rambling plans and updates

Amazing.  I can't believe it's been so long since we've posted.  Since our last post the ducks have grown up and are now living outside int he chicken run.  They are noisy 'pack' animals that don't really seem to like us. They do not think we are their 'rooster' (what's the duck equivalent?) like the chickens do.

Jen has 3 new baby chicks right now - fancy ones - and I can never remember the varieties even though she tells me over and over.  they are super cute.  These one's don't have any purpose other than being cute - they won't lay regularly or anything.  I guess that means they'd better be super cute ;p

We joined Full Circle Farms CSA since we didn't get many things to grow this year.  I guess when you move when you're supposed to be starting seeds and don't have your awesome soil you spent 2 years building up that's what happens.  We did manage to grow onions, garlic and cabbages though so that's kind of cool.  Jen's tomatoes might ripen still too so there's that possiblility.

I'm trying to decide what to grow next year and I'm looking forward to getting the basement set up with the grow lights and starting all the seeds.  First comes the really exciting part of looking through seed catalogs and thinking of all the tasty things I want to eat.  I still want to build potato bins to grow those and I've found I love carrots so I'll have to grow those as well.

There's a lot of work to do before I start growing things though.  Part of our problem here is the horrible soil in the raised beds.  We didn't amend it when we first moved in and it's awful - such a disappointment after our amazing soil at the last place (yay compost!)  This soil has too much clay so plants rot in the spring and dry out and die in the summer :(  I'm going to remove all of the soil in the beds and add layers of chicken mulch, compost and soil back in and top it all off with some cover crop seed.  I found a cover crop that is formulated especially for chickens which I think will be awesome.  Especially since I will be letting the chickens loose on my raised beds before I plant.  After this mix sits all winter and the chickens scratch it up in the spring I think I'll have awesome planting space.  I do want to raise up one of the beds and will be trolling craigslist for some free 4x4's or cinder blocks.  I'm excited for this project.