Yellow Delicious Apple Tree

Yellow Delicious Apple Tree!

Our newest fruit tree is in and planted!

Apple close up, Plum in the back by the chicken fence!

Two fruit tree's planted, one more sought after 

(this year anyway)

and then we wait for them to grow!

This week sometime (rain expected) I will be planting pumpkin, watermelon & zucchini!

Then we start on building the trellis for my new Chinese Long Beans.

Our little urban homestead is growing more and more every year.

I can't wait for our first fruit harvest!

Gifted!

This little cutie just can't seem to stop being given!

A young lady fell in love with him, gifted him to her boyfriend

who's family isn't set up to have chickens.

So the family gifted her/him to me. 

Already our little gift is fitting in.

Or standing out!

Now on to the fun!

What breed of bird do you suppose this is?

I've been told its a meat chicken.

I was told Brahma? However, this baby's feet is bald, not feathered.

So here are a list of white breeds that I'm thinking it might be.

 

  

Let me know what you think in the comments below.

If you have another idea, let me know!

So far I've had a hard time finding pure white chicks, most chicks have more markings!

In the meantime we are guessing if its male/female.

If female if we will be getting our first white egg?!

*** Update ***

Breed turned out to be a White Broiler
we butchered it this week along with the rest of our older ladies who are currently chilling happily in my freezer.
Due to the nature of the breed they gain weight quickly - very quickly.
This causes them to have many health issues the older they get.
Old with this breed is one year.
Not kidding they are not for eggs, they are 100% a meat bird.
Next year we may purchase a few of these birds just to raise for meat - very moist, juicy and tender!

Stanley Plum

Last year I posted about going to Erda, UT to pick apples.

What I didn't post - mainly because I was getting burnt out from canning and cooking non stop,

was that she'd called us up middle of August to come pick plums!

She had two HUGE beautifully loaded Stanley Plum tree's!

We came home with SO many!

I made two recipes 

Plum Jam 

(family favorite)

Plum BBQ Sauce

(to sweet, need to add some heat to it but absolutely packed with vitamins)

This year we decided to add fruit tree's to our yard. Yes it will take a few years for them* to grow large enough to produce fruit, but we are on our way!

First we dug a massive hole.

Added compost to the bottom.

Then we created a water well and lined it with more composting/hay.

Of course I choose Stanley Plum's, as those are what we got last year and the taste was incredible!  

Now in a few years, I'll have a year round supply of Plum Jam.

This year I can only hope and pray the family in Erda calls us again!

We will of course, be on the look out for other golden opportunities!

*them - more fruit tree's will be posted as they are bought and added!

Spring Planting 2017!

Last years Kale is springing back up!

Peas are planted

Garlic is already coming up in the middle!

The sides are carrots & onion.

Around the border in the blocks we planted 10 Strawberry plants.

This is from a tip I got off of pinterest saying they grew well in the warmer bricks.

We shall see.

We've tried shade, sun, half and half, wet, dry, damp.

We've tried to grow them in the strawberry planters - plastic, ceramic and the hanging ones.

This year we try again, with little hope.

My baby lettuce before I thinned it out!

Will need to post more recent photos!

Later on this week we are going to be putting in our zucchini, squash and if it stops raining enough for us to build new trellis, my Chinese Long Beans!

Hoping for a good harvest this year!

Integrating our Chicks!

Yes, this does look rather odd.

Its our indoor chicken brooder, minus the indoor floor panel.

We brought our young chicks outside in this for two days, allowing young and old 

to "talk" to each other through the small slats.

Getting to know each other without harming the babies.

The term, "Chicken" wasn't coined accidentally.

It took a while for our older ladies to even check out the babies.

However, on the third day I took two brooms and released them into the yard.

Surprisingly all went well!

Two of our Rhode Island Reds, 

ran after the babies pecking at their backs.

However the peck to the middle of the back was to show them their place in the pecking order.

Its been two weeks and no issues!

No head pecking, no injuries, no pulling feathers!

Just still a few small pecks to the middle of the back and a happy fluff ruffle once the babies run away.

Finally breathing a sigh of relief!

Introducing new to old never goes the same!

Spring Babies!

One of our older baby bunnies (first litter to Ginger 4 babies)

Our second kindling of kits!

(baby bunnies)

New chicks!

We are in the long process of cycling out our flock.

Our older ladies are headed to the grill, while the new lovelies will take over egg production.

Jan/Feb when our older ladies turned 2, we brought home new chicks.

This time we went with the breeds, Black Austrolorps, Silver Laced Wyandottes & a few Rhode Island Reds.

Meaning sadly no more fabulous blue eggs.

Will post their new names soon!

Our home is filled with babies!

On top of all the bunny and chickie mania we also bought a new puppy!

She won't be able to come home for another month or so but I can't wait!

Sorry I went MIA for a bit, we've been overwhelmed keeping everything going!

Winter we lost two kindling's due to rookie errors. Not a pleasant way to learn.

I also brought home a few more rabbits for free 

(Ginger, our rookie but amazing mother is one of those) 

We did decide for the first time to add a light to our coop, since we were cycling out our chickens this summer anyway we decided that they didn't really need the winter break.

Just as well, today we managed one egg out of our nine lady hens!

We can't afford to feed and house hens that aren't laying!

I know many (MANY) people consider their chickens pets, we don't.

Our chickens are for eggs and living in an urban setting we can't afford to have freeloaders when our city limits how many hens can be on the property.

Also I continually hear, "My kids just love our chickens. They are so attached."
So were mine, know what kids love more than chickens?

Baby chickens!

Just saying.

But really, for us we made the choice when we decided to get into raising animals that we would keep our animals; healthy, well fed, well loved and we would also enjoy the cycle of life.

Nothing here is wasted.