Lethargic baby chick

As I mentioned in my post before, we got three pet chickens, that will be half everyone else's size and fancy looking! We are very excited about them and can't wait till the grow up so we can see how they will look. However, one of them wasn't looking too good since day one. Here she is - eyes always closed, sitting in one spot, never eating or drinking, and looking very weak. 

I did some research and found out that besides some chicken vitamins, I can use sugar water to give her some energy and get her started. So I used organic raw sugar and lukewarm water and gave it to her using a dropper. She wasn't opening her beak very well at first but when she got taste of the water, she started drinking it more. I gave her half the dropper and put her back in the box.

At first she was looking around and then all of a sudden she started walking around, she found water and spent lots of time drinking it. She slowly found her way to the feeder and ate some food from the ground. 

It has been over a week now since I treated her with simple sugar water and she is as alive as can be. (the above picture is from the same day I treated her - I will update her photo on the Facebook tomorrow if I get a good shot) She is the smallest of them all but the cutest and the biggest warrior. You should see her trying to fight the crowd to get to the feeder! i am amazed how this simple "medicine" worked. And I am happy we saved her. Now we have to think of her name :-)

Baby chicks video update

Now our baby chicks are eating worms! You can see in my previous post that we got about 1000 earth worms and that we built them a little earth worm farm. With time they started multiplying and now the baby worms are perfect size for these baby chicks to eat as a treat! My husband is having lots of fun with these ladies so take a look at a video he made.

Our new baby chicks arrived!

My husband and I decided to expand our Little Backyard Farm with some new addition - baby chicks! We currently have broilers, layers, and pet chickens. 

First, meet one of our pet chickens - Pingu. This is the first time we actually have pet chickens. We got three - Pingu is black, Brownie is brown, and the last one doesn't have a name yet because we are not sure if she is going to make it. She is acting a bit lethargic and we are trying to fix that. We believe these are Bantam chickens.

Here is one of our 10 Cornish chickens. We chose these to be our broilers. They will be ready in about 8 weeks. We still have to build the chicken tractor that they will move into. 

Here is the Rhode Island Red. We have these and one more breed we think is Americana to be our new layers. I really like my current layers - they are so friendly and calm. I hope these will be just like them.

At this point the new babies reside in our garage and they will stay there for at least the next three weeks. I will post a detailed description of their current home.

They seem to thrive and grow from day to day.

Birds' helpers

Spring is here even though the temperatures haven't really cooperate with the season and I heard our first birds flying by and socializing again. It's their time of the year to build nests and start expanding their families. We thought we would help them a bit! You can too and here is how:

You will need:

left over pieces of yarn

suet bird feeder

This is the easiest thing ever - just cut up some left over yarn and place it into a suet feeder. Hang it up in a secluded location so birds can freely pick their nest material. Kids had fun filling the feeder, it made for fun project.

I can't wait to see some color in the nests around our backyard!

I got this idea from this Juniper Moon Farm blog.

Treasured Thursdays - Beach Time

"Near the sea, 

we forget to count the days..."

DIY All Purpose Cleaner

In winter we eat lots of oranges and so I am left with lots of orange skin. I dry some of it for my immunity tea, but I also use some to make home made all purpose cleaner. And here is how :-)

Peel the orange and stuff the peels into a glass jar. Then pour vinegar over it till it's all covered.

Let it sit for about week and a half (if you leave i longer the skin starts getting brown and icky).

Then pour through a strainer into a spray bottle and use on all kinds of surfaces. I love that it's gentle and smells of oranges. Doesn't vinegar just clean anything? I am a fan! 

Original idea came from: Doityourself

Treasured Thursdays - Party time

Happy birthday to me! My daughter thinks I have birthday just about once a week... but how can you say otherwise, when she prepares such a cute looking party?

My grandma's bunt cake

My grandma's favorite recipe for a real Czech bunt cake. It is very easy to prepare. Enjoy!

What you will need:

2 cups of all purpose flour

1 cup of granulated sugar

1 cup of milk

1/2 cup of vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 vanilla sugar

4 teaspoons of baking powder

1 tablespoon of cocoa 

Preheat oven for 350 degrees. Mix all the ingredients except for the cocoa.

Grease and flour your bunt cake pan (I use butter and wheat flour).

Pour most of the batter into the greased pan.

Put the cocoa into the rest of the batter and mix it. Pour it into the pan over the yellow batter.

Now place it into the oven for 45 minutes but check after 35 minutes just in case your oven is working harder than mine :-) And voila!

Bon Apetit!

Starting seeds indoors - the progress

What has been happening in my grow house for the past two weeks? Here is an update. 

The seeds sprouted nicely. I usually place 2 seeds per hole just in case one doesn't sprout and that sometimes actually happens. Here you can see my tomatoes. It is time to take one of them out.

Some people use scissors and cut one of the seedlings, so they don't damage the roots of the one they are keeping in. But because I plant in a very loose soil I didn't find it a problem to pull them out without any struggle. This a photo after.

How do I choose which one to eliminate? It is not necessarily the smaller looking one. If you take  a look at your plants, choose the one that looks stronger to you, the one that is almost developing second leaves, not the one that is taller. Taller is not necessarily better. You can use your motherly instinct and you won't mess up.

These are broccoli and brussel sprout plants. You might think that they look good but actually they are becoming a bit leggy and I don't like that. See, your seedlings are suppose to be short, grow their stems wide, and develop new sets of leaves. What is happening here is that the seedlings are looking for more light and are trying to reach it. In that case they are not developing the right way. Rather they are growing their stems long and thin. What I have to do is raise my boxes closer to the light. I will do that and include a separate post about what happened. Hope it helps!

Broken refrigerator

How do you like my new fridge? I had to live like this for the past two days... I was sure the food would be eaten overnight by some neighborhood animal... All I have to say is thank God that it is still cold outside and most of all thank God for my skillful husband! This post is really dedicated to him. He is such a money savior when it comes to our household. If something breaks, he takes it apart and actually knows how to put it back together ;-) And in the middle of all that work he manages to fix absolutely everything! This time it was our 10 year old fridge that broke and I was sure that we will need to buy a new one. But not on his watch! He figured it out, ordered $8 part and that thing is running better than ever. So thank you, honey, for all that you do around here and for all the money we don't have to spend extra!

And today the heating broke :-( Can't wait for my handy husband to get back home from work, till then it's sweaters and jackets.

Treasured Thursdays - kitchen memories

I love when my kids help me in the kitchen. It causes a great mess but even greater memories! Today my daughter helped me bread chicken breast and we made chicken nuggets from scratch for dinner. And the bonus is when they make something, they can't wait to eat it!

Starting seeds indoors - sowing the seeds

In my previous posts, you found out what supplies I use and what plants to start inside and which ones would be just fine to start outside. Now let's take a look at the process of sowing the seeds.

First of all you need to wet your organic soil mixture. I put it in the bucket, pour lukewarm water over it, and mix it with my hand. Don't soak it completely, you just want a moist soil to start your seeds in. Then fill up your pots with the soil but do not press it in tightly. This will assure a good air and water flow for the roots, which will have easier time traveling through the soil as they grow. Make two inch deep holes in each pot using your finger, each on the opposite side of the pot and place the seeds in.

It is very handy to have helpers that will label the pots for you. I have two of those so it's easy to get that task done ;-) We use popsicle sticks for the bigger pots and I write directly on the yogurt cups with sharpie marker. (oops sorry for the blurry picture I didn't notice...)

It's time to cover the seeds with a little bit of soil and mist them with water using clean spray bottle. This is very gentle on your seeds and they will not float to the surface. Use this spray bottle on a mist setting anytime you would like to water your seed.

Cover the bins and place them in your green house. I place my green house by the back porch door so the seeds get some extra light and warmth (the door is facing east so the light hits it for most of the morning).

The first year we started our seeds inside, we used this seed starting kit but I found it to be way too small for the roots. they didn't have enough space to grow and get strong enough to be replanted. they took a long time to adjust to the garden and some of them didn't even make it.

And as you see in the picture (from 2 years ago) I would start cucumbers as well as squash inside. From my previous post you know that that is waste of your time and space. I am glad I made those mistakes for you and now you can learn from me and do it right the first time ;-)

Treasured Thursdays

I just treasure these moments!

Starting seeds indoors - choosing your plants

You learned what supplies I use and now it's time to pick what plants to start inside and which ones will be just fine to start directly outdoors. I will let you in on my secrets ;-)

No, really - all this have been tried and messed up and also successfully done by me personally. 

I will start with those you can and should start inside in your green house.

I started tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants inside, 8 weeks before the last spring frost date for our area. From my experience these need to be nice and big to successfully transplant into your soil. I start the seeds in the bigger pots (you saw them in my previous post). 

I also start some of my Spring veggies inside although I learned last year that you don't really have to. I tried to start them inside and then start them also out in the soil (when the ground warmed up a bit). It turned out that there was no difference in crop. When it was time to transplant the inside plants outside, the ones sowed outside just started to peak out of the ground. But by the time the transplants got adjusted and their roots stopped freaking out from all the space they had to deal with, the outside plants caught up to them and all was on the same track. This year I only started kale and brussel sprouts inside. You can also start broccoli if you would like to grow that. I am also starting those 8 weeks before the last frost date but these will be going into ground in about 4 weeks.

And now let's move on to the "outsiders". What do I sow straight into the ground? Almost everything else. To name my favorites from the Spring veggies: lettuce, spinach, kale, cabbage, leek, onion, garlic, cauliflower, and radishes. I am yet to try kohlrabi this year.

From Summer veggies these are the ones good to start straight in the ground: cucumbers, zucchini, all types of squash, pumpkin, corn, all types of beans, beets, carrots, and melons. 

I am linking this with:

Thursday Favorite Things

Starting seeds indoors - The supplies

Look what I am doing today! Yup, it's the time of the year when I get that exciting feeling that spring is just around the corner! It is 8 weeks before the last frost here in Midwest and I am pulling out my seed planting supplies. 

I will walk you through my process of planting seeds indoors - it is easy and effective!

The 2 main supplies you see above are deep see through plastic bins that hold the pots and the pots. I got these bins and lids in IKEA and the pots came from Walmart. The reasons I use these bins are two - to hold my water to help me keep the plants moist; and to give the seeds extra green house effect because they are deep enough for me to cover them with the lid and keep the warmth and moisture inside. I am planing on investing into actual plastic pots so that I can reuse them every year, however I didn't find good price in the stores so I will have to browse the internet. These will have to do for this year. (These are the pots you can plant directly into the ground with your small plant.)  I also use yogurt cups for veggies I transplant into my garden earlier in the season such as kale, brussel sprouts, or broccoli. The only thing you have to do is drill drainage holes into the bottom of a yogurt cup. Don't forget to purchase organic seed starting soil mix for a good quality produce.

Another thing I learned is very essential for successful seed starting is to have a green house. Last year was the first time I tried it and it worked wonders! This is the one I purchased and it only cost around $20 in season! I put it up with the kids and I will take it down for easy storage in May.

This is how it looks when put together - perfect size for the porch door in our small dinning room. Now hubby will just install the grow lights for me and I am good to go. 

Please tune in over the weekend for a step by step guide how to effectively plant your seeds, and also what plants to start indoors and which ones are just fine to start outdoors. 

Treasured Thursday

Kids have been enjoying my Valentine's Day present to them - the Window Markers!!! Clearly the Dog has been amused as well!

At this point we will do anything to get through the last few weeks of cold weather ;-)

Feeding the chickens

Today was our girls' lucky day! We picked the best looking worms from our bin and brought them to the coop for the girls to try. Kids were super excited. Were the chickens?

See it for yourself...

We were throwing them down one by one and the girls were besides themselves. 

Who will get there first? We need to slowly make more space in our earthworm bin because new babies are being born every day. 

And since we are in the coop, we will pick some eggs.

Sorry girl for interrupting ;-)

Winter on our little backyard farm

I wanted to include some pictures of our small backyard during the winter months when everything is covered with snow allowing only small pieces of garden treasures peek out and leaving the rest to our imagination...

The pond area is left with practically no life. Even the waterfall is turned off at this time of year.

My sage is sadly posing for my picture...

I leave the grass uncut on purpose. I love how it looks when the snow covers it. 

Forgotten garden nick nack...

Looking at the neighbohood

My resting garden beds

Yes, I am desperately waiting for everything to start blooming again :-)