Four Month Update on the Chickens We Have Eggs!

The chickens are almost four months old now.  They have been healthy, and seem to be very happy.  The automatic waterer and feeder in the coop have been working out great, so great in fact, we took a four-day vacation last week and didnt have to ask a neighbor to feed them. 

ISA Brown chickens are known for their high egg production, approximately 300 eggs per year per chicken.  Because we were told they wouldnt start laying until they are around six months old, we never check their nest boxes.  Last night, Todd and I walked out to the coop to close them in for the night.  Todd opened the nest box lid for the first time in awhile and discovered 14 eggs!  We were shocked! The girls came screaming out of the house they were so excited.

They do seem to have faces only a mother could love.  And this one appears to have cataracts already or something.  But we do love them and are very grateful for the eggs they are now providing.

We hope this encourages anyone out there contemplating raising chickens in a subdivision, or small backyard.  If we can do it, anyone can.

  

 

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Still sleepy but couldnt wait to check for eggs this morning. 

 

 

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This post has been shared at:  The HomeAcre Hop, Simple Lives Thursday, The Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Front Porch Friday

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Internet Tips and Tricks Faster cheaper more stable internet connect

Internet running slowly? Need to get through those power outages without dropping connection? In this tutorial I will share few ways to speed up your home internet service, protect from power outages, and even save  some money on your bill in some cases.

These tips and tricks are gong to apply to those with cable or DSL type internet service mostly but some other types will benefit as well so stay tuned to see what applies to you. The first tip is in regards to hooking up a cable or DSL modem and I will break it down separately for each.

Cable modems - When hooking up a cable modem you should always hookup to the first spilt of the coax cable as soon as it enters your home. In most cases your cable comes in the basement or crawl space and then splits with one or two large splitters to all of your cable jacks in the home. Instead, purchase one good 2 way splitter and install that as soon as the cable enters the home. One leg will go directly to your modem and the other can go to the larger splitters that feed the TVs.

DSL modems - DSL service is provided via phone lines. As with cable it is important to have a dedicated phone jack or line run directly from the outside junction box to your DSL modem. This might require a call to your provider for a free setup but in most cases just follow the lines to make sure it goes directly out to your outside phone connection. With DSL it is also important to make sure you have filters on any phones in your home. These filters are provided by your service provider in most cases or they can be purchased online - http://amzn.to/1PA8Duj.

Purchasing VS. Renting - No matter what kind of internet provider you have in most cases they will provide a modem to you when you sign up for service. But dont be surprised if they are charging you anywhere from $3-$15 per month for that equipment. You can pickup a cable or DSL modem online or at Best Buy/Walmart for less than $60 in many cases. This saves you the monthly fee and also allows you to have newer better equipment. Check with your provider for recommendations on a new modem for the best possible service to your area.

Power protection - Once you have your own nice new modem and router you should provide some basic protection  for them. Using a small network battery backup will protect your equipment and also allow you to get on the internet right through a 3-4 hour power outage. These are inexpensive devices and can be setup in minutes. - Battery backup - http://amzn.to/1kxqJCm

Wireless Interference - A properly placed wireless router can be the difference between blazing fast and slow as molasses. The best place for a wireless router is UP HIGH, the higher the better in most cases. You also need to think about what is near the router, cordless phones, microwaves, Christmas lights, TV equipment, speakers, etc. All of these things can dramatically interfere with your wireless signal and slow you down. The orientation of the router is also important. If it is designed to lay down flat, lay it down flat. If it has as stand or legs to stand it up vertically try standing it up. You can also change the orientation and see if signal improves in certain areas as you change it. Above all else it is important to start with a good wireless router. I have a few options below this article of models that I have found to be good. Make sure you have a dual band N or a newer AC standard wireless router and place it in a central location in your home, on the middle level if you have a 2 or 3 story home will be best.


Eliminating dead spots or weak signal areas - If you have followed all of the steps above and you still have weak signal in some areas you can try a couple of things. I did a video on adding a second router here - https://youtu.be/n3plXzZ1Ckc, that can be a great way to solve this issue. If that is not an option consider purchasing a powerline wireless extender - http://amzn.to/1OvyKPN

Check out the full Tips and Tricks video here -

https://youtu.be/H-RsG9a6gFY

Network Battery Backup - http://amzn.to/1kxqJCm

Motorola Modem - http://amzn.to/1YpGydc

Dead spot terminator - http://amzn.to/1OvyKPN

DSL filters - http://amzn.to/1PA8Duj

Netgear router - http://amzn.to/1OvAgl1

Cisco router - http://amzn.to/1OvAkRD

All of these products and more recommended items from the SSL Family are available at the Simple Suburban Living

General Store - http://astore.amazon.com/simpsubulivi-20

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My new Green car

Youre probably looking at this picture and wondering how an old 1999 Ford Escort is a "green" car. Let me explain. Ive been in the market for a new-to-me car and spent a fair amount of time doing market research on the new cars on the market these days.

I particularly love the Fiat 500 because its cute and reminds me of the two years I spent in Italy in the 1980s. The minimum advertised price for one of these is $15,500 and it gets 30/37 MPG with premium fuel. I even kow all the old Italian songs about the 500 or "cinque cento."

The engineer in me loves the Toyota Prius, starting at about $24,000 and getting 51/48 MPG. Some family members have Priuses, so Ive had a chance to drive them and check out the features (video showing reversing, keyless entry, trip computer plus GPS). Prius is definitely a nice car.

Ive really liked the smart car since the Smart Fortwo came out in the US in 2008 (starting at $12,500 and getting 34/38 MPG). Alas, my husband requires we have cars that can fit the family, so he wants a car with four seats.

Harrumph.

In a few months the first all-electric version of the Smart Fortwo will be available for individual consumers. The cars have a range of almost 85 miles, based on data from the Car2Go carsharing service, which has been using the Smart Fortwo vehicles in their fleets since November 2011. In fact I got myself an account with the Car2Go service in the city where I work. Unfortunately, I live outside the city limits, so the carsharing idea doesnt meet my commuting requirements.

So why buy an old car, when all these new cars are so awesome and "green?" Though a new car saves any amount of gas money and emissions for the owner, theres always the fuel, water, and emissions incurred in creating the car in the first place. In 2010 Mike Berners-Lee and Duncan Clark at The Guardian said it takes about 17,000 metric tons of CO2 to produce a new car. By comparison, the US EPA estimates the average passenger vehicle produces 5,000 metric tons of CO2 per year.

So if I buy an older car and drive it for 3 1/2 years, its the same CO2 impact as purchasing a new car and leaving it in the garage for 3 1/2 years. Itd take a powerfully fuel-efficient vehicle to get me a ROI in less than, say, 10 years.

The 1999 Ford Escort I just bought has less than 65,000 miles on her. She could stand getting aligned and no doubt needs a tune up. But she cost me about $3000 and this year/make/model routinely gets ~30 MPG based on actual customer results (based on 50+ fill-ups). It would take a really, really long time before I could earn a return on investment for any of these new green cars in terms of either money or CO2 emissions relative to this old but new-to-me vehicle.

There are other perks. My insurance rates will be lower, as well as my local car taxes. Repairs will be less expensive when required, and this car has the old-fashioned keys that can be copied at the store for less than $2.00.

And you know the really funny thing? The car, itself, is actually painted green. You cant get more "green" than that!

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Aquaponic Gardeing - The Advantages

Aquaponic gardens can offer you a great deal of fresh vegetables and tasty fish, they may be excellent for any type of property too as for any age and occupation you might have. However, theyre going to not look after themselves! It really is true that they require quite little care, nevertheless it is crucial which you give them these handful of minutes every day every single day as a way to get very good outcomes and hold the farm generating for a lengthy time frame.

The key method in aquaponics is aeration. When the water is effectively aerated, then your fish will be happy and your plants will develop typically. On the other hand, if the water just isnt effectively oxygenized, then you can find really handful of chances that your farm will survive for more than a couple of days.

The motives why aeration is so crucial are really simple and easy to realize for everybody. For starters, the dissolved oxygen is necessary for the fish to breathe. Even though the fish reside below water they still ought to breathe and just like in case of other animals, they want oxygen to survive. When they lack oxygen they die, therefore the balance out of your aquaponic technique is lost and inside a matter of days your plants will start off to have yellowish and at some point die out.

As this was not enough, the fish excrements are decomposed and transformed from toxic ammonia into helpful nitrates inside the presence of oxygen. Therefore, if the water just isnt effectively aerated the fish poop wont be transformed, the plants will have practically nothing to eat, while the fish will die intoxicated with ammonia. This is not a really pleasant perspective, isnt it? This is why you are going to must monitor the quality of the water every and every single day and have a back-up strategy in case the power gets off as well as the air pumps will no longer be able to function. This really is the only way through which youll be able to save your aquaponic system and make it function for a lengthy time period. Your plants as well as your fish will thank you for that!

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Boosting Hydroponic Plant Development By Escalating The Degree of Co2

Carbon dioxide is crucial element for the growth of hydroponic garden since it really is essential for photosynthesis. Several gardeners usually do not realize that the larger their hydroponic garden is, the far more their plants want carbon dioxide for respiration.

How to raise the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) content material within your hydroponic garden? There are 5 approaches that you just can boost CO2 content material in your greenhouse to enhance plant development.

1.The burning hydrocarbon fuels will develop carbon dioxide gas.

two.The usage of dry ice can aid within the production of this gas.

3.Fermentation of organic components creates carbon dioxide.

4.The decomposition of organic matter including compost will generate carbon dioxide.

five.The use of compressed bottled carbon dioxide is the most commonly employed approach to create the gas in a greenhouse for the preferred effect.

Huge greenhouses have burned hydrocarbon fuels for many years in an effort to enhance development in their plants. Examples of hydrocarbon fuels are propane, butane, organic gas and alcohol. Fuels that include sulfur or sulfur compounds cant be utilised because they produce harmful by products when they burn.

Dry ice may be employed in tiny greenhouses, especially if a cooling impact is also preferred. Dry ice, which can be solid carbon dioxide, is effective when used in a well-sealed area. The ice can either be utilised in block type or broken down into little pieces and utilized just a little at a time. Yet another method would be to place the dry ice into a Styrofoam container with holes in it to slow down the rate of evaporation. Since carbon dioxide is heavier than air it have to be placed above the plants in order for it to drift down and surround the plants.

Fermentation is another strategy to create far more carbon dioxide inside your hydroponic greenhouse. This strategy is easy to accomplish with few materials corn sugar, brewers yeast, water, a modest bottle and a larger container including a garbage bag or huge glass jug. The procedure would be the identical as creating a batch of wine, beer or mead. After the batch has stopped bubbling the fermentation approach has ceased and one more batch will want to be created in an effort to continue the production of carbon dioxide.

The usage of decomposing organic matter is seldom used indoors because of the odor and it really is unsanitary as a result of the bugs it attracts. It may be used outdoors in a greenhouse however the bug issue and their possible ailments want to become addressed in an effort to save your plants from their adverse effects.

Probably the most common method of generating carbon dioxide for your hydroponic plants may be the use of a pressurized carbon dioxide system. The gear is reasonably affordable (below $500) and the operating expense is low. Moreover this system does not generate heat so it really is easier to regulate than other forms of generating carbon dioxide. A flow meter and timer regulates the period of time that the gas is released in to the developing environment.

Increasing the carbon dioxide in your greenhouse will boost the growth of your plants and it could lead to increased income for gardeners who sell their plant products. All which is required for accomplishment is cautious preparing, monitoring and administration in the carbon dioxide gas.

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Videos on YouTube and Vimeo

We have had numerous problems with our YouTube videos being blocked in several countries. We created an account on Vimeo that should work. (www.vimeo.com/web4deb). The majority of our videos can still be found on YouTube at www.youtube.com/web4deb. Thanks!

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No Heaters and the Fish are Still Alive

A picture of one of my bluegills from last summer

One of the most fundamental tenets of medical ethics is primum non nocere, or "first, do no harm." In the practice of medicine, this means it may be better to do nothing rather than commit an act that risks causing more harm than good. When it comes to aquaponics, Ive taken this advice to heart when it comes to feeding my fish and heating their environment.

I covered the greenhouse in early January but I didnt get around to connecting my rocket mass heater and solar heaters. Last year I was worried about either exhaust leaks or melting things in the case of the rocket mass heater or pumping cold air into the greenhouse during overcast days in the case of the solar heater. I eventually figured out how to overcome these difficulties. But 24 hours isnt enough time to do everything I want to accomplish in a day. As a result, my lovely heaters havent been in use this winter. When I say "No Heaters and the Fish are Still Alive," I mean there has been no supplemental heat at all this entire winter.

And yet the fish (goldfish, bluegill) have survived.

I had a scare while we were fixing dinner for Chinese New Year. My son-in-law mentioned the green onions in the dishes were from the garden. Since I hadnt been to the garden that day, I asked about my goldfish. The goldfish live in the sump tank, and the sump tank water levels had gotten low that week.

He said, "I didnt see any goldfish. But the water is only a quarter inch deep in that tank."

I was sure the fish were dead. But when I got a chance to go out and inspect, I saw that the sump tank, though nearly empty, still had a couple of inches in the bottom. The pump is elevated on a pad so it stops pumping water when the level drops that low. The three goldfish were still in there, alive and well though cold.

In the same vein, Ive worried about the bluegill. During cold snaps, Ive gone for days and even weeks without visiting the greenhouse, much less feeding the fish. Whenever that happens, I begin to worry that Ive got a tank full of cold water filled with dead fish. Im just hard-wired to think an animal has to eat every day. Intellectually I know its actually more harmful to feed fish when the water is nearly freezing. But the anxiety monster grows until I get a chance to go out and lift the lid of the tank. So far Ive not had a single bluegill die.

I did lose my single surviving minnow, a fathead minnow or toughie (tuffie) as they are sometimes called. However, these minnows are only supposed to have a lifespan of 14 months. Its rather astounding that this solitary fish had managed to survive for at least 22 months after I bought him. If I thought my toughie had died of disease, I would have disposed of him outside the garden. Old age, however, isnt a communicable disease.Since the water was near freezing, I slid him into the bluegill tank, where one of the fish made a quick meal of my toughies mortal remains.

Though nighttime temperatures will continue to drop below freezing, the weather should warm from here on out, on average. More importantly, the days will become increasingly warm, and the longer days will begin pumping heat energy into the greenhouse, to the point that I may have to start lifting the side walls by April or May.


Average highs, lows, and rainfall

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Homemade Hydroponics System Plants Grow Fish Join us

Just follow the tips mentioned above and you will have great success in your attempt to grow organic food in your home.Download NOW!

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Grow Fish and Vegetables in Your Garage with Aquaponics

Have you ever thought that you can transform your garage in a greenhouse with a minimum investment and effort? If you love freshly harvested vegetables and love fish, then is high time that you did something for you and your family and the best thing you can do is offer them fresh ingredients for tasty and nourishing meals. Once you find out how, you will never be dependent on the market again! No more genetically modified vegetables, no more preservatives injected to maintain them fresh for a longer time, just organic, healthy food grown in your garage or inside your house.

The best thing about this type of farming is that it does not require any land, thus you will not have to get dirty and do hard labor in order to have your veggies on the table. You need just a lighted space where you can place this wonderful system made up of an aquarium and some other pots for growing vegetables. So, no ground, no dirt, no labor! You will be able to place it anywhere in the house, you can even start this type of farming in your flat!

But what it is this type of farming? Well it is called aquaponics and it is a far better version of hydroponics. If in hydroponics you could only grow plants, which most of the times needed fertilizers to grow normally, in aquaponics you will also grow fish and use their aquarium for feeding your plants. This way you will no longer need any type of fertilizer to make your veggies grow big and beautiful, as the fish will provide them with all the nutrients they need. In change, the plants will clean the water, thus providing your fish with a clean and oxygenized environment.

So, you will not only have organic vegetables grown in your own house, but you will also have fresh fish for your meals or for decoration (if you are a vegetarian). This is not all! You can put the system so that it will be at your arm

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How you can Hold Your Koi Fish Pond Clear

Certainly one of the most asked concerns I get from people that personal Koi ponds, is "how to you maintain your Koi pond so clear"? The extremely very first point that I ask them is how numerous fish do you might have inside your pond and how whats the size of ones pond. Maintaining a pond clear is truly a several step process. I have listed a couple of suggestions beneath. Very first you need to preserve your fish waste to a minimum using the rule of thumb that one 12 inch Koi per one hundred gallons of water. A lot of people always have a lot more fish than their pond can deal with waste. The only other way that you can alleviate this dilemma is to be sure your pond includes a bottom drain method. This signifies your pump is outdoors from the pond. A superb bottom drain program will boost the flow of water that will cycle your water far more per hour. Yet another essential a part of the pond system is your filtration. With out good filtration the waste you choose up by your pump can find yourself proper back in your pond. Im an advocate of larger is far better, and that is also true for your pond. Subsequent time you go to your regional pond shop look in the pond filters; you will see 500, 750, 1000, meaning gallons of water theyre able to handle. Why not obtain a pond filtration program which will handle 500 gallons greater than the water inside your pond. Nevertheless, you usually want to match your pump for the filter method you buy. Now Im going to let you in on just a little secret. I use a multi-stage filtration system and within the second to final stage I use lava rock. Lava rock is wonderful for filtering out really small particles that could get by your mesh filters, thus making your pond even clearer! But, which is not my secret; my genuine secret is alfalfa. In the event you spot a tightly woven amount of alfalfa into your Koi pond, you will be amazed of how it reacts to break down waste. I even have a modest ball of alfalfa in my filter box. Employing these few tips above you should be able to preserve a fantastic environment for your Koi fish. Now you know how to hold your Koi pond clean with healthier fish that you can enjoy for many years to come. That is how I learned about pond upkeep from other those who also need to enjoy their garden pond. Feel totally free to explore my other sources at my web site listed below. Find out secrets you should know about how youll be able to create and preserve your personal stunningly stunning Koi fish pond with lively and wholesome Koi, even when youve got never ever owned fish before. Sign up for our free mini-course at my internet site. Taking Care of Koi Fish

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