It has been a hot summer here on the farm...

It has been a while since I have blogged, maybe it is because I have been melting and don't want to do anything but sit in front of the fan :/ but when I do get outside I have to get some love from the sweetest chicken ever, Bernice.  I think she may be Peeps reincarnated :)

One thing that I have been able to work on and get finished is my automatic chicken waterer.  Very excited about this because chickens make such a mess of their waterers that it is a gross chore I had to do twice a day and sometimes more!  But with the automatic chicken waterer they always have 3-4 gallons of clean fresh water.  It all starts on the outside of the coop with this 5-gallon bucket which is the water reservoir for the system.  The water is gravity fed down through the PVC pipe on the side of the coop...

 ...and then into the inside of the coop where it is capped off and 2 drinking nipples are available.

The chickens learned in about 2 days that if they peck at those funny red things then water comes out to drink...they are geniuses ya know ;)  So that is the amazing, time-saving automatic chicken waterer.  A couple less things this farmer has to do every day :)

EGGcited!

So we got to eat our first 2 DragonFly Farms eggs yesterday.  Here they are next to a store bought Grade AA Large egg.  You will first notice the shell color...not white!  You can usually tell the color of egg the chicken will lay by the color of their ear tufts.

In this bowl is a store bought egg on the left and one of ours on the right.  Notice the rich orange yolk color...that is how an egg should look!

You will notice that our egg on the bottom is smaller than the AA Large but it is packed with flavor and nutrition :D

a VERY Happy 4th of July!!!!

It has been quite a day here at DragonFly Farms!  Here is our watermelon patch before I harvested that big one in the middle.

While I was taking this picture of myself I was leaning on the chicken coop I saw a little surprise in there!

AN EGG!!!!!  our first one!  The watermelon is 4lbs 15oz and the egg is 1.4oz :)

We will be eating the watermelon later at my parents' and doing a blind taste test to see how it measures up to her store bought one.  I know mine will win.  Update to come later.  Meanwhile for a job well done i gave this big ol' mater to the girls :D

2 years in the making...

Have been wanting to do a side by side comparison of the backyard for some time now and here it is...

On the left is what the yard looked like back in 2010...yuck!!!!  There was "grass" patches, those horrible bushes, the equally horrible scalloped brick border and whatever that overgrown vine thing was in the corner.  And now in 2012 I am proud to say we are growing food, composting and will soon have fresh chicken eggs.    That's life on DragonFly Farms...personal tours available for a small donation :)

Watermelon Update & The Pumpkin Patch

Man that darn watermelon gets bigger overnight it seems.  I want to set up a time lapse camera on it.  

I don't want to be picking it up anymore for pictures for fear that it will injure or break the stem so I am back to putting objects next to it for size comparison.  That bottle is solution that I keep in my pocket.  The bottle is about 2.5 inches tall.  Grow little watermelon, grow!!!!!

In another part of the garden we have our pumpkin patch which consists of one pumpkin plant...yep you heard right...that is ONE pumpkin plant grown from ONE pumpkin seed :)

 This picture of the pumpkin patch is taken from the point of view of one of our resident lizards.

Big ol' farm update...

Ok well it has been a while since I have updated you all on the farm so here goes.
7 of the 8 beds are planted and doing pretty good.  We are growing the following: pumpkin, 4 varieties of tomatoes, 3 varieties of peppers, arugula, cantaloupe, watermelon, chives, strawberries, apple, nectarine and a bunch of herbs.
This is the herb box with one big tomato plant...

 ...this is the pumpkin box (it kind of took over the whole box)
...some yummy sweet strawberries...
...and if you thought the chickens and ducks grew fast take a look at this icebox watermelon.  I took this pic on Wednesday last week...
...and then this pic 5 days later!!!!!  We might get to eat our very own homegrown watermelon for 4th of July!!!!!  :D
 Another addition to the farm is this awesome windmill my parents gave us.   A farm is not a farm without one of these beauties!!!!

 Quick update on the chickens...they are now 18 weeks old and should start laying at about 25 weeks so it is coming soon!!  Went out and bought their nesting boxes today :)
Here is an updated pic of Edith, Carmen and Bernice...Mae was camera shy...
More updates to come soon and more regularly...I promise :D

Our farm ROCKS!!!!

A quick little update.  As you know, here at DragonFly Farms we are anti-lawn/grass.  It is, in our eyes, too high maintenance and a waste of water.  Every bit of it has been pulled up from the backyard and eventually will be gone from the front as well.  In the back we are laying down this weed blocking fabric and using these slate pieces (leftover from a project at Nicole's dad's house) to create walkways like this one leading to DUCKingham Palace and then this will all get filled in with the 9,000 pounds of pea gravel that is getting dumped in the driveway later today.

So if anyone wants a good workout we will be moving all that pea gravel from the driveway to the backyard tomorrow (Saturday) morning from about 6:30am-noon :D

Victory in the garden?

Recently I was questioned about the "return on investment" of our farm. "You are putting a good chunk of money into this garden and it is going to take a lot to get your money back on it and make a profit" was basically what this person was saying to me. That is not what this is about at all. We are putting money into this and doing it the way we want it so we can put good healthy, pesticide free food on our plates and into our bodies. This is about not getting into the car and driving (using fuel/polluting the air) to the store to buy some fruit/veggie that has already been on a truck or plane (using fuel/polluting the air.) This is about chickens that are loved and cared for and allowed to experience real sunlight and fresh air and to eat whatever they find in the yard and just be chickens.

Of course it would be great if this turned out to be a profit making farm but for right now it is about knowing exactly where your food came from and what went into to producing that food...LOVE! <3

Planting...

Farmer Jen and Farmer Nicole did a big chunk of the planting last night. Here on the left side the farthest bed is currently empty. The next bed has 2 varieties of tomatoes. The 3rd bed has watermelon, cantaloupe and 3 varieties of strawberries. And the closest bed is mainly herbs, thai basil, sweet basil, sage, thyme, orange mint and then a purple tomato.
On the right side the furthest bed is also empty. The 2nd bed has a bell pepper, pasilla pepper and a jalapeno. The 3rd bed is empty and the closest bed has our ultra dwarf apple and nectarine trees.
The empty beds and the one with the trees need to be topped off with soil and then some seed sowing needs to occur. Also, one of the beds will remain empty to make room for the chickens in their chicken tractor.

Holy $h!t....

So our load of soil arrived Saturday morning...I wish I would have taken more pictures but luckily Erin snapped a couple too.We were originally standing out in the driveway but once the soil started falling out of the truck and we pictured ourselves being buried alive, we went behind the fence :)
Here is what 11 cubic yards of soil looks like...
...and after many, MANY hot hours of HARD labor this is what 8 raised beds look like...
...we still need to top off a few of the beds but planting will commence tonight :D

Thank you Erin for your help in the AM and to Kim for donating her 13 hours!!!

It is April already?

Where has the time gone?

Things are picking up on the farm. Our delivery of dirt arrives tomorrow from one of our co-op members :) so we will be putting plants and seeds in the beds this weekend!!!!! WOO HOO!!!!!!

Thank you Cesar Chavez...

I have the day off today thanks to Mr. Chavez so in his honor I (we) did some hard work. Pa Fuller came over this morning and we knocked the last 2 beds out by noon which even included an unplanned trip to Home Depot. I never would have thought when we bought that 5 pound box of screws we would come up 5 screws short! Oh well, it is what it is. So here they are in all their glory...all 8 beds in their place ready for soil.Another project I have been waiting to work on is my custom compost bin. I grabbed 5 pallets from work that were going to be trashed and added some hardware and the scraps of netting from DUCKingham Palace and FOWLcatraz (chicken coop) and BAM...custom compost bin...
...complete with hinged door to get in there and turn the compost :)
I think I will take a nap now :D

Reduce, reuse, recycle...

I go to the feed store probably 2 times a month...this was my last trip. 20 pounds of rabbit food and 50 pounds of duck food. The ducks are by far the most expensive animals on the farm to feed but I buy them the best food out there :)
In other news...remember this shipping container that I got for free from my work? (http://mylittleurbanfarm.blogspot.com/2010/12/one-persons-trash-is-my-treasure.html )
Well it never got used as a planter :( so with some design and planning...
...add in some framing, netting, recycled wood...
...and VOILA! A chicken coop!

The girls moved in there this morning and seem to like their new digs and we will love having them out of the dining room :D

PS - they are 6 weeks old now and pretty much fully feathered and each one has their own distinct personality. Edith (red one on the left) is the smallest one is very smart. She was the first of them to figure out how to get out of their pen in the house. Bernice (the blonde one in the foreground) is the lap chicken. She walks right up to you and begs to be picked up. Mae (in the back) is the shy quiet one and Carmen (red on the right) is the brute, I think she will be the flock protector.

Food grows where water flows...

So in this corner by the house there once was a bird of paradise plant...nasty thing. We hated it and tried several times to cut it down and dig it out but got nowhere fast. So when we had the back yard cleaned out and leveled we found out that there was not only a water hose connection there but it had a leak in it which was feeding a broken sprinkler line under the bird of paradise. NO WONDER IT KEPT GROWING!!!!! So to turn lemons into lemonade as my friend said, Pa Fuller came over and we turned that connection into the beginnings of the irrigation system for the farm.We dug a trench along the cement and then made a left turn once we passed the farm fence and then ran along the fence until we go to the middle of the left side of the farm and brought up our first hose line...
...then made a right turn and ran the line through the center of the farm to the back fence and brought up our second hose line right next to the electrical, which will probably come in handy if I don't get a battery operated timer :) I am very satisfied with our little system.
After getting the irrigation lines down we had time to build 2 more beds and put them in place. Here is me with Pa Fuller in one of the beds to give you an idea of the size of them.
Of course...much more to come!!!!!

Update on The Girls...

They are now 5 weeks old and are so friendly...here are 3 of them showing their "best" side :)

FARMageddon Phase 2.4

A quick update on the farm progression...as of today 4 of the 8 beds are in place. The weather this past weekend stopped us from working further but we will get the ball rolling again this week even if I have to do it all myself :)

You were warned...

I told you that FARMageddon was coming and it did yesterday. We had 2 guys come out yesterday morning and clean out the whole backyard. The pic to the right shows the lovely weed crop that we were growing in the farm portion of the yard. They also pulled out 5 or 6 stumps of the bushes that used to be back there when we first moved in. They worked back there for about 2.5 hours and created an awesome blank canvas for us to begin work on for the REAL farm. It was an amazing transformation to watch.

Here is Terra looking for all her old potty spots.."mom, I swear they were here this morning!"

This side of the yard will get covered in a weed blocking fabric and then have pea gravel and pavers over that. Terra's new potty spot is located along the south side of the house now.

Here is my new blank canvas known as DragonFly Farms. This will be where the magic happens. What a difference a couple hours make huh? This area is roughly 15 feet wide by 26 feet long and will house 8 raised garden beds for food production. The food produced in this area will be fruits, vegetables, herbs and fresh chicken eggs. Kind of like our own little organic grocery store except we did not have to use any gas to drive there :D

So after the first shift of workers left Pa Fuller came over and we went and did some shopping at Home Depot...56 pieces of lumber and 5 pounds of screws!! What a workout!!!! We had to sift through the lumber to find the straight ones, load them onto the cart, unload them from the cart to the truck then unload them again once we got to the house. That took a bit of a toll on our arms and backs but we worked through it.

Between the shopping, loading, unloading and dying drill batteries, all we had time and energy for yesterday was one lonely bed. But we now know exactly what our plan of action is so the other 7 should be a breeze. There is about 2 feet between the bed and the wall on the long side and there will be about 2 feet between each of the beds on the long sides with 4 on one side and 4 on the other and a 3 foot pathway down the middle. There will also be a layer of weed blocking fabric and then pea gravel with a special design in the center ;-)

More to come!!!!!!!!!!!!!