Can't believe its been 11 days...

since I last posted...time fly's...Everything is going well at Coop De Ville, the residents seem to have settled in very nicely. Still have some exterior work to do on CDV before I will declare it complete, well really, it probably will never be "completely complete", there will always be room for improvements! The four-leggers seem to be more tolerant of the new residents, however, I am far from letting the chicken's live a "free-range" lifestyle yet, that would certainly foreshorten their lifespan...

Not much more to report, the grass and the garden are growing at warp speed, which we feel blessed about, well at least the garden part. The problem with the grass is if I cannot cut the entire property at least within a few days, it is like starting over again...arghhhh...but we are getting so much free water (from rain) that we will not complain!!!

To say the mosquito's are abundant this summer would be an understatement, it is now second nature to spray your legs, arms and neck before you venture out, so tomorrow morning's garden trip will be an adventure in anti-mosquitoism...but most definitely worth it!!!

Until tomorrow...Peace R Dean

Sunrise series...it just doesn't get any better than this!!!

Russell Crow and his girls...

Pecking around in the morning while a four-legger loiters outside!!!

New 2 gallon waterer for inside the coop...

A look from inside the coop...hmmm...scary looking shadow, kinda looks like Freddy Kreuger!!! YIKES!!!

Tussle time...the four-leggers doing one of the three things they do best...play, the other two, eat and sleep!!!

Nitschke standing in a bucket of water to cool off...he's a nut case!!!

A jam packed garden and still growing...

Garden variety sunflower...

Reaping the rewards of our garden...

The residents of Coop De Ville...

After over a year and a half of dreaming and talking about owning our own chickens, the dream has come true!! We have CHICKENS, thanks to our friends Steve and Karen who brooded a batch of chicks and held on to some extra's for us until we were ready for them!! On Sunday, we went to their farm and picked up seven Rhode Island Red's, six hen's and one rooster! So, Coop De Ville is almost at full occupancy!!

Nitschke, waiting patiently for the chickens to come out and play...NOT!!

A new resident peeking out from beneath Coop De Ville...

One of the girls checkin' out her new digs...

Inside Coop De Ville...

The residents...

Hey...what? Chicken Butt!! Only Small Farm Girl will get that one!!! ;-)

Outside Southern facing perimeter with field stones placed on top of one foot of chicken wire positioned horizontally on the ground to deter predators...and three feet of chicken wire placed vertically, on top of the livestock fencing to "hopefully" deter a predator from climbing over the fencing...

Western facing perimeter with a surplus of field stones....and some of the "residents" in the background...this is where their roost is located...

Nitschke's week in review...

The week started out like any other week, get up, take the four-leggers out, throw the ball for Nitsch, throw the ball for Nitsch, throw the ball for Nitsch, drink coffee, walk the property with all the four-leggers (Mag, Mol, and Nitsch) and check on the garden for any "ah ha" we have veggie moment!!

It's me, Nitschke boy...

Fast forward to Thursday...and as noted in an earlier post, turned out to be "atypical", Nitsch found a skunk...and long story short, got sprayed!!! I have yet to find a skunk on the property, but we did however invest in some very good "skunk spray" treatment at Mill's Fleet Farm, it is called Nature's Miracle...see picture below. I have to say it works, I bailed out of here fast that morning of the "spraying" using the "I have to get to work" excuse, so Jan REALLY did ALL the dirty work of getting him back to "dog odor" from "skunk odor", so she deserves ALL the KUDO's, I just bought the stuff, but he smells like a dog again...

Available at Mill's Fleet Farm...this stuff works!!!

Last night, it got even better, well not really! Nitschke was chasing his favorite ball, and when he was bringing it back, he slipped and crashed head first into the step on our deck!!! OUCH!!! Poor Nitsch!!! I have to say, he acts like nothing happened, but truth be told, he lost two teeth...and made a sizeable gash in the wooden step!!! So, that is Nitschke's week in review...we have one more day, but I'm hoping nothing notable or bloggable happen's!!!

Those two white things with red on them are Nitschke's front two bottom teeth and the mark on the right is the "scene of the accident"...

Until later...Peace

Skunked...

Leave it to Nitschke (our blog cover boy) to find a skunk this morning...I was checking on the garden when I heard him barking, I thought he was out in the corn field because it sounded like his barks were echoing, but when I got there, he was on our property barking at something in the tall grass...I hollered at him to come to me and he did, but with that "look" in his face that he knew he had done something stupid...he got within 25 or 30 feet of me and I immediately smelled it on him..whew..it was BAD!!! I went down to where he had the "encounter" but could not find anything but a the raunchy, musky odor of SKUNK!!!

I washed him down with the skunk deodorizer that I purchased from Fleet Farm, with little success. He went into the garage to stay until Jan could get him back outside to apply more of the formula on him...Hopefully by the time I get home, the odor will have somewhat subsided...

Until later from "skunk-ville"...R Dean

Still rumbling...

We had some really bad storm's last night, lot's of thunder and sharp lightning...Around 2am-ish, it sounded like we "may" have gotten some hail, not sure because it was raining so hard and the wind was howling!

Need to go down to the garden this morning and check on it, if we had hail, that could do some serious damage, but I'll keep my fingers crossed it didn't!

The storm is passing over Lake Michigan now, so it looks like we should have sun the remainder of the day. On the bright side, we have had to use little water on the garden to date, Mother Nature has been very gracious!

Here a couple pics of the garden I took a couple days ago...

Shiney things in picture are mosquito's...I counted six in this picture...but trust me, there are many, many more of them lurking around the property!!!

We tried adding pieces of wood between the tomato cages to help support them...

PILE-A-WEEDS!!! Better outside the garden than inside...

Reaping the rewards...

Until later...Peace

The end to a great weekend...

Well, we didn't finish everything we wanted to, but we still had a very productive and relaxing weekend! Yesterday, we went into town to visit the Manitowoc Farmer's market. Although it was a beautiful day to do so, we were a bit disappointed in how little there was to choose from in regards to fresh produce. We "heard" from one vendor (that did not sell produce) that some of the vendor's go to Milwaukee to purchase the produce to sell at the market. That was surprising "if true" because one just assumes that at a farmer's market, one, it is local's selling their own produce, and two, it is grown locally. Anyway, it was still fun, and we persused several shops while downtown. One shop in particular caught my attention, a home brewery store. As I become more well versed in self-sustainability, I become more and more interested in what I can actually make myself instead of purchasing it from the store. Two things that first come to mind, beer and soap, so more to come on those subjects soon!

Today, we worked together in the garden pulling weeds. I pulled weeds from between the rows of tomato plants and Jan pulled weeds from other area's of the garden. It was fun, and like I told her later, very eye opening for me, because I have not been involved in the garden to this extent, she has always done all of the work besides tilling. I truly gained a lot more respect for how hard she has worked the last two season's helping to bring our garden's to fruition! I look forward to continuing to help her!

Hopefully this week, we will wrap up Coop de Ville! We'll keep our fingers crossed! Until we meet again, hope you enjoy the pictures!
Peace...

Sweet Basil and a couple Banana Peppers picked from the garden today...

The makings of our fresh salad's we had for dinner tonight...

Asoapi from Five Bee's Soap Art purchased yesterday at the Farmer's Market in Manitowoc...

One of our Sunflower's in the Strawberry garden...

The SS Badger car ferry coming into port yesterday...

Mosquito's are back....

and so am I....

Couldn't resist that one...they are bad, and bad is an understatement, they swarm you when you leave the house. Whomever invented the mosquito net, God Bless you my friend!!!

Honestly, can't believe anyone hung around after an absence of three months or close to it, but thanks for not abandoning me...

Lot's to report! Most importantly, the garden is coming along well. Got a bit of a late start, but everything seems to be growing well. The weather has been warm, hot at times with high levels of humidity, a garden's dream! However, something is getting into the garden and eating some of our crop, lettuce and bean's have been the latest victims. I think it is a deer stepping over the 2 ft. high fencing, but Jan thinks it is a skunk that is going beneath it. Do skunks eat vegetables?? I have no idea, but I do know they are near by, we have seen them and smell them on a regular basis.

Next, I'm happy to report that "Coop de Ville" is close to completion. The residents will be moving in very soon (I hope). Stay tuned for progress updates and hopefully some chic pics....

South side of CdV...

"Queen" sized nesting boxes...

Roosting with a view...

Can't wait to get back into the groove of checking out blogs, missed keeping up with everyone!

Until next time....Peace!