Less is More

I always enjoy checking out what’s happening world-wide on Bloom Day, but seldom get organized to post myself (shame on me). Fortunately, it was difficult to forget this month – May blooms are the one big Technicolor show this high desert garden puts on every year. I’ve actually spotted folks stopping to stare (in amazement or horror . . .  hard to say) when they pass by on foot.

I’m running a week behind, as is typical, and am just now showing off the accomplishment from a week ago. With the help of a very awesome friend, hand truck, levers and brute force, the blue fortress has been rotated and moved to accommodate the additional chicken butts. South of the coop, between the coop and wall, I will build a less secure run (about 35 sf) that I can use to contain the hens when I’m here to keep an eye on them, but don’t want them running free. The area north of the coop will be a completely contained 20 sf run – hardware cloth roof and floor – that can be used when the humans are not here to provide extra running around space, in addition to the 30 sf of space they have now. You can also see in the photo that I’ve installed the vegetable protection fence. It’s only 24″ plastic poultry fencing - the hens could fly over it if they want – but for now that seems to be enough of a deterrent. You can also see in the photo the little butts are enjoying their morning free time. The chicks (Bandit, Miss Kitty and Daisy) are 6 weeks old and have already been living outside for two weeks. The chicks were inside with the heat lamp for 3 weeks, then spent one week of days outside and nights inside, no heat lamp, and then they graduated completely to the cruel outside world. I think a lot of the books recommend keeping chicks in a climate controlled area for 6 – 8 weeks, but they were really chafing to have more space for running around, and I was really anxious to get the chicks and the mess out of the house. The first week outside they were in a cage in the run, and I would wrap the cage with lots of old towels at night to hold in some warmth since the nights were, and still are, only in the upper forties or low fifties. However, after we moved the coop, we spent some time cleaning it and tricking it out with new, just-for-chicks, features. Now there is a temporary mesh divider in the run, under the coop, and the chicks have about 9 sf all to themselves. There is a plywood crate and lots of straw for them to nest in when they need extra warmth, but mostly they enjoy hanging out on top of the crate or the roost non-gardener installed for them. The scraps of plywood are there as a wind break – there have been some wicked winds blowing through lately. But as you can see, despite the tough love policy, the chicks seem pretty happy:

yummmm . . . moth.

I’ve been taking photos all week for blog posts I’ve been writing in my head,  but with all that is going on here (trying to finish the kitchen reno, getting the gardens filled with seeds and plants for summer veg, making space for the three new little chickens butts, and finally - hallelujah- cooking in the 80% complete kitchen) I haven’t actually gotten around to making words on the screen. So, for now, here are a few of those photos. Feel free to make up an appropriate narrative, as you choose.

I spotted the first swallowtail in the garden yesterday on the Centranthus ruber which, by the way, does great in my garden with some afternoon shade and only a bit of extra water during the hottest and driest days of June and July.

The chicks are now 3 weeks old, which means I’ve graduated them to plenty of fresh air and sunshine. The weather has been quite warm, too warm actually with 91* in the forecast for today, so their cage has been moved to the garden for the morning. They also get some closely supervised un-caged time to scratch, peck, dust bathe and chase insects – big excitement. All the chicks seem to be doing well. As you can see in the photo, the chick with the eye problems is doing much better – both eyes have been clear for the past few days. S/he is also the largest chick, but grew in tails feathers after the other two. . . I can’t help but wonder if we have a little cockerel on our hands. I’m trying to avoid engaging in too much conjecture, since at this age that’s all it is, but. . .

Anyway, we’re having a week of summer interjected in spring (seems like everyone is having an unusually warm spring this year), so I’ve been running around planting squash and bean seeds. I’ve also finally cleaned up the front porch so I can sit there and admire the spring blooming plants.  Right now we have Apache plume, claret cup cactus, banana yucca, sulpher buckwheat, blackfoot daisy, basin fleabane and perky sue flowering. It’s quite a nice show.

Non-gardener actually noticed how lush everything looks right now – at four years old, many of the plants have finally started to fill out and look less tenuous. The front yard is almost starting to look like a garden, high desert style.