Duck's First Day

Of the 5 hatching eggs, 3 were viable but only 1 hatched. So, here is beautiful Duck, named by my friend's son. Yes, Duck is a buff-colored silkie chicken. That kid knows irony. LOL

Candled chicken egg - 6 days

I'm so excited to have found that 3 of the 5 Silkie eggs are fertile and developing well at 6 days. They are all from buff parents so ... *fingers crossed*.

Hatching eggs have arrived!

Woohoo! My hatching eggs arrived from the mainland on Thursday and I picked them up at the post office yesterday. I was so excited to find 2 extra eggs in there! So, that means I have 3 buff and 2 white silkie hatching eggs! The eggs are acclimatizing to my home and ... WERE ... getting ready to be set under my hens. But then ... Tulip and Daisy decided not to sit anymore! No matter the bribing, they just aren't broody anymore. Usually, if there are a couple eggs left in the nest, they will brood in an instant (!). Silkies are great mommas that way. But alas, these two hard boiled eggs and 3 eggs laid by Daisy that were left in the nest to entice the girls to brood resulted in no such luck. 

So, what else is there? A special (and somewhat frantic) trip to town to pick up an incubator from Del's. I'm not going to even mention the cost because I think it's a little ridiculous that I spent so much on 5 hatching eggs. If you're inclined to figure cost ... I got the Little Giant 9200 Still Air Incubator ... 

PLUS, the 6300 automatic egg turner ...

Plus, the 7200 forced air fan kit ...

I've installed the fan and egg turner per instruction and added the water (which I boiled and cooled just in case since I use catchment water). And now it's a waiting game. I am trying to equalize the temperature at 99.5 degrees and suspect it will take me at least 24 hrs. I'll probably set the eggs tomorrow when I get home from church. Wish me luck!

Chicken treats

Tulip

I have yet to set up a composter at my new house so been sharing my compost with my chickies (and bunnies) and since I couldn't remember all the things I should and shouldn't give them, I'm putting the list here. I've indicated the ones that my peeps absolutely *LOVE*. If you have more suggestions, could you please leave them in the comments section? I'll add them to the list. THANKS!

Great treats: mealworms*, cracked corn*, fruits (watermelon*, tomatoes, papayas*, apples, pears, etc.), corn on the cob, greens and vegetables (cut grass, lettuce, kale*, cabbage, green beans, carrot and beet tops*, celery, spinach, etc.), cooked items (oatmeal, eggs, pasta, breads, etc.), fish (fresh parts or cooked), milk products (yogurt, cottage cheese, string cheese, etc.).

Don't give these: citrus, avocado skins and pit, raisins (the seeds are toxic; some might argue they're okay but I don't just to be on the safe side), raw green potato peels, salty and oily things.

Kale chips

A couple friends told me about kale chips and my first reaction was, "WHAT?!" I seriously thought they were kidding me. "Yeah, they're crispy like potato chips!" Could there really be another way to eat one of my favorite garden vegetables?

So I tried it and they were exactly right!

Here's how I made mine:
For about a handful of kale, remove the midrib, sprinkle with olive oil and mix to evenly distribute the oil, and bake until crispy at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes. I sprinkled lightly with salt afterwards.

They are really super crispy and delish! I ate them up so fast I didn't even bother to take a pic. Will add one next time. I think I'm going to raid the garden now! :D

Little hapu`u

I am finally in my "new" house and yes, I took this photo in my living room. LOL. I bought the ultimate "green" home. It's a great cabin and very homey. Most of it is made with salvage lumber and what you see is the result of my taking off 1 3/4" canec from the walls and 3/4" canec from the ceiling. Canec is pressed cane fiber impregnated with arsenic. So, you see why this was the first things I removed. The image is of the inside of the wall. Not a pretty sight but it's solid. The ceiling is now insulated and drywalled and I'm about to build a 2X4 studded wall and plan to insulate it with some R-13. That should warm things up quite a bit. That, and my new stove. :) I brought in this little hapuu (tree fern) from outside and it caught the light in such a pretty way that I HAD to capture the moment. It feels good to be in my own home. :)

Aquaponics Update, April 27, 2011

I'm excited that folks at our Seicho-No-Ie truth realization seminar made a short visit to the house to see my "mini farm" this weekend. We checked out my aquaponics system, little chickies, bunnies, fishies, and even worms. I think the kids enjoyed feeding all of them and collecting eggs! Chicken eggs, that is! And we picked alot of lettuce and watercress for our dinner salad. It felt really, really good to share what I grew with friends.

That evening, we boiled and colored the eggs using natural dyes ... blue with purple cabbage, green with spinach, yellow with ground tumeric, yellow with onion skins, pink with beets, and red with red onion skins. To make green, we also mixed the purple cabbage and onion skins dye and it worked really well! It made a delicate green.

And we even had a taste test. Clifford, our chef for the weekend, tasted mainland eggs and my chickie eggs side by side ... and he said there is a definite difference and that my chickie eggs tastes like what eggs used to taste like! That's the biggest compliment ever!

Layla ... pure sweetness!

Shut out and shut down!

Lily is looking rather confused ... "NO CHICKENS ALLOWED!"

*fingers crossed*

OH NO! THEY DI'INT !!!

*Sigh* The chickens DID ... and ate every single morsel of my kale. It was fine yesterday and bare today. One more reason to keep chickens and gardens separate. Well, their eggs better be good now that they've had an extra dose of leafy greens!

Aquaponics Update - April 7, 2011

Powdery mildew

Eeek! powdery mildew on my potted kale!

Milk treatment of powdery mildew on kale in my aquaponics bed

Powdery mildew ... powdery mildew ... powdery mildew. It's a funny word combination, isn't it? Anyhoo, this fungus ended up on my redbor and regular kale in my aquaponics grow beds (It also infested my long beans in my garden but I'm so tired of eating long beans, I'll let them have it). I found out diluted whole milk (1 part milk to 4 parts water) is an effective treatment so I tried it ... and it is working! For a soy milk kind of gal, I had to buy a half quart of the stuff! It looks like I will need to treat again because there are spots that I missed but I am pleasantly surprised by the results and there is apparently no harm to my fish. I mean, milk?! Really? Yeah, really! :D

Waste and growing my own food

I used to waste a lot of store-bought vegetables! Know what I mean? I'm sure we all have that browning head of lettuce in our fridge and are watching 3/4 of our parsley or basil bunch turning right before our eyes. Such waste!

Wanna eat fresh veggies, reduce waste, learn about the circle of life, work outdoors, be more self-sustainable, live a healthier lifestyle? Consider growing your own food! No matter what the kind of garden, as Martha Steward says, "It's a good thing." I have an aquaponics setup but I also have fruit trees (tangerines, papapya, star fruit, pomelo, etc.) and traditional garden beds and I'm able to pick only what I need, when I need it. Of course, I have to eat more seasonably, but that's part of the circle of life and takes some getting used to. Okay, I know I'm spoiled because I have to constantly fight the urge to demand what I want when I want it ... but that immediacy is just an artifact of the un-sustainable nature of our food system. I have to remind myself of that.

Compost recruits

Fanciful mushrooms have shown up in my compost bed, including a forest of little strawberry papaya plants. Anyone need seedlings?

1000 Awesome Things Blog

Need a reminder about what is so awesome about your life? Check out the 1000 Awesome Things blog. For me? My cayenne chillies are awesome! When morning sunlight hits them at just the right angle, they glow! That makes me giggle.