Update

Back by no demand! I realize that I need to update this blog. I will take some pics this week and get them up.

Flowers for sale

I'm about to thin out my flowers. Probably this Sunday or Monday. After internal conflict, I decided to offer them up for sale. Only because I want to get rich quick the prices are as follows. $1.00 per plant. $5.00 per 6 pack. (per plant is per flower pot. Carrots are about 18 or so per pot, where as sunflowers a 1 per pot). I can easily mix and mach. All plants were grown by me, and are stictly organic. Organic meaning only organic seeds, and organic soil. (mixed salad greens may not be organic seeds)
Here is a list of what I have and am about to get rid of.
Mixed Salad Greens
Gourds
Summer squash - Walthem Butternut and Burpe Bounty Hybrid
Spinach
Corn- Sweet and sunglow
Radishes ( ask quick because they are all pretty much spoken for)
Pepper- red and green. Your guess is as good as mine
Potatoes- Red, Russet, Yukon Gold
Peas- Snap and Sweet. I cant tell the difference so it is what it is. Learned not to label them both "peas"
Lettuce- Iceberg and Romaine
Onions- red and yellow. Mixed
Asparagus- 2nd year plants. Should produce stalks, but unsure
Strawberries- Not for a few more weeks
Garlic
Cucumbers
Zucchinis
Assorted Green Beans
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Thyme
Basil Rosemary
Cilantro
Oregano
Parsley
Chives (common)
Tomatoes -Sweet, Cherry and Neopolitan. Again your guess is as good as mine which are which
Carrots
Brussels Sprouts
Japanese Maples- TBD. Probably late June. ( Ill charge a bit more for these) Have to see what my father wants to do. His hard work.

Maple Syrup Operation

Apparently, It takes 44 gallons of sugar maple sap to make 1 gallon of pure maple syrup. This boils down (haha get it) to about 2 baby food jars of syrup or maple candy per week / 10 days.

2 of my 9 taps

Starting off the boiling process outside

Getting ready to strain the suspended sugars out of the syrup

The sugar content needs to be 67-68% in order to create syrup. This equates to 7.2 degress hotter boiling point that unstrained sap.

 Notice the amber color when the sugar content start to out weigh the water content

Assorted Pics

 Bath time for the Ducks

 Pool is closed. They were voicing their opinion of this!

The updated indoor green house

The Chicks are getting lots of feather at 2 weeks old.

They still are babies and you can see they like to sleep

 Matlida. 

Matilda and I watching TV

"Aww they are soo cute" Then they shit in your hand!!!!!

Composter

After all was said and done with the idea of starting a farm, I needed to figure out a way to supply self with fresh, organic, and cheap soil and get rid of the chicken litter. Rather than spend $15 on a bag of topsoil, I looked into starting a compost pile. The problem with the compost pile, is that A: Once it's built, it can't be moved, and B: it's unattractive to look at. I started looking into ways to get a portable 55gal composter. Home depot sold them for $80 and it looked cheap. So after a few simple design thought, I came up with a way to build my own for free. I can send the exact dimensions or where to obtain the stuff from if anyone is interested.

I started with a 55gal blue plastic barrel that I obtained from a local bakery shop.

I spray painted it black to absorb the sunlight.

The frame is made up of old wooden pallets I found behind some stores, as well as an old 2X4X8 that I found. The center pivot is a 1" round PVC pipe.

I cut a square hole in the top and fastened some 1X3 around the edges so the lid would sit on it nicely. The lid is attached by 2 door hinges and a clasp. 

My truck on a scavenging excursion. You never know what you may find. My cost... $4.00 spray paint

Garden

I wanted to start a vegetable garden. I was lucky enough to acquire some indoor grow lights. When starting this idea, I wanted to see if I could be as resourceful as possible and recycle as much stuff that I could. I also wanted to keep my plants and animals as organic as I possibly could. I have a room in my basement that is under the front porch. It does get a little water in it from time to time so I don't use if for anything. Why not turn it into an indoor green house.

Indoor garden lights set up.

Table with plants under the lights.

 That's Jiffy Organic starter soil. I only planted certified organic seeds. 

Don't use Martha Stewart Brand! They rot!

The Purple sled is being used to catch any run off water and condensation, as well as the white plastic shelf.

 Week Old Cucumber seedlings.

 Red and Yellow Onions week old seedlings.

The smaller tray is Carrots. I only planted them on the 22nd.

 Back to the recycling idea. I saved my coffee K-cups and asked my friends to do the same. I purchased the Jiffy organic seed pellets and they fit perfectly inside them. Then I also used square cake tins with lids as my own form of green house.

 Here they are with Basil and Oregano starting to grow in only 3 days.

Radishes I started in the cake tray.Perfect for root vegetables!



Ducklings 1st swim

Yesterday I decided to try and let the Ducklings do some swimming. Using a 13X10 cake pan I had, I filled it with warm water and placed it in the duck coop. It only took a few minutes for them to realize what it was, and once accustomed to the water, they all had fun. But now that they know what they can do, I'm watching them attempt to get in their water dish, which isn't working, only creating a wet mess. I'm going to try and built them a separate swimming area and maybe attach it to the existing brooder.