Shame on Me and Compound Update

Well, it's been awhile since I posted, so here's an update;

Like most of you, we have really been busy.  And shame on me for not taking any photos.  I take my camera along, and even have a camera on my phone but I never get it out at the end of the day. So one of my upcoming posts will be picture loaded!

I have mentioned in the past we have a local company that gives away their wood pallets.  Now their pallets are not the typical pallets of let's say 3' x 3' or so.  Nope, these are 3-4' wide by 10-12' long!  Some with more than useable 2x4's which we remove and use for building projects.  Some of the pallets we keep together and have made fencing for pig areas and recently raised bed gardens.  Up off the ground so no more bending over to pick weeds for me!

The Moose and the Twins (BJ and Donnie) built me 8 raised beds so far and we have everything from tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, to lettuce growing in them right now and all doing really well.  Except for the typical aphid and pest issues; we'll never be without those problems.  We've not had any success growing plants in direct sunlight.  I know every package of vegetable seed states direct sunlight. It just kills them at The Compound, especially this time of year and if we don't get them started now we won't get a harvest before any potential freeze/cold temperatures happen.

So, we use shade cloth above all of the beds, it filters the light and keeps the torrential rains from totally demolishing the delicate plants.  We just have to water more often, sometimes up to three times a day for the cucumbers.  As it stands we are working out ideas and plans to build our "upcycled" (patio doors) green house around these beds that are already in place.  The greenhouse along with our outdoor kitchen are projects slated for the cooler weather months.

We have 16 new chicks and a total of 5 new turkeys.  The chicks are New Hampshire Reds, 3 white feathered (I can't remember the breed, but its a specific breed the hatchery came up with) and 1 lonely Easter Egger.  It's not actually lonely, it fits right in the mix.  We will be culling our old flock this fall/winter as soon as this groups starts to lay eggs.  Our hens are molting right now and we are getting very few eggs, besides they are all aging and giving less and less.  Most of our birds are going on 2 years old with Miss Corrie running on 3 years and Berta going on 4 years.  They'll always have a place at The Compound even though neither has laid an egg in months.

I'd have to disagree with Ben Franklin on having Turkeys as our national bird.  Frankly, if they were in school, they'd be put in the corner with a dunce cap!  I have fun watching them, but they have a strange ability to get in trouble, or cause trouble like walking over the top of the Moose's truck!  He was not happy..  We'll at least have turkey for Thanksgiving this year.

As to pigs, we have more than enough!  We are getting ready to butcher a couple in the coming months, again we're waiting for some cooler temperatures. 

Finally, the rabbits.  I have been trying to find someone interested in my lop ears and I can't get rid of them for free.  We are working to get meat rabbits, and have one buck and two does to work with.  We'll be breeding them this coming October.

I promise to get some pictures for a follow up post.  It's hard to believe we're in the middle of September already! 

God Bless,