A Working Vacation

I have been on vacation from work this week and have been working hard on the urban farmstead. With the weather just starting to level out, there were many projects that I could finally tackle.

Right on time, our mail carrier brought bags of plants from the nursery that we ordered from. It was as though he knew that I would be on vacation and he didn't want to take a chance that I might have time to relax!

First up were the strawberries. We bought this aluminum, 3 tiered garden about 6 years ago and never installed it. It has gotten battered in the carriage house, but we were able to bend it back into shape by stomping on it a bit.



Next came the asparagus. I was careful to install it in a raised bed because it has a bad habit of taking over if not kept contained. The bed was built with some of the lumber that we got at the Habitat for Humanity Store.



Then came two kiwi. These are not the fuzzy kind that you find in the grocery store, but a smooth skinned variety that is cold hardy to withstand our winters. With kiwi, you have to plant both a male and a female plant in order to get fruit. I can't help but wonder how they figure that out. Does one plant wear ribbons or a frilly skirt? Both plants looked the same to me!




Then came getting the greens in pots. These will go on the garden table that I built a couple of months ago in my attempt to keep the greens away from the groundhogs. There is spinach, mesclun mix and lettuce for salads. For TheMartianMan, there are collard greens and cabbage. Also planted in pots are cauliflower, kale and broccoli. We shall see how they do...They can't do any worse than they did last year when not a single one of these plants survived in the garden. Luckily, I had grown some lettuce varieties in pots on the front porch or there would have been no salad for us!


We needed to get busy building the raised bed for the kitchen garden. It measures about 12 feet x 8 feet and will include basic herbs, beans, a variety of heirloom tomatoes, scallions, carrots, peppers and other basic veggie staples. It is nice to be able to run out the back door while cooking to grab some fresh herbs!



I took time out to hang the hummingbird feeder. I would love to get hummers, but know that I may have to settle for bees. We have seen many bumblebees this season paying visits to our flowers and trees. Not so many honeybees... I also noticed that this feeder is no longer full...Hmmm... I may have to keep a closer eye on this to determine if it leaks.



Well, that has been my week so far! I have more still to do and not nearly enough time to get it done.

12 Step Program Needed!

My name is TheMartianChick and I am a hatchaholic! After having two successful quail hatches, I am feeling confident enough to move on to chicken eggs. Not just any chicken eggs, but Black Copper Marans! To most people, a chicken is a chicken, is a chicken...unless it's fried! To people who are really into breeding chickens, the BC Marans are something special. The eggs are a deep, deep brownish red color. The darker the egg color, the more desirable the bird.



The eggs now reside in the incubator along with some Rhode Island Red hatching eggs. Tomorrow, they will be joined by some blue-green Ameracauna eggs that arrived in the mail today. The eggs need to recover from their postal journey before going in the incubator.




Once hatched, we plan to keep all Marans hens at our house and one or two roosters at a friend's farm for breeding purposes. We will likely keep an Ameracauna hen or two for the novelty of having green eggs. All of the Rhode Island Reds will be sold as chicks on Craigslist along with any other Ameracaunas. Of course, the more chicks that we sell, the faster the incubator will be paid off.

Last Call For the Chicken Nest Contest !!

Life on a Southern Farm: Chicken Nest Box Giveaway.

The prize is a fabulous handcrafted 2 seater, chicken nesting box. If you haven't been visited already, then take a trip now and register to win!

These Martian Quail Have A Rich Heritage...

That's right! The second batch of chicks is hatching! These are the ones from Brad at Rich Heritage. They also seem to be a bit better behaved than my first batch. They don't seem to step on eachother as much, nor did they try to play soccer with the rest of the eggs in the incubator. I felt so bad leaving them at home alone. So far there are 11 chicks and at least one more egg with a good sized chip out of it. I'll have another update after I get out of work.

Just a reminder: The contest for the chicken nest box continues Life on a Southern Farm: Chicken Nest Box Giveaway.

Life on a Southern Farm: Chicken Nest Box Giveaway.

There will soon be chickens running around at Mission-2-Mars! I am expecting a shipment of hatching eggs this week and I will also set some Rhode Island Red eggs for chick sales to help to pay for the incubator. I figured that I can't be the only one trying to farm on a budget, so I decided to share this contest with all of you.

I absolutely love the Life on a Southern Farm Blog and this week, they are rewarding their readers with a chance to win one of their chicken nest boxes. This isn't just any chicken nest box, but a handcrafted beauty that any hen would be proud to lay an egg in. You can learn more about the contest here:

Life on a Southern Farm: Chicken Nest Box Giveaway.

Budget Update

I decided to revisit the farm budget today...Sheesh, money sure doesn't buy as much as it used to! We will be modifying the budget soon to free up some of the money that is currently dedicated to the aquaculture/tilapia. We have managed to locate a stock tank that costs half as much as the one that we had originally planned to buy. We also located someone who is willing to sell us a smaller number of tilapia. Most places that sell them deal on a commercial scale and want the purchaser to buy hundreds (or thousands) of fish. We plan to buy only about 50 fish now, which will drive our costs down.

Here is the latest tally of what we've spent so far to get our property ready to be an urban farmstead. On the right side of the blog, you will notice that I added a ticker to help us keep track of the money generated by the incubator. After all, it has to pay for itself! I have separated the expenses by category:

CHICKEN EQUIPMENT - Budget $200 - Only $45 left!
Children's Playhouse..................$80
Plastic Dishpan.......................$ 1
Plastic Crate.........................$ 1
Diatomaceous Earth....................$15
Crushed Eggshells.....................$ 0
Poultry Waterer Heater................$ 0
Poultry Feeder........................$ 0
Oyster Shell Dish.....................$ 0
Brooder Construction..................$ 0
Welded Wire...........................$13
Heating Pads..........................$30
Child's Pool.............................$15

Garden - Budget $300 - Only $139 left!
Member to Member Seedswaps............$ 5
Mushroom Kit..........................$28
12 Raspberry Canes................$26
Assorted Fruit Order..............$63
Plant Labels..............................$ 3
Recycled Wood.........................$38
Concrete Edging.......................$2

Aquaculture - Budget $300

Miscellaneous - Budget $200 - Only $12 left!
1000 Mealworms........................$20
Oatmeal...............................$ 4
Aquarium Brooder.............$ 0
Potatoes..............................$ 0
Plastic Bins..........................$12
Quail Supplies....................$23
Quail Eggs.........................$29
Welded Wire.....................$26
Chicken Eggs....................$74
Wall Thermometer................$ 1

The Martian Quail Have Taken Over!

Last night before I went to bed, I noticed that 3 of the quail eggs in the incubator had pips! The chicks were determinedly pecking away, trying to shed their little shells so that they could meet some honest-to-goodness Martians.

It was a dark and stormy night and the wind howled incessantly, keeping me awake for hours. I was determined to sleep in this morning, but a steady peeping awoke me at 7:40. Our first quail had hatched out and was determined that no additional sleep was to be had in our house. I captured some of the hatching activity on video and spent the remainder of the day watching quail tv...It's quite entertaining. There are lots of re-runs, as each chick is determined to repeat the mistakes of their brethren. Someone told me that baby quail come into the world with a suicidal streak. I have found it to be true. I also learned how resilient they are, since none of their antics actually killed any of them.

By dinner time, we had a total of 6 chicks. I believe that 4 of them are Texas A&M quail, one is a chocolate quail and one is a golden quail. Not bad considering that these eggs were shipped through the postal service. Here they are: