Monthly Archives: July 2011

Colorado Fruit Trees

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The yard has burst to life in this summer heat. We have been gradually trying to shift our yard into a perennial food source instead of either having an annual garden (which we’ll do also) or just a lawn of grass and flowers that are nice but not edible.

So here is an update of some of our trees and some new additions:

Last year, 2010 we planted a fruit cocktail tree. This is what it looked like:


Fruit Cocktail Tree of Plums, Nectarines and Apricots in 2010


Today! It has grown about 4 feet in a year!


It even has plums already!

Our peach tree is doing well too. It hasn’t grown as tall as the fruit cocktail tree, but it’s gotten really full and bushy. I was noticing that the leaves of the peach tree are similar to mango trees. The fruit is somewhat similar too in color, taste and texture. I wonder if they are related botanically. Things that make you go hmm.


Here it is (to the right in front of the porch) last year


Peach Tree Summer 2011

We also planted some apple trees. We have two “Lil Big” Honeycrisp apple trees which are extra dwarf apple trees that are expected to only grow 6 feet max. The other apple tree is a 5-in-one apple tree. There are supposed to be five varieties of apple grafted together like the fruit cocktail tree. That maximizes our small space in the backyard to be a diverse food producing area. Still no apples or flower blooms yet though.


The Lil Big Apple Tree is in front and the 5-in-1 apple tree is behind

In addition to the trees though, we do have tomatoes coming in. The pepper plants are doing ok and I think we might get some cucumbers too. Also Omeleto is an egg-laying machine. Even though her eggs are smaller than the old chickens, she lays a lot more consistently. I love leghorns for this quality. Plus since we hand raised her she is not as skittish as old Omelette was. Summer is such an awesome time in Colorado. Lots of food, fun and flowers too! I wish I could do this year-round. Oh, wait. We can…in Puerto Rico! 🙂 I can’t wait to check on our fruit trees down there. We planted a mango tree, corazon tree, and guava. Hopefully they are growing good now!


Green Tomatoes

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Grasshopper Gluttons

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We have a ton of grasshoppers out front in our flower beds. Whenever we walk past the flowers you can just hear them jumping to hide somewhere else. So Britton and I decided we would harvest this chicken delicacy.

When we fed them to the chickens we thought they would go nuts. But no. The chickens liked them, but were not as enthusiastic about them as I thought they would be. It was as if they were saying, “yah, we get those all the time out here”. But they still ate them all! Good protein and omega-3s for our eggs! Circle of life and all that.


Yum! A jar of grasshoppers 🙂

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Curanderismo, Swimming, Bicycling, and Fence Building!

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This weekend has been very busy. Even busier than my three-day birthday weekend! On Friday night we had a visitor come to our house. My friend Ofelia told me about this man she met in Juarez, Mexico who is a curandero, or traditional folk healer and also a sobador – a type of healer who uses touch to heal -sort of like a masseuse. Anyway, she said he was coming to Colorado to do some sobaduras to various people and she had told him about me and how Britton and I would at some point like to have a child but were not, as of yet, able to. So he wanted to see us. So Friday night he visited with us and my mom as well and talked with us quite a bit in Spanish which I mostly understood correctly. A lot of his advice was spiritual in nature, but some of it was pretty down to Earth as well.

Then he basically gave each of us a chiropractic session popping my back and twisting my arms and legs. It was kind of awkward but also pretty interesting. I didn’t feel any differently after, just as I didn’t really feel any differently after 4 months of acupuncture, but what the heck! Worth a shot and he only took donations so…we thought it would be an experience. Which it was, if nothing else.

Later that evening we went over to a party for a little while.  Saturday morning Britton went about building a fence gate for his parents at their house. After he was done with all that work for the day, we decided to go swimming at Centennial Pool which was so nice and refreshing since it was about 100 degrees and super sunny out.


With friends at the Moonlight Bike Ride

Saturday evening, though, we went to the 2011 Greeley Moonlight Bike Ride. We went last year and knew it was a blast, so we encouraged some of our friends and family to come out as well. My mom and her companion Anthony came as well as our friends Matt and Jamie and daughter. It was a long ride with a lot of uphill pedaling so we were pooped out by the end. Still, we ended up winning a gift certificate to the Texas Roadhouse and had free sandwiches at the end of the event. It was fun even if it was about a 13-14 mile ride!

Today Britton finished up the fence gate, we went out to eat at Texas Roadhouse, and then just hung out at home. We watched a movie, went grocery shopping and cleaned the house a little. It was a fun and very busy summer weekend! Now, back to work!! 😛

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Tiny Pullet Eggs

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A pullet is a young hen usually who has yet to lay an egg. Once they lay eggs, they usually are deemed hens. However, when young hens first start to lay eggs, sometimes they are not fully developed. In that case, they are called pullet eggs.

Our new 16-week old leghorn has already started laying eggs! Leghorns are often the commercial standard for hens because they are smaller than other hens (take up less room), they begin laying earlier and they lay longer than most other breeds. I can definitely say that the early laying is the case for Omeleto as the other two pullets have not.


Omeleto

Usually the last thing to mature is their comb and you know they are ready to lay. Omeleto’s comb is definitely more developed than the other pullets. However, her eggs still aren’t!


Pullet egg and regular sized egg

The pullet eggs look more like robin eggs! I was curious what the inside would look like, so I made a fried egg with one of each. Check out the tiny yolk in the pullet egg.


What a big difference between the full egg and the pullet egg! You can hardly notice the yolk in the pullet egg

So we still have a little time before we have full-sized eggs, but this is pretty good for only 16 weeks old! The other chickens should start laying at 20-24 weeks or in another 1-2 months.

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