Have You Hugged Your Hen Today?

Our daughter-in-law sent us this video -- there IS something very soothing about chickens. :)

Eco-Friendly Hair Care

Interesting site for natural hair care products....this was shared in a Mary Jane's Farm chat room.  Since our shower here at the Casita on South Cortez is plumbed for grey water and goes to the compost pile...sometimes romped in by the hens...it's nice to have things as natural as possible.


Natural Hair Recipes

Thinking of Zucchini

 

Somehow this lovely quote makes me think of the zucchini in the garden patch...there are some serious Big Guys lurking under the leaves.  I give those to my hens.  First, I slice off a few openings since the chickens don't seem to like to peck through the skin.  They hollow the zucchini out nicely, then I compost the rest. 

 

Went over town to pick up 35 lbs of fresh peaches.  I quickly picked three new, tender squash to take to the friend.  She was so grateful.  Said she has a friend that passes on the Big Guys...why do we do that? :)   

 

 

 

Everything is blooming most recklessly; if it were voices instead of colors, there would
be an unbelievable shrieking into the heart of the night.

—Rainer Maria Rilke

It has been raining for several days now...actually ever since we had a stretch of dry weather and I took the "henhouse" apart so that I could start building the proper one...

Today we have flash flood warnings in Yavapai County...all pretty normal this time of year.  So, poor Lucy and Edwina, the hens, are feeling sort of homeless...but they still have their roosts in a dry, tarped area, but since there's no way I'm plugging in power tools outdoors today, they're going to have to wait on getting their nest boxes back.

Might as well switch gears and stick in some plants I just acquired.  One that I'm pretty excited about is Heatwave Hyssop " an agastache hybrid.  I' ve trying to keep the upper garden near the split rail fence totally native plants, so not sure if I should plant a few up there, but probably will.  Really nice for attracting hummingbirds and butterflies and I guess you could say these variety is "half-native." :)

Great Information on Heatwave Hyssop from Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens: Healthy Gardens, Healthy Planet.

The plants I'm about to stick in the ground were grown by Monrovia.

Well, time to "get my Oregon on..." and my boots, and head out into the rain.

New Infusion of Red Wigglers to the Compost Pile

Finally made it to the Prescott Farmer's Market this summer thanks to friend Pattie calling and saying she'd stop by to pick us up.  She went for tamales, Hubby and I went for worms.  Well, I did.  I lost the last bucket that I'd bought and added to the compost.  I was up in Alaska for three months and the dry Arizona winter made the little guys seek happier moist homes. 

Now the compost pile is nice and cooking, getting air from being turned and moisture added daily.  Bought another bucket of worms.  Hopefully will be able to winter them over.

I name them all "Bob" for some reason. 

I stuck in a two foot long perforated stake that was meant to get water down to the roots of a shrub.  I save the sink water (while I'm waiting for the water to get hot) and dump it down the pipe to get moisture into the middle of the compost.  Chicken wire is to keep the...chickens...out.

Poultry Keeping in 1867

I think we're going to be adding a couple of hens this summer on behalf of our close neighbors who can't keep their own due to work/travel schedules.  It seems kind of cruel to keep just one bird when chickens are such social creatures., ven though Lucy, the Rhode Island Red, gets lot's of free range time in the garden. I'd like to add a heritage breed that would be appropriate for Northern Arizona and also learn about poultry keeping practices from the previous century.  Discovered this book (from the bloglink below) and ordered it -- it's been digitalized. 

Poultry Keeping in 1867 in England

The illustrations of different popular chicken breeds are wonderful.

Great Informative Book on How to Combine Chickens and Gardens on Your Urban Homestead

Talked with hubby Steve in Prescott yesterday.  He said the Rhode Island Red hen, Lucy, is loving her daily free-range time in the front garden on South Cortez Street.  He WAS wondering why our pink-blooming flox groundcover along the front path seemed so sparse this spring.  Then he caught Lucy happily devouring the flower buds. 

A timely challenge as I had just checked out this book from the Homer, Alaska, public library.  Seems like alot of things you read about keeping chickens these days are so general -- "it's fun to keep chickens."  This is the kind of book where the photos give you ideas -- "Oooh, THAT's what I could do with the side fence" and I've started reading with a pencil and notebook...tomato leaves are toxic to chickens, along with sweet peas...I already knew to not feed potatoes, especially the green parts.  Those go in the compost bin to feed the red worm, Bob and his hundreds of friends.

This is definitely a Northwest garden book and it'll be fun to see how it translates to the high country of the Southwest.  Right off-hand, I think we would need to address the issue of protective coverage from predators in a different way...my garden is much more open that the jumble of plants I had for 20 years in the Willamette Valley, Oregon.  Even though we live just over a block from the Courthouse Square in downtown Prescott, we get visited by javelina, hawks and the occasional coyote.  I make sure I have a recycled door as a shallow lean-to that the hen can dart under.


Free-Range Chicken Gardens - How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard by Jessie Bloom