Thursday, May 26, 2011

The Chickie Nursery

 Hen and chicks.  So cute.  She is the hen that gets along with both Abbey, who is the blue hen in the second pic and the other hen.  She shared chicks with the other hen.  I found this am the 7th chick, the one who we put in the incubator yesterday to warm up was gone this am and when I checked on them early and made their pen bigger the dark hen, a.k.a. by my son as the bad hen, pecked one of Abbey's chicks.  As soon as I saw her do that I made a quick decision and picked her up and we will sell her as a laying hen.  We don't need any mean hen's especially when these two do such a nice job raising babies together, hopefully we can do it again this Fall or next Spring with these two.
Here is Abbey's butt, sorry, they were too busy scratching and 3 of the 6 chicks.  3 of them are on the other side of the fence, they can get through there for now, which probably saved Abbey's chicks when the other hen was attacking, but they always come back through to be with their mamas.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

We Planted the Garden!!!! Yay!!!!

 Trellis where the butternut squash will grow up.  I need to plant some flowers and have the borage in there which is a companion to squash, but you can't see it behind the cement block.
 My tomatoes, basil and tam jalapeno's at the end.  I'm going to do the Florida Weave this year with my tomatoes.  I learned how to do it with the Master Gardener's out at the A&T University farm last week.  So cool and will be super easy.  I wanted to do it a couple years ago and ran out of time.  So excited!!!
 My herb bed, still adding things.  I have borage, parsley, thyme, oregano, and a marigold.  I still need to put chives, marjoram and I'm sure I will find more to add.
 My lettuce is looking good.  I stole one already, need to get more started.  The seeds I planted didn't take.
 My cold crop bed.  Slow going, at the end the trellis will be for some extra rattlesnake beans that I planted there.
 Melons that haven't started to germinate up front, need to plant the flowers, some are there in the container and then further on is the bean tunnel.  I did this a couple years ago and it worked fabulous.  I will probably need James to climb in there for me to harvest green bean.  With all this rain I'm sure all the seeds I planted are going to germinate without my watering them.  It rained all night and has rained at least once a day since Saturday, so freaking awesome!!
One of two snap peas.  Sad I know, but oh well, I think the birds nabbed the seeds I planted.  This one is starting to bloom.  Yay!!!  Can't wait to put them in a salad or stir fry if there are enough.  LOL!!!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Happenings......

Well, we finally found a home for the goats to make room for the new turkeys coming next month.  Yay!!  The doe wasn't producing enough and with the baby coming, I want animals that are easier to wrastle and care for.  We do have baby chickies coming soon.  We have 3 girls on 3 nests hunkering down on about 4-5 eggs each.  We had to divide them so each hen was happy.  LOL!!!  So funny.  We will make a makeshift nursery once they start hatching so mamas and babies can have a safe haven, but still be near the flock and we won't have to worry about baby chicks getting stuck outside because they are too little to get themselves back in the coop on their own. 
The garden is coming along, all the cold weather crops are look great and I'm going to try to plant the warm season crops tomorrow.  Late start I know, but being pregnant has been a little tougher with the extra weight I'm carrying.  Doing what I can this year, although small and behind what I want it to be, we should have a very productive garden.  I'm excited!!  I am also going to leave an area for James to plant.  I think he'll be so excited to have an area just for him to plant and water and do whatever he wants. 
It's been raining so much here and I hope it keeps up throughout the season unlike last year where there was a drought at the end of the season and so dry.  The humidity has started and I LOVE it.  So much better than dry heat, which is just icky.   Bring on the sticky weather, it feels so good.