We started off by reading up in books, on forums, and picking the brains of all the friends and family we know who have or have had chickens (which turned out to quite alot! and thanks you guys for all your insight!). After all that, we decided to start with 8 chicks and hope they all live, since we have heard it is not uncommon to lose a few chicks just because. Also we were going to try to build as much of it out of recycled wood and parts, but apparently a lot of others have had similar ideas because there was slim pickings out there. We found some usable stuff in the area around the corner of the house, otherwise known as the black hole of our yard. I cannot tell you how many times I have heard the words “Oh THAT’S where that went!” uttered when looking for something back there. I can’t tell you how they get there either, because I certainly don’t put anything back there!

So my DH launches in and starts building a hen house using a basic plan and altering it as he sees fit. Yes, he can do that, and is quite good at  it!  The base (all recycled wood) has gaps between the boards for the floor so that we can hose it out when necessary, but not so big we would have chicken’s feet falling through. I would think after the 4 to 6 inch layer of pine shavings go down, the gaps won’t even be noticed. Also the 3 windows on the garden-side of the coop will end up getting hardware cloth stapled over them, so that the chickens will have plenty of cross-ventilation.

Next up? The rest of  the walls! Unfortunately, most of the this had to be new wood since the sheets of plywood we found were disintegrating as we moved them. DH cut out ventilation strips at the top of the opposing walls, so that when the roof is on they will be protected by the roof from the elements and still get air. Both the chicken-sized door and the people-sized door were cut out and set aside to be worked back in later. The last thing he cut out for was the nest boxes, the size and quantity of which we went round and round about for a while.

We finally opted for more rather than less boxes and used some more of the scrap wood we found to build them. The tricky part was installing them onto a plywood wall. DH figured this out too eventually and the boxes were installed, but it took 3 of us to hold them in place while they were mounted to the frame. I really hope the chickens appreciate all this effort! (Yah, yah, I know, like the chickens will care…).

Well, there you go! The first day’s work done and assembled! The kids finally came out when all the tools were done running, and of course had to inspect it (by this, I mean crawling in it and checking every inch, seeing if they can fit through the windows, etc.). Their one big question? “Is this for us, or the chickens?” Hmmm…..don’t tempt me, kiddos….

Over the winter, we got busy supplying a couple of stores, and working our way (not always successfully) through our school work. We did eventually get on an even keel in both regards. We had a strange winter, with far more rain and cloudy weather than I think we have seen here in a long time (although I would imagine that there are a lot of places out there that could say the same about the past winter).

The spring brought not the warmer weather we were expecting, but more cool and wet weather! It is just now warming up past early-spring-like weather, and the plants are just as confused as we are. It also brought us 3 more stores, and all the logistic issues that go with it. We are adjusting finally, and torturing ourselves by adding on more clients (LOL! We love them anyway!).

Finally this last year has brought the advent of chickens for part of our Integrated Pest Management plan. Of course, there is the added benefits of fresh eggs! Yum! My DH designed and built a chicken coop, complete with an enclosed run, for our upcoming chicks after perusing pages ad-infinitum on coop designs. I will be posting our progress both with the coop and the chickens, but also our business as it continues to grow…..Hope we will hear from you as we always like getting questions from our readers!

The Folks at Sprouting Up Organically

Two of the Pacific Tree Frogs

Well, we certainly hadn’t planned it that way, but once again Mother Nature had other ideas, this time in the form of Pacific Tree Frogs. They are apparently well entrenched around here, which we had an inkling of because we kept finding them hiding out in our greenhouse. We certainly welcomed them in there, figuring they would eat a good portion of the bugs that come in looking for warmth and water. They have done a good job so far and we haven’t had to use any sprays last year or this year.

What we didn’t know is that by setting up the kids 10 ft wide Easy-Set pool early and then unintentionally letting it deflate when the warm spell in March was over, we were providing the local frogs with the perfect breeding pond. Guess we should have known, but somehow it just never crossed our minds, what with homeschooling, farmers market and general life.

The frogs in our yard must have put out an all-points-bulletin call to every frog within a mile radius (the river is about a mile away, as the crow flies), because one night we thought we were going to be called in for noise pollution. That night turned into about a week, and by the end of it we had a pool full of  jelly-like globs of frog eggs, both disgusting and cool at the same time. There seemed to be a guard frog left behind for a while, until the eggs hatched into tiny tadpoles and then we have only heard the adults occasionally since.

What we are left with now is literally hundreds, if not thousands, of baby tadpoles trying to exist in a pseudo-empherial pond. We are having great fun watching their growth, and have resorted to feeding them crushed goldfish flakes and “raining” water into their pool whenever needed. I am wondering, however, what we are going to do if even half of them turn into frogs. Tread carefully? Relocate most to the river bottom? Stay tuned…..

Heavily infested wormwood with aphids shortly after dumping the ladybugs

certification, or even if you aren’t. You can buy pots, dirt, and fertilizers, all pre-packaged and do exactly what you tell them to do. Even the seeds will do what you want most of the time, in that they are fairly predictable and have a certain cycle.

Bugs, whether good or bad, pay no attention to such nonsense.

We have a wormwood plant by our greenhouse that was here when we moved in, and has been relocated around the garden area multiple times. It is hanging in doggedly and even flourishes with gorgeous silvery gray branches and a pleasant scent. The down-side?? It seems to be the favorite place for aphids to live each spring in our garden. Each year we think we have escaped the infestation, only to have them suddenly reappear one day.

In previous years, we have tried bug sprays (organic though, but still….bleech). Last year we got smarter and tried to use benefical insects and released both ladybugs and praying mantises. A few of each hung around but not enough to make much difference, and we eventually gave up and chopped back the wormwood. The poor thing survived yet another year and grew again this spring. Once again, we thought, “Hey, great, we missed the aphids again, maybe the birds got them this year, or the cold weather.”  You would think we would learn. Nope, once again, one morning the aphids are not there, the next morning they are.

This year, we slowed down and hopefully wisened up. We read carefully the best way to release the ladybugs, and waited semi-patiently for dusk to arrive and watered down the wormwood, and then spread out the bag-o-ladybugs over the heavily infested bush. Happily, the ladybugs remained where I dumped them and began eating the aphids. Well that was only the first night, and the real test was yet to come.

Even more happily, we seem to have done something right this time. The rest of the ladybugs hung out and chowed down for a

Ladybugs chowing down on aphids

couple of days on Aphids-R-Us. They even went so far as to decide to breed, and we have high hopes of seeing little alligator-shaped ladybug larva any day now. Our poor wormwood bush looks a little cleaner and happier, and there are no aphids in our greenhouse. The beginnings of integrated pest management??? We like to think so….

Yes, that is deer fencing.....

Imagine going to all the effort of weeding, only to find out that the neighborhood cats and your own dogs have done you in again!

...no, it is not for deer!

My intrepid husband had once again rid our garden beds of weeds left from fall and “winter” (hello, we are in Southern California!), only to come out a day later and find out that our neighborhood cats decided we had gifted them with the world’s largest block party catbox!

Even that might not have been so bad, (but eww, cat poop in the food beds! Don’t worry they were scooped and cleaned, again!) but our dogs decided that they made good pathways, plus they had to keep the cats out didn’t they???

With a desperation borne out of sheer frustration, my husband disassembled some PVC cold frames we had and turned them into corner posts. He dug out deer fencing from heaven-only-knows-where, and with a few extra long plant ties we suddenly had a fenced-in garden! Unfortunately, we have one very smart, and stubborn, mini-poodle that decide that no fence was keeping him out!

Between mumbled threats from us and growls from our other dog, a labrador mix, we managed to convince him that shortcuts through the garden were not in his best interest.

The rains since have washed the beds level and clean and we are hoping to plant in them soon…..

The Folks at Sprouting Up Organically