Keeping peppers through winter.

A lot of people don't know it, but peppers are perennials.  It's possible to keep them growing all year long.  I've done it before.  They just have to be kept above freezing. 

I had a number of pepper plants in containers.  When it got cold I moved them to my garage and kept them under fluorescent lights.  They took up a lot of space.  It was pretty inconvenient.  This year I thought I'd try putting them in my greenhouse.

I have not gotten great results in the greenhouse.  My temperature control system has worked great.  It hasn't gotten below freezing in there even though we had some cold nights get into the teens.  I think the issue is humidity.  It's too humid in the greenhouse and the plants have gotten a brown hairy mold/fungus on them.  I tried pruning them but I don't think it helped.

I moved the plants out of the greenhouse once the arctic air passed.  It's too late for two of them, but the other two might have a chance.  I'll just have to wait and see... 

Mid-Winter homestead update

Winter isn't the most exciting time around the old homestead.  I had plenty to do to keep me busy, but I didn't think much of it warranted a blog post.  So I'll just post it all here in a single update.

One of my more interesting projects was to create a bench for my fire ring. One of my coworkers sent out an email asking if anyone knew where he could get a 10' section of tree trunk with the bark removed.  I volunteered to help him. 

I have a lot of trees in my woods that need to come down.  I also own a draw knife.  I found a tree that looked like a good candidate and cut it down.  It was fairly straight with only a minor bend.  The lowest section was 10" in diameter.  I kept that to use as my bench.  A straighter section (with an 8" diameter) further up went to my coworker.

I used my draw knife to remove the bark from the trunk.  The log in the top of the picture below went to my coworker while I kept the bottom log.  It was much easier to remove the bark from the smaller of the two logs.

Once the bark was removed my son and I dragged it into the yard and set it up on two smaller log sections.

 That night we tested the bench by inviting some neighbors over for a campfire.

Leaves are one of the things that have kept me most busy.  I have a lot of oak trees and they drop a lot of leaves.  I spent at least four weekends cleaning them up.  I wouldn't bother if it wasn't for the fact that this year's leaves become next year's compost.

Leaves all over the back yard.

I used the leaf blower, multiple rakes, and the lawn mower to remove all of the leaves.  I found that blowing the leaves into the yard and then mulching them with the mower worked best.  Then I had to rake them onto a tarp or turn my blower into a vacuum and suck them up.  Then I'd move them to my compost bin.  It was a lot of work. 

  The fall and winter is a good time to split wood.  That's a project that isn't fun to do in the summer heat. 

I have a lot of wood piles from all of the trees that I've taken down.  This is after taking multiple van loads on camping trips with the Cub scouts.

 

There isn't a lot going on in the garden right now.  I have kale growing all over the place, but that's about it.  There might be some lettuce and spinach hanging on as well, but I haven't really looked.

I had the week off of work between Christmas and New Year's.  That gave me the time to tackle some bigger projects.  The biggest of which was spreading mulch.  I had 20 yards delivered on a Tuesday morning.  I thought that I'd be able to get it all moved by the end of Saturday. 

I started moving wheel barrow loads of mulch right after the dump truck left.  I took a break for lunch and then got back to moving mulch.  Not long after that my neighbor came over and offered to help.  He brought his wheel barrow. 

He and I were able to move the entire pile of mulch that afternoon!  We finished 30 minutes or so before it got dark.  I put my shovels and tools away and swept the driveway.  Then the next morning I got the rake out and spread the piles of mulch that we had dumped everywhere. 

I kept a buffer zone between the mulch and the grass.  The chickens tend to scratch and peck and move the mulch into the yard.  Then every 3 days or so I have to go around and rake it back to where it belongs. 

All of the chickens are doing well.  The new ones we got in November have integrated into the flock.  They're all one big happy group now.  I haven't been keeping a real close count on the egg production, but I'd guess that we get 4 a week.  Hopefully those new birds will start laying in the spring.  I think our Rhode Island Red is the only bird that lays regularly right now. 

I think I've posted pictures from the most interesting things that have happened around here.  Thankfully Spring is just around the corner.  I'll probably start seeds for the garden in the next month or so.  I can hardly wait.

The chicken swap.

I wrote recently that our chickens are providing very few eggs.  We get one a day on average.  I was telling this to one of my neighbors and she asked me if I wanted to swap out some chickens.  She'd give me some younger ones for some of my older ones.  That sounded like a good deal to me.  The only issue was determining which birds to part with.  I ran the idea by my kids.  They wanted to keep four and swap out three.

Below are pictures of the three new birds.  My kids have named them, but I don't remember what their names are.  

These birds are quite big.  We're hoping that they're big enough that the hawks will leave them alone.  None of them are laying yet.  I'm guessing that they will be by spring.

It took them a few days to adjust to their new surroundings, but they seem to be doing fine now.  The other birds sure do give them grief.  I find the pecking order thing rather amusing. 

An update on the layer chickens - Fall 2014

I don't write about my chickens frequently.  That's probably because there isn't a lot to tell.  They're easy to take care of.  I lock them up at night and let them out in the morning.  Every 3-4 days I add food to their feeder.  That's pretty much it.

It's infrequent that anything changes.  We added a few birds to the flock in August, but most of them didn't make it.  The good news is that the one remaining chick is doing well.  She's as big as the mother hen now.

The bird in the middle is the last remaining chick.

The other thing that has happened recently is that their egg production has fallen drastically.   There was a time when we had 6 birds that we would get 4-6 eggs per day.  Now we have 8 birds and we're lucky to get 1-2 eggs per day.  Sometimes we get 0. 

Part of that is due to the time of year.  They lay fewer eggs when there is less daylight.  I think the big issue is age.  From what I've read, the prime egg laying age is 6-18 months.  Most of my birds are more than 2 years old.  The new chick isn't old enough to start laying yet, and I don't know the age of the mother hen.  She still sticks close to the chick.  I don't know if she's still playing mother or if they've just formed their own little group.  Regardless, she's not laying.

I'm ready to start culling the older birds.  I'm willing to put them in the freezer, but my children won't let me.  They want to keep them around as pets (which they pretty much are).

My barred Plymouth rock is molting again.  She did this last year.  Looking at the pictures from then I'm guessing she's going to look a lot worse before she looks better.

10-26-2014

She looked good on 9-14-2014.

My Rhode Island Red molted in June.  She looks pretty good now.  She's the only one that still lays eggs reliably.  Most of the eggs we get come from her.

Garden Status for October 2014

I didn't do a lot in the garden this month.  Even with the neglect it's still producing.

Beans from 10-02-2014

The kale is really doing well.  10-15-2014

More kale and beans.  10-15-2014

I have several pepper plants that are still hanging on.  10-15-2014

I guess the key to getting a lot of really nice peppers is ignoring them.  These were all picked on 10-19-2014.

This kale was picked on 10-25-2014.  It hardly made a dent in what was out there.

I have lettuce coming up, but it's nowhere near ready to pick.

Growing grass with chickens (again)

Earlier this month I wrote a post saying that I had stuff growing in my in-place compost.  It didn't last.  Between the chickens and the heavy rain we had last week all of the green is gone.

The rain really made a mess of things.  I raked the area to level it out.  I need something to grow there quick.  I need root structure to hold everything in place.  I threw my 2x4 screened box to the one side.  Then I scattered winter rye over the entire area.  (Winter rye germinates down to something like 35*.) 

It didn't take long for the chickens to find that seed.  In the past I've put up netting to keep them out.  I didn't want to deal with that today.  The deer haven't been bothering my garden this year, so I thought I'd use the scarecrow to keep the chickens away. 

The scarecrow is a motion activated water sprinkler.  It works great!  I wasn't able to get video or pictures, but the few times the chickens have ventured into this area they set the thing off.  The water spraying spooks them and they take off.  Even the dog has avoided going near there. 

I have it on its most sensitive setting.  It went off frequently today.  That's fine.  It's keeping the new seed watered.  The biggest problem I have had with the scarecrow is that it eats batteries.  Having it on the highest sensitivity probably won't help with that.

My favorite outdoor clothing

Back in August I went almost 3 weeks without a post, and I heard from 20% of my readers (sure it was just 2 people, but 20% sounds better).  Anyway, I thought I better post something since I haven't written anything in a while.  There's just one problem.  I don't have a lot going on right now.  So I thought I'd mention some of my favorite clothing to wear outside while doing all of these backyard homesteading projects. 

I used to just wear old cotton T-shirts and jeans shorts.  They were pretty standard "yard clothes."  It gets hot in North Carolina in the summer so I sweat.  The cotton shirts would cling and be very uncomfortable.  I needed something better.  I got out one of the shirts I wear backpacking.  It was a huge improvement.  I love the EMS Techwick T-shirts.  They offer ultra fast wicking and they're quick drying.  They are great to wear outside in the summer (or any time of year really). 

These shirts list for $30-35.  I've never paid that much for one.  They go on sale all the time and frequently they end up on clearance.  I generally get them for $10-15 although I've paid as little as $6.98. 

For pants I've found that I really like the REI Sahara convertible pants.  They're lightweight, water resistant, and if I do get too hot I can turn them into shorts.  They also have a lot of pockets for carrying things.  Some of the pockets even zipper or Velcro shut so you don't have to worry about stuff falling out.

I don't pay full price for these either.  They go on sale several times a year for 20% off.  It's hard to get a better discount than that from REI. 

Appalachian Trail near Boiling Springs PA - 2009

If it isn't apparent already, I pretty much like to wear the same stuff I would wear on the trail.  So for my feet there is only one option.  Hiking boots!  I've been wearing hiking boots as my main footwear since I was 15-16 years old.  I love them.  I wear them on the trail, in the yard, to work, to the store, and to church.  Even with all that use, I generally get 3-4 years out of a pair of boots. 

I've tried a lot of different brands of boots over the years, but I have decided that Asolo boots are my favorite and I will be buying them from now on.  I will say right up front, that Asolo boots are not cheap.  They list for $250-300. 

Luckily you can find them on sale from time to time.  I think I paid around $150 for each of my last two pairs.  I got my current pair from sierratradingpost.com.  The pair I got before that came from campmor.com.  The downside to buying boots online is that you can't try them on to see how they fit.  I think that's a risk worth taking given how much money you can save. 

Anyway, I'll have to find something new and interesting to do around here.  That way I'll have something else to write about.