Year end Progress 2016

The flock of 7 year old hens and one really , really great Rooster. He watches over the girls and keeps them close for their protection. Out of the original 18 that were chicks, this is what we have left.

The guest bedroom and hopefully by next year, our new Airbnb. We need to finish the bath house first which will have a hot tub and tiny kitchen area for our guests to use .

My office looks the same on the outside....

Guest house outside needs some TLC to get it in shape.

The  center  turn around for the winter.

My office back yard.....what a mess ... it has gotten so overgrown.

I Love this veranda , it is so peaceful to sit and enjoy the solitude!

The Bath house in progress....

 
Our bedroom suite add on has been a joy to have, we are so glad we did it!

Yep! The "temporary garage"  is still there. Man ! Where does the time go!!!!

The Bedroom porch

The slab for this porch was because our forms/cement guy over ordered cement by 3 yds . He threw up the forms and did not check the square . it looked square but it was off by 1 inch . it does not seem like alot but it is as you will see.....

What we did here was to drill into the cement to anchor the posts . This is done by creating the metal plate that the bolts will go through first, then marking this on the cement to drill the holes that the bolts will be cemented to.

The posts are drilled using the same template so everything matches. Here we set the post in the bolts add added supports to hold the posts as close to square as possible for now.

The front beam was placed next. we had to add the short pieces of 1X 6s to make sure the slope of the extension matched the original porch. 

Here is another angle to show the temporary supports.

Next are the rafters which match the rafters on the original porch.

The decking of 5/8" plywood is next, that is when you discover "out of square" . we had to cut the plywood to fit the shape .

Tar paper is placed on the decking to water proof the plywood .

Here are my drawings to order the trim.

Richard is putting on the side trim to frame out the porch nicely , he is using 1"X 12" lumber.

This post took 4 weeks to complete.

The Bedroom door

We bought this door from our recycling guy years ago and wanted to put it in a special place. it needed alot of work: patching , sanding and more sanding...

Richard decided to make it colorful!

 And then added red to frame it all in.... It turned out really cool and will look even better when the wall is finished.

Summer updates 2016 June July August

Canaries are still hatching, she or he are good parents! Both the male and female feed and help raise the young!

A very long Chicken snake in the coop looking for eggs and chickens. The snake will eat the eggs and if he is hungry enough he will attempt to eat a chicken  by starting at the head, totally engulfing the beak to the throat . At this time the chicken will have suffocated and the snake will have realized that the chicken is way too big for him to swallow. He will leave the dead chicken with digestive slime over its head. That is how we know the chicken death. June 17, 2016

Bounty from the garden, Onions and  peppers. July 3,2016

My solution to keep  Squirrels and Rabbits from eating the melons. It actually works!

Finally we move into the Bedroom! July 17, 2016

We had a surprise mama chicken hatch out 3 babies. She hid for 3 weeks while she hatched them. We wondered where the extra eggs went to, she was sitting on 18 eggs and only 3 hatched.

A short clip of the clutch...

A current resident

Here is one of those baby chicks at 5 weeks old already perching 7 feet up!

Time lapse Chickens 2/06/2016- 5/21/2016

The new Chickens are about 7 weeks here, February 6, 2016

March 12, 2016, About 3 months old.

The rooster  at about 4 months, April 13, 2016

May 5, 2016,  at 5 months, almost ready to lay eggs..

Out on a May day enjoying the spring grasses!

Time lapse Garden and AMAZING GROW LIGHTS!!! 2/27/2016- 5/17/2016

I Finally got a Grow light and it is amazing! The seeds just pop out of the soil and are the healthiest starts I have ever grown!
This is the day I planted them, February 8, 2016

This is  February 13,2016

Above and below is the picture taken on February 27, 2016!
The squash and Tomatoes are the largest, The peppers are taking longer.

I transplanted everything for the most part on March 19, 2016. We did get a light frost  March  22 that killed half the Tomatoes and the squash. I will need to watch the weather closer next year!

The squash is doing so well now....

Cantaloupe , A favorite with the squirrels,  did well at first but did not like the frost later.

Gladiolas loving the space , soil and warmth coming from Santa Fe, NM.

The asparagus did not come up easily this year, Weather? I also heavily mulched it! We did get some asparagus but not like prior years.

Strawberries , They did well at first then the heat came, I bought them at walmart and they were not the correct variety for this area.

Blackberries just starting to grow.

The Blueberries above and the Blackberries below on May 17,2016.

Strawberries did well until the heat killed them.

A row of greens with the Glads.

The out of control Herbs.....
 Rosemary , Oregano, mint, thyme , Sage and Lavender

Cantalope blooming, before the rabbits discovered them....

Peppers a really good start .

Tomatoes with alot of sets.

Onions were a bumper crop this year.

The chard and kale did really well.

Cucumbers were sooooooo good.... 

The squash did well until the nematodes and vine borers got them.
 

The asparagus did very well after all, it must have been the weather.

I did try a different method this year by mulching with hay the beds and putting chunk cedar down on the paths, it helped keep the weeds down . I also took down all the shade cloth and the plants did better with the full sunlight and heavy mulch on the roots with the drip irrigation that gave them water at the roots every other day .