How to Build Potato Bins

Step 1: Go to Home Depot or similar to buy materials.

At Home Depot, I found a 12-foot 2x4 for about $5, six 6-foot 5/8x3.5 cedar boards for about $1.50 each, and a small box (need 48 screws) of 1-5/8 screws also for around $5 making the total project about $19 with screws left over. (You will need about 12 more cedar boards by the end of the summer and would be wise to buy them all now.)

Home Depot also has the excellent service of cutting boards for you for free, both helping the lumber fit in a compact car, and expediting the project. Have the cedar boards cut to make 4-ft and 2-ft pieces (approximately. As long as they are all the same the length is not specific) and have the 12-ft 2x4 cut into quarters, or four 3-ft sections approximately (again, as long as they are all the same as each other). 

You will also want a drill with a bit a little smaller than the screws and an appropriate screw driver. I used battery powered tools as pictured above. 

Step 2: Go home and screw it all together.

Pre-drill then screw the 2-ft cedar board to the short side of the 2x4s. Match up the corners as well and square as possible with your eye and attach with only one screw in the corners. We will make it square later before adding a second screw. 

Move to the second side and repeat so the 2-ft cedar board is spanning between the short edges of the 2x4. Again pre-drill and screw in corners. Repeat to attach another 2-ft cedar board to the other ends of the 2x4s.

There should now be a full frame. Use a tape measure to measure diagonally from corner to corner in both directions. Tweak the frame until both the diagonal measurements are the same (upper left to lower right, upper right to lower left). Then add a second screw to each corner to secure. 

Repeat for second potato-bin end with the other pair of 2x4s and 2-ft cedar boards. Once both end frames are complete, stand them on end so the 2-ft cedars are vertical and both frames are parallel about 4-ft apart with the wide end of a 2x4 against the ground. Connect the frames using the 4-ft cedars and repeating the steps of drilling, screwing, squaring, and adding a second screw to each corner. Flip over and repeat to complete the bin. 

Potato bins in place, planted with potatoes. Also pictured, beginning of retaining wall to hold in garden beds in newly fenced corner of garden. To plant potatoes we had to build a fence, a wall, and bins. Those better be some good potatoes!

Step 3: Install and fill the bins. 

Once complete, carry the frames out to the desired location. If grass is present, cover the ground with brown paper bags or similar. Place bins on brown paper bags cedar side down with 2x4s standing upright. Fill to top of cedar board with compost. Evenly space 6 to 8 potatoes on the dirt. Screw on a second level of cedar boards above the bottom frame. Cover the potatoes in more compost to fill this second level. 

Step 4: Tend the potatoes.

As the potatoes grow, add more levels of cedar siding and fill in with dirt, covering the bottom 2/3 of the potato plant. When the bin is filled with dirt and the potato plants are dying off in fall, unscrew the added boards, spread the compost on your surrounding garden, and dig out your potatoes! Next year, move the frame to a new garden bed and fill again to continue fertilizing your gardens and growing healthy potatoes. 

Updates on the fleet and other news

In other news... 

The chickens continue to lay a consistent 9 eggs a day, allowing me to sell 4-dozen eggs a week and - in theory - leaving 15 eggs a week for my family. In practice there seem to be less eggs left over but maybe we're just using them before I notice. 

A little black hen has gone broody. I am taking the eggs out from under her twice a day, leaving the fake eggs for her to sit on. I feel guilty that she is doing all the work of diligently tending those eggs and I am steeling the real babies from her, wasting 3 weeks of her care and warmth. I am considering buying her some chicks or ducklings and slipping them under her when she gets to the 21-day mark, but the whole point of stealing her eggs is to keep from increasing the flock until I've killed some off. Also, I'd much rather get the high-quality chicks from Sandhills Preservation Center than unknown hatchery chicks from the feed store, especially when looking for particular characteristics like egg color. 

Our fleet has decreased by two cars! Grandpa sent his Lexis to scrap metal recycling and the Escort followed right behind. We say goodbye to our little brown diesel Ford Escort, one of only about 100 sold as floor models in the United States back in the '80s. Today, the part finally came for Daniel and Amanda's Taurus, so hopefully that will go back to it's home by Easter. Dad brought his motorcycle over from the mainland to take the Escort's spot. Dad also has spent the last week getting the lawn tractor spruced up and chipping away at the long loop around the yard mowing the property.  

Grandpa took a spin on the back of Dad's bike after dropping his new car off to the repair shop). Allegedly, this is his first or second time ever on a motorcycle. Way to keep finding new life experiences in your eighties! 

Joe  has successfully moved his new boat to the Oak Harbor harbor where he and Roni are set to set sail for a trip around the San Juan Islands this week, then road trip back to California in his new car. 

The new mandatory duty of all visitors has expanded from helping turn the compost pile to a choice between turning the compost and hiding for the search dogs. Tim, Mom, Dad, Joe, and Alice have all taken turns this month helping to provide some new scents for the dogs. 

Changing over

EMT class is finished and I've graduated, though still needing to take the National exam.
Joe traded his boat to a great family for a new car and their slightly smaller and easier to sell boat.
Mom and Dad come tomorrow.

But after months of studying and filling my evenings and weekends, graduating from EMT training is leaving me in a bit of a lull, what to do with all my spare moments? I'll have to start cleaning the house and applying for teaching positions and working on my art and something else to fill my time now that I can't blame all cut corners on lack of time. I'm ready for a nap! It will be nice to start falling back into my routine - what was my routine before EMT class? Help Tim get ready for work, tidy the house, work outside in the yard/garden/barn, build something, work on art, run errands, do bills and applications and all those paper things. I made a schedule once to help keep me focused on being productive during the day.

Tim, on the other hand, hasn't gotten a chance for a nap. He was planning on being plenty busy with work, then Daniel and Amanda's car needed repairs. The simple job seemed to grow and try at Tim's determination, but he persisted as best he could. Just as we thought there might be a break, the family on the Olympic Peninsula made an offer on Joe's boat and there was much work to be done making sure everything was up and running, ready to go and Tim has been working over-time at his job and home to stay on top of everything.

7 cars, 4 moms, 30 chickens

- Tim is working on fixing Daniel and Amanda's car.
- Alice came to visit (borrowing Nancy's car).
- Dawn came to visit and met Alice. Dawn's step-mom, Stacy also came and was choked up by how much Tim reminded her of her late husband - milling away in the shop listening to music.
- Grandpa bought a new (used) car!
- Joe came to visit to pack up the truck full of fishing groceries, left for two weeks, and is now back to look at trading the Kachink Kachink for a new car and a smaller boat.
- Ariel finished the EMT training, top of the class.
- The chickens. Oh the chickens. There are about 4 crowing roosters now. They are calling back and fourth across the property to each other and one is peering in the bedroom window at me, crowing, then ducking back down again (big red rooster). They always look like they are up to no good. The other night, the big white rooster was bleeding from the head. Did a rat bite him or one of the other chickens? I was afraid we would have to butcher him just then, but it looked worse than it was and he seems to be okay now, though in the next couple weeks - as soon as there is a break in the visitors, we must butcher! Mama Ukrane is bringing her new chicks out in the grass during the days now. They are about 4 inches tall and super adorable.
- The other day, Tim let the goats out to eat the tall grass on the other side of the fence and they promptly got themselves on to the neighbors roof. The neighbor carried Esther and Tim carried Petunia back inside the fence. Naughty goats!

Alice and Dawn - Tim's moms

Dawn and Tilly - every picture is best with a Tilly!

Alice and Dawn Moms

Really purple potatoes - they came that way

Goat-pro: Esther is wearing the special camera saddle.

Petunia wishes it was on her head.

Tim working on Daniel and Amanda's car. After many, many hours, and many, many broken tools, the broken and seized parts finally came off.

When the 10-lb sledge hammer wouldn't get the last bolt out of the hole, Tim switched to drilling.

We celebrated Alice's birthday! Also Joe's birthday two days before.

Ronnie's birthday is next weekend, Joy's birthday on April 1st, and Dawn's birthday soon after.

The only parent not celebrating a birthday in this month-chunk is Rich, waiting until June.

To recap the month of March:
Alisha left on the 6th - Joe arrived on the 6th
Joe left on the 9th - Alice arrived on the 10th (Dawn 13-15)
Alice left on the 22nd - Joe arrived on the 23rd
Joe plans to leave around the 25th - Joy and Rich arrive the 26th

We were worried there that we might be alone in the house for four days between Alice's visit and the arrival of the Easter Lyons, but Joe stepped up and filled the void. Our solid streak of visitors has been continuing steadily since October and the month of April is starting to fill up with plans of visits and camping trips and chicken butchering as well. We have the luxury of seeing all our friends and family without all the trouble of traveling. We really should formalize this hostel of ours and accept that we will never be a household of only 3.

Spring Chicks and March

On Monday a week ago, the chicks began hatching under their mom. I had moved her nest box to the floor a few days earlier and rigged up a careful system of adding a small lip to the edge of the nest to keep chicks in as they hatched and some 2x4s to make a ramp in case they fell out of the nest anyways and needed back in. As the chicks hatched, Mama Ukraine stayed on the nest and continued warming the unhatched eggs with fragile little chicks under her. For the first three days, the chicks don't need food or water as they are continuing to live off the yolk like they did while growing in their eggs. I provided small dishes of food and water in the nest box for both Mama Ukraine and the curious chicks.

By Thursday, the first-hatched chicks were ready to start exploring the greater world and Mama Ukraine had to follow. Seven chicks followed their mama out of the nest and around the hen house while 10 eggs remained in the box. I took the eggs to the darkest room in my house, changed the batteries in my brightest flashlight and looked through the shells to see where the unhatched chicks were at. 6 of the eggs were nowhere near hatching - either they hadn't developed, they had stopped developing, or they were just really far behind. 4 of the eggs didn't let any light through and I took that as a sign they were full of chick, ready to hatch. I warmed the eggs against my body (human temperature just so happens to be the right temperature for eggs) and within the hour, the first chick started pecking through the shell and peeping loudly. The little pip (pip being the word for first breaking through the shell) came with me to my EMT class so I could continue warming it and elicited strange looks during the quiet moments when a peep could clearly be heard - any time I bent over the pip yelled at me from inside the shell.

When I came home from class, Mama Ukraine and the rest of the chicks were back in their nest box sleeping for the night so the pipped egg went back under. In the morning, the egg was gone and an 8th fluffy chick was nestled under the mom. Still getting used to standing on two legs the littlest chick wasn't quite up to speed with its curious and adventurous siblings, so Tim babysat the chick with the heat of his computer fan and a little chick-sized blanket for the morning, then we returned the chick to its family where it is keeping up and thriving with the rest.

The orange-tinted chick on the right above and left below was the last chick to hatch, our indoor pip.

The clutch of chicks came out with a good range of color from silver and yellow and creamy white to black and grey and red. I look forward to seeing their adult colors.

We've been continuing to get about half a dozen eggs a day, which is far more than we're eating. The neighbors have been enjoying their eggs and we will be increasing our customer base for selling eggs, though we want to be sure to have plenty for all the company coming this month. Alisha will be leaving for a job in New York on Friday, the same day Tim's dad, Joe, and Roni come for the weekend. They leave on Monday and Tim's mom, Alice, arrives Tuesday, then his birth mom, Dawn witll come Friday for the weekend, then they will leave three days before my parents and great aunt and great uncle and swell uncle and cousin all come for Easter. Our house is ever full!

Where are all the babies?

Petunia technically has until March 7th to kid before I can give up all hope of spring milk for this year. Her teats are definitely bigger than Esther's - does that mean she's working on developing her udder and getting ready to kid in the remaining 10 days? Or is that just my wishful thinking and it is from being a year older, different genetics, non-kid related? I am putting off trimming hooves until I know I don't need the clippers to be sterilized and ready for an umbilical cord.

Three new chicks

Well, no baby goats to date, but at least the baby chicks are predictable, right? Mama Ukraine started sitting on the eggs February 2nd making them due to hatch on the 23rd, which was Monday. Sure enough, from under her we could hear peeping and after much patience, even saw and held the little ones!

Holding the red chick after several attempts to snatch her without being pecked by mama hen

One has a red face and will probably turn out looking a lot like Little Chicken like her big brother has, one is pretty black, and the last is cream colored, maybe to turn out speckled like one of the hens and the rooster.

The little red-faced chick from the December 1st hatch is all grown up

But now it is Wednesday and the rest of the dozen eggs that so promisingly looked full of chicks when we candled them a week ago are now over due and behind. Mama Ukraine is still sitting on more eggs than chicks. The chicks born Monday are already venturing short ways from their mom to search for food and water. She won't be able to keep them in the nest much longer and then the unhatched eggs will be abandoned. We will candle them again and see if there is any hope. It is possible to tuck an egg in close to your body and hatch it that way - humans happen to be just the right temperature.

Mama Ukraine's unhatched eggs

With these newest three chicks, we are now up to my hen-house maximum of 25. The older babies aren't looking so much like babies anymore, and one is beginning to hit rooster-puberty, indicating I can't put off butchering much longer. We are still getting about 6 eggs a day, from the same 6 hens every day, so I am spending today keeping a close eye on the nest boxes and trying to label who lays which egg. I figure if I try to mark them down for a few days in a row, I will know which hens will be joining the little roosters as fried chicken and soup.

In other news, I am finishing up my EMT class and working on my application for the South Whidbey School District after finally transferring my teaching certificate to Washington. I am also finally almost feeling better from the string of colds and flues I seem to have had. Tim is continuing to enjoy his work as an apprentice electrician, on the road to journeyman. Grandpa hosted bridge club at the house last week and is having his car fixed this week. Our house guest, Alisha, is getting ready to leave us for a new job and new adventures as we get ready for our next visitors - she says leaving has nothing to do with me accidentally locking her in the barn with the chickens for multiple hours yesterday. Tilly and I missed the last search practice, but spent Valentines night running up a hill at midnight with our survival pack and Tim gallantly accompanying us.

Tilly testing the new doggy survival bag for another member of our SAR group

Nannies and Kids?

Since we last left off, there have been some nasty flues and colds going around the island and though we've been eating our fruits and veggies, trying to stay healthy, I have been out of it for the last few weeks, and Tim is fighting off the pathogens. Speaking of pathogens, around the time Alice returned to Alaska and we fell ill, I started EMT training, learning to be an emergency medic as seen on ambulances and as friendly citizens teaching CPR to high schoolers and such. The training has been going well with a good cohort of fellow soon-to-be EMTs.

The medical experience I'd really like to have right now is delivering my first kid - goat kid that is. After being doubtful Petunia was pregnant for the last 4 1/2 months, she started showing swelling in all the right places, looking uncomfortable, showing all the vague and goat-y signs of maybe being pregnant! So I sprang into action. Not wanting to get my hopes up only for disappointment, I hadn't finished the milking parlor of the barn - mostly I hadn't built a milking stand. But with kids looking possibly imminent, suggesting a future of goat milking this spring.

With the large, borrowed milking stand out of the way and food cans stacked, there is now a nice space for kidding. I made a shelf to fit on top of the hay holder, the sink is cleaned out, fresh hay on the floor and we're ready to go.

With much help from the curious goats, I replaced the over-sized miking stand with a minimally sized built in milking shelf complete with a feed holder perfectly fitted to their food scoop.

Petunia and Esther have been practicing the milking routine every morning since we made the changes, getting ready for that lucky day sometime in the next week or month or year or two when my goats start making milk.

Just in case that birth really is soon, I assembled the Goat Birth Bag: filled with all the goodness necessary for any vetting and midwifing emergency! Going through the bag, we can talk a little about what I expect from a birth. First of all, the signs leading up to birth are super vague and unreliable and generally goat-y; things like "she may seem agitated, or more friendly. She may seem more or less active. The tendons by her tail may relax, or not. She may start producing milk and filling her utter... or not." Signs and symptoms of impending delivery can begin a month before the birth or, you know, as a pair of tiny feel stick out and give it away. Goats really aren't very obvious.

"Iodine and shot glass for sterilizing

Dental floss and scissors for  cutting cords

Suction bulb and scissors for after birth

Exam gloves and lube for intervention

Feeding syringe and bottle for baby

Molasses (1/4c:2gal warm water) for mom"

In my imagination, we will notice these signs of impending birth and notice some gooey slimy discharge, suggestive of birth, and bring Petunia into our clean and well-prepared birthing room. Once there, we will check on her every half hour, or just hang out in the barn with her, though being too close can sometimes slow labor, so checking in until things start to pick up is probably good. Eventually, her agitation should develop into the rhythmic pushing of labor and we will watch for little white hooves protruding through the amniotic sac and out of Petunia. The baby should be in the "dive" position, with feet forward and down, ancles bending down and towards mom. Alternately, baby can be in the reverse dive position, with little back feet sticking out soles up and bending up and towards mom. If any other body part but a foot starts coming out first, it should be returned and replaced (gently push that head back in a bit and see if you can persuade a little foot to come out instead). Gently pulling one foot and then the other slightly down towards mom as she pushes can help get the legs straight and streamline the process. Also making sure the feet match the head and no one is trying to cut in line is important. That would be another return and replace situation. We want one baby at a time coming out with a matching pair of either front or back feet but not one of each. If I need to manually assist, that would be the first use of the antibacterial soap, warm water, and iodine as I scrub up and coat my arms in orange for health and safety.

Once the baby is out, we try to catch her (always hope for girl babies. They make milk or eggs or more babies and don't need to be put in the freezer or altered like those boys. I think girl goats are easier to sell and sell for more too) on a nice clean towel, wipe the goop off her breathing parts, possibly give a little suction to those breathing parts, then present the still sticky and wet baby to Petunia so she can bond through cleaning. Eventually, find the time to steal the baby back, tie off and cut the umbilical cord at about an inch or two and dip in a shot glass of iodine until thoroughly coated, then stick the baby back up under Petunia, aiming for latching on to her teats and getting some breakfast.

When all the babies and placentas (never pull on a placenta!) have made their way out, Petunia gets some warm molasses water and whatever else she wants to eat while the babies nurse and everyone rests.

Maybe today will be the day! We will keep hoping.

In the other half of the barn, we have a much easier to read perspective mom. The first night I see a hen sleeping in the nest box, I mark it on the calendar and three weeks later the eggs hatch and we have new chicks. These ones are due Monday the 23rd.

I've been able to start selling eggs and am up to two every-other-weekly customers plus an occasional dozen here and there. We're getting about 5 or 6 eggs a day which is... a quarter of the way to my goal but a good start.

My friend, Alisha, is still visiting as she waits to find her next Nannying position and has been continuing to photograph, bake, love the animals, and help out around the farm. We also worked on a sewing project and finished a 1950's dress for her.