A lot has happened since my last post

 So since my last post we have thankfully come out of a pandemic. In addition I have gotten remarried and moved to 5 acres where we have horses and chickens. I've had a small raised bed garden for a few years, but now is a time for a

change yet again. Follow along a new journey towards retirement! 

Covid 19 in PNW so seed starting time

Well folks, I've been really busy with life and work, but the garden has been on my mind.

The garden was overrun with grass and weeds, one of the downsides of just digging a bed in the grass and putting compost on it. So I threw tarps over it to try to kill some of it to help with the weeding when it comes time.

Still going to be a ton of work, but with pretty much everything shut down due to the Corona virus I don't have as much to do. And working from home means less stair climbing so I need the exercise. 

I had a free early spring weekend so I decided to start my seeds. Boy did I have a lot of them. Some old and some new. 

I think the old ones that are almost 10 years old will be ok because they have been in airtight containers with moisture absorbing packets in them. I'm hopeful. 

I took out the salad greens,broccoli and cauliflower. Planting the older ones first. If they don't germinate then I will try again with new seed. 

The salad greens I chose were for a balance of color, texture and taste. The base is always Salad Bowl and Red Sails, much better than romaine or iceberg. Then I added two varieties of spinach. See which one I like better. Tons of nutrition in spinach, just ask Popeye! For flavor I like Italianshier and Mustard greens, two varieties of them too. I love salads with these greens. No salad dressing required! 

No garden would be complete without tomatoes! I reluctantly decided on three varieties. Past experience has shown me planting too many varieties too close means they don't grow true. That was a huge disaster. So I'm doing Gil's All Purpose, Sungold and Yellow Pear! 

I grow from seed as it is so much cheaper. I've had great success from germinating seeds on a wet paper towel on top of the fridge. 

Time to make my soil blocks! I mixed together compost, peat moss and a little coffee grounds for nutrients. After wetting it down to a clumping consistency, I made blocks. 

I spent about 2 hours of my Saturday doing this. It was so much fun! I did 4 blocks of each of 9 varieties now, with another 4 in a week or two for succession planting. I didn't have labels so I just taped paper to the outside. Should work. 

Unfortunately I determined that my garage is too cold for germination to occur, even with the heating pads under the trays. So I'll germinate the seeds in the house and move them out to the light system in the garage later. Hope this works. Hehe. Not my ideal setup. The lids will keep the cats off them. Hehe.

Looking forward to spring planting and eating good food from my garden again. Kids are home for 6 weeks and I'm working from home. Gotta slow the spread of this virus. Unfortunately I live at Ground Zero for the US. Grrr. Wash your hands folks. 

The big dig!

Whew! That's what I call hard work. So much easier at the old house where I just threw up raised beds and presto garden space. Well it wasn't nearly that easy, but a decade later it seems that way. Boy I miss that garden. This one pales in comparison, but it will work for this year.

Again had the help of one of my sons. The other has a full day of 2 performances. Just enough time after I dropped him off for the matinee to finish digging up the sod.

Along the way I had a marvelous idea. So I think. Instead of putting all the sod on the compost pile, why not turn it over in the garden beds and let it decompose in place?  Sure hope it doesn't take long. Might research that.

Anyway, it sure went faster, instead of brushing all the dirt out of the sod we just left it all in the bed. I think it looks great!

The beds aren't perfect, but they will have to do for now. I need to get planting.

Here is a close up of the bed. What do you think? Good or bad idea with the sod?  Going to have the kids aerate the soil so it is fluffy for planting.

Boy a roto tiller would have come in handy. Oh well, we sure got a good workout.

Couldn't help but notice the blueberry plants leaves starting to grow. Cool but scary since I should really have seeds in the ground. Not sure if I have time to start the seeds indoors this year or if I should just plant them in the beds direct sow.

What project did you tackle this weekend?

Sinfonian

The Gardening Adventure Continues!

With the snow from a few weeks ago a distant memory and the PNW experiencing a few record days of 70 degrees, it got my gardening juices flowing!

So despite this being a very busy show weekend for my youngest and me working back stage, we took some time to dig out the garden area. Didn't get it all finished as the electric tools all broke so we did it all by hand.

Decided on three 4x8 beds with a 3 foot walkway between them so I can sit and garden comfortably. The can of field line spray paint came in handy.

The boys were a big help though it was clear they weren't strong enough to swing the heavy pick axe.

While working it became clear that this area really is the best spot in the yard for a garden. We all worked very hard.

Along the way we ran into a problem as to where to put the sod we took out. If I had a roto tiller I could have mulched it up and made use of it as compost. Instead we had to do it the slow way. Dump the sod in a pile with some browns and let the chemical reaction work its magic! So I started a compost pile. Didn't think I'd be doing that so soon. And since I don't get the paper (well I do electronically) I used lint from the dryer. It has a ton of cat hair in it  Perfect browns!

In the end we decided to call it a day. We were all tired and my youngest was bummed that he was working on his only day off in weeks. The show must go on!

So this is how far we got. Maybe I'll work more on it tomorrow morning before taking him to perform. Not bad progress by hand.

We had a pretty good system down at the end. The slowest part was getting the sod out of the way. It took a while as I wanted the most dirt possible to remain in the beds. It will mean less compost to buy.

I'm happy we got out in the yard and worked in the garden. With theater commitments it has been hard. Ah the life of a father.

Have you been able to work in your garden this Spring? Oh yes, Happy Springtime!

Sinfonian

8 inches of snow and the Territorial Seed catalog

Sitting next to my stove heater reading my new Territorial Seed catalog on a blustery snowy winter winter weekend has got me thinking about gardening this spring. I'm sure I'm not alone. It's been a while so I'm going to cheat and pull out my old seeds and repurchase the ones I like. Maybe I'll try a few new ones. They all look so good.

Unfortunately Mother Nature has put a crimp in my plans to build a garden here. Last week we got 6 inches that tried to kill my mature blueberry plants. I figure they must be 30 years old. The PVC cage and bird netting collapsed under the weight. Thankfully it melted enough for me to dismantle the cage before another storm hit. They look much happier just dealing with 8 inches of new snow.

Stay warm and dry this winter, and plan your own garden.

The waiting game

I am in the midst of a divorce after 21 blissful years married to the love of my life. She doesn't love me anymore. As gut wrenching as that is, you have to take solice where you can. For me that is my kids, hiking and gardening.

I just moved into my new home with one key item on my house hunting wish list fulfilled... a back yard with a clear southern exposure. Perfect for a few garden beds tucked into the side of my yard I won't use often.

A few beds is all I need as I again intend on following the intensive gardening techniques I learned from Mel.

So now I sit in my living room waiting for the cable guy to show up and give me WiFi, thinking and planning my garden for the spring. I'm also waiting for my copy of the Territorial Seed catalog! Can't wait to dog ear those pages and restock my garden supplies.

What are your favorite catalogs?

Possibly more to come...

I know it's been years since I updated this blog. Life has taken me in other directions, but my situation has changed and I'm excited to garden again. If I do pick up a shovel and some seeds, I will take you along with me. You will see some things have changed and some have not.

For the winter I plan to set up my seed starting system and browse the Territorial Seed catalog.

Take care,

Sin

CHICKS!

That's right, the chicks arrived, two days sooner than expected. Guess the poor postal service didn't like all that peeping. Hehe. We here at the farm sure do though. It's music to our ears.  And without further ado, here are the girls, tired from the move.

I did move the heat lamp down a bit just in case, but I think they are just getting used to their surroundings.  Here's a good pic of them not through the murky Rubbermaid container.

The kids want to name them again. I let them as they're ok with the fact that they're not long for this earth.  Speaking of which, the two remaining hens aren't laying still, so they may not be long for this world either.  Anyway, here are some close-ups for those of us that just can't get enough chicks.

My Barred Rocks...

My Rhode Island Reds...

And last but not least, my Buff Orpingtons...

And lastly, in case you were thinking it was just me liking the little girls, here's what happened when I opened the lid on the box they came in...

Peep... peep!

Spring is in the air!

As everyone knows, spring has sprung.  The days are getting longer and even in the Pacific North Wet the days are getting brighter.  Bulbs are blooming and trees are budding.  Even our fledgling fruit trees have buds and flowers on them.  My wife wants to let them fruit, but I'm in favor of continued growth of the tree which would mean snipping the flowers so all the energy goes into growth.  Ah well, she'll win out so why do I bother.

Well, some of you may have read about my scout Pack Meeting activity with soil blocks.  Well the next weekend (last) I broke out and made a bunch of my own.  You can see below that I packed them in as tight as I could on the left. The only challenge I've seen with doing that is the roots growing together, which is no big deal if you just tear them apart.  The other thing I recall from prior years is the spider web fungus that grows between the cracks.  My research showed it was nothing to worry about, so I don't.  Anyway, as you can see in the far left of the picture, the initial plantings from the night of the scout meetings sprouted fast with my new heating pads (black pad under the white trays).  They work very well if I say so myself.  A thermometer between the tray and pad was 90 degrees.  Not bad for $25 each. Gotta love Amazon Prime.

I digress.  You can see the sprouts reaching for the sunlight.  I had to fix that quick or they'd get leggy.  So out to the garage I went and hooked up my lights. I had to buy new chains and S-hooks because they got misplaced in the garage.  So I'm about $100 into my garden hobby this year.  Oh well. The stress relief alone is well worth the cost.  Thankfully the PVC frame held up like a charm. Below you can see it all hooked up.  Looks like I bought too much chain.  Oh well.

The other thing that happened this weekend is that we had an unwanted house-guest.  No, not my mother-in-law, we love her to pieces.  It was actually a woodpecker. Dumb bird kept waking up my son as it was pecking right below his window in the garden area.  I didn't take a picture of the first hole that went all the way through to the attic, I just covered it in a hurry on the way out the door to the theatre.

The wood is salvaged from the floor we replaced in my son's room.  Going to need to weatherize it if I don't replace the siding on that side of the house, but that'll be very expensive.  Unfortunately it just made the woodpecker move over... and start pecking right into my son's bedroom! That call made me drop what I was doing at work and run home.  Thankfully I found the bird hadn't gotten through to the drywall.

You can see the black tar paper.  It's not horrible.  But I had had it.  I needed to go to drastic measures.  Not only did I put another board up, but I stapled up temporarily a 4 foot swath of chicken wire.

Boy was that a process, two stories up. We even had my youngest hanging out the window (blocked by a ladder) holding up the wire while I stapled it in place.  Here is a close-up.

My wife didn't think it would deter the bird enough, but an hour after I wrapped up, what did I hear? A woodpecker pecking a few houses down.  Not that I wish that on anyone, but come on!

After that we went on a nice spring walk and grabbed Subway for dinner.  Great to see so many neighbors out weeding or just going for a walk.  Gotta love spring!

Potato page

Well my Potato page popularity strikes again. In case you weren't aware my second of four pages I created with helpful garden information got some local notoriety from the Seattle Times way back in 2009. Since then ever so often a popular site links that page to their site and I get a bump in traffic. Well it's happened again. I'd been getting about 150 hits a day since I came back. Then out of the blue it jumped to 900. Sure enough it was all Page 2. It's leveling off and soon it will be back to normal. Fun while it lasts I guess.

Anyway I'd like to give a shout out to the gardeners in Slovakia. Thanks to Google translation I could read the nice article she wrote and nice words she said about me. Thanks!

Man, typing on my phone on the bus leads to typos galore!

Lastly for this edit, I'm struggling to find a replacement handle for my pitchfork.  Internet searches all come up with the wood handle, not just the top plastic part. I'd really like a metal one if I can find one to fit.  Kind of discouraging. Anyone know where I can find one?

That's the last time I use "Lastly" because now Grit Magazine of Mother Earth News posted on Pinterist or whatever a well established link to my blog page on Tip Nut. I must thank them someday. They have always been the best referrer. Glad these folks give me credit even if Grit didn't. So much for renewing my subscription. 

A garden adventure for some cub scouts

As the Cubmaster for my sons' pack is my job to come up with an entertaining activity for after my Pack meetings. Tonight I plan on doing a little talk about spring and where our food comes from. I'm going to end off with letting them plant some seeds. To that end we have to make about 30 soil blocks today. Makes me whisk I'd invested in a real spill block maker. The one a garden buddy made for me works but is slow for this application. Oh well, it'll be good practice for when I start my own seeds... very late.

I'm thinking of letting them choose between lettuce and random flowers I've got seeds for. Not all kids like salads. Hehe. Of course it looks like I got rid of the flower seeds, so we'll pick some up on the way. Of course we ran late and ended up with only lettuce seeds.

Still, the Pack meeting was a big success. I talked about spring and where food comes from. Then I walked them through the composting process with our Waste Management and their Cedar Grove compost arm that made the soil blocks. Lastly I explained one small seed could feed a person a salad per week for the whole season!

Each kid got to place a seed or two in their block and take it home. What a night. Next to repeat this weekend for my own garden. 

Milestones, and real successes

First off, before I get into the meat of my post, I should take a moment to celebrate a bit of a milestone.  I was fairly close before my long hiatus, but today I finally hit a whopping 75,000 page views! It is quite an accomplishment since I had recently switched from my old hosting site (thanks Judy for all you did to start my blogging "career") and I'm quite certain I was over this mark there. I can't count the times I crashed her host service or made them make her pay more for the hits back when the infamous potato bin article hit on the Seattle Times.  My old photo hosting site even booted me AFTER I stopped blogging since it was so popular. Silly people.  Anyway, I celebrated with my eldest son this morning as we crossed over a bit of a milestone.  He thought it was cool.

Now for the real success of the day.  After ditching the kids my wife and I had the house to ourselves.  That allowed me to convince her to help me weed the garden beds.  We got to try out the stirrup hoe for real and found it not as useful as I'd hoped.  The broad fork was much better at bringing up clumps of weeds.  You may recall what the beds looked like before we started...

I shudder to think how bad this looks.  But a lot of elbow grease later, we had really accomplished something.

As you can see above, the process was to dig up the weeds in big swaths, knock some of the dirt off, then throw it into the wheelbarrow.  It wasn't as fast as we'd hoped, but it went fast enough. Many hands make light work.  I'm so proud of my wife for helping me.  I couldn't have done it without her.

Hehe, she just got a laugh out of my comment that out of 524 posts she finally made it on my blog.  Well, 525 is the charm they say, or do they?  Well, as you can see, the 11 foot bed is all done, and she pretty much tackled the entire 5 foot bed by herself.  Way to go dear!

You can see next to her the broad fork, or short pitchfork or whatever it's called.  It worked wonders to move it along.  At least it did until we had a bit of a casualty.

Poor broad fork, you served me well.  I'm hopeful I can find a replacement handle, maybe one that's metal and will hold up better, but I was in the middle of my 4 foot bed and prying up on the edge when it happened.  Oops.  It still worked well enough, but I want to fix it, or at least replace it.  Quite the handy tool. It helped us get to about here with only two wheelbarrows full of dirt and weeds. That's when my wife went inside to nurse a wound.

While she was inside, I unloaded the second of three wheelbarrows into the chicken run.  I was too tired to unburry the doors so they'd open large enough for a wheelbarrow to fit inside, so I ripped a hinge off the bottom of the left hand door.  Oh well, it still works for now. I'll fix it later.

The dirt probably has some bugs in it for the girls too, and if you can see the gaps under the footings, the dogs have been digging their way in. I need to beef up the protection, especially when the new chicks arrive.

But don't the beds look nice after all our hard work today?

We got three of the four beds done in about two hours.  I'm so pleased even though I know we didn't do as thorough of a job as we needed to.  As my commentators said, it's going to be a long slog to rid myself of weeds after letting the beds get that bad.  I think tomorrow after we finish I'll pick up some black plastic to put over the beds for a few weeks while the seeds germinate and seedlings grow and harden off before removing and planting.  Does that sound like a good plan or is it a pipe dream to think it will help?

I bet you never saw someone so happy about weeding, but I haven't had my garden looking this good in a year.  And no, I don't weed other people's gardens, hehe. I can't wait to finish up tomorrow. Hopefully I'll even be able to start some seeds.  And yes, I realize I'm way behind the curve.

Oh, and I love comments, so please talk to me.

Amazing weather, amazing progress!

Well, all it took was for me to post how bad our weather was on the first day of spring and presto! the weather improved.  As of 7 PM on Friday it's still a balmy 47 degrees and sunny.  Quite the change from the last few days.  What's more, this weekend is expected to be amazing.  I can't wait to get out there and tackle that weeding problem.  My brother over at Urban Homestead WA was just saying he isn't going to plant quite yet for fear of another late April cold snap.  Well, any long-time reader of this blog knows I have hoop covers on all my beds in case that happens. If I can get those beds weeded, then I can feel comfortable starting my spring greens, better late than never.

I was very encouraged by my post about my weed problem.  I was so excited to get home and try out my stirrup hoe that I didn't even change clothes.  Mostly I didn't bother because the sun was going down and we had company coming over.  So out I ran in my slacks and dress shoes to grab the hoe.  Quick like a bunny I raced to the bed.  This is where I'd left off after a half hour of grueling hand weeding.

Actually it was just the light colored dirt at the bottom that I got done earlier.  The rest I did in less than a minute with the stirrup hoe.  In case you're wondering what the heck one is, I took a quick snapshot of this miraculous device.

With it, I did in two minutes what took me a half hour last week. 

 I stopped only to come in and finish up dinner.  Sure I lost more dirt than I would like, but I did shake it off a bit before dumping it in the bin.  Besides, that bin went into the coop run, and I can use all the dirt I can get in there, the girls have dug it up something fierce with their dust baths.  What's the worst that could happen, weeds growing in the run, they would just eat them.  Hehe.  I'm so happy, I could have

Oops, you can see my gardening clothes.  Which reminds me, if anyone has a stressful job, 5 minutes in the garden at the end of the day does wonders to take the load off.  It has always left me clear headed and energized.  I've forgotten how good gardening feels.

Enjoy the first weekend of spring, what's your weather like?

First day of spring

Hey folks!  If you live in the Pacific North Wet like I do then you know that the first day of spring is not Match 20th. In fact I was scraping ice off my car window this morning. We even regularly have snow storms in late April here. I don't call that spring do you?  Thank goodness for hoop covers. They saved my spring crop the year of the freak snow on April 20th.

What kind of weather are you having?

Catching up with Sinfonian...

It's been a rough few years since I stopped blogging.  Many people think of this time as the Great Recession. For my family it was a trying time as a zero income family. During this both stressful and amazing time we survived on unemployment for nearly two years due to eating constantly from my garden.  Not only was that amazing, but I got to spend almost two years with my boys. That is something I will never forget, nor hopefully repeat.  I didn't blog then because I was on the computer so much job hunting it didn't feel right to do something for pleasure.  Yes, blogging is a selfish act in my book.

After my unemployment term, I went right into an 18 month contract working night and day to earn money and make up for lost time replacing savings and getting debt free (a topic for another time).  It was right when that contract ran out that I found permanent employment back in the commercial real estate lending industry where I spent 15+ years of my career.  The first year (last year) was more insane hours earning overtime while deadlines loomed and the money was offered.

It was during those last threeish years that my garden suffered.  I still kept chickens, but I simply had no time at key times of the year to garden. I must say my stress level suffered for it, but never realized it until I got out and weeded for the first time last week.  This is what my garden beds looked like when I went out there. It's not for the faint of heart...

Scary huh? I spent a half hour with a broad fork, shovel and hand trowel only to carve about two feet by four feet of the far right bed. Quite inefficient considering all I had to do.  Now I'm kicking myself for not covering the beds with plastic or lasagna gardening with left over pizza boxes to kill the weeds.  I'm also mad at my big brother for getting rid of his gas powered roto-tiller.  Then I could have considered these beds overwintered with green manure.  Needless to say I'm looking for suggestions for the fastest way to get my beds ready. I haven't had the heart to start seeds indoors this year because there is no place to plant them. My best idea so far is to use my mother-in-law's stirrup hoe to cut the roots off below the dirt line.  The downside to this is I would lose quite a bit of dirt. Most of my time spent to date was to knock as much dirt off the weeds before I fed them to the hens.  I figure the worst case is that I transfer more dirt to the run, which is in desperate need of more dirt.  Oh, and so are my beds if you can see the bottom of the first 2x6 in the picture above. I have always meant to go get another few yards of 7 way compost from Pacific Top Soil to top off my beds, but that hasn't happened.  Maybe this fall.

Thoughts? I hope this weekend is better for weeding.  Last weekend was horrible with the deluge of rain we got.  I'm not that hard core anymore.  Hehe.  It's good to be back!  And for grins I found folks that were hosting my potato bin page on their site, a few not giving me credit, and recreated the links to the pictures, so my most popular page is back up and running.  Yay!

Enjoy your garden!

Come back?

What would you all think if I came back to blogging? It's been three years since my last post and now life is a bit more stable so I'm itching to garden and raise chickens more. Work is doing well enough that I may even be able to write here on occasion. Would you come back to read it?  Let me know. Thanks,

Sinfonian 

December 19th, 2011

Not much to say today, I've just noticed more folks following my blog of late so I wanted to thank them.  To all who have stopped by and want to keep doing so, thank you! Sure it may not be the thousands that came after my write-up in the Seattle Times several years ago, but I like this even better.  Folks not looking for a quick fix, but a sustainable future. 

Speaking of sustainable.  My hens may not give me eggs forever, but whoever thought their egg production would fall off in the winter (moi) was sadly mistaken.  I've had to give away dozens and dozens of eggs just to not feel so bad about not using them.  We don't eat eggs every day, but we do consume our fair share.  But when the girls are giving on average 3 eggs a day it adds up quick. 

I have to thank my wife for stepping up and taking care of the hens all week when I'm at work.  She gathers the eggs, feeds and waters the hens, and gives them that added human contact that they like so much.  And to think hens were completely my idea that I had to wear her down just to let me get them. 

I still do the cleaning.  Speaking of which, this weekend I had to clean out the coop after only a few months.  I'm not sure how, but the bedding almost looked wet.  I'm pretty sure I don't have leaks, though with all the ventilation I'm sure the dew gets in.  That and since the hens have been cooped up almost exclusively since the grass stopped growing, they soil it more.  Not that I'm complaining, the moist nitrogen rich bedding is great for the compost, which is almost full. If only I had some other greens to add to it. Maybe I'll have my wife swing by Starbucks for something other than a Chi Frappochino.  Hehe.

Well folks, that's about it.  My fall garden is not overwintering nicely so I will end up feeding it to the chickens, but at least they'll get something other than organic feed and kitchen scraps.

Take care and stay warm!

November 19, 2011

I was just sitting here wondering what folks blog about in the off season. Nothing I'd growing in the garden and the overwintering broccoli isn't holding up like I wanted. That said I can feed them to the hens.

They'd like the fresh veg. I haven't been ranging them since the weather turned foul. I tried it a few times and they demolished the grass. It scared me, so, when they get out of the mini-run the arc stays right there. There's no grass there anyway. I feel bad, but they don't seem to mind. I even open the cleanout door when they're in the coop and they don't jump out. Go figure.

Lastly, the weather's turned amazingly foul this week. I've had a regular light bulb in there for the chickens for when the temps drop below freezing. I don't like keeping the hens in light all night, but they manage. The light adds 5 degrees to coop temp.  Anyway, tonight we're getting into to 20s and that's just horrible. So, tonight I'm considering throwing the heat lamp in there. Not sure.

So, I hope you have a garden that either is growing now or was big enough to allow you to put up enough to be eating from your garden still.

Enjoy!

October 22, 2011

Well, I finally cleaned out the chicken coop and changed the bedding.  The girls were glad I did it too.  By girls I include my wife, who had asked me to do it.  She's been pretty much taking care of the hens since I went back to work.  I am away from the house when they need tending to. 

I really think I could have gotten more than 6 months out of the bedding if Fall hadn't arrived.  You see, we've kept them in their coop during the day far more often then when the weather was nice.  They tend to make a much bigger mess of the place when they're cooped up all day (pun intended).

Anyway, I got two wheelbarrows full of used bedding that went on top of my compost pile.  I should really mix it in with some greens to speed up the decomposition, but until I get some more Starbucks coffee grounds, the chicken manure will just have to suffice. 

I used up half a bale of pine shavings in the three nesting boxes and the coop.  My brother picked up a bale for me from the feed store the other day.  I was a bit disappointed that it was a national brand like you see in pet stores in small bricks.  In the past we've purchased local shavings from Washington, just like our organic feed from Bellingham.  The price was the same, but I just feel better using the local bedding.  This will work, but next time I stop in at the store, I'll talk to them to find out what happened to their local source.

Lastly, the chickens haven't been foraging much at all this past week.  The weather's been crappy, the arc is too heavy for my wife to move by herself and the grass just isn't growing.  I'm thinking they'll just be home-bodies this winter, using the area in front of the compost bins as a run whenever we bring them out.  There isn't much grass there anyway, and if they kill it, no biggie.  About the only non-feed they're getting are table scraps and the occasional pear that drops from the spent pear tree.  I won't eat the fruit, but they love it.  They'll get the over-spotted apples when I pick them also.  Boy I wish they liked morning glory! The rose garden is covered in them. /shrug

Enjoy your garden!

October 9, 2011

Thanks Wishingbee for the kick in the pants to get back here to post.  However, I can't say much is going on in the garden.  It is fall of course, and the summer heat killed all my tomatoes such that I only got a handful of each variety to use.  The good news is that our salads have been marvelous.  We've got lettuce (only Italienshier grew for me this fall, but it's good), spinach, and tomatoes.  If only I'd grown cukes this year, I'd have a perfect salad.  Oh, and I never have timed my salads right with my radishes, they've all gone to seed.  Shame, I do love a good radish.

Anyway, the girls are going strong, giving us 2-4 eggs a day, such that I gave a dozen to my folks and brother, since his chickens for some reason haven't started laying yet.  It's odd since they're the same breeds bought from the same store on the same day.  Very odd indeed.  Of course 5 days after I gave away two dozen eggs I had another dozen to use.  They're delicous but defnitely "large" variety eggs, unlike the extra large we get in the store.  Haven't had an opportunity to bake with them yet, but I'm a bit worried about a recipe calling for 1 extra large egg.  That we don't have. 

I've seen extra large eggs from so-called "Production Reds" that are a cross between production Leghorns and Rhode Island Reds.  According to my wife, they're not very cute, but who knows.  Something to consider next time.  I do like our birds though. They're cute, a bit loud, and friendly.  About the only thing they don't do is use the roost.  Oh well, no biggie.

So, I hope you all have an "EGGstremely" good weekend!