Leaving Nothing Behinds

The Moose, Daughter Number 1 and I spent Friday night at The Compound.  Grilled steaks out over a hickory wood campfire.  It's worth the effort using hickory, what great flavor!  The Hooligan's were happy to be let out, and Lucy who was not feeling well earlier in the week, seems to be recovering. 

On Saturday morning, we said goodbye to Daughter Number 1, and while I cleaned up, started next seasons tomato seedlings,  and fed the Hooligan's, the Moose went off to get our next load of mulch.  To my surprise, he got a double load!  I wasn't sure if I should laugh or cry

I ended up laughing thanks to Betty.

We finished off the remainder of this section of garden, with only one area remaining.  We used 3/4 of this load to complete the area.  One thing to note;  from week to week, you never know what type of mulch product you'll actually get.  Last weeks load seemed mostly palm tree material, this week it's definitely pine.  But since it doesn't cost anything up front,  I'm not complaining.  Can you even imagine buying this amount of product from a big box store?

One other thing we noted, besides how everything is still moist underneath,  and the overwhelming lack of weeds, a lone squash plant we left as an experiment is really taking off.  It's dark green foliage is testament to the BtoE program.  We have not watered or fertilized.  The tomatoes, although further behind, finally have blossoms and are starting to fill out.  We're not sure they'll have much of a chance this far into the season, as it's likely we'll see some very cold temperatures in the near future.

Now, for the title of this article, this picture speaks a thousand words;  leaving nothing behinds;

Since only 3 of them still sleep in their actual coop, the Moose set up a roost outside, in hopes that they'd stop sleeping and you know what on the roof.  So we had to see who went where...  There are 6 of them up on this board, and 2 still sleeping on the roof.  Go Figure!


Merry Christmas

Civic Duty

Here I sit in a large room full of smelly, or over perfumed citizens of the great State of Florida, and City of Orlando.  Numbers 1 through 766 were called in, and I was 711. Yep, 711, but no Slurpee here.

It's interesting to see how and what people are doing.  We have newspaper readers, Christmas card writers, those of us rushing through emails to try and stay caught up with work, since the paltry $15 a day will not cover the bills, or those staring off into space as they came totally unprepared.  But I'm not complaining about my civic duty.   I believe that I can review the information provided and make an informed judgement.  I'm not convinced that my "peers" can do the same.  They show up late, dressed for a night in the bar.  Shouldn't there be some kind of test?  We need to pass a test to drive on the streets, but not one to determine whether or not you can serve as a juror.

If I'm ever judged, I want to be judged by someone willing to serve, and with an intellectual level capable of the making the right judgement. Today will prove interesting. 

Nobody Told Them to Slack Off!

It was another perfect day at the Compound.  In the 70's and a swift breeze.  It made working so much easier than those summer days with heat indexes in the 100's.  We took care of the Hooligans, all are doing well, and still giving us between 18 and 22 eggs every three days.  So much for lower production when there's less hours per day of sunshine.  I guess no one's come by to tell my chickens they can slack off!  They're production rate is supposed to slow down when you have less than 14 hours of sunshine per day.  We're averaging right around 12 hours this time of year.  They are also supposed to go into a molt in the fall.  They haven't gotten that message either.  Just like children, they'll do it in their own sweet time!

We spent the day doing small projects like weeding the garden, and building a new set of shelving for the container.  We've accumulated a lot of stuff over the past year and a half, and trying to keep it organized has been a hassle.  So, the new shelving should help.  We also offloaded a trailer load of mulch.



Here's one wild blackberry patch.  It's really coming into it's own. I put mulch around the base of the canes, to help control the weeds, and begin its natural composting process as in Back to Eden. I read somewhere that you need to try and keep the canes to around 2-3 feet tall only.  They'll produce more berries.  I've got my eye on this section, as it's nearing the height where it needs to be trimmed back.  And that's no easy chore.

Here is the strawberry patch.  We built a strawberry pyramid last year, and the past 6 months or so, they have sent off a lot of shoots, so the amount of berries we get this season (Jan - March) should be greater than last year.  We also had an issue with the amount of sun the plants would get.  Even though the "book" states full sun, it actually burned out my plants.  So we put up a sun/shade screen on top, and ever since then, they have really taken off.  I have blossoms already and a couple of berries starting to work their magic.



We picked a few cucumbers, from a couple of the remaining plants, and the Moose is looking forward to cutting up these little peppers for his famous homemade salsa.

We did finally get to offloading the trailer load of mulch this weekend.   The trailer load only covered about 1/3 of the area, so we'll need at least 2 if not 3 more loads of mulch to complete this section.  We have one other area besides this one to finish.  I can not begin to tell you how easy it was to pull out the few handfuls of weeds that were in the garden. 

That's all for now, have a great week everyone!  Thanks for following along!