Suburban Permaculture Project

All has not been as quiet here as it has been on the blog. This year's chickens grow apace, the rooster will be exchanged for a younger pullet (hopefully) hen on Tuesday, and Spot goes to her new home, stewpot or pet, by the end of the month.

The fabulous tree people came and climbed much higher than I'm willing to, power tools in hand, to remove the three dead trees. They will be back to fix the wire fencing that got damaged, and to remove the last of the stump from within the chicken pen, then I'll be gratefully handing over large wads of cash. I may ask them to take down that small tree in the front yard instead of fixing the fence, we'll see if they go for that.

It's been hot enough that a friend of ours lost 5 of her older 6 chicks this year to the heat. I've been hosing down the roof of the girls pen every afternoon (well, not this afternoon, it's cloudy, drizzly, and relatively cool) and adding ice cubes to the water containers to cool down the water enough they can drink. Hot hot hot. I expect that will get worse before it gets better (because duh) and I'm looking into the possibility of a misting cooling system for a more permanent solution to the too-hot-for-hens. Their egg production has dropped and I suspect that is why.

The sink hole is, indeed, our problem, though the city is grateful that we called them to investigate, since they found two breaks in the sewer line near (but not near enough) to it. I think I have an idea on how to fix it, thanks to my time in the country, and if it works, I'll let you know. :P (and own waders by the time it's fixed).

Our water barrels (2) have been backing up when it storms, and I've spent some time researching a way to fix it that doesn't involve me going out every time it rains to decide if the water should go in the barrel or in the drain today. Think I found one, and though it isn't cheap, it is probably cheaper than roof repair in the long run. 0.o

While doodling around the internet, dreaming and plotting between research, I've come across the idea of toilet tank basins, as well as found conversion kits to install dual flush systems on our perfectly good, if older, toilets. I think I found some that will allow us, for about $330, to install both basins AND dual flush systems on both our households toilets. That would be AWESOME. I'm starting a savings ledger for just that, and will keep you updated (with pics) if I can make that happen.

That's about it around here...I dream of drainage ditches and awnings of grape vine...and then I go hose down my hens. ;P

Blessings.