Fence expansion, more room for birds and protect the fruit trees.

The time has come for me to start this summer's main project. This project is partly why I'm annoyed with the ever expanding thorny berry bushes, they're in my way! The area that I'm fencing this year will double the space the chickens and ducks have for limited free range. This will also protect more fruit trees from larger fruit predators. For instance last year a deer ate the top right off of a young apple tree! He or she didn't just take the apples but ate a foot of branches off the top of the tree.

I started right away after morning animal chores. The first stage was to put up the 10 new t-posts that I bought. This will be one side of three that need to be fenced. As this area will join up with the current chicken fence the 4th side is already done.

First t-post in!

An extra helper?

KitKat and Rufus both joined me as I hammered in the t-posts. This is typically one of my least favorite jobs around the farm. I don't have great arm strength and I'm short. The t-posts are 6 feet and need to be whacked very hard to get them into the ground good and deep. I had a much easier time getting these 10 t-posts into the ground than any previous group of posts I've done. I was thinking I may not get them all in today but most went in fairly easily, I was so happy about that!

Rufus seems to be supervising this time.

KitKat just wants to play with the tape measure!

Gonna get it....

Caught it. I guess life shouldn't be all work and no play even for KitKat. 

Once my 10 posts were in I ran what fence was left from the present chicken yard along the first little bit. The chickens have of course been watching me all through this process. The original flock especially knows that when I'm banging posts and moving fences it will mean more room for them. The thing is that today was not planned to be that day. I still have to t-post 2 more sides and then run the fencing. I haven't even bought the rest of the materials yet. But those birds have me wrapped right around their...um...claws? They had been watching and anticipating. But I was kind  of tired....yet there is more spare fence on the remaining side and I could give them some more room, even though it means more work for me as moving out the fence will in no way place this fence where it's final destination will be. Also there are thorns, berry plants everywhere that want to scratch me!

Buffy Puffy seems to be saying PLEASE give us more green space!

I gave in to the birds and took another hour to move the back side of their fence out some more so they can get at some nice greenery. I had to place the fence and posts in a very off shape to accomplish this due to the expanse of thorny bushes and some long, downed tree trunks which haven't been cut up yet. I did it though and the birds are very, very happy.

Bye bye haskaps (honey berries), this was the first thing the birds went for. They have to be moved anyway due to a peach tree shading them too much.

No turning back now.

KitKat has returned to supervisory duty.

Happy birds.

In between cooking lunch I went out to make sure I had no escapees but all was good. I think this was a good days work done in just the first 5 hours so I may just take the afternoon off and enjoy some reading time. I'm very please with this progress so far hopefully it won't take me too long to complete the whole project. I'm guessing 3 weeks since I can't buy all the remaining materials that are needed right away. The new bonus area the birds have should keep them happy for awhile and soon I will have the whole project done.

Happy Ducks.

A Bountiful Mess!

Raspberries, blackberries, black raspberries, we've got 'em. Sometimes I think the blackberry/raspberry patch is a monsterous being trying to take over the world, or at least our fruit orchard. They are armed and dangerous, covered in thorns that seem to reach out and attack when one walks nearby. Quite a few years ago we cleared some heavily wooded land to make way for fruit trees.

Woodland behind the swingset around 2006.

The swingset became a grape arbor once the kids outgrew it, the woods beyond have been cleared and fruit trees planted there over last 6 years. 

BUT..... The prickly, thorny, mean spirited blackberries and raspberries have take over!

There were SOME blackberry and raspberry plants even when the area was wooded but once the area was cleared of most trees the berries took off, literally. They spread more each year even though I pull some up and dig some up and chop some down and try to give some away. Last year I cleared all that were close to the fruit trees thinking they may be robbing the trees of resources. This year of course the berries are back so I'm thinking I will leave them around the fruit trees to see if their thorns will keep away woodland critters that like to eat from the fruit trees.

There is a fruit tree in there with 6' and 7' tall berry bushes surrounding it. 

The berries are tasty and make great jam and food is a good thing but how to limit them? It's hard to tell by the picture but the whole area, a very big area is like a giant wave of berry plants,  a sea of green and later red and black when the berries ripen, they are all through the area.  How to have just the right amount or have the hoards in a better area, how can I solve this issue?

Peach tree surrounded by Raspberry and Blackberry plants.

The chicken yard fence seems to be holding back the mountain of berry plants. The chickens and ducks will gain a lot more room once we extend out there but will they even want to deal with the berry bushes?

For now we will let them fruit and possibly they will protect the fruit trees a bit? This area has the younger fruit trees in it. I will be transplanting some of the canes that will fruit next year. I'm in the process of extending the chicken and ducks fenced area through this part of the orchard. Maybe they will help keep the berry plants down but they tend to avoid the ones currently in their yard, I guess they don't want to get pricked any more than I do! Since I have to work regularly in this area I might as well get used to being all scratched up!  I will keep trying to find the solution for this bountiful mess.

Thorny berry plants everywhere!

Strawberry season

So happy that our strawberry area is doing well this year. The area we've set aside for strawberries gets better every year. We have a lot of wild strawberries on the land too which caused some problems early on with strawberry growing. The tiny wild strawberry plants seemed to intermingle too much with the larger cultivated strawberry plants. Now though the cultivated plants have taken over to a good extent in their area and the wild berries while prevalent in other areas don't intermingle with the large strawberries as much. We're getting a bumper crop of strawberries this year, happy rto have plenty to eat and possibly bake with as well. Of course KitKat is on hand to help out or maybe supervise!

Pondering Pear Pollination Problem

I realised that the oldest pear tree we have, planted around 10 years ago, STILL has never fruited. About time to do some research. The problem...pollination problems. The pear tree in question is a Moonglow variety. It needs a couple more similar pear trees within close proximity to fruit. We do have two additional pear trees, they're not in close proximity though and one tree we don't know which variety of pear it is. If it's an Asian then it may not pollinate the Moonglow tree. The third tree was added last year and it's a Kieffer pear. This could be a good pollinator for the Moonglow Pear  but it's quite far away and pretty young. The Kieffer can be somewhat self pollinating (would be more so down south) and has one pear growing on it! We didn't set out to have non pollinated pear trees but two additional pear trees that were added in past years both failed to thrive and eventually died. Our mission now is to purchase and plant at least one more good sized, healthy, European pear tree in close proximity to the Moonglow and probably add another close to the Kieffer pear tree.

Moonglow Pear 10-ish years old

Trunk diameter 5" plus

Kieffer pear tree

One pear!

KitKat supervises.

Pear trees to far apart? 

At last, signs of spring

New green shoots coming up, garlic and onions and chives. Young chicks exploring outdoors. Ducks able to paddle in their pools. The snow is all gone. The cats happy and warm in the sun.

They grow up so fast!

The four Easter Egger chicks are growing up so fast. It seems like we just got them but already they are ready to move out to the coop and get to know the other chickens and the ducks. Having a February 26 hatch date did not allow these northern chicks to get out much for their first 6 or 7 weeks. Finally it was warm enough and they were feathered enough to start having an hour or two outdoors and now they are ready to live in the coop with the other birds. We use the cage in coop and cage in run (or attached separate run depending on amount of chicks) to get the old and new birds acquainted with each other. They've been in the coop for a week and today I let chicks have a little supervised time lose in the chicken yard. They had a great time flying and pecking around. The adult birds were quite nosy and pecked them a bit but nothing major. The adult birds were far more interested in the chicks food since the other groups food is always better than your own, no matter what, always!