Round 3-Chickens....

OK so chicken farmers we are NOT!  After raising up our first batch of 6 beautiful fluffy butt hens who gave us great eggs in 4 short months, they were violently seized in a fight by a vicious ...... well we don't know what, but we assume a giant pack of wild, nasty, dirty dogs.  Really not sure but no blood bath  and all their lifeless bodies were left for us to give a proper burial.   All but one lonely little hen "Penny."  Right away we ordered up a batch of hatchlings, so we could get them started and get our lonely hen some friends.

 
9 weeks later we fortified the pen, built a larger chicken run and introduced our babies to their new home.  

Again a few weeks later another attack, this time the "PACK" was surely dogs because they fell through the top of the run and had to dig their way out taking one of the 6 dead ladies with them.  Traumatized but feeling the hole left in our lives, once again we refortified and ordered up a new batch of babies.  

 

This batch is under lockdown when we are not home, we have made some additional security improvements to our chicken compound and now after 6 months we have EGGS!!!!!!!!

Garden update!

We are definitely happy with our Keyhole garden and enjoying two harvests each year from our little plot.   Here's more pics...

 

Our Texas Home

The new kids on the block, so to speak, we have made some pretty cool friends with our neighbors. We have become to realize that each house in our little neighborhood has a host of wonderful characters.  We fit right in!  We are fondly referred to as the yankees in the "artsy" house. we'll live up to that.

At sunset!

living room

kitchen

guest room

master bedroom 

living room into dining room

HoneyBees

Honey bees, the latest endeavor for our new life in Texas.   After months of our usual research and debate we placed an order for a batch of mite resistant organic happy bees from our friends at Bee Weaver Apiaries.  We ordered up a beginers kit fror a 10 frame hive and some of the bare bee keeping essentials to get us started.  

 Our assemble yourself kit arrived and we spent a couple weekends assembling and getting set for our new family members.    Crazy I know,  to call a bunch of buzzing stinging bees family, but we soon realized that these new additions to our life here in Texas were indeed our family.

 

 Early May 2013 we made the treck to Navisota, TX to pick up our babies.   Once back home we suited up & let them march their way into their new hive. It was truly amazing to watch them march up the white sheet right into their new home.

Our new bees settled right into their new home.  We made an effort to check on them weekly for the first two months, watching their progress.  In that very short time they doubled in numbers, our wonderful Queen was busy laying eggs and the ladies were raising babies to be good little busy bees.  Before we knew it they were busy storing beautiful golden honey from their spring flower harvest.

About 2 weeks into the hot dry summer we lifted the lid, took off the inner cover and to our dismay we a had slow and sad looking hive. Lesson learned- FEED your bees in Texas in the summertime.  We quickly added the hive top feeder, filled it with 2 gallons of sugar water and .......happy bees again.

Once the fall blooms began to show they were as busy as ever.  We gave them a second brood super and at the end of the fall season we were so excited to have 6 solid frames of golden delicious honey.   Yes we stole a single frame.....couldn't stand it.  No worries though, we buttoned up the hatches and put the hive top feeder on to get them through the winter months till spring.

Water recycling herb garden!

After 2 semi successful garden seasons and lots of lessons learned, we have added an herb garden to our list of home projects.  This is not your ordinary herb garden either.  We have built in a water conservation idea into it, and it really works too!   It all began with the idea to recycle the 25 gallons of backflush water that our carbon filter expels every two weeks.

KEYHOLE GARDEN SUCCESS!

Two weekends, a lot of STUFF and we have a garden.  The idea for our "Keyhole" garden came from a work friend of Flip's.  An article about these garden adapted for our Texas climate was enough for us to give it a try.  We started with a 6' circle in the yard.  1-After moving a half a ton of rock around we dry stacked an 18" high circle to surround our garden. 

2-The next step was to line it with 2 layers of corrregated cardboard.

3-In the center we anchored a 12" round and 3' high chicken wire basket. 

4-Our first layer of about a bushel of tin cans- these will add air pockets and iron to the soil as they deteriorate (we used ones without the coating on the inside.) Also added here a dozen oyster shells which will add calcium to the soil.

5-A 3" layer of large sticks

6- A "green" layer of cactus pads

7- A 3" layer of leaves.

8- A 5 gallon bucket of wood ash.

9- Two 2.1 cu ft. bags of manure

10- A 3"  "green"layer of grass/weed clippings

11- 3" of shredded newspaper & another 3"  "green" layer of grass/weed clippings

A little help from a puppy packing it all down!

12- Another 3" layer of leaves

13- The last layer is 4" of soil- We mixed 4-5gallon buckets of good dirt with 2 bags of peat moss. 

 14- 10 days after planting- we have seedlings of spinach & beets!

New Friends & Some New Fun Too!

Five months later, we are feeling like we're fitting in, making friends and becoming a permanent fixture here in Texas!  Both Flip & I are finding our way around the city with ease now.  Wev'e settled into our schedules at home and work now and we're making some new friends. 
Last weekend, we took in our first hometown minor league baseball game with the Shafer Services family and some new friends.  Highlights included lots of laughter, fun, some dancing (by Monica chicky) cheering for the home team and a great time had by all. 
I am looking forward to many more fun times to come. 
Oh and did I mention, we're well on our way to having a new home too!