Trees detail

OK, so let's list all the fruits...

Peach

I planted the peach in the overgrown old herb patch, as I could not identify everything and there was a mix of weeds there too. The soil was good and fertile and the sapling thrived. Hopefully it will continue that way.

Cherry 2

I recently put cherry 2 in the same herb patch as peach, but kept some distance of course. It has already grown new leaves so I think it will make it...

Cherry 1

Cherry 1 was put a bit farther away next to the herb patch. I don't think the cherries I bought are self pollinating so I need both of them to live and be near each other. The soil under it was clay, so I dug pretty deep and filled in with better soil mixed with compost and manure. It is not dead, but I have not seen new leaves yet neither. So I am a little worried. A couple of the old leaves are getting eaten by bugs... 

walnut 1

I am glad to see this one is going strong. Already branches came out and leaves too. I guess it is because I planted it on top of the corpse of the snake I killed.

walnut 2

The same cannot be said about walnut 2. It dropped all its leaves, and I have not seen much sign of life. But still hoping. It is the favorite spot of dragon flies to sit on though. Almost every time I look at it a dragonfly is resting on its top. 

mikan 1

Not much to say I guess, mikan trees are hardy I heard.

mulberry

I think it is alive... a couple of tiny dry mulberries are hanging from a branch and the leaves are green, so...

mikan 2

I picked the fruits of the mikan trees to stimulate better growth. This one actually had a sweet fruit already, albeit tiny.

mikan 3

Yep, I like mikan. So sue me.

pomegranate 1

I can still not believe this was just a stick I cut a few weeks back. Hooray for the clone.

kiwi

It has survived so many hardships. But I think it has affected its growth. Maybe now it gets a chance to actually get taller. If not, more space for the others.

pomegranate 2

I think pomegranate is also not self pollinating, so that is why I have these two. Pomegranate 2 is leaning a bit too much though so I have tied it to the fence and filled in a bit soil under it. Will it straighten up? I don't want to use the tie too much cause I worry it may damage the trunk.

figs

Planted the fig early on, right in the middle of clay soil. It seems to like it though. It has gotten huge.

passion fruit 2

When I bought passion fruit 1 and 2, they were both same size. Now passion fruit 2 has for some reason shrunk. It has a couple of leaves only and hanging on the edge of life and death. I don't know why.

passion fruit 1

Passion fruit 1 keeps growing and climbing the fence. It is just 20 cm away from passion fruit 1 but acting completely different.

grape 2

Not climbing but growing tall. Lets wish it survives.

grape 1

Not growing tall but growing on the sides. So I tied it to the fence hoping it climbs. But it is yet to reach and climb...

blueberry

The huge beast that brings us many many berries. Thanks previous owner for planting it.

melons

Not bad for rogue seeds straight outta compost. I would call them melons with an attitude. I am snipping off the flowers just keeping 1-2 per plant. I think I need taller trellis.

yuzu

And last but not least the yuzu twins. Also these are planted by the previous owner.

Oh, and I forgot to take picture of grape 3. The one on the corner of the property in the backyard. It is pretty big now but no fruits.

Trees overview

Thought I should put up a couple of overview pictures of the bunch of tree saplings I have going on, and then come back in a couple of years and see who made it...

It still looks a bit bare, and some old garbage lying around

Maybe a bit hard to make out, but the above picture has from left to right walnut 1, walnut 2, mikan 1, mulberry, kiwi, mikan 2, pomegranate 1, pomegranate 2, grape 1 and grape 2
Yes, I know they are tight but they are not gonna all make it. Actually one of the walnuts seemed already D.O.A. so it lost its leaves and now it is just a stick. There, space problem solved at least for walnut 1 and mikan 1

more garbage. I will clean up soon...

 Panning to the right a bit, this picture shows mikan 1, mulberry, kiwi, mikan 2, pomegranate 1, pomegranate 2, grape 1, grape 2, passion fruit 1, figs, mikan 3 and passion fruit 2

Bushy bushy

Making a turnabout, there are from left to right the cherry 1, cherry 2 and peach sapling. So far almost all of them seem alive. I will soon have to start pruning a bit maybe.

Almost chicken ready

The coop is almost ready

This weekend I hurried up and almost finished the coop. I even had time to put on primer and 1 layer of paint. What remains before the ladies can move in is:

• the tiny window frame on the side (right now it is just a square hole and nothing guarding it)
• patching a few tiny holes here and there (thanks to my expert carpentry not every angle is right)
• lock/handle for the door (lock in case the chickens are strong or smart enough to open it, handle because it would look nice)
• storm door/cover for the entrance (I will have the door open always but when it is raining real hard or typhoon, I shall close it)
• rope securing the whole thing to the ground (in case of typhoon)
• second layer of paint (and also painting details)
• additional layer of hard plastic on top of the roof to make it rain proof
• poop board and maybe additional flooring
• waterer and feeder (not yet sure what design to use...)
• the exterior fencing and entrance for me (one fence at the back of the run, and one in the front. To stop chickens from running out and cats, mine, neighbor's and strays, from getting in)

I think I can manage to do almost all of this in one weekend. If I do, then I can buy chickens the weekend after. 

In other news, the cats are still enjoying their sunny days indoors. The fencing in project of the property is still ongoing. Next week I will get my entrance gate which is an important part, then I can lead netting/fence to it and the cats can go out.

Tora in front and Chubby in the back. Together they are The Tora Chubby Gang.

The story so far...

So, the painters finished their work, and I planted a bit more stuff just before the typhoon. Here are the pictures of the results. First, the paint job.

Before...

After. Sorry for the mess, I am building coop.

And here are the plants. It is a bit crowded, but I am expecting half of them to die...

First generation beds

Half finished coop can be seen in the distance

A bit of explanation maybe...

Pomegranate

So the pomegranate cutting kept growing like crazy. And I started to feel it did not get enough sun indoors by the window. It was time to put it outside next to its friends.

leaves and tiny branches are coming out of the clone

Just a couple of days later. Picture quality thanks to Sony camera.

Planted outside. Please don't die...

Stupid typhoon

So, looking very much forward to the sunny weekend so I can finish the coop, I saw that the weather forecast gradually turned into cloudy and rainy. Typhoon nr 18 was approaching very very slowly from south and its predicted path, although not even close to here, would affect the weather.
But I kept being optimistic. The typhoon was slow and would reach our latitude on Tuesday afternoon.
Friday came and the weather was cloudy. Typhoon's path and timing prediction had not changed. I was ready for action.
Saturday, still same prediction. Typhoon was still way south and would be around here on Tuesday afternoon. I finished the netting on the coop when it suddenly started raining and kept all day which meant I could not do any more building. Instead I spent the whole day gardening defiantly, getting completely soaking wet and catching a cold. Sunday was completely rainy too.
The typhoon surprised everyone and came much earlier than anticipated and passed us on the night of Monday. So the Monday was super nice and sunny. I got a bit of building done.

The steps are the most random part

My favorite bit is the roost. I was riding my bike past the city maintenance guys who were pruning trees, and asked them if I couldn't get a straight branch. Here is a better picture.

It still has leaves on it...

The roost does not look straight, but actually it is the most level part of the coop. It is the coop and the ground under it that is tilting a bit. Now I wonder if the chickens will look at the walls and experience the roost as tilting, or if they have some kind of balance mechanism in their head which tells them the roost is level. I guess I will find out soon enough.
I was pretty sick for a couple of days more, so not much building got done... whenever I felt better and the sun was shining I took a walk out and did a little bit.
Little by little, the coop is almost finished. What remains is the door, the window, the nest lid and the final paining.

I managed to put on base paint on the walls and the roof too.

And here is a shot of the interior. There are some gaps left on purpose to let air in. I will be sealing most of it selectively afterwards.

The floor is two boards with two layers of plastic sheet between.

There is also a horizontal poop board holder under the roost, easily accessible from the door.
Now, the weather forecast for this weekend says cloudy with a bit of rain. But I guess it will not be anywhere near last weekend.
By the way, building the coop is a real workout, and I have lost lots of fat and feel great overall.  

Waterslide

So, among things to come, the front yard gate will be installed by end of this month. With that in place, I can extend the fencing so it covers a big and closed area around the garden and the house, and be comfortable with letting the cats out AT LAST.
Last weekend for the first time I saw a human in the orchard next to my garden. It was an obasan wearing the complete anti sun and anti mosquito outfit (the same as I have, except I was not wearing mine at the time) doing god knows what on the other side of the fence (I think she was just peaking in being curious and obasan) so I gave a loud good morning and otsukare to her which seemed to surprise her. She nodded and mumbled something and carried on with pretending to do tree maintenance (the trees in the orchard are the least maintained trees I have ever seen, and this was the first time I have seen anyone there. I think this same obasan borrows the field and plants flowers and what not on the far side of the orchard but never ventures all the way here)
Anyway, glad I have put my net fencing there so they know what's up.
The next day, I saw a red car parked at the shed on the far side of the field/orchard, and also someone was moving around in the orchard near the fence. I didn't see the person but it was pretty obvious. Probably the obasan alerted the owner that a fence is up and he must have driven all the way to check that it is not intruding. It must have been OK cause no one knocked on the door or tried to establish communication. And the net was still up by the end of the day. Too bad, I would like to ask him if he wants to sell his land. 😎
My next project after the coop is done will be to do something with the backyard slope... It is just such a waste of space.

All I have done so far is to put marigolds which seem to drive off moles and mosquitoes

I am thinking putting a water slide, starting on top right, going slowly down to the left and turning to the middle terrace maybe in a waterfall, and continue to the right ending in a pond with fish at the bottom, then a solar pump would bring the water to the top right again.
Just an idea. Right now it just looks like crap.

CooProgress

Weekend was mostly spent rethinking the coop and doing adjustments... at the same time, the house was wrapped in, and the painters worked away.

Roof is already changed to orange. In the foreground, my coop work area

In the picture you can also see, just in front of the tunnel where I planted strawberries, the third bed with a plank next to it. There I planted ice plant, 2 kinds of cauliflower, red spinach, sweet beets and Brussels sprouts. All are supposed to be more or less autumn/winter stuff. Lets see what comes out.
All the while, as I was outside I got more and more groggy. Not because of the summer heat making a come back (It was terribly hot actually), but for the repeated times I kept bumping my head into the scaffolding just where I enter the garden.

My enemy number one, and number two is right behind it

 There are two low level platforms which I must pass by ducking under them. Except I don't every time for some reason. I think I bumped my head really hard on these at least 8 times. Usually I duck, stay down while walking under them and carefully emerge after the second one is passed. But there are times when I am thinking about something else while wearing a cap or a large garden hat which completely obscures the platform right in front of me, and walk right into the platform with my head BAM! front of my skull. Other times I do duck under the first one, but emerge too soon or too hard and bump top of my head SMASH! into the either one. Other times I emerge too fast after the second platform and BOOM! back of my skull. So by Sunday my head was hurting bad, I was feeling real dizzy almost ready to pass out. So I took it relatively easy in the garden. Hope I didn't cause some permanent damage to my head...

The coop, so far

As for the coop, after finishing the frame and taking a tour to the home center to buy wall and roof materials, I realized the coop is about 10 cm too long for even the biggest plywood I can use for roofing... So I came up with the idea to put L-shaped metal holders under the roof. Each of these is supposed to hold up 12 kg. For each half of the roof I will have 4 of these, plus the wooden bar which goes across the length on each side. Together they should be carrying the 11 kg half roof plywood.
Or maybe I will come up with a better idea till next weekend, like adding a couple more bars instead of the L-shape supports. Anything can happen.
In the meantime, I made and installed the nest box, and also started with the netting underneath the coop. I have to say it is all coming together pretty nicely. The painting foreman noticed it and said if any paint was left over he would give it to me to use for the coop. So at least I won't have to worry about painting.
Next weekend is a 3 days holiday, so it should give me extra time to handle the coop. Who knows, maybe I get to finish it. I am thinking 1 day for finishing the interior (window frame, roost holders etc)  and the roof support, 1 day for the walls and the roof and 1 day for painting, the door and window...
It will probably not be enough time.

IT'S ALIVE!!!

all leaves are dead ones from when I took the cutting

The pomegranate cutting I took less than 3 weeks ago has rooted and now tiny branches (or leaves?) have just started growing out of it. It's so cute. And amazing! I thought I had made too many mistakes for it to work but somehow it did.
The clone is alive. I shall plant it near the other pomegranate tree in the garden.
The new growths can be seen in the picture, vertically in the center, on the left side of the thick cutting.

Start painting

I didn't go for the painting company who gave us estimates when we moved in. Partly because the price was too high but also I was not really happy about the way they kept trying to push expensive unnecessary stuff to me and pretending they are doing all they can to keep things cheap. Instead I found a much cheaper company who seems so far to be more straight forward. The painters came and set up scaffold around the house. In preparation, I had cleared out everything from around the outer walls. By the way, in the picture here you can see the rosemary flowers I planted. 

My poor water tank. So sad and dirty

The first thing the workers did was to wash the house, which took the whole day. The black liquid from the washing rained down and got stuck on everything that was near the scaffolds, including plants. But I think they will survive.
Saturday was rainy so I didn't get much coop building done. Took down the tarp covering the coop frame on sunny Sunday and continued, connected the top part which will carry the roof but as for the roof itself only got to building the roof triangles. So now I have a cube shaped frame without roof protected by a big tarp, and a whole week of rain to come according to the weather forecast. Saturday and Sunday are supposed to be sunny again though.
Next week the first thing I need to do is to align the frame's different parts with L shaped metal brackets (There is a bit of discrepancy between the different corners resulting in a 1-2 cm gap in length between the two long sides) so that I can mount the roof correctly. The reason of course, as I mentioned before, is that all the boards I bought are more or less bent or twisted, even if with 1mm. Add them all together in a structure and it quickly becomes unstable.
Anyway, I had plenty other things to do.
There is an out-of-reach ca 20 m cable (used before for ground TV signal but not anymore) pulled from the telephone pole at the front door and screwed along the outer walls of the house all the way around and into the kitchen on the other side. It has annoyed me the whole time. Also, there are a couple of wood bits screwed to the outer walls which I wanted to remove but could not reach.
Now I took the opportunity of the unsupervised scaffold, and climbed up on it and around the house and unscrewed the cable and the two pieces of wood. the cable was now hanging from the telephone pole, ready to be disconnected. However, the scaffolding stopped right at the point where I needed to climb in order to reach the pole. I did remember though that the workers had left 1 piece of footing (I guess it either was left over, or they kept it there just in case), so I went down, took it all the way up to 3rd level (it was pretty heavy) and installed it where I needed it. It was first time ever for me. Then I went around, climbed the scaffold and onto the footing I had just put in place and voila! I could remove the cable once and for all. Then I went down, removed the footing and put it back where I had found it.
The strawberries arrived too, so I planted them under a tunnel (If I leave anything ripe out for a couple of days without harvesting it, the bugs eat it all. That happened to my mini salads that I forgot to pick last week. Also one of my passion fruits keeps having its leaves and flowers eaten by the hungry bugs. I think it is the green locusts.) to protect them from being eaten.
I also prepared and dunged and mulched another stripe of land to plant fall stuff like beets and cauliflower. I also want to put down garlic and potatoes.

Coop under blue tarp in background

So right now the garden looks like the picture here. Oh yeah, and I bought a compost bin too. The city office paid 2/3 of it so I could not resist.