Solar Oven!

I made a solar oven this week. I found all kinds of plans at:http://solarcooking.org/plans/ I chose one that I could do quickly that I had all the materials already on hand for because I was ansy and wanted to start cooking for free. :) Aside from the egg below, I've cooked a frozen burrito and made some smores. I want to try bread and some other things, but the sourdough starter I'm making still has 2 more days of rotting on the counter before it's ready.

The solar cooker

An egg from Nightcrawler, straight out of the coop

In the solar cooker after a few minutes

After about 18 minutes, the egg is cooked!

Pictures of the chicken pen and more

A view of the new pen
Here is an image of the new pen to keep the chicken poop where it belongs. The chickens have reacted surprisingly well. I had been braced for hours of squawking in protest of being denied access to many of their favorite spots, but it hasn't happened yet. (knock knock) It's recommended that you have about 11 total square feet per bird (4 in the coop and 7 in the run) and these chickens have about 150 square feet each, a regular Beverly Hills.
The chickens kicking back
The view from the pen includes many of the newly planted trees. Right now they mostly look like sticks with little green buds starting to come out. I hope they make lots of fruit. Fresh fruit is one of my favorite things, and so is free stuff, so free fresh fruit is pretty high up on my list of stuff that is the opposite of lame. Conversely, my husband is the only person in existence that hates peaches-- not just the fuzz, but the flavor and everything about them. Luckily since I am in charge of the yard, I get the winning vote. :)

New Trees and a chicken pen

I had to go get a crown the other day (tooth not Miss America) and I was really upset, both because it hurt and because I have such good dental hygiene that things like this should be impossible. So to make myself feel better I went and bought a new little peach tree, a Mid Pride variety. I came home and planted it and got so excited that I decided I needed more fruit trees. Today I picked up a Dorsett Golden Apple (which will help with the pollination of my Anna Apple), Beauty Plum, Gold Kist Apricot, Black Mission Fig and a miniature bonanza peach. I am so excited about the new trees. I am still sad over Moxie dying, so this helps a little.
Secondly, my husband and I have decided that chicken free-ranging throughout the yard is just not the best idea. This week we will be building a fence to keep them free ranging in about a quarter of the yard. This way we won't have poop on the back porch and they'll stop tearing up my plants. The chickens are quite vocal when they're unhappy, and I am a bit concerned that they'll be throwing hour long screaming fits over this new confinement. I am crossing my fingers that it goes smoothly.
I haven't taken any pictures yet, hopefully by the end of this week all the new trees will be planted and the fence will be built, then I'll post pictures.

R.I.P. Moxie :'(

Moxie, the nice little hen that never laid an egg, died today. She was 11 months old. I noticed that she was acting a little sick around lunchtime and by dinner she was gone. I think whatever made her die was the same thing that kept her from laying. (She wasn't eggbound, I think it was just a birth defect) I don't really have any good adult photos so here's one from when she was a week or so old. I'm really sad.

Giant radishes and green tomatoes

I was looking through the garden for some salad stuff and I couldn't figure out why the section labeled "bartender mammoth radishes" had really big full greens but the radish part I could see poking out of the ground looked so small compared to the regular radishes. I pulled one mostly out of frustration and this is what I got, yes all three are radishes:
The bartender mammoth radish, nearly a foot long
I was so excited I pulled two regular radishes for comparison (and dinner) and ran inside and snapped this photo. :)

Also, the weather is getting too cold for the tomatoes so I pulled the tomato plants and picked all of these green tomatoes, mostly they will ripen inside and I'll feed them to the chickens. I have no idea what else to do with them all.
Fried green tomatoes anyone?

Past due!

Corn!
Here is a picture of some of the heirloom corn I grew, of course, now the corn is all picked and dead so this isn't the timeliest of posts...

Now there are sugar snap peas, bell peppers, banana peppers, serrano chilis, the second round of tomatoes, several varieties of beets and radishes, rainbow swiss chard and moon and stars watermelon. The clementines are just now getting ripe.

Roxie joins the club!

Roxie in the Middle
After lots of squawking from the other hens cheering her on (or wanting her to get out of the nest box) and several hours of sitting, Roxie laid an egg! It's a beautiful shade of green.