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!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It is coming...FARMAGEDDON!!!!

March 13, 2012 will be the end of the world as we know it...well at least over here at DragonFly Farms :D This vision that has been in my head for a couple years now will finally start taking shape and becoming a reality and me and my back could not be any happier!!!!! I will be posting pics of the progress as it occurs and it should happen fairly rapidly so look out!!!!!

The Girls...

So we have finally figured out what breed the chicks are. Since we did not place the order on them and got them from the shelter we had to do some detective work going off the invoice that came with them. The 2 on the left are Carmen and Edith and they are New Hampshire Reds...the 2 on the right are Mae and Bernice and they are Buff Orpingtons.This is a full grown new Hampshire Red hen...
...and this is a full grown Buff Orpington hen...
Both are very beautiful breeds and good layers...we lucked out :)

And if you are keeping score...girls 6, boys 5 :D

Hiatus....

So I have taken a rather long hiatus from this blogging thing, but I am back and big changes have occurred at DragonFly Farms. First off we adopted/rescued these 4 little cuties yesterday from the same shelter where we got the bunnies. Here is Nicole (mama hen) with Carmen, Edith, Mae and Bernice...all named for our grandmas :) They were hatched on Valentine's Day at a hatchery in Texas and put in a box and mailed here to Orange County but to the wrong address. When the postal worker tried to deliver them the lady said they were not hers and the postman said "well if you don't take them they will die" to which the woman replied "I don't care if they die!" Oh man...some people are just so cruel. So they ended up at the Irvine Animal Shelter and the rabbit lady there knew we wanted chickens so she alerted me to them and here they are :) Unfortunately there were 8 altogether but we only wanted and have room for 4 so we had to leave 3 girls and a boy behind, but they will either find a home or live there with the other resident chickens in their barnyard area.

Another big change at the farm is the fact that the ducks have moved out of there ducky duplex and into Duckingham Palace. It is a swanky place that is 13'x7.5'x6' with an indoor pool. They are loving it.

As for the rest of the farm, everyone is doing good and we are looking to be ready to plant by the end of this month :D Lots more to come...stay tuned!