Saturday, April 26, 2008

We shall call him Stew.


I think T is going to kill one of the roosters. They are so brutal with our poor hens, so bad in fact the Whitey has run away from home. The two roos gang up on her all day long. They have plucked all of the feathers off of her back and it got to the point that she either couldn't or wouldn't stand up after they were done with her. I saw the last attack happen and eventually, after she did get up she bolted into the woods towards the pipeline. 3 days passed and I figured she had died. Then one morning, when I was walking in the woods with Nora, Whitey came running over to us. She followed me to the yard and ate for a solid 5 minutes. I had to run into the house for a minute and when I came back, she was gone again. She has been living in the woods for about 5 days now, probably roosting in a tree at night. Somehow avoiding any predators. Today we talked about killing off one of the roosters and then trying to get her back into the coop. I am warming up to the idea, but not ready to do it quite yet. Something is going to have to be done before our new chicks arrive.

Peepers!


The peep frogs are out in full force. I forgot just how loud they are at night. This guy was hanging out with me the other day while I was working in the garden. I ended up relocating him a bit so that he wouldn't become cat or chicken food. Yes, the chickens will kill stuff like this. One of the roosters was playing with a big mouse that Monkey had killed earlier that day. The rooster was picking it up with his beak and tossing it up into the air. It was kind of disturbing actually.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

I got a sunburn today


Today ended up being much nicer than the weathermen predicted. It was sunny all day with temps right around 70. Tony and I managed to get the raised beds built and installed in the front vegetable garden. It required lots and lots of digging, but I am glad we did it.







We came across some big rocks, and this one in particular nearly killed us in our attempts to remove it.



Our other near death experience came when I decided that it was absolutely necessary for us to dig up the lilac and move it over about 3 feet because it was too off center.
All that is left is laying down some gravel or hay to fill in the paths, and adding the veggies. The rhubarb is already coming up, as well as the chives and shallots. Next to be planted in this garden are spinach, bok choy, cucumbers, onions, and some herbs. Then it is time to expand the back vegetable garden.

School Vacation!!!

YAYYY!!!!!
Sorry for the lack of posts. It has been quite busy, hectic, and stressful the past couple of weeks. I am SO ready for my week off. I haven't uploaded any new pics lately, so I will add more later in another post. Today I am spendning the day not thinking about the hundreds of dollars we have spent on attempted car repairs this last month, or the fact that Tony's car died, or that my car spent the 2 weeks after T's car died stalling evry single day, ar that we had a sheriff at our door to serve Tony paper about the pending foreclosure on the apartment house, or about the short sale we are trying to make on the short sale taking so so long, or about our cells phone that aren;t working because we couldn't pay the bill.......The list goes on and on. Our propane is to low, so I can't use our dryer, the ceiling fan's remote broke and now we can't get the fan to work, the tv remote broke, the wood on the outside of our sunroom is rotted out and needs to be replaced, as well as the garage roof.

But enough complaining (although I am so good at it).
This year I have gotten tons of seeds started and I am thinking about starting even more and attempting to ave a table at the farmers market. I've raked piles and piles of leaves (with some help from my mom when she came to visit), and a lot of the snow has melted. Well, like I said I will post more later with pictures, T and I are makeing raised beds for the front vegetable garden today.

Thursday, April 03, 2008

Thawing out!



It's starting. Finally, but slowly the snow is beginning to melt. The chickens were out of the coop today. Our 3 hens and 2 roos. Yup, it's officially decided that the 2 chicks we hatched last summer are both roosters. Bummer, but we did just order some new chicks at the farmers union. 6 more hens on the way and 2 guinea hens. They should arrive in about a month.




The pond is starting to melt along it edges, but the snow everywhere else is still about 2 feet deep. For a while we could walk on the surface of it, but when you sank through you would be up to your knees.

The picture above is the top of our picnic table. I am standing on top of the snow next to it.

I finally gave my girl bunny a hair cut. Her fur was the longest I have ever let it get. I normally don't let it go so long and am lucky i did it when i did, because she was just about to start matting up underneath.