Trying to get back in the swing of things

We have been so busy with work, I can't believe how long it's been! So much has happened as far as animal and garden happenings..... All the pigs are gone, I have two gardens now, I built a new chicken coop and run, got a rooster, just hatched some chicks from a broody hen. The garden is doing better than last year, weather has been better too....but my zucchinis have powdery mildew from late warm rain. The lower garden is hard clay, so I expect nothing. But the zucchini and tomatoes I planted is doing really good. I also planted a lot of beans, wheat, flax and lentils everywhere. They are cheap in the grocery store bulk bins, I feed a lot of the greens to the chickens and leave the roots and some of the tops to continue growing for future green manure.
I downloaded the blogger app so when I had time at work I could do some blogging, I still don't have a camera, that is next on the list, I just bought an HP touch tablet with scrap metal money from a demo, I like it a lot, I haven't got to use it much, I have been so busy.
I'll have to take pics with my phone of everything and post them.

My Camera is Dead

Yes the nice one i just bought last June. We went to Sand Lake with our friends while Breanna and Cole were camping with friends, it is an off road beach where you ride quads, dirt bikes, sand rails and trucks. Well i took my camera to get pictures of the fun while riding in the sand rail, and sand got into the gears that opens the lens. We got it home, hubby took it all apart, sprayed it out with air and at the first step of putting it back together the post that the gear sits on broke! So now all i have is my cell phone for a camera, which as far as camera phones go is awesome, but still not my camera awesome. I feel like an idiot for not thinking that would happen. So i guess i'll leave you with some of the last pictures my camera took.

Dave and Adam riding to the beach

View from the top

The shoe tree with some bra and underwear thrown on too

Adam and Dave at the shoe tree

Adam riding on the beach

And this is what happens when you don't hold the wrench tight enough, it's fixed now :)

FRESH

I had to share this with you also.

Truck Farm | A Wicked Delicate Film and Food Project

This is the same two guys from King Corn, and they have now taken their old dodge truck from the movie and converted the bed into a garden! t's 40 square feet in New York. I think it is ingenious!

Here is the link to their website:Truck Farm

For me the link is not visible, but it is clickable? I dunno what's going on with it,just incase it is: www.truck-farm.com
And here is the intro movie i ran into that exlpains it and shows them building the "farm"

My poor Brussels Sprouts, sprout no longer

Those little buggers from my previous post just kept coming and coming and so did some other GIANT caterpillar! I looked online to find what kind of butterfly it was that was laying all the eggs, everything pointed to a mottled brown one, well i am sorry internet but it's NOT, it's white just like i thought! I saw her lay her eggs with my very own eyes, and i couldn't keep up with her! I pulled all the lower leaves, left only a few top ones only to reveal that my little gorgeous sprouts were completely INFESTED! All of them had oodles of caterpillars in them, so i tore them up and fed them to my chickens.........take that caterpillars! That evil butterfly has been circling my garden in search of a cabbage plant everyday since, but i fixed her, and next year all of my cabbage family plants will have a net, a fenced cage something to keep that damn white butterfly that lays more eggs than the momma from Aliens off of them!!!

No 'Poo Update

Today is the 1st week i have not used shampoo and conditioner, my hair is lovely! I always have a TON of frizzies on top of my head, i have very kinky dark hair mixed in with my blonde, it is awful............but not anymore!!! My hair has never been so straight, it is brushable right out of the shower, it has no odor, no perfume gunk, no dust covered greasy feeling. I am in love with my hair again. I found this herbal oil in the African American hair section(they have the best stuff for dry hair, and cheap too) it is called Africa's Best Ultimate Herbal Oil(it smells like baby oil which i'm not fond of) and i put it on my ends and braided it, left it in for a few hours and washed with baking soda and rinsed with the ACV and my hair was great. It was getting very dry the last few inches, didn't matter how much $$ i spent on it. Anyway think of an oil, it's in there: soybean, walnut seed, kiwi fruit extract, olive, castor, sesame, jojoba, carrot seed, sweet almond, Vitamin E, safflower, calendula extract, yarrow extract, cucumber extract,carrageenan extract, ginseng extract, sage extract, comfrey extract, aloe extract, and fragrance(baby oil stink) in an 8oz. bottle for under $3.00! It's also made in the USA which is a nice plus.

Here i am a couple weeks ago with my son (that is in desperate need of a hair cut!)and you can see how greasy my hair is on top with the frizzies, and how dry it is on the bottom, granted i should get a trim, but i don't want to! 

Here is my hair today!

I do think i am going to use some neutral henna in my hair as a good conditioner once in a while.......if i can find it.

No shampoo, no conditioner challenge Day One

I have had it with my hair! The products in the store make my head feel greasy, but the bottom quarter dry as hell! The next day the bottom 3/4 feels greasy with dirt dust in it. Conditioner makes my back break out(yuck!) So i am done! I am not buying that crap anymore, i have just had it.

I from now on will either make my own or use the no 'poo way, the latter is what i used this morning. Here is a link to the no 'poo way http://1greengeneration.elementsintime.com/?p=935 I did put a cinnamon stick and vanilla extract in my ACV, and i just mixed the baking soda and water n a jelly jar. My hair is long.....it's to my bra strap in the back, it doesn't seem tangled like i thought it would be, it does have a touch of ACV smell, but i think that will go away when it dries. We'll see, i don't think it can be any worse than the store bought stuff with massive amounts of chemicals. Note that i do not color or perm or even use hair spray in my hair, i am a wash, condition, and brush when it's dry girl.

Trash to Treasure = Rabbit Hutch to Chicken Coop

A friend gave me a rabbit hutch, it's in okay shape, the pictures i think make it look better than it is.....the rabbit hutch is getting converted into a chicken coop.

I made siding out of plywood footing boards

I installed a roost

I would like to paint it and paint a nice picture on the front

I still need to put the roofing on, cut the legs shorter, and make a door ramp, the chicks won't be here until the 10th-12th, and she is keeping three(i'm getting 20). So i have a week to scrounge up paint, all i have is marking paint and it is BRIGHT pink :)

Quail quail and more quail

Two females escorting the brood

I did not keep the blackberries on our hill cut down this year as i usually do and now we have a quail community living here. The babies are so cute and fast, they run all over the place, they take dust baths in the dirt bike trails and they dash from one side of tall grass to the other. I have been able to watch the family grow from just one pair of quail,  their four babies hatching and then the other pair came the next week with their babies for a total of nine babies.

A male checking me out on our deck

Two males watching above from a tree looking for predators

Two females and one male with a few of the babies

Meat Bird Page

I have made a new page on my blog titled Meat Birds, i will be keeping all of my meat bird info on that page, from the time i picked them up(today) through their growth, their feed intake($), home butchering to freezer.....and of course to my plate!