Hollywood Chickens

Perusing Craigslist as I often do, I came across a posting for year-old Golden Buff layers for sale.  Our housemate Kristen asked a long time ago if she could keep chickens but we laughed it off.  I would joke with my wife about buying chickens but it was never seriously considered.  I admit to being an impulsive person and perhaps not always acting rationally but buying a few chickens really isn't so rash is it?  With time on my hands I spent the morning re-purposing a turkey transport cage and building a nesting box to fit inside.  I called Kristen (who was surprised but enthusiastic) and by 1pm we drove south to a free-range chicken operation just west of Wellington and picked up three hens for $5 apiece.

The drive home and conversation for the remainder of the afternoon was settling on good names.  I have no idea how to tell the three apart but we've settled on Noble, Cascade, and Willamette.  If more chickens are added later, there are plenty more varieties of brewing hops to choose from. :-)

We are expecting 5-6 eggs per week from each hen which doesn't seem to be over-doing it for a single household.  However, I have a feeling the neighbors will be on the receiving end of free eggs now and again.

I put up a large kennel in the backyard last autumn but our dog barks her fool head off whenever she's left alone inside it for more than 5 minutes so it might as well be put to use by the chickens.  It is 7' high but open on top so I hope to clip the chickens' wings to prevent their escape.  Thank goodness for the internet and YouTube.  I feel like an expert already.

Compost Giveaway Day

Oberlin's first compost giveaway of the year was held Saturday morning and I'm exhausted.  In four hours I shoveled about 12 yards of composted leaves and yard waste.  Loading is easily accomplished with the City's front-end loader but once back at the farm there is no easy way to unload the trailer.  It rained hard the day before and I hadn't considered how soft the field would be the next day.  Using Jim's little truck I pulled the first trailer full of compost out into the field but got stuck trying to back out.  I pulled the truck and trailer out with the Farmall and decided subsequent loads would only be taken out with the tractor and uncoupling the trailer from the truck in the driveway.  That worked for the next two loads except that I broke the hitch clean off the trailer trying to back it into the garden. Ooops.  Brent offered the use of a much larger trailer for the final load which took three times longer to unload with broadforks.  Jim continues to search for an affordable dump trailer which couldn't come soon enough.  Compost will be given away every two weeks throughout the summer so we'll have all the compost we can use but it'll take at least two weeks for my arms to recover from all that shoveling.

Ain't as easy as it looks,,,

Today I planted corn.  Dad and I drove over to French's Hybrids and I bought 10 lbs of Incredible sweet corn.

Incredible SE (85 days) A truly gourmet sweet corn for home gardens, fresh market, roadside stands and shipping. Homozygous sugar enhancer gene renders superb eating. Ears are 9-1/2 inches long with 18 rows of yellow kernels with good husk protection and flag leaves

They also let me borrow planting plates to use on our 4-row planter.  Great!  Next step was to learn how to use the planter.  We got back to the farm, took the tarp off the planter, and went to school.  One of the ground-drive chains was broken and Jim had purchased a replacement so after some struggle we put on the new chain.  Next we thoroughly checked each seed hopper.  It was at this point I realized that two of the four hoppers were missing the metal wheel which rotates the planting plate.  No wheel, no functioning planter.  Our four row planter was now a two row planter.  Not to be deterred, the planter was hitched up, two hoppers filled with seed, and I made one pass down the field.  I climbed down the from tractor at the back tree line and walked up the field to checkout my handiwork.  The seeds were nicely laid out spaced six inches apart in two strait rows and glinting in the afternoon sun from atop the soil.  I had failed to adjust the seeder's planting depth.  After some adjustments I made two more passes and continually looked over my shoulder to make sure the seed was underground where it belonged.
That wasn't the worst part.  I then spent the better part of two hours hoeing the two 500' botched rows.
I have a healthy respect for the countless generations of farmers who have come before me.  And while there is value in possessing the knowledge and skills of manual labor farming, mechanization was such a wonderful invention it seems almost disrespectful to turn our backs on it.  If I learned one lesson today it was to work smarter, not harder.