a plastic bag:

Preparing onions for preserving

 Finally, our raspberry bushes have been quite productive. We have basically done nothing to care for the plants, not even water them.  They'll do well for a good pruning this fall, and the raspberries keep coming.

Already frozen, ready for ice cream.