It’s a wonderful time, Christmas eve. There is great excitement in the house in anticipation of Christmas day. Tonight we will have dinner with good friends. Our house is decorated, presents wrapped, and Christmas music fills the air. I took some pictures of the house today and had some fun making some elf videos. All the boxes under the tree are only decoration. Everyone knows Santa brings the real presents! More to come tomorrow http://blog.monafamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Soul.mp4 Some more elf videos to laugh at: http://blog.monafamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Hip-Hop.mp4 http://blog.monafamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/80s.mp4 http://blog.monafamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Classic.mp4 http://blog.monafamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Charleston.mp4 … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
Yearly Archives: 2012
Not much happening lately. Spent most of the day at my son’s wrestling match. I did manage to get up a first light and plan a small apricot tree in the back yard. Once Christmas is past, I’ll finish off the landscaping and the back yard will be complete. Right now I just need to add the rock and fish to the Aquaponics garden, and then put some crushed granite through out the rest of the unfinished yard. Not much more than 2 days of work left. Late in the afternoon I let the girls out for a few hours. They have kept my grass at this height and completely eliminated the need for mowing. Here they are scratching around in my flower bed. … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
I’ve been able to complete all electrical and plumbing for my aquaponics garden. This week the pump arrived. I ordered a Lifegard Quiet One 4000 pump rated a ~900GPH. Along with this main pump, I installed an emergency backup pump. This is nothing more than a bilge pump which is used just to aerate and circulate the water in the pond in the event of a power outage. It will run off of a 12 deep cycle battery. To make this work, I wired in a 12v relay which is powered by a “wall wart” plug/transformer I had stored in the attic from some long lost device. I found a deal on five of these relays with the pig tail plugs for $4.99 on Amazon. This is how my electrical and plumbing … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
It’s that time of year here in the Vegas valley where we have 2 or 3 weeks of wonderful weather. Time to enjoy to outdoors. I’ve spent the spring and summer working at a painfully slow pace on my coop and garden project. Seven months into it, I’ve finally finish the wood working part of my project. The coop and aquaponics pond and garden bed are built along with the patio cover. You can see the pond cover/bench seat now completed and in place above. I’ve also put grass back in the small area by my planter. The chickens have loved the addition. When I first put the grass in, I wondered what I was going to do about keeping it cut since I had given away our lawn mower. This turned out to not be a problem. The 4 chickens have kept the grass perfectly manicured. I let … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
This past Sunday we found our first eggs. It has now been a full week and I’m guessing that all four of our chickens are laying. There have been a total of 14 eggs set over the week. Unfortunately, 5 were broken. We found a couple of our girls were nesting in the very upper corner of the coop atop a bag of pine shavings. It appears that some of the eggs fell and cracked (we hope). I say that because we found one of the girls up there eating an egg. Hopefully we can break that behavior quickly. … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
We have been waiting patiently for 21- 1/2 weeks. I peaked in the coop and today after church and guess what, there was a perfect little egg, finally! It wasn’t in the next box, but was in the pine shavings on the coop floor. I have golf balls in the next boxes, but may need to put some wooden eggs in there to better encourage the girls in. Friday evening, my son and I put grass back in the small patch by our planter. A few years ago I had pulled out the grass and turned this area into a garden. With the aquaponics garden coming, we decided to put grass back in. The chickens sure seem to love it. They spend a good deal of the day picking through it, eating the blades and looking for anything else they can find in the mix. Last month, I switched the … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
I framed up the grow bed this week and set it in place to get an idea of how I want to mount it. First thing I noticed is that it seems much bigger than it did on the drawing. There is lots of garden space and I expect good production out of such a large area. That said, it is a little close on the sides for getting around. Yet to do: Sheet the bottom of the grow bed line the pond line the grow bed mount grow bed install plumbing & electrical It’s hard to get a sense of the size from the picture, but the grow bed is 10′ x 4.5′ and will sit atop of the fish pond which is 5’x4′. The front portion of the pond will have a slatted lid which should make a nice bench to sit on while out there. In the … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
I’ve nearly got the fish pond built. It is ready for the liner now. The girls prefer to roam around the yard constantly scratching for a treat. They love the fact I cleaned out the planter and prepared the yard for grass. As soon as it cools off a bit, I’ll put the grass in, then they will really be in heaven. … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
It is a little more than 10 weeks since we received our chicks. They seem huge compared to the day they arrived. I’ve been surprised that there really hasn’t been any squabbling to establish a pecking order. I’ve still got a lot to do on the yard, but they don’t seem to mind. They love to roam around the entire yard always searching for something good to eat. 2 weeks ago I had a water leak in the hen house. I’ve been amazed how little there is to do in the way of care for keeping chickens. My entire family has been amazed at the complete lack of smell and noise from the girls. Then a couple of weeks ago, we noticed it was starting to smell a bit. I found the water regulator I had purchased began to leak causing a moldy stink in the hen house. … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
We are so fortunate that we have the freedom to enjoy time with our families in the great outdoors. Our family is grateful to all those who have served our country. It is because of the sacrifices of so many that we can take time to visit places like Redrock Canyon. … [CLICK TO READ MORE]
