Northern Vista

As the snow begins to melt, my mind is turning towards…chickens. We raised 20 broilers last year, and have been enjoying eating home-grown poultry over the winter. But the boys and I really would like a few laying hens as well. We’d definitely use the eggs. Between bread crusts, veggie trimmings, and old leftovers, I think we’d have the most well-fed chickens around. Additionally, Ashlee has informed me that I may not raise the chicks in the crawlspace like I did the first few weeks of last summer. This means I’m in the market for a chicken coop.

Because our summers are so short and our winters are so long, I’m going to need to have electricity in the coop for heat lamps and keeping the water from freezing. I’m thinking of building a 8′ x 12′ coop, with 4’x8′ dedicated to the laying hens. The layers will not need much space, and the additional room I’ll use for storage and raising broiler chicks in the spring.

I learned how to use Google Sketchup over the weekend, and used it to create my framing plan. Pictures are below. The program took a little bit of effort to learn, but it’s a nice (and free) drafting software for these kind of projects.

Side view looking to the west. Notice the two windows and the nest boxes that will be accessible from the storage part of the shed. *Click image for better view*.

View from the top. *Click image for better view*.

There’s only one problem. This chicken mansion is going to cost me. Between framing, wiring, insulation, vapor barrier, etc., I’m guessing it’ll cost around $2,000 in materials. If I build it this summer, I’ll report on the final costs. These will be some very loved, expensive chickens.

My brother, a friend and I took a snow-mobiling trip up north to look at a piece of property. It was a beautiful day!

Denali from near Petersville

A lot has been going on around here. On Friday, our daughter Aurora Grace Johnson was born. She weighed in at 8lbs 3oz. She is perfect. Many adventures in parenting a girl will undoubtedly follow…

In the boots and hat her auntie knitted her...

Additionally, my eldest announced today that he had written a poem. (How the heck does he know what a poem is??) It is printed below with translation:

Hunt deer

a hunter is hunteen for deer he so 10 por buck poof wit.

the gun fel wit the deer. and yes .wit the hunter and thae.

kept his atlers .and next hunt a borhog…

Hunt Deer

A hunter is hunting for deer. He saw a ten point buck. “Poof” went

the gun. Fell went the deer. And “yes!” went the hunter and they

kept his antlers and next hunted a boar hog.

Literary genius in the making? Methinks yes!

I’ve been doing a little winter gardening this year, and I’ve had some interesting successes I thought I’d share here:

Gooseberries:

Last year my dad had a bumper crop of gooseberries. He has three different plants, and a couple different varieties that have largely been ignored for the past five or six years.

One of his plants is a slightly less-common red variety. The taste of the berries are out of this world. I really can’t come up with a way to describe it. Gooseberries and currants, while extremely popular in the UK, are seldom grown here in the states. Both are supposed to be very easy to propogate. With this in mind, I started my first experiment in plant propogation.

I took 2-year old cutting from the gooseberry plant in September, when the leaves were beginning to turn. I cut  several 12″ pieces that had 10-12 leaves on them. I dipped them in root growth hormone and potted them.

Then I promptly forgot about them for a month. I wasn’t sure if they needed a dormancy phase so I simply put them on the floor in our guest bedroom. I completely forgot to water them for a month.  When I rediscovered them, I was fairly certain I had killed them all. However, I put them under lights and gave them water.

Lo and behold, they started to grow! All six of my cuttings made a comeback (but three got eaten by the puppy). Initially, they all looked like this:

Pretty much a dead stick with a few tiny leaves growing off of a bud. However, over the course of a couple months, they now look like this:

I’ll plant them all into the garden this year and see how they do…

Other Stuff:

In addition, I planted some habanero peppers, jalepeno peppers, and basil to keep myself occupied. Finally, I started my onions yesterday. Last year I started them in march and they ended up really weany. We’ll see if I can get a good crop this year.

I got a soil test for the first time this year, and it shows that my soils are really low on phosphorus. This could be the culprit for my less-than-awesome harvest the last few years. I’ll be putting a lot of organic fertilizer into the garden this year…

I spent the weekend three hundred miles north, hunting caribou. It was a perfect weekend: a full moon rising over the mountains; shooting stars and northern lights;  scenery that was breathtaking; and the deeply peaceful sound of silence.

Here is Alaska, growing warm-season vegetables is hard, if not impossible. I’ve been trying corn for the last 3 years, and I’ve finally harvested my first ears:

Don’t laugh at their diminutive size. They have less carbs that way.

In all seriousness, though, I think I’ll try a different variety next year, and start them earlier. This year I used Denali Seed Company’s “Yukon Chief” variety. In previous years I have used “Spring Treat” which seem to produce larger ears, nut I think I picked them too early, because they were never ripe. Considering that this summer/fall has been unusually rainy and cool, I’m hoping next’s year’s harvest will be a little more…robust.

I’m also trying pumpkins this year, and have given them the prime spot in the garden. I have several fruits that have grown on the vine, but I’m not sure they’ll mature in time. We’ll be getting our first frost within the next several weeks.