How does her garden grow?

Over the past few months I've been experimenting with a few different methods of growing Avocados.

My first Avocado plant is doing great!

I LOOVE eating avocados but am always sad that I have to throw out almost have of what I buy because it's a huge seed! A couple years ago I followed the instructions of my grade 12 biology class from years ago and went through the whole "put three tooth picks in the middle of the seed and rest the bottom in water" and that took AGES! (but the result was and IS a happy and thriving avocado plant going on three years!).

I've read a lot of different opinions about different ways of convincing a grocery store bought avocado's seed to germinate, so not too long ago as mentioned back in January's post, I tried a few more in that "traditional" method" but didn't see any change until the end of May (when one FINALLY split and sent out a little root!)!

So I got frustrated and threw them all in some soil.

I didn't mention it, but not too long after I had started those three seeds in glasses, I decided to just burry a seed in a yogurt container full of soil. I kept the soil watered (no special care, I just watered it when it was dry with all my other plants) and holy, it took off!!

Look how good it's doing!

Now I have a whole windowsill full of small planters of soil with avocado seeds hiding in them and hopefully soon I'll have Avocados to share with family and friends! (I'm not crazy, I don't plan on keeping them all!!)

(ps. the one who sat in water from the end of January until the end of April before sending out a little root then ended up in soil has sent up two stems this weekend!)


New Avocado shoots sharing their pot with a spider plant baby!

More Chickens!

My blog seems to be turning into a bit of a chicken blog lately... but I just can't help it! I love these little guys :) Pretty soon I will be acquiring about 40,000 other members to the little homestead, but for the time being my 12 fluffy feathered friends keep me occupied enough!



"Chicks" in the tractor getting to know the big lad

I introduced the chicks to the chickens last week but (when I was away from the place for a night for a friend's wedding social) my parents decided it was too cold and brought the chicks back inside to the warm (and WAY too small!!) brooder. True to form, it snowed this May Long weekend, so I held off on letting the chicks back outside until we got back out of the negative temperatures.

Last night, with the forecast remaining on the plus side for the foreseeable future, I threw the chicks back with the hens! They seemed to be getting along just fine this morning! 

This morning, two chickens and three chicks shared a nesting box!

And finally, on the chicken front... I'm FINALLY making money! The hens are laying beautifully! I've been getting almost constantly six eggs per day, and if the one hen would stop laying an egg from the top of the roost (which is a good 5 feet off the ground...) I'd get to keep all six!

So far I've only been selling to my boss at work, but hopefully my client base will expand soon. I would be selling more to others but she's already bought 4 dozen in the last week (she has a husband and two kids to feed so I understand!)!

One of today's dozens for the boss. Note the one lonely HUGE egg in there! That one must be a double yolker!

Hopefully we'll have a non-chicken related post sooner or later! Freezing temperatures behind us and frost nearly out of the ground, I should be moving on to gardening very soon!!

Getting to know each other

Mother's Day for hens!

So I'm wondering... Is it morbid for me to give my chickens a Mother's Day present? I mean, they're all ladies, they lay eggs all the time... But there's no rooster so they're not fertilized so technically they're not mothers...?

Whatever. I made my hens a Mother's Day present. A new and improved roost!!

And as you can see I did leave the old one in there because I'm planning on kicking the babies out there soon... As soon as it stops SNOWING!! Seriously, snow in May is not a weird occurrence in NWO... Actually it's pretty typical! 

But really, look how huge they're getting! The only reason they're not bunking with the big girls is because at the moment I don't have any way of running electricity (ie. Heat) out there. The hens are just fine (in fact they enjoy the slushy, rainy, snowy crap we've been getting... Pretty sure they are crazy), but I just don't want my babies to freeze!!

... At least... Not until this weekend!

Babies on the farm!