Is it Spring yet?

March 08, 2021 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon - The weather is starting to change around here and Spring is on the way. March has been off to a magnificent start with great weather. This has been bad for skiing, but great for getting outside and enjoying the day. Our chickens have really enjoyed the nice weather and the melting snow. They are now able to move freely around the outside of the coop without running into inches of snow pack. The chickens hate the snow.

As for our horses they are ready for spring and the grass to start growing. Having been cooped up during our February cold blitz, they are finally getting some much needed time out in the field. It has been fun to see them enjoy this time so much. I’m excited for when we have fields full of green grass for them to graze in.

Our dogs have been enjoying the new warmer weather as well. During the cold blitz they were hardly able to walk in the snow without their paws getting too cold. These warmer temperatures are a welcome surprise for them.

I have also been able to do activities that I haven’t been able to do in months - like ride my bike. I recently road down some roads nearby and really enjoyed it. Plus the weather was absolutely gorgeous.

I know these days won’t last forever, but I also know that we are getting much closer to spring and even summer. I love how the seasons change here in Montana and am enjoying every last minute of winter as we enter spring.

Winter Microgreens w/ James Gibbon

January 22, 2020 by James Gibbon

James Gibbon grows micro greens!

Growing micro greens is a lot of fun. If you haven’t grown your own micro greens, I highly recommend giving it a shot. Here is a quick summary of how we started growing micro greens in our house.

We first bought a rack. We got ours from Costco - https://www.costco.com , but I’m sure there are plenty of viable options out there. Once we had the rack built and complete, we started loading up some seedlings and micro greens. Methodically we have each row on the rack dedicated to different steps in the growing phase. Much like us all, it all starts at the bottom. This is the row dedicated to heating and germinating the seedlings. Once the seedling 🌱 germinates, we then move it up one row to the grow lights - https://www.homedepot.com/b/Grow-Lights/N-5yc1vZ1z0sawz . This is where the majority of the seedlings 🌱 growth takes place. Above these rows are additional grow lights, space for domes, and space for miscellaneous.

As you can see, we got our seeds from https://www.johnnyseeds.com/ . Once you have your system in place, all there is left to do is add soil, seeds. and water!

James Gibbon | Mountain Biking and Gardening

September 26, 2019 by James Gibbon in james gibbon

Nothing screams Montana Farm Life more than gardening in the morning and mountain ⛰ biking 🚵‍♀️ in the afternoon - and this is exactly what I’ve been doing lately. I used to “mountain” bike a lot when I lived in Austin, but since moving to Montana I had yet to take a bike to the trails. So I got a mountain bike and headed to a nearby trail called Corbly Gulch. Right away once I got to the trail I knew I was in trouble. Not only was there a brutal 1 mile road that was hardly passable, but once I got to the trail head I instantly realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore.

Unlike the south, the trails here are literally going up mountains. The shear amount of strength and endurance needed to make it deep into the trail is impressive and I was not prepared for what I was getting into. Nonetheless, I persevered and pushed up the trail as far as I possibly could until I was about a half mile in.

As you can see I ride a Trek Roscoe 6 hardtail with mid-fat tires on it. The bike road great and did especially well on the way down, helping me navigate tight twist and turns to my car below 🚙. The ride was an absolute blast and I have gone many times since including trips to another local trail, Truman Gulch pictured below.

Truman Gulch is another fantastic trail with diverse terrain and is quickly becoming my favorite trail in the area. Read more about my mountain biking adventures at www.jamesgibbonoutdoors.com

So what about the gardening?

Great question. So a lot has been going on in the garden since I last blogged. If you follow me on instagram, than you already have seen the progress of our radishes and lettuces. Although we sit at around day 35 with these, we are waiting to pull them as they still have room to mature. Unfortunately, we are battling the elements here in Montana and snow is forecasted the next 3 days. So let’s all pull together and help the lettuce and the radishes survive this cold ❄️blitz.

So there you have it! If you’re reading this please comment below and leave 🍃 some positive thoughts for our vegetables 🍅 and thank you for reading!

-JG

James Gibbon's First Time Chicken Hens

September 03, 2019 by James Gibbon

🐓 Order chickens online they said. It will be fun they said… 🐓

So we did.

We went to craigslist and ordered six starter pullet hens 🐓 of two different varieties. Three Light Brahmas and three Barred Rock hens. We got our coop cleared of wasp, and set up an electric fence around the perimeter of the coop with plenty of space for the hens to graze. Below is a picture of the setup before the hens arrived. In my opinion our setup was pretty good, and we were confident in ordering some chickens and harvesting some eggs 🥚- unfortunately things don’t always go according to plan and we made a few costly mistakes.

We picked up the chickens from a local farmer and met them about an hour away from our property. The chickens came in boxes, two to a box 📦 and we loaded them into our truck and headed home to release them into their new home 🏠. I was incredibly excited about this and our excitement lead us to make our first critical mistake.

After researching later, it is critical to release the chickens in a certain way. If handling new chickens, it is critical to keep them in their boxes and put the boxes inside the coop. From here, open the boxes inside the coop and close the door to the coop. It is recommended to keep the chickens in the coop for the first 24 hours so they can get comfortable and feel safe.

This is not what we did… 🐔

Instead, we placed the boxes outside the coop and ripped open the tops and grabbed the chickens and released them into the small fenced in field. Not only did this put a tremendous amount of stress on the hens, but it caused one of them to continually break through the electric fence. Our electric fence that we worked so hard on was completely useless against the chickens. The chicken would just stick it’s head through the netting and wiggle its way out. 🐔

We spent the entire afternoon trying to capture the chicken who continued to escape and we worked even harder trying to get all of the chickens into the coop for bedtime. The entire ordeal could have been easily avoided if we would have done more research online and I hope this story helps anyone looking to purchase hens for the first time.

Once we finally got all of the hens into their coop, we had to build a new fence around the coop to keep the chickens in. We did this by using T Post and Hog Fencing 🤺 and built a simple gate to go in and out from. This fence served as our temporary fencing until we were able to put in a more permanent solution to give the chickens more room to graze.

After all the work was done ✅it was time to enjoy our chickens and to our surprise, we received our first egg!!!