Category Archives: Pets and Animals

Mystery Plant and Other Things in the Yard

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I know that a lot of our posts are about things in our yard, but that’s what is easiest to manage and photograph. So, here goes.

We have a HUGE plant growing in our greenhouse that we did not plant. It is a mystery. At first when it was small we thought it was a cucumber as we had planted some seeds last year, but as time went on, it appeared to get larger and larger. It could have possibly grown from the seeds that were dumped from Josh the parrot’s cage? Maybe? Well anyway, the leaves are bigger than my head! I am 80% sure they are pumpkin plants (which we would NOT have planted in the greenhouse, rather in the garden), but they could be squash or another sort of gourd. What do you think?

Huge Plant with Hand for scale
The plant leaves with my hand for scale

Greenhouse jungle

The Greenhouse is a jungle. There’s Arugula coming out the door! …and that huge plant climbing the back wall. Once we thin the tomatoes from the garden we will put them in pots in here on the shelves.

Chicken in Window Well

The chickens occasionally fall into the window well and can’t get out. We have gotten a lot better at chicken rescue missions than the first time!

The roses are blooming again and some of the other plants around the yard. Still too much lettuce to possibly eat although some of them are bolting now.

Peach Rose
A Peach Rose (NEW! this year)

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Country Life (ca. 1896)

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Greeley is an alright place.  You need to have the right mindset going into anything.  Tonight after work Cassie and I decided to saddle up the bikes and go for a ride into town.   There is a place downtown called Patrick’s.  Its a new bar that is in a 100yr old brick building.  They had a bluegrass band called “Reservoir Rd”.  I used to live by Reservoir Rd when I was growing up.
bluegrass-bw

After that we went to the Relay for Life down at Island Grove Park.  That is where I think most people in Greeley were at the moment.

bike-bw

It was fun.  We rode our bikes for about a 5-7 mile round trip and got to see some people in our community.   Summer time is great.  The temperature was about perfect.  I realized that not much has changed in 100years.  This was most likely pretty close to what people were doing in 1896 when Greeley was founded.

chicken-bw

There was one difference though.  I got a page on my cell phone from one of our Unix Admins.  Apparently one of the satilite  servers at work took a dump and we had to switch to a backup for SSH / HTTP.   I dont think that happened alot back then.

Here is a picture of me on my bike LOL:
challand_1896

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Garlic, Strawberries and Lettuce

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The late-May early June harvests here in Greeley mainly consist of garlic, strawberries and lettuce, which is fine with me. We’ve been eating salads and putting the lettuce leaves on sandwiches, using the garlic scapes in all sorts of foods and eating strawberries from the vine.  We planted the seeds that have to have warm soil like watermelon, cucumbers, peppers and cantaloupe so we will look forward to their harvest as well. So far everything has been growing great using organic techniques. Here’s a few shots from the yard.

garlic-scape-in-garden
Garlic Scape

garlic-as-thick-as-my-thumb
This garlic is huge! As thick as my thumb

lettuce-in-the-garden
Lettuce in our garden -mostly volunteers from last year

strawberries-from-garden
Strawberries straight from the garden

chickens-in-yard
The girlies in the yard

We’ve seen a fox out back in the land behind our house and are a little bit worried for our chickens since they roam freely. So far the fox hasn’t seen them and I hope it stays that way. We also have eagles and hawks all around. I know why some people build chicken runs with chain link covers!

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Friends, Farming, and Fun

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We had a pretty busy weekend. We went out to lunch to see  some friends who were visiting from Tuscon, AZ. We went to a good Creole food restaurant in Longmont called Lucille’s Creole.

At Lucille's Creole
Me, Britton, Isaac, Koabi and Sara at Lucille’s Creole in Longmont

Later that afternoon we painted the new house and then went home to a beautiful sunset. Here’s a picture we took from our backyard.

Sunset in Colorado
Backyard Sunset

We have been letting the chicks stay outside lately. We were worried how the big chicken would react to them, but so far it has been peaceful. We had to play musical chicks for a while to allow the big chicken time in the coop to lay her egg. I knew we wouldn’t be able to do that today because of work so we just thought we’d wait and see what happened. Well, I went out to check on them and she had laid an egg! Seems to be working so far.

Integration of the old chicken and the new pullets is not going quite so smoothly. The chicken has found a way into the greenhouse even when we shut the door (through the secret cat tunnel), so she hasn’t been sleeping with the pullets. When they are playing/pecking around in the yard, the big chicken does her thing and the little girls do theirs. I think eventually they will form a flock. I hope so! I hope Big Chicken AKA Salt is not left out!

Here’s a few pictures from around the yard today. Plus our first small “farm” harvest!

Kitty in the yard
Kitty in the Yard watching over the chicks (he’s the manager)

Pullets in the yard
Pullets in the yard (FYI- when a chick is too big to be a chick, but too little to be a chicken they are called pullets!)

First Harvest
The First Harvest -the strawberries and lettuce are just coming in. The mint and eggs are ongoing and plentiful.

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