Thursday, May 21, 2009

May Picture Round Up

Automatic chicken waterer- the end of the soaker hose (which is on an automatic timer) drips to fill the butter container (with the bigger container to catch the leftovers- the kinks aren't totally worked out yet, but I'm hoping it will allow us to be gone for a day or two without worrying about watering the chickens).

Leaves from last fall mixed with the neighbor's grass clippings make a nice hot compost pile.

Mother's day breakfast in bed (sorry it got turned sideways somehow). If you're wondering why the omlet looks neon-yellow, it's because we've been feeding the chickens lots of lettuce and other food scraps, which makes the yolks a lot darker.

A good rain storm turned our dry riverbed into a rain garden. I think this is the closest we've come to having the water overflow onto the sidewalk. It didn't, but it looked like it might for a little while.


A lot of the water comes from this downspout, but we also have a tube hooked up to a backyard downspout that runs underground until it comes out in the rocks just above the downspout pictured.

My Mister building our dog poop digester.

Digester in place, ready for use. (we've been using it for a couple of weeks now, without noticeable smell!)

J's last soccer game of the season- he really started doing well, being more aggressive this spring. I enjoyed being his coach, and I'm glad it will be someone else's turn next fall.

Tomato plants.  We used the walls of water (the green things on the grass next to the tomatoes) on about half of the plants, and the plants that are not covered are about half the size of the ones that are- I guess walls of water are useful even after threat of frost has passed.

This was our first successful attempt at starting from seed, I transplanted into cups several weeks prior to planting, and was amazed at how much the roots grew during that short time. 

Because CP is so darn cute:


J "losing" his 3rd baby tooth. The funniest thing was that the tooth went flying and was temporarily lost under the stove. We found it, and the tooth fairy found a note from J apologizing for the tooth being dirty. It was very sweet. Luckily the tooth fairy has a tooth washer.

CP helping dad build the shed (made from nearly all scavenged materials- we bought cement blocks to put under it and nails so far- gotta love dumpster diving).

A helping dad.

Moving parts into place. The walls aren't nailed in place yet, we just had them standing up to see how things would fit. It's going to be awesome.

5 comments:

Sarah said...

OH! My dad used to pull out my teeth with channel locks! I still can't have tissues in my mouth getting the major full body shivers! Ugh! Poor J!

Charlotte said...

You guys are busy! Love your garden! Love the new shed! And I esp. LOVE the neon yellow omelet. Jase & I wanted to try raising chickens but our city told us no:(

mfranti said...

alliegator, tell me more about the dog poop digester and your drip dealie for the chooks.

i'm heading out for the weekend and i'm worried about water for the ladies.

and food

and egg collection

and them hopping over the fence and destroying my garden.

i'm a nervous momma.

Alice said...

Char- just don't ask. :)

mfranti- The dog poop digester is basically a mini septic system- we put the dog poop in- along with some septic enzyme and the poop turns to liquid, and drains out into the ground (it's buried several feet down).

The drip system hasn't worked perfectly, but it does give them a little extra water- we still hired a teen from next door to collect eggs and feed and water them. The drip line is hooked up to our automatic sprinkler system, so everytime the garden gets watered, the pressure is set up on that particular hose so that water drips out the end and into the bucket for the chickens. If it worked perfectly, I'd feel like a genius.

Criscell said...

Wow! Your yard/garden has come so far! Everything looks amazing, Alice. We're excited to see you all in a week or so.