I can’t believe I never reported on this. About a month ago, on the recommendation of my chicken mentor  and fellow-blogger at This One Good Life, I ordered the Avian Aqua Miser from the good people at the Walden Effect, Anna and Mark. I installed three valves onto a five gallon bucket and hung it in the coop. It took …
Author Archives: kaat
A Field, Friends, and Work!
As gardeners we often don’t get to work in a field.  It’s a different thing altogether to work in a field than in a garden. There is all that space, sky, sun. You walk from one end to the next (diagonally, so as to get the most out of it) and throughout the soil is soft and …
Last Potato Harvest
Almost a bucket full of potatoes. 5.5 lbs of Red Marias and 14 lbs of Salem from one bed (22 feet). That’s similar to the potato bed up front, of earlies, which yielded 12 lbs from 16 feet. Also some last squashes, cherry tomatoes, cukes and some errant onions. What’s left is kale, chard, a …
Look at that Honey!
It comes in all colors! Â The small jar with the label is of Spring honey, extracted in June.
Earth Oven, Phase 2: the Base
The Earth Oven series: foundation base hearth thermal mass first drying fire and door arch insulating layer and chimney Patching up, and first pizza! Wow, third blog post today! Be sure to scroll down! Today we finished Phase 2 of the Earth Oven works, the Base. (Yes, we had a busy day today.) For Phase …
Earth Oven, Phase 1: The Foundation
The Earth Oven series: foundation base hearth thermal mass first drying fire and door arch insulating layer and chimney Patching up, and first pizza! For our wedding anniversary DH took the day off so we could start building our earth oven. Yes, that was our anniversary present to one another. People tell us we’re the …
Honey Extracting with the New Extractor
Today I robbed seven frames from the two hives in my beeyard. Many  more frames were only half or three fourths capped, but with some luck in weather and nectar flow, the bees will cap those fully and I’ll have more to rob.  There’s also the third hive at our friend’s place: I’m curious to …
Whiskers on Chickens
Many big plans are forming, constantly, where we’re at. First things first, though. Hens! We are reintroducing the pullets to the flock. The temperatures are dropping fast, at night, and they’ll need to feel at home in the warmer coop before long. Amie and I chatted about the goat plan while all six of them …
The Goat Question
For a while now we’ve been considering adding milking goats to our menagerie, but it seems like such a step up from bees and chickens. Â Still, we got some encouragement recently. My friend from a neighboring town, Kath of This One Good Life, would love goats too, and promised to be a goat buddy if …
Compost
It’s geology! Layer after layer of compost. This pile had gone cold. I lifted up the Earth Machine, which you can see in the background. I love the design of the Earth Machine: as it tapers up, it’s easy to lift off while keeping the shape, making it easy to fork up. It took two …