May 2012: Groceries

I went to the store today for a few things.

Ok, ok, there were more than a few things in my cart...but there were only a few things on my list! :)

You're doing your best to keep me accountable, aren't you?


At the end of my last grocery shop, I had $112.09 left of my $450/month budget.

Here's what I purchased today:

Food Store

Dozen Eggs

Coconut Flour

Almond Flour
Organic Tea
Multicolor Popcorn kernels

Total came to: $27.04

Local Grocery S=Sale

S=Head cabbage
Head iceberg lettuce
Romaine lettuce
clamshell container of Spring Mix lettuce on clearance
2# bag of carrots

S=2 blocks of cheddar cheese

2 pkg Hormel Naturals lunchmeat

Frozen orange juice concentrate

David Pumpkin Seeds
2 loaves 100% whole wheat, hfc-free bread
1 bag hamburger buns
(Ok, Ok, I admit it, I am caving on the no-wheat for the family thing!)

Total came to $30.76

Dollar General

2 pkg Flour tortillas
Trident Gum (can you believe they don't have Trident spearmint at the grocery store???)
Sunflower seeds...to grow...but we might eat 'em...eventually, lol


Total came to $7.50

So, $112.09-27.04-30.76-7.50= $46.79 left for the rest of the month

Chick Update: May 17, 2012

As of this morning, the chick count is down to 11 chicks.

The last one to hatch had something wrong with it, as I mentioned in my last chick update. It could not sit up at all, even when I set it up. I think it was paralyzed or something.  Its feathers did not fluff out nearly as much as the other chicks and it was missing feathers as well. I put that one down on Monday, rather than have it suffer any longer.

The second death was the weaker, less coordinated of the two that have what I believe to be Wry Neck. I gave this chick vitamins a couple times a day, and dipped his beak in the water multiple times a day. Still, he didn't make it.  I had read about elaborate means of trying to save chicks, involving blending lettuce and other foods up and force feeding them....and I considered it, but decided it to be unwise in our situation. If these chicks work out for us as dual-purpose birds, I don't want to be breeding birds that I know have this gene--and especially not ones that aren't able to pull out of it on their own.  At any rate, I think this particular chick was having difficulty in swallowing, and I am not sure he would have been able to eat the food, even if I did force it on him.

At the end of the day, this leaves us with 11 chicks. The remaining chicks all look to be healthy and strong. The one that has Wry Neck (or whatever it might be) is fully able to eat, drink, and run around with the rest of them. For now, I am just going to let nature run its course and see how it does and whether it corrects itself. If it's a roo, we will likely have him for dinner once he's grown enough...same if it's a hen and we don't want her eggs to be mingled in with our other hatching eggs.

Time will tell.

What's Happening on Augsburger Farm? May 2012....Just a few pics from the Herb Garden

Bumble Bee working in the fully blooming Chive patch

Bumble Bee detail

Another Chives pic

Walking Onions detail, with Chives in the background

Sweet Pea among the Walking Onions

This last one is not in the herb garden, but in the yard nearby...

Peonies and Columbines

The Main Garden: May 13, 2012

After a long weekend of doing Other Stuff, I was finally able to get most of our Main Garden planted on Mother's Day.

Here's a list of what I planted:

Greens: 5 Color Silverbeets (aka Chard), Kale Mix, Bibb Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula
Yellow Squash (aka Golden Zucchini)
Zucchini (Costata Romanesco)
Acorn Squash(hybrid)
Delicata Squash(an old packet--I hope it comes up because I can't find seed for it locally!)
Royal Burgundy Bush Beans
Beets (Detroit Dark Red and Bull's Blood)
Jacob's Cattle Beans (for dry beans-these are also a bush bean)
Bush Cucumbers:Bush Champion and Picklebush
Okra (Burgundy-seed saved from last year)

Basil, purple basil, cumin, regular parsley, flat leaf parsley, dill

Job's Tears-experimental crop
Sorghum- for seed for a larger crop in the following years
Ambrosia Bicolor Corn- sweet corn-hubby planted this one, actually

4 Banana pepper plants (purchased)
1 Brandywine Tomato plant (free w/flower purchases last week)

Nasturtiums, sunflowers, marigolds and some miscellaneous flower seeds (I think Cosmos, Forget-me-nots, Calendula and Alyssum) in some little "squares" of the garden to encourage good bugs/discourage bad bugs.

Here is a pic of the garden so far.

Not very impressive, since it's "just dirt", lol.  Duncan, our oldest, commented that there were "big spaces" still...and I was feeling the same thing. But, I also realize that once things start growing, things will fill out and I will be thankful for a little space in the garden. :)

Chick Update: May 13, 2012

My daughter, Ivy, home from camping and *finally* I let her hold a chick! :)

We have had a total of 13 chicks hatch out between last Thursday and Saturday.  The last one to hatch is not able to move around, open its eyes, and looks like half of its feathers are missing. :( Unfortunately, it's the way it goes when raising animals: there will be animals that aren't perfect specimens like you might find at your local Tractor Supply. I think we may have to cull that one. :(

Of the 12 that are fluffy and running around, we have 2 that have what I believe to be Wry Neck.  These two chicks have their heads thrown back and it's like they are checking out the ceiling all the time. They *can* set their heads upright (one of them is better at this than the other) but are often seen resting their heads on their backs.  One of them I have observed righting itself and running to the feeder/waterer and eating/drinking. The other one, not so much; s/he is less coordinated and often topples backwards. I was afraid it was blind, but it's not. It's just terribly uncoordinated.

From what I have read, if this is Wry Neck, infant Poly-vi-sol drops without iron should help, as might vitamin E. We went to the store yesterday and I picked up a bottle of Poly-vi-sol. I put a few drops in the water, figuring it wouldn't hurt the other chicks to get some additional vitamins, and I tried to get a drop into the worst-off chick's beak this morning.

I am going to continue checking on the chicks, and dip the worse-off one's bill in the water/food frequently throughout the day.

Part of me wants to do all I can to save these chicks. But the other part of me feels that the best thing to do would be to let nature run its course. Survival of the fittest, and all that, you know?  These chicks are a heritage breed (Light Sussex) and they are bound to have their specific genetic weaknesses. I don't do the breed any favors by coddling a chick that will pass these genes on to the next generation, assuming we use these chicks as breeding stock for our future egg/meat chickens.

Here is a video of the chicks last night. Sorry it's so red: that's the heat lamp causing that.