The chicken are almost 3 weeks now so we put them out on the pasture. However, the new energizer fails to work and I have to send it back to service, what a shame! This is just the second time I turn it on. I hope the electric fence will serve as a barrier in the mean time to keep out predators.
The chickens look happy on the pasture and slowy learning the surroundings.

Odelia is feeding the chickens.

Chicken fighting for feeds.

It has been 2 weeks now since we had the baby chicks. They grow so fast, eating and drinking and sleeping.

2 weeks old chicken.

Tiffany holding a chicken.

Feeding the chick with a leaf.

Finally, the babay chicks are here. We order 40 of them. They are all white rock cornish x straight run (male and female). It is a challenge to raise them because over the years White Rock Cornish x is bred for converting feed to meat in a short period of time. I have read that they are not really suitable for pasture raise and if left to grown too big, will die from weak heart and legs. However, we are willing to give it a try.
The children are thrilled to see so many baby chicks and can’t wait to hold them. After the fun, we put them into the permanent chicken coop where the brood guard, water, feeder and heat lamp are waiting. Exciting!

In order to try raising chickens for ourselves and possible sale, I decide to experiment the day-range poultry model. So what is a day-range poultry model? In a nutshell, this is a type of model that raises chickens on pasture, employing a movable pen/coop and electric fencing. Raising chickens on pasture allow them to find their own food from foliage, scratch dirt and eat bugs. The result is more nutritious and tasty meat and eggs.

Visit The American Pastured Poultry Producers Association for more information.

We have adopted the plan from Mike Hansen, using cattle panels and hog panels. The pen is about 8.5 x 12 feet in size. First, we build the base using 2x4s, cutting triangle plywood pieces as corner support. Then we bend the cattle panel so that it forms a hoop style. The hog panels are then attached to the cattle panels with wire ties. All the panels are attached to the base frame with fence staples. We also attach chicken wires around the panels. In order for the chickens to go in and out the coop, we cut a small section on one side of the hog panel. The cattle panel is sturdy and we can hang the feeder no problem. The coop is finished with 2 lawn mower tires attached at the back and a pull handle at the front. It is covered with tarp to provide shelter from sun and rain.

A portable electric fence will be setup to provide protection
from predator such as racoons and wild dogs. 
Here my girls are helping me in building the coop.

God has blessed us with this farm and small garden. I hope my children will love to grow and observe where food comes from. This will be a valuble lesson to remind us how our Heavenly Father provide for us. Thank you Lord.

The green onions are easy to grow.  Now we don’t need to reply on green onions all the way from Mexico.
The garlics are growing very well. We should have 64 bulbs this year.
There are yellow table onions.
Spinach that we sowed in spring
Thyme from last year.
Swiss chard.  The right one is sowed 3 weeks after the left one.
Carrots are slow to germinate but finally make it.
I put 4 corns in the corner and 1 bean in the center.
Red salad bowl provide us with lots of fresh eating salad. Every 4 days we will cut enough for our family of 7 (technically it should be 8 but the newborn is not eating lettuce now)
Potato from last year.
Chinese cabbage on the left and red cabbage on the right.
Strawberry is finally forming, yeah!
I plant some oats beside the ground for fun, it will be fun to see how they do.
I build a bench with 2 planters on 2 ends for my wife.  In it I have 8 squares for herbs including basil, chive, parsley, oregano, sage
Snow peas
In the center squares, the larger plants are sunflower and the smaller are romaine lettuce. This way the sunflower can provide some shade to the lettuce so they won’t bolt too early.

If you ask me to name the worst pest in a garden, snug and snail will be my top pick, followed by flea bettle. These slimy creatures love to eat young leaves until everything is gone. I have tried to hand pick some of them but I found there are a lot of eggs and baby snugs that I finally decided to purchase organic bait. I pick the Scott EcoSense Snug Bait and hopefully this will save my back, time and the young plants. I wonder how commercal gardeners deal with them.

Each year I learn something new in gardening. We just transplanted some cucumber and squash seedlings and they all die after 2 days. I believe it might be too early for these hot season vegetables to be planted outdoor. For the past 2 days, the night temperature has been 5 degrees Celsius and I did not put a poly cover overnight. This might be too chilly for the young plants. Also, I only hardened them off for 3 days and this might not be enough. Any how, I am going to direct plant the squash seeds and see if this would be better. The cool weather, however, is good for the leafy plants like lettuce and spinach.

Almost every day there is something to do in the garden. This year we have built 2 new 4×4 SFG and 2 2×4 SFG. We have planted spinach, radish, peas, onion, swiss chard, carrots, potatoes, parsnip. We have also transplanted some cabbage, lettue and cauliflower. However, for some reason, only the lettuces survive so far. I really don’t have a clue how to grow cauliflower because they just keep dieing.

Chinese cabbage transplanted.
The garlics are growing very well. We should have 64 bulbs this year.
Some garlic grows in the strawberry patch? Strange.
Spinach from last year.
Spinach from this year’s seeds.
This is red salad bowl (lettuce) transplant.
Carrot and Swiss Chard squares. Nothing yet.
This is new 4×4 SFG for corn and the new cedar bench I just built. You can also order a new one from me 🙂

Here are the progress after 30 days of seeding:

Overview
About 50% of marigold sprouted
Cabbage leaves are touching each other.
Tomato is growing well.

It is spring again, horray! That means many preparation and work as well. One of the things we do today is spraying the fruit trees with the dormant spray kit. The mix consists of liquid lime sulhpur, dormant oil and water. We use a small hand-held-hand-pump pressue sprayer. The spray supposes to controls over-wintering insects, insect eggs and diseases on fruit trees. I am not sure if this is effective at all but simply doing whatever I can to grow the fruit trees in the organic way.