Water Mess - Part Two

OK! Well! The pros and their machines have been here for three days.

The chickens have been happy with their work, and their eggs should be super high protein!

The water leak was found, but it took until the end of the first day.

Once found, it was apparent why we couldn't find a wet area once we saw where the drip was. This is underneath the storm water drain. It is a ceramic pipe and it is surrounded with rock. The leak just trickled underneath the pipe in the rock base and disappeared somewhere down into a spring or stream eventually. It explains why we never saw any wet areas in the yard.

It took a couple tries to get the new hose attached but two days later, there is no more drip.

Now onto the next part of this mess...

Water Mess

That's the unofficial name for three weeks of trying to find a water leak in our municipal supply. That water is dollars draining somewhere. We need to find where, before it gets worse, and before winter.

If you wonder why the blog posts have dropped off, this is part of it.

We first tested every toilet and faucet for leaks. Once that was shored up, we looked in the barn and yard.We dug in all the places there have been problems before, or where we know there are junctions and shut offs.

This has been days and hours of digging, timing, yelling, calling, to find out where the leak, at least, was not.

This is the mess we were able to make on our own, thanks to Dave doing all the digging - I helped only a little.

We finally have called for help and machinery. More to come.

George Clooney and Goats?

Well first I just kept seeing this little picture on my Goats slide show.

Then it got the better of me. Why was there a soldier and a goat indoors with a camera?

Then I saw the caption and took a second look. Bizarre!!

George Clooney stars as Lyn Cassady in Overture Films' Men Who Stare at Goats (2009)

Can't wait till this movie comes out.

George Clooney and Goats??

Barn and Clouds

Do the clouds make the barn more beautiful, or does the barn make the clouds more stunning?

And We Wonder Why...

The hens and barn cats can be a bit of a nuisance. Sometimes the hens trespass too close to the house, and I just don't want them scratching in my flowers, or pooping on my "beach" - the area outside the kitchen door. People only!

I've gotten to talking about a new containment situation for the hens, but I have enough projects I haven't gotten too ahead of that, so I doubt it will happen.

The cats are more like doorstep cats - even windowsill cats. You cannot bring food to the outside table without planning to stay with it. The spray bottle has been a useful weapon.

Well, now I know what part of the problem is...

Somebody is spoiling the animals and hand feeding them.

I finally caught my mother in the act when I cam home from an errand, camera in hand.

She claims its shame to waste that bit of yogurt when they enjoy it so much AND we don't need to wash the container!Snickers doesn't know how lucky she is.

Late Blight

I'm getting a little nervous. One end of my tomato row is looking a bit unwell, but I still have tomatoes on the vine. Perhaps its just the moisture and my bad gardening habits. But with each salad I make, I take time to savor the taste of these tomatoes, just in case the season is tragically short. Even non-gardeners have read enough about late blight to know something bad is happening to tomatoes and potatoes. Today an Op-Ed gave me a lot of food for thought. Interestingly, it was written by a chef who cares about where food comes from. You Say Tomato, I Say Agricultural Disaster .

According to plant pathologists, this killer round of blight began with a widespread infiltration of the disease in tomato starter plants. Large retailers like Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s and Wal-Mart bought starter plants from industrial breeding operations in the South and distributed them throughout the Northeast. (Fungal spores, which can travel up to 40 miles, may also have been dispersed in transit.) Once those infected starter plants arrived at the stores, they were purchased and planted, transferring their pathogens like tiny Trojan horses into backyard and community gardens. Perhaps this is why the Northeast was hit so viciously: instead of being spread through large farms, the blight sneaked through lots of little gardens, enabling it to escape the attention of the people who track plant diseases.

In my summary, this article makes another case for Buy Fresh-Buy Local in the case of starter plants. I'm not sure if the information is fact or theory, but it makes some sense. It will make me think more about my source choices

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html?th&emc=th

What An Egg Costs

Its been a while since I did the math to see how much feed I buy, how many eggs I get, sell, use and trade, to see what my eggs really cost. I can guarantee that I am not breaking even, at least dollar wise.

Initially I got four pullets, to just put something in the barn. It seemed like a good way to start using the space. A stall in the barn became the chicken coop, with some chicken wire and PVC pipe. A couple purchases for a feeder, water dispenser, the first 50 pounds of feed, the four or five bucks for the hens, and we were behind - what? Two hundred bucks easy. Then we had to wait for the girls to mature and lay but once they did, we had four eggs a day for about a year. Then came the disappointment. Winter and its short days came and they quit laying. Not one egg for days sometimes. Its all part of the natural process, but after having Easter every day for a year, its a BIG let down!

I know we benefit in other ways from the hens. Parasite control in the barn and pastures. Compost turning. Grub control when we dig in the spring. Peace of mind - we know where the eggs came from, and how old they are. Entertainment - they can be so funny to watch. But how do you value that?

Today an article in the New York Times talked about some of the costs of raising hens for eggs and meat, especially since more people are doing it.

Jasmin Middlebos, 36, a librarian who lives with her husband, a sheriff’s deputy, and their three children in a rural area outside Spokane, Wash., began raising chickens last year. She now has 26 birds, which produce up to two dozen eggs a day. (In hot weather, production can drop by half, and in winter it can stop altogether.) In September, she began selling some of the eggs — she gets $2 to $3 a dozen — and started keeping track of her income and expenses.
Since then, Ms. Middlebos said, she has taken in $457 from egg sales and spent $428, mostly on feed. That left $29 in the Mason jar where she keeps her earnings, to spend the next time she buys feed.
But that accounting does not include the cost of buying the birds as chicks — $1.50 to $4 each, depending on the breed — or the $1,500 she spent converting the old shed in her yard to a henhouse.

Keeping Their Eggs in Their Backyard Nests (read more)