Garden on Corliss Homestead Journal

Very interesting that one of your dogs figured out through trial and error that comfry helps when feeling poorly, and that it taught the other dog about it!  They are such smart creatures!  And maybe other dogs would benefit from it as well, I wonder if that is documented anywhere as being good for them, if not you've made a discovery here.

Around the time of Halloween and Thanksgiving, there are plenty of things to 'forage' around the village. Pumpkins, squashes and even bales of straw can be had for free if you know where to look! I'm quite prudish on what I will bring home and I have a wary eye for baled grasses. The fact that the bale was sprouting was a great sign and I managed to snag three of them. This is perfect to be turned into mulch or added as carbon into composting piles. I've also used bales to create windbreaks along my chicken run. I just stack them on the outside of the run and they work quite well for the winter season.

I am expecting somewhere around seven to eleven inches of snow to begin to accumulate in the morning so I am hunkering down. There will be plenty of cleanup to do in the morning so might as well be cozy for the interim.

While this might not be permaculture related, I hope you get a laugh out of it.

I recently learned how to take video in slow-mo. I think this is how she really thinks she sounds...

Good job on the straw bale scor.

I have been trying, year after year, to maintain a living Christmas tree but they all seem to die off before we even make it to spring. This year, we had originally decided NOT to do a tree but after hosting a small get-together we were gifted something new!

Norfolk Island Pine

Lets see if we can keep a Norfolk Island Pine alive!

P.S. Enjoy this picture of Noodle in nature.

A majestic Noodle

I will probably always be one of those naughty people who gets a Christmas tree and does it the commonplace way.  I want it in my living room, to be the size I want, etc.  I guess I should add that to the thread of bad behaviours we're not ready to give up.

One more day and I am another year older. Happy early birthday to me.

We have reached the coldest extended period of time this winter and I have been spending more time indoors. I'm dreaming of working the soil and sucking up some sunshine. Before I know it, it will be spring planting time!

It also happens to be our six month rescue anniversary for our pup Loy. She has brought a lot of joy into the household in such a very little time. She is spunky and opinionated but really is only looking for affection. She has helped keep our older pup active and kept me company when I'm piddling around with my projects. Our newest routine involves when I want to take her outside on a leash. Instead of standing at the door with her sister to get hooked up, she books it to the bedroom and scampers up onto the bed. By the time I get to her, she presents her belly and wags her tail until I pick her up. We refer to this as the princess treatment and she ONLY does it to me. My wife will wait at the door and Loy will scamper up and sit still to be hooked up. I feel like I am getting the run around by her.

In all of her glory, I managed to snap a picture of her mid-yawn to share.

The signs of early spring are here.

I walked out to my compost pile and started poking at it with my pitchfork. For months now, the pile has been frozen solid and I have reached quite a sizeable heap as I have been adding to it over time. This time, the pile started to shrink with each poke. After a small length of time poking, the pile has shrunk by a third of its original size and appeared to have an active core. How excellent! I was worried I was going to have to start ANOTHER pile.

The chicken coop is starting to get a smell and I'm getting limited on space for my deep litter. I have added another bale of fine flake and that will be about full at this time. I think this will squeak me into better weather to be able to do a proper cleanout for the year. Years previous when I only had ten chickens, the deep litter lasted well into the spring without looking fully spent. With the addition of a gaggle of bantams this year, it seems that the coop's litter has met its match. Perhaps the fact that it was a particularly snowy winter made the chickens spend more time in the coop?

Random Tidbits

My automatic chicken coop door struggles to function around -15 degrees F but will go back to working just fine when the temperature increases. I still am using the original lantern battery it came with! What has it been, three years?

Vegetable seeds have been started. I need to start flowers next, perhaps this weekend?

Ten yards of topsoil has been ordered to top off beds and establish some new pollinator garden sites where the soil is mostly rock.

I need to start identifying and planning to get ahold of some boulders/large stones to rebuild my outdoor fire pit. There are plenty around, I just have to dig them out.  

Next chance I get potatoes are being planted and soon will come radish seeds too.  I'm getting some fil dirt and compost delivered to fill my new raised beds, I got two oval shaped ones.  Building what I can accomplish a bit at a time.  Hopefully in future I won't need to get anything delivered because I'll have enough from composting, but we're not there yet.  I think your chickens probably help your compost to be more efficient than ours, since we don't have any livestock.  I hope you get the fire pit all sorted out and can enjoy it a lot this year.

The first signs of spring have been discovered on my land! After the snow and ice has melted, we have a few plants peeking out of mulch ready for the light of day.

Daffodils Emerging

I've finally got the girls (hens) out of their coop and run now that the snow is gone. They are happily scratching up mulch looking for tasty morsels and stretching their legs.

Free Ranging Chickens

I have plenty of outdoor cleanup to do but I got derailed from doing that this week as my washer has been having issue. The agitator has not been moving so our clothes haven't been getting washed properly. After troubleshooting and finding that the drum spins fine and that it doesn't seem to be electronic related, I tore apart the agitator itself and learned quickly how the agitator mechanically works. I think the washer is somewhere around nine or ten years old, so the plastic parts are starting to show their wear. Specifically, the dogs seemed to be smooth and not allowing the agitator to work. I spent around twelve dollars for parts and rebuilt the agitator internals and reassembled it.

At first I was not confident that I repaired the correct piece, but after running a load everything was noticeably cleaner! While it is not rocket science, I'm happy that I have successfully completed my first ever appliance repair.