Author Archives: Quail Run

The Web of Protection

chickensThis winter has been a tough one for the chickens.

When we planned the chicken coop we tried to think of every way possible to protect our bird during the night from predators, knowing that there would be plenty out here.  We hoped that we had given them enough protection from hawks and eagles during they day, by giving them places to hide, and for the first several months things worked really well.

IMG_5136Then things started to go down hill, quickly.  The chickens figured out how to get into the dog kennel, which didn’t end well for the chicken and eventually for the dog.  Then we started to lose chickens at dusk, that time between when the chickens started to gather toward the coop to roost and we went out to shut their little door.

IMG_5154After a couple chicken kills, we happened to hear the ladies going crazy one night, as we rushed out a big barn owl flew out from under the coop where it had cornered one of the gals and had attacked. It was interesting to see the roosters try to defend the hen, they were super hero roosters.

Sadly the chicken didn’t make it.

We really want to allow the chickens to free range, to produce the healthiest eggs possible, but how do we do that and fully protect our birds?  Fully enclosing the chicken yard would work, but then we might as well just get rid of the chicken and buy organic eggs, it would be less money and less hassle.

Dadzoo installed predator lights,
and they seemed to work…

IMG_5137Until New Years Eve.
I stepped out on the back porch for something and I heard the chickens, once again, going crazy in their coop.  I yelled to Dadzoo as I ran out there, with a broom in hand, he followed quickly behind.  Dadzoo burst into the coop, the chickens were all scrambling into the nest boxes, the roosters were on attack as a big barn owl sat right in the middle of the floor, when it saw Dadzoo he flew up on the wall, clinging to the side with its huge talons and rotated its head to look right at Dadzoo.  They were about 18 inches from each other, face to face, at eye level.  The owl had flow onto the ramp and walked into the little door the chickens used to go in and out during the day!

Oh how I wanted to shoot that bird!
(now don’t go turning me into Fish and Game, I won’t shoot it, I know its protected)

Dadzoo knocked it off the wall with a broom, and then shooed it out of the little door.  The owl sat there stunned for about a minute, then flew off silently, its wing span was about 5 feet.  It was beautiful, and frustrating.

IMG_5142After the “Great Owl Attack” Dadzoo and Chocolate the Chicken Whisperer searched for another solution.

IMG_5141They created the amazing invisible chicken saving web.

IMG_5143Together they strung fishing line from the top of the chicken coop to the fence posts around the chicken yard in a loose grid pattern.  The theory is that the owl will swoop down, feel the fish line and back off, but since it can’t see the fish line it doesn’t know how to get around it, or what it really is, so eventually it will stop trying.  This, we figure, will give the chickens enough cover at dusk for them to get settled and in the coop and for Chocolate to get out there and shut the door.

IMG_5138If you look really close you can see the fishing line shinning in the sunlight.

IMG_5147The Web of Protection has been up since the first of January and so far there  have been no owl attacks, despite the fact we have seen and heard the owl since then.

IMG_5153So it seems our girls are safe
at least for now!

Tomatoes

While 2013 was the year of the beans, it will also be known as the year of the big tomato failure.
Temperatures were just too hot this year, we went from mild and cool spring weather to record breaking heat in a matter of a week.  We missed out on the few weeks of temperatures needed to set tomato fruit, therefore the harvest was very slim.  Around the end of the season things picked up a bit, but not in the quantities we needed for storage through the winter.

Sadly I had to buy boxes of tomatoes, maybe next year will be better.

IMG_4822IMG_4823(Lou searching for a ripe tomato or two)

IMG_4870IMG_4872Lou was our faithful tomato grower this year, even though it wasn’t the bumper crop we were hoping for she was still very diligent in caring for her tomatoes and when canning time came around she was right there doing her duty.

IMG_4875Seventy quarts later we have our tomatoes for the year.  I just can pain stewed tomatoes so I can go quickly, and any other tomato products that are needed throughout the year can be make from them.

Dilly Beans

 

The summer of 2013 will always be known as the year of the “bean” at the farm.
We had tons of beans.
Oodles of beans.
It was such a blessing, we had enough beans to eat fresh and can and enough beans to play around a bit.

This year we tried the Dilly Bean.
Canning Dilly Beans was a lot of fun and really simple, which is a huge plus for me, I just don’t have time to play around with complicated canning recipes.
I have lots of mouths to feed!

IMG_4766The preparation is very simple.  Simply wash the beans and cut them to the size of your jars, steam them until they are just tender.  That’s it.

IMG_4767IMG_4768In clean, sterilized jars place one dried chili pepper, one clove garlic and one half teaspoon dill seed. Pack the beans tightly in the jars, standing on end.

IMG_4769Bring 2 cups water, 2 cups apple cider vinegar and 1/4 cup canning salt to a boil and pour over the beans, leaving about a half inch head space.  Screw the lids on tight and flip jars over.

IMG_4770Once the jars have cooled completely, flip them back and check the seal.  Store for a few weeks before serving, so the flavors can mix and mature.

Serve cold

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Septic Tank

We recently purchased a new house, with some land.  Momzoo has posted a lot about the changes that we have made to the new house, and some of the challenges we have had to overcome.

The big one that I had to worry about, besides having no propane when we moved in, would be servicing the septic tank.  Momzoo and I both have had no or little experience with a septic tank.  So we did not give it much of a thought we we purchased the house.

We have had some problems with the toilets flushing since we purchased the house and thought it might be due to the septic tank being full or close to full.  But we have since found out that they used 2 inch pipe instead of 4 inch pipe for the toilet drains.  (I know, not code, and you would of thought, but hey, this is the new house.)

So, to see if that was the problem we needed to find the septic tank access hatch so we could see the level, and then get it pumped.   Problem, where is the hatch?   We looked and looked, and a local company told us to call the County Department of Health, because they document every septic tank in the county.  So I called, and within minutes they emailed me the lot plan with the location of the septic tank.  One problem, it said the hatch was 1 foot under the final grade.  Final grade?  What was the final grade when they inspected it.  Well, the final grade is (as we know now) a good 8 feed under the current grade of the back yard.

Yes, the lid for the septic tank has been buried 8 feet under our back yard.  So the work started.  Our friend and contractor has a mini-ex, so he loaned it to me for a weekend, and I started digging.  With his help, I found the septic tank right where it should be, but instead of 12 inches under ground, it was now 8 feet under ground. IMG_3365
I found the hatch 8 feet under ground. And we now have the issue of raising the hatch so that we can have it serviced and make it easily accessible in the future.

IMG_3333This gives you a little bit of a perspective of how far below ground it really is.  I am 6 foot 3 and this is what I look like in the hole.

So we have a 8 foot 18 inch concrete pipe purchased and delivered to the property.  We then used the mini-ex and a suburban as counter weight to slowly move it into position.

IMG_3357 IMG_3364 IMG_3374 IMG_3381 IMG_3387
We slowly moved it into place and then stood it upright.  With a little effort we were able to get it to set into the other pipe.

IMG_3410 IMG_3412 IMG_3426

Then we cut the top off and put the lid back on.

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As a bonus, the end we cut was then moved to another location and we now have a fire pit.  We burned stuff in the fire pit the following weekend.

Moral to the story, when you buy a house, make sure you know where the septic tank is, and have it serviced as part of the pre-contract purchase.  Or, if you are as lucky as we are, you can spend two days digging a hole and installing a new raiser for the tank.  And since the Richards are our friends the cost was minimal.

The next day we had a septic tank company suck out the tank, and we should be in business for at least a couple of years.  A family of 9 will fill a 1750 gallon tank in about 2.5 years, well at least that is what the Internet tells me.

Water Collection

Water it is precious and scarce.

Out here in the edge of Utah’s west desert where we get on average 10 inches of water a year, and the majority of that comes in the winter as snow, water is a big deal, and irrigation is a must.  There are two options as far as irrigation, the government grid or a private well.  With a private well you have to own water rights, which are expensive and hard to come by, as people who own them tend to hang onto them.  We don’t have any water rights, (some ding dong sold the water rights associated to the property when they hooked up to the city’s grid) which means we are on city water, for everything.  Another viable option is water collection, while it won’t supply all our irrigation needs, it will help some.

We have a lot of roof, which collects a lot of water,

that just runs off, it is  begging to be collected!

We purchased barrels from a local farm store, they had been previously used for pickling, so they smell strongly of peppers and brine, they will work for our needs and they were cheap.

Dadzoo cut a hole in the tops of the barrels and then attached screen, to keep bugs and big yucky things from getting into the water.

He then gut off the down spout and attached black flex pipe, to direct the water into the hole on top.

He then cut a hole on the top side of the barrel, and using a piece of vinyl that we found lying around he made a spout that directed more water into another barrel, so we can collect more than one barrel full at each down spout.After one day we had filled the first barrel, and the second one is slowly filling, we hope to have it filled by this weekend, as there is rain in the forecast.

While this won’t fill all our needs for irrigation, along with other techniques, we are hoping to minimize the amount of water we are pulling from the grid as much as possible.

In some states it is illegal to collect rain water, being that it is a natural resource (although I don’t see states coming and collecting their water when it floods basements…..).  Here in Utah it is legal to collect a certain amount of water in either above ground tanks or a cistern, all vessels that collect water have to be registred with the state.

Pina Colada Salad

 ***This great summer salad is from my archives***

 

This salad was a hit with the “zoo” everyone loved it.  Which is really no surprise because it is very, very sweet, so sweet in fact it would do nicely as a summertime dessert or snack on a hot afternoon.  It is very different from anything I have served or eaten before, I am excited to make it again.

First we will start with the dressing
Our ingredients are:

1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup pina colada drink mix
1 1/2 cup sour cream

add all ingredients together and whisk, then chill in the refrigerator while preparing the body of the salad.

For the rest of the salad we will need:

1 cup cashews
2 cups craisins
1 cup diced celery
2 cups diced, fresh, pineapple

Toss the ingredients together in a large bowl, then add the dressing and serve cold.