Time to get moving...

[JimWWhite]

I've got the day off because it's MLK day and I've promised myself I'm going to work in the garden. Back in the fall I cleaned out all the boxes and covered them with straw but there's one area where I have a 70x4 foot raised bed where I grow okra, winter squash, beans and corn. I'm thinking I'm going to back the truck up to the chicken run and remove the top 3 inches or so of the original sandy soil I have in there and spread it out over that area and till it in. Then I'll have to go and get some new creek sand to replace it in the run. It might be a day of work but it's going to be sunny and pleasant today so I think I'll go for it. I'm just hoping that the sandy soil from the run won't be too hot for the garden. It's been in there for 3 years now and I've been turning it every couple of weeks to work the poop in so it's decomposes better. I'm sure the Gals will enjoy some new sand for their sand baths.

 

[Smiles Jr.]

I have considered putting a deep layer of sand in our chicken run but I worry about how to remove all the leaves that fall in the fall. I usually grind up huge piles of leaves every fall and I don't want to get sand in my shredder. We free range our chickens so they don't spend much time in their run but when they do it's usually always muddy and wet . . . sand would be nice. I guess I could try it and see how it works out.

 

[digitS']

I was going to say, Jim, that I want an accounting of every garden task, every step you take in your southern garden. Every trowel of soil you turn and what it smells . . . . . .

I think I'll let you shovel out that chicken yard and keep most of the early experience of that to yourself :/. Try to break it up real good and I hope you have several weeks for the soil microbes to work their way thru it.

The ground here is frozen as hard as the rocks that make up so much of it. Maybe I should be happy that there aren't any glaciers nearby bringing more rock down on top of us. Until later - after I'm gone.

Additional sand has no place in my garden. Soil might be a nice . . .

Steve

 

[Ridgerunner]

Sounds like a decent plan to me. I emptied my coop in November for the first time in four years and put that in my garden, then dug it in. I figure doing it in November will give it plenty of time to finish breaking down. I don't think it was all that hot to begin with based on number of chickens, how much volume there was, they spend most if the daytime outside, and I use a droppings board to collect a lot of the night-time poop for my compost.

In North Carolina I'd think you will probably be planting stuff in the garden in a couple of months. It depends on how many chickens you had pooping in that area, but you'll probably be OK. If you have other boxes you can use for the earlier stuff, well, that might be a good way to go and give that stuff more time to work.

Enjoy your day. I had that weather a couple of days ago and should get some more like that Wednesday or Thursday I can send your way. Today's high is 40 with a cool north breeze.

 

[HunkieDorie23]

Jim that is great and I wish I had some of your energy today but it is supposed to get to 4 degrees tonight and I didn't do anything today. I knew it was going to be cold and put extra hay down in the chicken coop yesterday. Put the chickens away at 4:00 inside of 5:45 when it gets dark. They were glad to go in and I was equally glad because it is freezing. Sometimes I wish I live further south.

 

[so lucky]

Jim, we haven't heard from you in a while--At least not in the threads I have read. I hope you enjoyed your day. Usually the rare day off work brings baaaad weather, just to foil the gardeners!

 

[journey11]

That sounds like a big job. Go easy on your back!

I always wanted to put sand down in my run too, to cut out all that mud, but now I'm working on a small, tractor-like coop that I can move daily. (And less chickens...layers anyway.) Glad to hear it works though.

 

[JimWWhite]

Well thanks, everyone. I did get the long raised bed cleaned out and I brought up two pickup loads from the coop and spread about two inches over the entire length of the bed. Then I went down to the landscapers yard and brought back two pickup loads of creek sand to put back in the run. It was a lot of work but it wasn't too bad. At first it made the hens mad but they quickly got over it when they were able to get a good sand bath with fresh sand. And it felt good to get out of the house and do something in the garden for a change. It was really a nice day yesterday. However, later this week we're supposed to go back into winter again with cold and winter mix by Friday. I ran out of time before I could get the tiller out and run it over the bed and work it into the garden soil. It'll have to wait until the next nice day whenever that may be. I'm not planning on planting anything there until May at the earliest anyways so I have time.

So it's back to work work today and getting locked back into the Collective. Just one more Borg in the hive...

 

[Ridgerunner]

Jim, one good thing about being in a borg in a collective is that it is easy to stay in shape. When I held a job I stayed in shape by:

Jumping to conclusions

Flying off the handle

Running my mouth

Kicking people while they are down

Stabbing people in the back

Dodging all responsibility

and Pushing my luck.

Now that I've retired and spend most of my time at home my wife won't let me get my usual workout so I have to work outside or get fat.

 

[JimWWhite]

Jim, one good thing about being in a borg in a collective is that it is easy to stay in shape. When I held a job I stayed in shape by:

Jumping to conclusions

Flying off the handle

Running my mouth

Kicking people while they are down

Stabbing people in the back

Dodging all responsibility

and Pushing my luck.

Now that I've retired and spend most of my time at home my wife won't let me get my usual workout so I have to work outside or get fat.

Too funny. True, but too funny!!! But if I try to stay in the house and do nothing my wife will find some job for me no matter how small and insist that it get done before a certain time. So when the weather is good and I can get outside I go hide in the garden. There's always something that needs to be done out there that doesn't involve putting up a bracket or move some furniture for her... :/