training chickens
When the chicks were quite small, some of our play with them looked a bit like training. We’d see if they’d come to our call of “Here, chickens!” and later, to their own name. We asked them to be...
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the coop platform
With the platform sited in a protected corner of the garden, I set about getting it level and standing up on legs. I designed the coop on four legs to provide an undercover area for chickens to hang...
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Our little flock at a few weeks old, falling asleep to a lullaby. It is so brief, this moment of growing in feathers, and napping in the day. The chicks remind me of every other baby I’ve known. They...
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jigsawing doors & windows
Once the long walls of the coop were complete, they needed to be sheathed with 3/8″ plywood that I hand-sawed down to size, which was surprisingly quick and accurate. Then I clamped, predrilled and...
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raising the coop walls
As in all barn-raisings, we went with the tradition of inviting neighbours round to help. Many hands made very light work of standing each wall, And bracing it in place once it was plumb. Just a...
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plant labels
We’re sowing seeds to catch the early springtime in a coldframe set upon the sunny deck. I wanted a robust and beautiful method for marking our seedlings as they grow and move out into the garden....
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potager design
Each year I sketch the kitchen garden to picture what will live in the protected, somewhat rabbit-free potager and what can thrive outside it, integrated into the beautiful perennial garden along the...
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drying nettles
The moment to forage for stinging nettles is early spring, while the tops are young and fresh. Heavy gloves and great respect for the plants are required. A friend on a nearby farm harvested some...
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coop rafters
Let me show you how I got the rafters framed up on the coop. This bit of the design required plenty of telephone conversations, wrestling with hypotenuse and getting my head around the concept of the...
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curing garlic
Each year in late autumn we plant the garlic, and each year around midsummer, we dig it up and lay it out to cure in a warm, airy, shady spot. (Our cats were here to oversee the whole project, we got...
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artichoke harvest
Growing artichokes is very much like a long friendship of the sort that, once established, requires little and gives a lot. I longed to grow these gloriously elegant, edible flowers. I did try, in...
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sauerkraut
There are useful things that I like to make purely for the pleasure of it, to have just what we want at a higher quality than one can buy, and enjoy the thing knowing it’s homemade. Sauerkraut goes a...
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gingerbread village
Having spotted a charming image of flat gingerbread houses carved in low relief and filled with powdered sugar, we just had to try it for ourselves. A whole wintry afternoon was spent in great joyful...
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lip balm
Making our own lip balm is easier and faster than preparing dinner most nights. Even with highest quality ingredients, making it is cheaper than buying it, and one can make it just so. What’s more,...
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ricotta cheese
While it is true that one can extract a bit of ricotta cheese by cooking acidified whey leftover from yogurt or other dairying, I like to produce this simple cheese from a gallon of goat’s milk (from...
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flying the coop
When it was time to take our leave of the cottage on the lake and go to live in the old farmhouse at Ravenhill, moving house was quite literally what we needed to do. Our sturdy little henhouse had a...
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sewing desk finds
We did bit of rummaging into the drawers of my grandmother’s antique treadle table as we set it up as a writing desk for our tall girl. Can you identify these tools? Screwdriver, yes. Pleasingly, it...
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herbal cough syrup
We like to forage for plants in early autumn that support our health through winter illnesses. A very timely medicinal harvest, like the nettles in spring. Some years I’ve made elderberry cordial,...
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the 1940’s beds, improved
Curiously, when we assembled the antique beds after painting them, the beds did not look like this: Instead, each bed lay at an angle, attaching a couple of inches higher at the headboard than at the...
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