Growing up green...

Ah, it is such a wondrous thing to look to the future and know you will be able to eat the fruits of your labour, literally!  One by one the fruit trees are (finally) making their way into the ground and the area around the chickens and the fishpond is look more lush every day.  I took these photos last week but I will have to go and take some more because the change even in a short time has been huge!

another day in bed...

Got the garden beds all around the chook pen started today once they're done I just need to find some more soil for them and they'll be off and racing!  The clivias were freebies from a neighbour's parents, they are HUGE clumps which will be enough to do the whole garden bed, the chooks love them because for some reason the snails love to hide in them.  The chooks don't eat the clivias but spend heaps of time poking about in them hunting out the snails :)

Still the right hand end to finish and then the soil can go in...

chooks in, foxes out...

Over the last couple of days I've finished the wire on the outside run so now the chookens get to run about in the sunshine during the day, safe and sound :)  So far they have been loving it!

Here they are inside, incase you are wondering why they look kind of nervous it's because in the background you can see the ferocious bunny wabbit, who of course eats three chickens a day dontcha know...  24 hours later they seem to have settled a little over the issue of the rabbit in their coop but they still aren't 100% happy about it.  Oh and in the foreground you can see Rudy Rooster, who's a long term guest as long as he doesn't bother the neighbours ;)

The rabbit on the other hand decided that she'd worn out her welcome so in the small amount of time I gave her freedom in the outside area she found the only corner where I had done a dodgy job of the wire and she dug out and went visiting the neighbours.  So of course we had to sort that problem out so we decided to put a garden bed down that side of the coop,  This is the corner closest the door and there's another similiar triangle in the corner next to the night quarters and a straight section connecting the two.

It's half full of horse poo so it should be a good soil once it matures a bit, we'll put a mesh fence across it and grow chook friendly veggies and allow the chooks occasional access to enjoy it without destroying it.

You talkin a me?

Man these little chooks really do have serious attitude!  They quite happily bail up the chooks four times their size, fluff themselves up to look as big as possible and give em a bit of chookie attitude.  I can just imagine them saying, "You talkin a me? I said, are you talkin a me?"

They've got some cosy accommodations set up in a large aviary and a pen is being attached to one end to give them a safe outide run where the foxes can't get them.  Ignore the rolls of wire around it,   it's a temporary measure to discourage the foxes until I've put something around the base to stop them digging under.   The A frame on the end is currently housing the quails and Alex's bunny, eventually it will be attached to the chook run as well and during the day we can let bunny out for a run.

I made them a nice big nesting box out of some plywood and painted it.

My lovely neighbour is sharing the love and offered me a great little aviary today so I'll get that set up and one of the pairs of parrots will move across into that so that they have a bit more space :)

Wow! How fast a month flies when googles sucky system decides it doesn't want to let you in to your account. LOL

The last month has been busy, busy, busy.  I have more piccies to add tomorrow when the sun is up but here's a teaser:

Meet Fluffy.  Fluffy is a Belgian D'Anver hen (with a cuddly nature, who likes long walks on the beach...), she's a classy little chick not much bigger than a pigeon but with serious attitude.  She also loves nothing more than a good snuggle and pat from the kids which is kinda nice :)  She's one of six D'Anvers and also lives with four full sized chookens, I'll add some piccies of the rest of the girls and the work done on their accomodations tomorrow.  Night Night

Let's get dirty!

My lovely Celeste came and helped mummy at the block today, we dug soil and mulch into pots and dragged them over to the new garden bed to start filling it.  As you can see she's a great helper!  I decided it was way too much like hard work carrying the pots though and piked after two loads, think i'll get husband to load the wheelbarrow into the car for tomorrow, much easier!

We did do a bit before we piked though, going to plant a heap of orchids under this tree.

I have a bit of a penchant for orchids, this is the block side of the tree where I've attached some lovely ones, about half of them are ones local to this area so they should grow well, plus some elkhorn ferns and a couple of test cases, will just have to see how they go :)  Should look pretty spiffy once they settle in and start growing and spreading properly around the tree!

Finally we created compost corner, put some wire on the ground to deter the supermice and then pegged the round one down so they can't squeeze under.  Put a small layer of leaf mulch in the bottom as a starter and I have a bin full of food scraps and grass clippings to take down tomorrow.

I'm loving this round compost bin so far, went to a talk run by the council on home composting, learnt heaps and came away with a free compost bin and scrap bucket too!  Thanks council, you're awesome (now hurry up and connect my water)

I'd finally like to send my thanks to my daughter, as a true lady she helped out tirelessly, didn't break a nail and kept herself squeaky clean :)

Start building an ark!

Well the utility company may not have turned up to bring life to the land but in an effort to make me feel better the skies have opened instead!  Unfortunately the torrential rain has resulted in no effort being made on the block.

We have had to put the battle with the radioactive supermice on hold temporarily to change our plan of attack.  Our lovely neighbour is going to rip the soil on the block to destroy the nests in the soil for starters :)