Starts and Coops

Building the Coop: Nate started the coop last Saturday. We decided to do the same design as our old coop but do more nesting boxes and more roosting bars. I think it should be bigger but I got over ruled this time. I guess it'll be ok because the only time they will spend in there will be for laying and sleeping. It's coming along pretty good so far!

 

 screened bottom for added predator protection

 The Frame of the run and coop

 With the added bottom of the coop - the nesting boxes will stick into the backyard for easy access

 Improved brooder - nick nack is the only one who can get up on the roosts so far. She thinks she's the queen now b/c of her lofty position. 

The meaties are getting huge and eating A LOT - I want to get a comparison picture of them vs the layers. We've gone through almost half a bag of feed and it hasn't been two weeks yet! I'm a little nervous about that as thy're only gonna get bigger and hungrier...

Betty: Well this little cow is about the same. She tolerates us, mostly, and is leading around the pasture pretty well. Today I worked on getting her to stop when I want her to rather than constantly circling. I let her eat a tiny bit of the new growth coming up in the pasture which she seemed to enjoy.

I've still been having the babies come with me (one at a time) to help feed her but she's still aggressive towards them and gets a bonk on the nose every time she charges at them. Blain is totally oblivious to it, but Chloe gets concerned and asks "why is Betty not being nice?" It's a work in progress to say the least. She still likes Avenlea though and smells and  tries to lick her whenever I bring her out. Funny cow.

Avenlea 6 months: Her appointment is at the end of the month, we're doing a double with Chloe's 4 yr well check up. She sits up pretty good on her own, only wakes up once at night, and loves to have her feet played with.

 Sweet Sleeper in her crib!

 

  Sitting up on her own, with Elmo in place in case of the occasional tip over :)

Chloe had her first gymnastics class today - she was a little impatient waiting her turn but I think she enjoyed it for the most part.

Seed Starts: I've been dying to get going on the garden now that we're in March, and today the babies and I planted some seeds inside. We've also been digging up a lot of the grass in our side yard to prepare for planting out in a few months. We'll see how far we get. I hope to have a decent size garden this year, hopefully bigger than last year.

We also watched a documentary called "Back to Eden" and it outlined an awesome gardening technique using wood chips for a ground cover. We've been looking into finding a good wood chip source so we can put some of those practices into out garden.

 Cauliflower markers Chloe made

 We started 5 types of tomatoes (cherry, big beef, "mortgage lifter", Roma, San Marzano) jalapenos, broccoli and cauliflower. My plan is to keep the 3 strongest of each type of tomato and pepper. I hope to do lots of tomato based sauces this year and can them!

 Our set up for seed starting. What good helpers I have.