Google Maps Updated Part 2

Google Maps recently updated its satellite imagery of our property and, interestingly, the new images seem to be chronologically earlier than the previous shots. I'm wondering if Google will make time and date stamps publicly available at some point. Anyway, the nice thing is that they added another level of magnification and the ICFs (Insulated Concrete Forms) are visible piled up in what is now the back of our main house. You can also see the concrete block foundation of our garage apartment. Again, this indicates a time period prior to the last set of Google satellite images which showed the garage framing already underway and the ICFs in place as the basement walls of the main house.

Snow Came Early

We usually don't get any snow until after the new year, but we got a good 4-6 inches on December 18th and Collinsville Road right in front of our house was particularly treacherous. The ice pellets and freezing rain did make for some good sledding though! We'll see if there's any more in store for us this winter.



The chickens (including some new pullets) didn't care for cold feet and stuck mainly to a few paths that we shoveled clear for them so they could travel from coop to shelter and back. Needless to say, the days following the snowfall were a muddy mess. The good news is that egg production is picking up again after a long moult, and we are now getting around a dozen a day.

Google Maps Updated

Looks like Google finally updated their satellite photography and our house is now "on the map." Interestingly, this is not a recent photo as indicated by the lack of circle driveway, various piles of construction material and dumpster. Anyway, now you can see the placement of the house and garage in relation to the property. Enjoy!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Had to jump on the bandwagon and set up a Twitter account for Blue Harvest Farm. Twitter is a microblog limited to 140 characters or less per "tweet" (post), so it's not replacing this blog, just supplementing it. The nice thing about Twitter is that it allows us to post more often. You can follow us at www.twitter.com/blueharvestfarm and we'll also show the most recent posts on this page in the lefthand column under "Twitter Feed."

In Like a Lion...

It's interesting that some of the heaviest snow in this area seems to come late in the winter. We finally got some decent snow---about 4-5 inches of very fluffy white stuff---and had an official snow day complete with downhill sledding, snowball fights and tauntaun building.

The Missing Dozen

Yesterday, All Bright Sanitation (828.894.5009) came to swap out the big yellow construction dumpsters. Despite the treacherous nature of giant machines lifting and pushing a 22-foot-long steel container filled with a ton of debris, 12 delicate eggs were found unscathed in a small nest beneath the dumpster. A little backstory: Checkers, the only hen of our three hatchlings from last July, seems to be following in the footsteps of Gloria, our Araucana "Houdini". Checkers has been consistently jumping the 4-foot-tall chicken wire fencing of the new chicken run. We found it futile to put her back in, so we let her explore the new grounds on her own despite the dangers of being a lone wandering hen. Since she is the youngest Araucana, we can distinguish her eggs because they are smaller than normal and blue-green. We found one of her eggs near the edge of the forementioned dumpster a while back, but didn't realize she had continued to lay them further under, where we couldn't see them. This morning, Checkers let herself out, as usual, and was wandering around the exact spot where the dumpster (and her dozen eggs) were located just 24 hours earlier. Poor girl didn't know what to do so she ended up just laying today's egg in the grass. While the eggs may still be good, they may have been damaged due to recent freezing temperatures so we're giving them to the dogs---not our customers. :-)

Garage Move-In

This past weekend, we acclimated ourselves to the new sounds and new smells of a new structure as we moved into the garage apartment. Bathroom and foyer tile have been laid and floated but still need to be sealed. Some spots on the wall are uneven and need to be repainted. The kitchen cabinets and microwave need to be lowered a few inches. The stairs need to be sanded and stained. While there's still much to be done, the loft-style garage apartment is now complete enough for the whole family (including the dogs) to actually live at the site. Sunday was spent relocating our egg-laying friends. We picked up 150 feet of chicken wire to create a large open run behind the garage.

Fortunately, our original coop design was portable enough to bring to the new property (with the help of our landlord's Ford pickup truck). At dusk, we boxed up the first batch of chickens and brought them to their new home. Despite the low four-foot-tall fence, we'll try to hold off on free-ranging until they are familiar with the new location and/or we get our new super-portable hotwire fencing solution set up (more on that later). The upshot of the move is that we can now bring our Rose Cottage lease to an end and start applying that monthly payment toward something else, like the new car.