Hooked on a Feeling - It's Finally Fall at The Compound

I had the BJ Thomas song in my head this morning;  Hooked on a Feeling.  So now that I've dated myself and got those of you around my same age, singing this song to yourselves  Your Welcome!



To the Little Girl who was kind enough to give me Fludders, here's your update;

He's doing great!  At first he was a bit scared, especially of our white rooster.  He liked to hide to stay out of the way.  So this weekend we removed the white rooster and put him in his own area so Fludders can get more comfortable with his new home and with all the hens at The Compound.  He's been eating and actually making friends with our pigs too.  I even saw him napping next to some of my girl pigs on Saturday.  Thank you for giving him to me!  We will do our best to spoil him rotten!



The humidity and heat have finally backed off and if the weatherman is right, we may finally be able to put the summer of 2015 behind us.  Although it was a bit warm this weekend, the humidity was not there and the Moose only went through about 3 t-shirts.  That's how we gauge things, not by temperature but by how often he has to change t-shirts.

The guys finished our new turkey housing addition, (of which I didn't get any photos), moved the four teenage turkeys to the new enclosure and in with the original flock (there was a bit of a kerfuffle), and added another lean-to area for the male hogs.

I spent my time working on the garden beds, removing the yellowing leaves from the tomato plants, removing caterpillars which are the bane of my existence at the moment, and look at what they did in one week to my cucumber plants; 

I really hate using pesticides, but the bugs leave me no choice.  It's that or no vegetables.  I found three different type of caterpillars in my garden.  Some roll the leaves back over themselves so they can eat in peace, others just eat large holes in the leaves and the worst one's you can hardly see until they've had their fill; they make the leaves look like lace.  Frankly, the pesticide didn't even phase this last type.

The tomatoes are going strong, and I've only found a few small green inch worm type bugs, and a couple of black caterpillars.  Besides some leaf miners which out at The Compound always get on my plants, they seem to be doing really well.

While I was working in the garden, or frankly going just about everywhere one of our supervisors stuck by my side to make sure I was doing things right.  Here's Kitty-Kitty;

Of the three semi-feral cats we rescued this past year she is the friendliest.  Here are the other two  Bones and Claire;



Skin and "Bones"  he has a hard time putting on weight.

Claire



.That's it for now, you can go back to singing Hooked on a Feeling....

 





Upcycled; Feed Troughs and Garden Update (another picture heavy post)

First of all, let me introduce you to our newest Compound member;  Flutters.   A Buff Orpington, someone in the area needed a new home for him and he is likely the luckiest rooster in these parts!  2.5 acres and over 30 girls to call his own!  We have him in a separate location from them at the moment just to make sure he's healthy (and we have no doubt), but it's a precaution we have to take with the investment we have in all of our girls.  In a few short weeks, he'll be introduced.

 

He may have second thoughts once the girls start to tell him who's really boss at The Compound!

 

 

Here's our upcycled project and garden update:

 
 
 



These




















And this

Became this!  Pig trough/feeder and waterer.  Pigs are THE most destructive animals I have ever seen.  I make no promises this will hold up, only time will tell.  The barrels were cut in half, and then attached to some of the long and FREE wood pallets you see in the above photo.  Besides some nails and sweat equity by the guys the only real cost was the barrels at a whopping $10 a piece.  Yes, we found a mother load and a company that brings them in with aloe vera in them, we just have to rinse them out.  We bought 20, we'll use some to catch rain water, and about 10 of them to make feeders for each of the four areas we have hogs currently housed in by size or sex.

We'll keep you posted, but so far it's hard for them to manage standing in them, it's too slippery inside and for the larger girls, they  (the hogs) are just too wide to get a foot hold.  Although that didn't stop one from trying to chew on the wood!

Here's one of four sections of Kirby cucumbers.  It has taken off up onto the top of the shade cloth and reached over to the avocado tree we just moved there.  It's kind of creepy but it's almost as if they can see where to reach out to.

The honey bees are working their magic on the blossoms.  All morning the area had a quiet hum.  I left them alone.  I watered and picked off the occasional caterpillars later in the day.

Some romas starting to fruit.

Some cucumbers also taking shape.

Mini pumpkins.  A few of these should be ready for Halloween, and the rest for sure by Thanksgiving.

I'm growing these in the beds as well.  They are climbing up the shade cloth too and hanging over the edges.

To be honest, I have no idea what this is, could be cauliflower, broccoli or brussel sprouts.  We'll just call it a surprise!

A sunflower! 

In the background, is a newly sprouted mango!  It'll only take 7  - 8 years to produce, but you have to start somewhere.

We have forks in our hands just waiting for the first salad from our garden beds!

Otherwise, the Moose and I are pooped again this weekend.  The sun was definitely out, and we are counting down the days until the middle to end of October!  Bring on Fall!

 

Picture Heavy Update

Be warned, picture and video heavy. 

First, the raised bed gardens the Moose built me.

 



 

Here's the loads of free wood and pallets the Moose and Donnie pick up each week.

 

 
 

Here are the bacon bits.

 

 

 

 

Here are the new girls!

 

 

Finally, here's the new remote controlled rotisserie!

 



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,

A Hunting Wabbit We Will Go

Actually no hunting needed on our part, unless you call opening a rabbit hutch hunting.  This Sunday was the first time in all my many years I actually ate rabbit.  Yes, this former total city girl ate the rabbit she has watched and helped raise.  And it WAS delicious! 

Served up fried and baked.  The fried was a bit on the tough side, but tasty.  My favorite was the baked.  Baked for about 3 hours it was fall off the bone good.

I did not participate in the processing of the rabbits, and I likely should have except the Moose and I were busy with other projects;

Moving pigs around, and building dividing walls to keep them in other areas so we can actually use our garden space for gardening.  No pictures yet, just too busy.

We're starting to get ripened blue berries from our 25+ plants.  Not a lot yet, but the bushes are covered in berries.  There's also a few small mulberries in this bowl.  There is nothing like fresh from the garden berries.

Yes, We are Still Around

It's been some time again since my last post.  We are still here, and still too busy to think straight.  This past weekend was one of the first in the last few we actually spent working at The Compound.

I cleaned up after the chickens, turkeys and rabbits.  We have a broody Turkey hen, sitting on around 12-15 eggs from what I could see.  Hopefully they are fertilized, because I've never seen a Tom cover a hen.  They show off enough, but I'm not sure they've made their move yet.  Only time will tell.

We set up a water system for the rabbits.  I hope to show what we did in another post, when I actually have taken the appropriate pictures. 

We set up a 250 gallon water tank near the 25 blueberry plants and planter boxes to make watering easier than hauling 5 gallon buckets across the property.

We also set up a new hog enclosure.  It's almost finished, just a few minor things still need to be done;  auto water/nipple, and a feeder.  We have two sows that will be delivering late April/early May.  They're our two favorite females and we hope they deliver healthy piglets with good temperaments like their momma's.

That's the short version of what we did this weekend.  Next weekend, we're off to help R&B fix up a rental property. 

Repurpose Project - shipping crates = planter boxes

 Yippee!  Ron works at a local airport and found some empty shipping boxes that at one time carried airplane parts.  He and the Moose picked them up late Friday and early Saturday we began their transformation into our new planter boxes!

All we had to do was add some legs, of which those materials came from the free pallets.  Other than some stain that was sprayed on all but two and some hardware it's another project that cost nearly nothing.  My kind of project!

The weather was fantastic, sunny and breezy, highs in the upper 60's.  Along with a trip to the hardware and feed stores, this project took the better part of the day.  We used the tractor to straighten out the ground level, moved some large stones to keep the second level from eroding away, and brought over the 3 potted blueberry plants    This way I can take care of all the blueberries at one time.

We think it was a nice find! 

Ron and James continue to work on the bath house.  The roof for both decks was put on and the surround for the outdoor shower was also installed.

Another friend of ours, Fred who is always on the lookout for us, was able to procure a skid full of old electrical wiring, 7' tall metal posts and some crating materials from a piece of very heavy equipment.  I didn't get a photo of it, but all of it together pretty much took up the entire trailer.  The wheels are starting to spin on how and where we'll use all of our great finds!

Weekend Happenings Part 2 (1/17/15)

We’ve acquired another couple of acres right next to ours so we now have a spread of about 5 total acres.  It has a small pond, which we are considering adding some of our Tilapia.  We are also working on a small building.  Some of the materials were purchased, but we have been able to use some the free windows and doors that The Moose has been acquiring.  I’d guess the cost so far is roughly $800.00.  It will have a wrap around deck and an observation set up on the roof, along with the containers of water for the shower.  

  

 

 

 

 

The guys also continued to build shelving in the container.   Again, all materials, except for the nails are from the free pallets.  

I was able to get the chickens, turkeys and rabbits taken care of.  All are doing very well. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blueberries are starting to blossom, so I gave them a light dusting of fertilizer.  I’m hoping we’ll get a nice yield of berries, but since they were just planted a few months ago, this may be a slower year.

 

R&B, part of The Compound group are raising our goats in their back yard, since they need care a couple times a day.  We’ve been blessed with the birth of 4 new baby goats in the last month or so.  They are cute little devils!  They don’t run, they hop all four feet the same time, bounce off of the trees or the backs of their Moms and can stop on a dime!  We’ll eventually be milking them, but for now they’re just getting spoiled.

Gardening on My Mind

Well the pigs have done their job.  They have completely removed any bit of weed or grass from anywhere in the garden, and it's not growing back.  Wonderful little tillers, and fertilizers.

Now the true test will be, will the weeds come back and if so how quickly?   Considering the property is completely surrounded by weeds, it'll be interesting to see how well they did and/or how long it is before the weeds to take over.  I pray they don't.  Weeds are a big pain in any garden, but out at The Compound, totally impossible to get any control over by hand.

So we'll start on seedlings this weekend, along with the initial tilling of an area in the garden.  We're also interested in seeing how well the garden does, considering all the fertilizer that has been added along the way.

That's at least what's on my agenda.  The Moose has other plans, stay tuned....

Merry Christmas and Happy 2015!

I won't be posting much the next couple of weeks,  not that I have been lately anyway, as we'll be taking some much needed time with family and friends.  We may even catch a day or two of camping at one of our favorite spots on Merritt Island.  Could a fishing trip on the boat be in our horizon? 

We've been trying to keep our heads above water lately, and we look forward to the changes 2015 will bring.  The animals at The Compound are doing great.  The containers concrete floor is almost done, so we may soon be able to put that entire project behind us and move on to the outdoor kitchen.

I think we'll be focusing pretty heavily on the garden along with breeding rabbits and my favorite pig "the Queen" this Jan/Feb.  We'll also need to build some nesting boxes for the turkey hens.  Other than that, we have some more land clearing to do, then we'll hatch out some new chicks.  What are your plans for 2015?

Most of all the Moose and I would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  Thanks for following along, and most importantly keep blogging.  We get a lot of inspiration and ideas from all of you!



God Bless

Stadium Seating for the Blueberries a Repurpose Project

What seems like so long ago was the purchase of 25 blueberry plants.  They've been watered and talked to in their pots since.  That was until we finally got the multi layer (stadium seating) arrangement done.

Again we used the infamous free skids.  I tacked on some weed blocker on the back to help keep the dirt behind the boards.  It worked like a charm.  We have three levels of berry plants.  This also serves as a way to keep the dirt from eroding off the side of the container.











One set of skids is actually two sided, so I'm thinking eventually I'll add some dirt in between and plant strawberry plants in the spaces between wood slats.  Do you think it would work?


We're all looking forward to the first harvest!

Cold Front Moved Through

NOT!  Unless you consider high temperatures of 89 degrees a cold front.  But for us at The Compound, although hot, not anywhere near the heat we've seen this past summer.  And of course, it had to rain, and rain and rain some more..

We didn't let it get in the way of accomplishing a much needed project;

Scraping out the bottom 24 inches of composted material from inside the chicken coop/run.  Actually, we only got to a 8' x 20' section.  Heavy, stinky and wet, but this will become awesome dirt for the garden.  It just takes so much time to dig it all up and haul it away.  It actually took four of us, nearly all day (minus our lunch break).

Then we put down a layer of sand about 6" deep.  This will become the base for next years black gold.  My friends that's a lot of sand to be hauled, dumped and raked into place. It's not light stuff, and add in the rain, it was no small task.  But this section of the run is completed and the new turkeys have been moved in.  We placed a thin layer of straw on top of the sand, and will add more as it gets wet and needs additional coverage.

We found it so interesting that the turkeys were so easy to herd from one area over to the next.  Unlike chickens that will run willy nilly and act like they are being attacked, turkeys will calmly walk where you need them to go if you move them slowly.

They were very happy with their new digs.  Each of them taking the time to walk around and check everything out.  Best part, they were really talking to each other and stretching and flapping their wings.  Originally we didn't have them in a large enough area (I was only supposed to get 4 poults and ended up getting 8 nearly full grown turkeys), and they could barely turn around.  This new area, now dedicated to them gives them more than enough space.

These turkeys love bananas!   I mean love bananas!  Who would have thought?  I'm working to get them to trust me, and at this point they are no longer really skittish, but they'd rather be on the other side of their enclosure than near me.  I did get a couple of the girls to come over about 2' away to partake of some cracked corn.  I'll win them over..

**FYI, when bringing in new turkeys, they need to be confined for at least a month. Unlike chickens which is a week, they need at least a month.   It's how they learn where home is.

So far thumbs up on turkeys!

The little piglets (aka the Village People) are growing well.  Looks like the mosquitos took their toll on the poor little buggers.  They have some bites around their eyes, backs of their ears and backs.  But they all seem to be doing well.  I had some left over eggs and scrambled them up.  We wanted to feed them to the runts of the group, figuring the protein will help.  I was only able to keep the others out for a short period of time until they broke through.    Needless to say, they were all laying around with fat bellies sticking out, totally content.

Along the way a friend caught two wild piglets, and they've now found a home at The Compound.  They are fitting in really well with the other piglets.  The final pregnant female delivered 3 more piglets last week.  So now we have 17 piglets, and 13 mature pigs.  2 will be making a one way trip to town as soon as we can find a local butcher.

I think that's it for now.  Have a great week!


 "the only honest way, wherein man receives a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground in the kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry." - Ben Franklin

Blazin Hot Weekend

We're happy to be sitting in air conditioning today.  This weekend was a scorcher.  We reached 98 degrees, and well over 100 with the index.  Needless to say, we are counting down the days to October.

It's nearly impossible to get anything done after 11am or before 4pm.  You get to the point where you can't possibly drink another bottle of water, tea, etc.  There's just no room for it, but your body is still thirsty.  We come home with a hamper full of stinky, sweaty clothes.  Can I say it again?  Bring on October!

Now, don't go thinking all we did was sit around, how else would we have ended up with a hamper full of clothes?  The guys built a third farrowing pen, just in time too we had another sow deliver her brood of 7 (the 8th looked to be stillborn) on Sunday.

 

We still have one more girl to deliver, likely in the next couple of weeks.  Then that's it for sometime.  We already have some interest it buying some of these new ones, and that'll go a long way in helping pay for feed.  It'll be hard to let any of them go.  They are cute little devils!  To date we have 29 pigs at The Compound.

We hauled out our 25 new blueberry plants, and started the planning stage of how to get them planted next to the container.  We are building what will end up looking like a giant raised bed.

 

It'll hold the dirt back and help eliminate erosion.  I started by painting some 8' and 10' 2x4's.  The guys used some of the free pallet materials to build the upper structure.  I don't have any photos of those yet, as they still need to be painted.

 

 

But the best part of our weekend was this:

 



Peeecan smoked chicken and ribs!  The Moose bought the new smoker, and the boys put it together and cooked dinner.  What a treat! Perfectly juicy, smokey chicken and ribs!  Can I hear you say YUM?!

Blueberries Galore!

Well, another Craigslist find!  25  7 gallon organic blueberry plants.  I paid $10 each for them, which I think is a great find.  We paid $8 for 3 gallon ones a few years back.  They are the northern high bush varieties of Windsor and Emerald.  Estimated at about 3 years old, so should start producing fruit in greater quantity starting this year, and definitely in years 4 and 5. 

As you may recall, we are finished burying the container.  We discussed using the hillside as a place to plant fruiting trees or bushes.  We want to keep the dirt from running off during the torrential rains (which we seem to be getting nearly everyday since June), and we want the plants to be purposeful.

I'm not sure if I'll try and create more of a raised bed feature, by shoring up each row with wood, which would help erosion issues, or not.  Jury is still out.  In this heat (we reached 97 degrees this week), it will be a work in progress since it's out in direct sunlight. 

The soil used to bury in the container has a higher sand content which will be good for drainage.  I'll amend it with peat moss and pine chips/needles.  A light application of fertilizer to get things going.  Starting in October, they will be left alone to go dormant, until January when they will begin to blossom with fruit around April.

We're hoping this was a worth while investment.  We love blueberries and looking at long term this number of plants will give us more than we need.  I'm sure the hens and hogs will be happy too!

Hog Tilling and Pest Control

Weeds are my enemy at The Compound.  I'm never one step ahead of them, and won't be until we start living there full time.  This is what my garden looks like.  A mess!  We've pulled up the weeds, only to have twice as many appear the next time.  So we're trying a new method;  Hog Tilling and Pest Control.

They do a great job of rooting up plants, eating grubs and fertilizing the area.    This is what they accomplished this weekend.  Fencing around this area is not as secure as their permanent enclosure, so we don't leave them in their except during the days when we're around.

I'm happy, they're happy..

Just Not Enough Time

Like most, we spent the holiday weekend with friends.  Of course, we spent it at The Compound.  It was hot as heck, 97 degrees Saturday, about the same on Sunday, and even though Monday at lunch was only around 90 it felt as hot as the last two days, just because we are not yet acclimated to the summer heat and humidity. 

We went through every shirt and dry pair of socks we brought along.  I worked in the chicken coop and the garden.   I shoveled and hauled pig poo and watered everything within an inch of itself!  Unfortunately, we lost a hen.  I think the heat got to her too.

The guys worked on a really "cool" project in the container.  I just didn't have enough time to take the necessary pictures.  Besides the space needs to be cleaned up a bit so the pictures will do this new contraption justice.  Trust me, you'll thank me later when you see what we've found and how well it works! 

Oh, and I think one of our pigs is in the "family way".  Gotta run!

Potato, Potato, Not so

Will someone explain to me why we are getting very few potatoes?  They were going gang busters, then suddenly the plants died.  We used the tire method, got three tires high and poof they started to die.  They did not blossom.


Temperatures are unseasonably warm, upper 80's and lower 90's during the day.

Lots of rain recently

Mulch and soil mix in each level

Fed organic fertilizer on occasion


I read by using the tires and forcing the plants to grow taller, you'd get a bigger harvest.  Potatoes in all the levels, not just the base from where they started.

I pulled the tires apart, and we had 7 potatoes in one, only 3-4 are of decent size, and in the other maybe 10 potatoes, again 3-4 are decent size.  The others would be considered new potatoes.  Smaller than a golf ball..

Any words of wisdom?  This is new to me, and I'm frankly happy we got anything at all.  We tried them a few years ago, and they basically rotted in the soil, so we tried this method instead.

Help?

Rain, Rain Go Away - Garden Update

We've had our share of rain lately here in Central FL, and especially at The Compound.  It's now a prerequisite to wear boots in the garden.  Don't stand still for too long or you'll get sucked down into the muck.  It's impossible to pull weeds when it's this wet.  Yes, and what you see in the photo, are all new weeds.  They were pulled last weekend. 

I think we've gotten too much rain and my tomatoes are paying the price.  The leaves are starting to droop, it's very weird.  They droop like they haven't had any water, which is far from the truth.

It's hard to tell in this picture, as this was first thing in the morning.  A few hours later, 1/3 of them were droopy.  This picture pretty much looks like a jungle.  The plants have grown so huge, the cages do not support them.  I've resorted to trying to tie back the branches as best I can to keep them off the ground.  I really shouldn't complain, it's a nice problem to have, considering the slim pickings we've had on previous garden attempts.  I'm hoping the droopy plants come back.

 



Speaking of jungles, here's my celery plant. A jungle of it's own!

Here's a watermelon on the rouge plant, growing near the rose bushes.  The mesh screen keeps the hens out.  It's one of their favorite places to scratch.  Maybe that's why my rose bushes do so well?!










We've lost a couple of potato plants, and in one case the entire tires worth.  So I pulled the tires apart to see what if anything was growing.  It's definitely not much, but better than nothing.


We're supposed to stay dry this next week.  Hopefully enough to get me to next Saturday so I can pull weeds and mow the yard.