Farm update 7/22/13

Sorry for the break.  Works been keeping my busy and I had taken a few photos a few weeks ago and never got around to publishing them.

So on my short break from work Christa and I managed to make it down to get some sockeye salmon and I scored some halibut from a friend in Petersburg.  So the freezer is full of fish protein.

In bed #1 the onions and peas are doing pretty good.  If we manage to keep the chickens and cats out of the bed.

Bed #2 is doing pretty outstanding, Carrots, beats and peas all going crazy.

Bed 3 has the lettuce mix, turnips, and a buch of other stuff all doing really well.

Potatoes are already flowering.

In the greenhouse everything is going gangbusters with all the sun and heat we've been having.  Our tomatoe corner has been pumping out some nice sized tomatoes. That's a first for me as our tomatoes never seem to do very good.

Our medley of 3 kinds of long beans. We've been eating on these guys for a while now.

And our cucumbers have been flowering for awhile, but I just now noticed a few female flowers starting to open.

Kale

The squash and zuchs out front are doing well with a bunch of fruit, and some cabbage coming up.  I doubt we'll see that come in, but what can you do.

I was having some fun with my iphone. Here are a couple panarama's around the yard.

Until next time.

Another week of great progress. 6/30/13

Finally cooled off here in Anchorage and we are finally suppose to get some rain, but we had another week of great weather.  Lets take a walk around the farm.

The zuch beds are doing good, the cabbage in the other bed not so much.  Christa thinks we have a vole problem.

Raspberries are coming along nicely.  Might not have as much yield as last year, but we still have a ton of berries in the freezer.

Taters are starting to leaf up nicely too.

Green beans are coming in nicely too.

Cuchs are coming along nice as well.

Nice shot of the green beans and wax beans

Our few tomato plants are doing really well and we already have some nice fruit coming in.

The lettuce, radishes and turnips are all doing great.

Beats and carrots doing well too.

And lastly the onion bed with our other pea fence.  Started to do some serious thinning.

We've already had a round of radishes come in and have been eating on the lettuce for a while now.  I have to say the last two summers up here in Alaska have been less than stellar, but this year we've had some great growing weather.  Until next time...

6/23/13 Crop progress.

Been real nice up here in Alaska the past month.  Record temperatures and sunny skies have been great to all our crops this spring.
I cleaned out my composter with a batch ready to go and no where to put it so I put a bunch in the raspberry bed and mounded the rest in the back, which the chickens had a lot of fun digging through.

Also pulled the first crop.  These French breakfast radishes are pretty delicious and like most radishes grow like weeds.

Got a few tomatoes coming in already.

And a few green beans too.  Ok lets take a walk around and see how the beds are doing.

And my mini bell is producing like gang busters.

Alright I'm off, but we'll have an update here in a week or so.

June 16th, 2013

Well things here on the farm are coming together.  Christa has taken the lead in almost everything as I've been in and out of town for work and will be till the end of August. But even though we had a late winter, we've had some of the most gorgous weather the last month.  80's in Anchorage is pretty rare and we've had quite a few in a row now.  While my poor Alaska acclamated body is not enjoying the heat and all that sun the plants and chickens sure are. Lets have a look around the farm!

Here's a look at the new coop in its permanent location. I just made that front side so it can open up and it's easier to get at the water bucket and to clean up the run.

Potato boxes.

Raspberry bramble coming to life!!

Green Beans starting to take off.

Cucumber corner.

The tomatoes are loving the heat.

Out front.

Should have some green beans in a few weeks and maybe a first round of radishes.

Building the Cluckmahal

Seems like I'm always building something on the "farm" here.  After we picked up the new chickens, I realized that the coop we had was fine for 3 girls, but a little too small for 5.  So I decided to build a new coop. There are tons of coop designs and plans online, but I decided to do my own to fit my needs.  And the one need was something that one or two people could easily move around the yard.  Right now the coop we are using weighs over 200 pounds and I would guess that it's actually closer to 300 pounds.

So for mobility I decided to put the coop on wheels and I ordered two large casters off of Amazon.com.  Next my dilemma was how to mount the 10" casters to the coop.  In the end I just put a 2x10 on the bottom of the base so I would have a sturdy platform for the wheels.

Here they are all bolted on with the front legs attached as well.

Here it is sitting in the yard with the girls and curly checking it out.

I also decided to build the coop like a was building a small house so I have the decking on the base and the first wall up.  This wall was going to have the handle to wheel the coop around the yard.  The 2x4 is where the railing brackets will go.

Here we have the second wall with the chicken door.  I like putting those angle pieces on the walls especially since I decided to make the walls out of 2x2's.  They add a lot of structure stability to the frame.

Here's the third wall. This wall will have the nesting boxes attached to it.  Something the old coop lacked.

And here's the front door.  2 1/2 feet wide to access the coop for cleaning and what not.

Starting to add the sheathing.

Starting to put the outside sheathing on.

Adding some insulation, and yes I hand cut each piece to fit.

Adding the interior walls.

Roof ridge pole.

Added the lifting handle to the back.

Here we have the roof coming together.

The roof over hangs by about 6 inches on the ends.

You can see we got a little late snow during the build.

Starting to work on the nesting box.

Nesting box attached.

The nesting box is insulated as well.

Here we have the front door and one of the girls checking out the new digs

Took me a few tries to get the nesting box roof just right and hinged.

Nice latch on the door.

And here we have the nesting box lid raised to show how to get all those delicious eggs out and the insulation too.

Added the nesting box dividers.

I decided on metal roofing. I really don't know why, but shingles would have cost me just as much.

And the finished product. I still need to paint and winterize, but I think it's ready to be used.  Now I just need to get rid of the old coop, finish insulating my houses foundation, and move the coop to it's new location.  I don't think I made this coop any lighter, but she's 100% more movable.  I can lift and wheel the house all by myself, although it's hard to see where I'm going, so two people moving the coop probably would be best.

All in all she probably cost me about $150 to build.  Almost all that cost is in the wheels and roof. I did have to buy some screws and a few 2x4s.  My neighbor gave me a table saw so I was able to rip my own 2x2's which was really nice.  But most of the building materials were recycled.

I'll post some photos of her all painted up and being used a little later this summer.