Archive for the ‘Chickens’ Category

Paper, Paper for the Garden

Friday, January 2nd, 2009

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 Today, a package arrived with laptop platforms.  Really cool ones that will be more comfortable on a lap than the big one I have.  They are the ones from Allsop that kind of clip onto the laptop when it is closed.  No place for the mouse like the one I have from LapWorks.  But unfolded, that one cuts into my hide so much that I have trouble appreciating the mouse.

 Anyway, the box was stuffed with delightful long sheets of brown paper…the kind I like to spread out in Garden rows to slow up the weeds.  This is in sections, like brown paper towels.  I wonder if this was the sort of brown paper Jack & Jill’s mom used to wrap Jack’s crown.

 Because I am a gleaner, I folded it all up very carefully to save for the garden next year.  It will join the package of newsprint and all of the old newspapers that I can accumulate to put into the rows and between plantings.  

 Some people are amazingly easy to entertain.  I enjoy shredding newspapers with the grain of the paper to make big confetti.  I have,  in the past used it on the worm bins.  This year most of it is going to the Chicken house.  I put it under the roosts where it builds a support system with the poop that the chickens seem to save for their roost time.  Paper and poop will fork out easier than poop that slips through the tines on the fork.

 I used to have only a long paper shredder, 1/4 inch cut that I put junk mail through.  The setup just wasn’t comfortable, but it did work.  The worm bins have gotten rid of a great deal of junk mail.  I tried putting the shreds in the chickens nests, but they weren’t impressed.  Then, someone gave me a bag of crosscut shreds.  The chickens LOVE that in their nests.  

 A trip to Walmart got us our own crosscut shredder so they have fresh bedding as much as they need.  Extra can still work out in the worm bed.

 Long shreds from the old shredder made a winter bed for the little Rose of Sharon plantings. But, the new day lily bed was happier with pages of newspaper between the lily plants.  Kept in some of the moisture, although this year, that wasn’t a big issue.  And kept the weeds OUT, which was good. 

 There is so much newsprint coming into the house; every surrounding community prints a ’shopper’.  I buy a paper in town sometimes and subscribe to the Kansas City Business Journal.  I really think hard about buying a Sunday Paper because I know I’m going to have to shred it.  VERY seldom do I indulge.

Gardens need Yard Birds, Right?

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Well, our garden needs yard birds.  They are presently confined in their own special yard until the dog and the cats get used to them and they get used to our small acreage.  They need to be quite secure because I don’t want them to be worried and possibly run away.

They are already settling in happily and beginning to lay eggs.  We chose heavy chickens in Buff Orpingtons and Wyandottes, plus medium size chickens in Araucanas.  We are looking forward to the brown and green or blue eggs.   They like to scratch around, so when I pull grass clumps from the garden, I cut off the tops for the horses and toss the root clods into the chicken yard.  There are only 8 chickens, singing quietly for us.  The rooster is a bit out of control; he begins to crow about 4:30 am and goes on variously during the day.

Do you have chickens in your garden?  We would love to have you comment and tell us about your garden.