Growing things

Maybe someday I'll be a dependable blogger. Lately I've just been trying to be dependable in real life.

It's been a good couple of weeks, actually. Even with the flu bug that swept its way through our house and is still working through the neighborhood. (I hope everyone feels better soon!)

I finished painting the coop. Mostly. I worked on it the week after Easter, and then got busy washing bedding and keeping an eye on my pukers. But the chickens are growing steadily, and don't seem to mind that I haven't finished the eaves or the back studs.

Here they are devouring some treats -- leftover lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes are their favorite!



Here's Josephine first in line for visitors. She's the queen of the coop, but she rules gently.



Mystery tends to hang back and let everyone else go first. She's the most wary about new foods. She keeps an eye on the littlest girls (the barred Rocks), who don't seem to be afraid of anything.



The vegetable patch is doing well! I was starting to worry that all the carrot seeds we planted wouldn't come up, but they finally peeked out a few days ago. We have one row of seedlings I started in February that are several inches tall. Then four or five more rows that are only tiny little grass-like babies.



The lettuces started from seed look really good. The tomatoes and bell peppers are also doing well. I got them as seedlings, so they had a head start. And the Jack-o-Lantern pumpkins are growing like crazy! I'm going to have to transplant several of them to another mound.

But only three green bean plants, and none of the cucumbers, watermelon or cantalope came up. The kids must have made off with the cantalope seed packet, so I couldn't start those again, but I started some more watermelon and cucumbers, plus cilantro and Italian parsley, fresh in my seedling starter kit. That seemed to work better than sowing them in the ground. I'm a little disappointed that my amendments to the soil aren't making as much difference as I hoped. But this was really a very basic first effort. I haven't had our soil tested, but I know a lot of it is pretty bad.

We also have one plant each of peas, zucchini, strawberries, leeks, basil, and eggplant. Not nearly enough, but I ran out of room in the bed I'd prepared, and ran out of time to work more soil.

Away from home... Last week we met friends at the local native animal zoo, which is always fun to visit. My littlest boy was finally big enough to see into the reptile cases on his own. "Sssnake!" was the word of the day. He is talking a TON. More than I remember the other two doing at this age -- or at least more clearly. 'Course, my memory could be off. :)



On Saturday, we joined friends at the local MS Walk for Life in honor of my friend Sarah. It was a gorgeous day, and we all had a lovely time. Puffer also did his own fund-raising the weekend before when his kung fu studio held a Kick-a-Thon for St. Jude's Children's Hospital. He raised the most money of all the kids! Thank you so much to all our donors for helping both causes!

I've been doing a lot of reading lately, too, but I'll have to save that for another post.