Drstratton - My Backyard Journey Journal

[Baymule]

Y'all sure are putting in the work! In the corn, is that a drip irrigation? What pipe are you using and can you reuse it from year? Do you take it up or is it there permanently? I love what you are doing in your garden! That large area for the chickens is nice too, the chickens are sure going to love it!

 

[drstratton]

The product that we are using for all of the garden plants is a drip tape. It has the emitters built into it...this particular one has them every 8", you can also buy it spaced every 12". We will take it up every year. It can also be buried, so when we hill up the corn, we will put the dirt right over the top of it! This is the first time we've used it and so far we really like it. We used regular drip tubing for the permanent plants...the berries and the fruit tree's that we have in the corn and melon area! I hope it does a good job all summer long...I will report back at the end of the year with an update on how it worked or probably sooner if we have any issues! Thank you, the garden has shaped up very nicely and if I can keep the birds from eating my plants we will hopefully have a good harvest!

I'm really excited about the chicken area, the last time we had chickens and lost them to a pack of dogs, I told my husband that was it, I didn't want anymore heartache of losing animals so senselessly! Hopefully they will stay well protected in their area and live happy productive lives!

 

[thistlebloom]

Your garden is inspiring! You have rocks like we do, I made a dry creek bed sort of border between the lawn and animal area years ago from all the small boulders we encountered over the years. (That job is still embarrassingly unfinished).
You must be a ways south of me to be able to get a fall crop in.

 

[drstratton]

Your garden is inspiring! You have rocks like we do, I made a dry creek bed sort of border between the lawn and animal area years ago from all the small boulders we encountered over the years. (That job is still embarrassingly unfinished).
You must be a ways south of me to be able to get a fall crop in.

Thank you! We've used a huge amount of rocks in our landscaping endeavors. We have three kinds of soil on our property, sand, corse black sand and a little bit of dirt where we find the most rocks. After we dig out the rocks we run into the corse black sand and that stuff is a challenge if you need to go very deep, it sloughs worse than anything I've ever seen! We have several projects that are unfinished like your border...sometimes there are just not enough hours in the day to get them done, compound that with running out of energy...you definitely know the end result...lol! We are in E. Washington, we enjoy a beautiful Indian summer most every fall, it's actually our favorite time of year!
Are you up near Pend Oreille? Such beautiful country, I kind of wish we lived in Idaho instead of WA, but I do enjoy our climate a bit better than what you deal with. We will hopefully be up that direction in August...we stay at Stoneridge in Blanchard, we've been going up there for over 35 years, it's such a nice get away and not to terribly far to drive!

 

[thistlebloom]

We will hopefully be up that direction in August...we stay at Stoneridge in Blanchard,

When it gets closer to August we'll have to P.M! We are east of Spirit Lake, just outside of Athol. It would be fun to meet!

 

[drstratton]

When it gets closer to August we'll have to P.M! We are east of Spirit Lake, just outside of Athol. It would be fun to meet!

That would be really fun...I would love that! I've traveled that road many times!

 

[drstratton]

Rabbit update! We were hoping to process the rabbits we have in the grow out tractor, but just one of them was slightly over 4lbs. These are the rabbits that came from our friend and they are not growing very fast, I think to much inbreeding. I'm not sure that we are going to continue using the rabbit tractor as a grow out, they don't seem to eat to much of the grass for the effort I have to use in moving them around, although we have moved them off of the lawn and put them out in our treeline and we think that they are enjoying the grass out there much better! I probably won't make that decision until I see how it works with a litter of our NZ's. We have one doe from our friend that we are planning on using for breeding stock, but I'm not sure that she is going to work out. My husband wants to give her a chance and see what kind of litter she produces, I want to get a different doe, but agreed to let her have at least one litter, maybe she will surprise me and be a good producer, but she doesn't have the same weight to her that my 2 NZ have and I'm afraid that her offspring won't either. I think that we are going to process the rabbits this next weekend even if they haven't reached the 5lbs that we are hoping for!

We have also been talking about getting one more buck and 2 more does. Which means I will need 3 more cages. I'm thinking that we will build a different type of cage/hutch this time. I asked my husband if he could build a stand for their cage using some of the galvanized pipe that we bought, as I think it will be much easier to keep clean. I wish I had a building (it's on my wish list, but down the road a ways) to keep them in, but since I don't we will still need to give them an enclosed area they can go to if it gets to windy or if they just want a dark place to sleep during the day! We might also convert the tractor into a raised hutch, but like I said above we haven't completely made that decision yet! Dale has a friend at work that raises NZ & Californians and they've talked about us trading rabbits at some point to refresh our stock. I will probably get my next 3 from a different source so when we do trade we will all get different bloodlines!

 

[CntryBoy777]

Not sure if this idea has merit for your location....but, if ya setup a "Hoop Hut" for the rabbits it could provide you and them shelter until a more permanent shelter is erected.....the winds there may cause a problem....but, if not, it could be an inexpensive fix for ya....

 

[drstratton]

Not sure if this idea has merit for your location....but, if ya setup a "Hoop Hut" for the rabbits it could provide you and them shelter until a more permanent shelter is erected.....the winds there may cause a problem....but, if not, it could be an inexpensive fix for ya....

Thank you...that is something to consider, I've been trying to think of something we could do that won't break the bank and take a ton of work! I would love to have something like that, especially in the winter, for myself too when I'm spending time with them. The wind is definitely a deciding factor as anything tarp covered does not last to long around here, but this area of the yard is actually pretty well protected and the majority of the wind force is knocked down by our treeline before it reaches the pen location! I won't hit my husband up with this idea just yet, need to let him catch his breath before I load anything else on his plate...poor man...he only thinks he's retiring...

 

[drstratton]

We did a little coop and pen beautification! I still need to get some flowers for the little blue pot at the corner of the pen, I hope to pick something up tomorrow! I have Marigolds planted in front of the pen. To the right of the blue pot I planted a Lemon Balm and to the right of that are the Hosta plants...the chickens love them both! Under the nesting box we planted some red & white Geraniums! My husband put in the red pavers in front of the flowers, I finished putting the rest in front of the door today! We also have grapes growing on top of the pen...it is a volunteer plant, it starts behind the pen and it also goes almost to the top of the evergreens behind it!

We have the sprinklers set up and the ground in the new pen all ready for the grass seed...we will be spreading it tonight when Dale gets home from work!!! Then hopefully we will be able to let the chicks out to enjoy it in a couple of months!