One step closer to my homestead

The garden is showing some hope and we got more things in the ground this weekend.  My fingers are crossed that things continue to grow and that we will get a lot of fresh produce throughout the summer and fall.

Sunflowers

Dill

Cilantro

Rosemary

Carrots

Lettuce

Green Beans

Onions

Tomato

Broccoli 

Calendula

Garden beans (yellow beans)

Purple potatoes (really!)

Gold potatoes

Rasberry bush

Future site of watermelons and pumpkins

Sweet potatoes

Brussel Sprouts

Squash

Zucchini and Cucumber

The don't stop growing

I needed to clean out the basement brooder where the youngest chicks are and I thought it would be a good time to get some pictures of them and how much they have grown.

They did NOT like being put into one tub together while I cleaned things up.

Ignore the old lady in the background

I

We have a girl!

We have had the guinea for a year now and I have never been able to figure out which of them were girls or which of them are boys.

About a month ago I started finding guinea eggs in the chicken run on the ground or in the chicken coop.  I knew I had at least one girl.

The three small eggs on the right are guinea eggs

A few nights ago there were only two guinea in the guinea coop.


One was with the chickens.  I have no idea why because they seem to instigate fights with the chickens all day when they are free ranging in the yard.

The guinea is sitting next to these two, they aren't happy

I just thought this picture was funny

The next morning there was an egg.

Yesterday this happen again and there was another egg.

So today, I decided if there was an egg, I would know the guinea in the chicken coop was a female and I should mark her somehow.  So before I let it out of the chicken coop today, I caught her and put a pink zip tie around her ankle.  I kept wishing I had someone with me to take pictures of me doing this.





Tonight, one guinea is in the coop with the chickens, and I'm sure it's the girl again.  She wouldn't stand up so I could confirm the pink band was on her ankle.

I'm so excited for summer

I'm only excited because I am hoping my garden will produce as much as I'd like it to.

I got all of the April produce in the ground this weekend.  There were nine rows/areas that were prepared and I got 7 of them done.

I even got 6 potato cages made and started.

I read an article today that said the cages don't produce as much as traditional mounds, so I may end up doing some mounds as well.


I even got a triangular section of Sunflower seeds planted.

Next weekend will be another busy weekend but I will find time to get a few more things into the ground and I will have to paint some more rocks for labels because I have multiple rows of tomatoes and will have repeating rows of other veggies as well.

Chick Updates

Today was the first day my chicks were able to walk around outside.  I pushed them all out of the coop because they didn't seem to want to go out on their own.

Of course when I went to put them back in at night, they didn't want to go back in.

You want me to go where?

Meanwhile, in the basement, the students' chicks and my five Buff Orpington chicks are growing wings.  This is the awkward teenage years.

I grabbed a couple to get some more detailed pictures.

If all goes well, I think these chicks can go outside in a few more weeks and I'll have to do another rotation with the birds.  Or build another coop.  Yikes!

Just a little higher

Carrie is a determined girl.  When she wants something, she finds a way to get it.  Even if that means head butting another goat out of the way, pawing at a pack of roof shingles until the wrapper comes off and she can chew on it, or walking on her hind legs for 30 second intervals to reach a higher branch.

She sees what she wants

She circles as she plans her attack

And she goes for the grab

4 hours in the garden

I'm a week behind on my garden, and since most of the plants I started inside have died, that means I'm even more behind than that.

Today I finally got outside, put the screen netting up to keep the chickens out of the garden, and then got four rows planted.

I got two rows of tomato plants, a row of broccoli and cauliflower (20 plants each) and calendulas (flowers for the chickens), and a row of onions (all kinds.)  There is still some space at the end of the rows to add a few more plants.

I also got all of the herbs planted in my stacked pots.

Today I will get back out there to plant more herbs in the garden as well as all of the other veggies, sunflowers, etc.  I also plan to build the potato cages and get those going.  Hopefully I'm not too far behind and I will still have the ridiculously insane amounts of produce that I was planning to have.