Cabin Crafted

Category: farm

  • Whew, I needed today

    We were very fortunate to have Son 1 and Grandson 1 come to visit us this past weekend, but mostly to work at outside house maintenance that hubby and I just can’t do anymore. They powerwashed about half the house, caulked, attacked carpenter bee damage, and started re staining the logs. They worked far harder than I possibly could while I gardened some, stayed nearby to be a helper with scaffolding or ladder moving, gofer of items needed while they were up high, and to keep them fed and hydrated. It was hot! I had to wear long sleeves, long pants, and a big floppy hat whenever I was outside with them because I had 11 more pre cancerous lesions cryosurgeried off last week and they weren’t healed enough to slather on sunscreen over them. By the end of the first day, in spite of the heat, Son 1 was shivering as he was up close and personal with the power washing spray on the upper dormers and the water was coming from our well, so it was cold.

    On Sunday, Daughter and her two kiddos came over to have homemade pizza with us and have a brief visit with her older brother while he took a break to eat.

    After a final dinner last evening, once the weekend’s work was done, they headed back home for Grandson’s school week. There will be other weekends to finish what can be done on the ground and at least one with a cherry picker so the upper areas can be stained.

    We were able to enjoy a large salad with lettuce from our garden last night, fresh garlic scapes from a friend on the pizza and tonight in stir fry as mine aren’t as far along as her’s were. The various gardens are producing flowers as well. There are lots of volunteer sunflowers coming up in beds, thanks to the birds. The bearded and Dutch Iris are glorious this year. One of my peonies actually bloomed this year. They are more than a decade old, but I don’t think they like their location. I love the flowers that look like a cross between a rose and a carnation.

    Year before last for our February anniversary, hubby gave me a tiny rose bush in a thimble sized pot tucked into a little lady bug planter. When it finished blooming, I moved it to a larger pot and when the walled garden was completed last summer, the rose was planted in it. The deer found it to my dismay, so I put an upside down tomato cage over it to deter them and the rose has thrived. If purchased now, it would take at least a one gallon pot, though it is a miniature type rose and it is full of blooms and buds for more. When I was in younger, I used to keep a bowl with a bloom in it when I could, a camillia, a rose, a magnolia, whatever was available. This morning, I plucked 5 of the tiny roses and floated them in a small pottery bowl to help brighten the house.

    Last week’s appointments and the weekend’s work slowed my spinning considerably, but I got a new Carob wood spindle in the mail and started on the last quarter of the month’s fiber for the May “I love this color” challenge. I selected Shades of Turquoise in Falkland wool to spin, a total of 4 ounces. I hope I am able to finish it in the next 7 days, but there is no requirement that I must. I don’t know what I will knit from it, but have a couple of shawl patterns in mind.

    Though the temperature today was similar to the weekend, it has been overcast and since I wasn’t in and out all day, I was back to my above the knee skirt and short sleeves. I did put on sunscreen to take our walk and wore my big deep floppy brimmed hat that hubby says reminds him of “Dumb Donald’s” hat in Fat Albert comics. He says I should put eye holes in it. It isn’t really that bad, but it does protect my face and shoulders.

  • Farm Progress

    A couple of days ago, our neighbor to the east had a part of his herd escape into our tall hayfields. I heard mooing and bellowing and looked out to find a black bull in our west side yard. Going out on the porch, then the back deck, it became apparent that he wasn’t alone. He had brought his harem of 7 or 8 cows and about that many calves that you could barely see in the hay, just see the hay moving as they followed the others. Neighbor was on his tractor in the field to the east, planting corn. I messaged him of his escapees and they eventually wandered back toward home and he could see them. I guess his corn planting was interrupted by some fence maintenance. Soon the hay will come down and the fields will be shorn and available for wandering and looking for berries.

    The new asparagus raised bed arrived early. I had hauled the bags of raised bed soil across the garden and stacked them near where the bed was to be assembled and to await it arrival. Not expecting it until today or tomorrow, I was surpised to find it waiting on the front porch. After dinner last night, the box it came in and two other boxes were spread over a freshly weeded area where I had dug out the comfrey last weekend. A few more sprouts of comfrey had already come up. The raised bed was assembled, a layer of soil placed over the cardboard, the dozen crowns spaced in the bed and covered with more soil and a layer of straw. Part of a bag of the wood chip mulch was then spread around the outside over the cardboard and between the beds.

    As the crowns emerge, more soil will be added on top until the foot deep bed is full to the top. As soon as the old bed stops producing decent spears, it will be dug up, more cardboard put down, the half barrels for more berries placed where it was, but the berries will have to wait until next spring, I think. I can no longer find them for sale except online.

    I’m waiting for the garlic to finish off so it can be pulled and the box build without the upper end can be finished. The lower end of that box was planted with Tomatillos, ground cherries, cucumbers, and cilantro. The first three will have to be trellised as they grow. I still haven’t planted any sunflowers, just the volunteers that have come up in various flower beds thanks to the birds. I think the edge above the existing asparagus and garlic will have a row of them as soon as I get the grass from under the fence.

    The apprentice was the only hen to escape yesterday and it took her quite a while, I think she went under the fence this time, so lengths of firewood were placed along the lower edge where the fence had a bit of space under it to help hold it down. We will see if she finds another way out. She seems determined to not lay her eggs in the coop, but though I hear her egg song and come running, I can not find her stash.

    As the pullets continue to grow and look more like small hens, their markings are true. The older oliver eggers are black with gold feathers intersperced at their necks, with green legs and feet. The young oliver eggers are less attractive to me.

    This one is the least attractive one, and I wouldn’t know she was an Olive egger except for her green legs and feet.

    The pullet with her back to the camera at the top of the shot is the other one. She looks more like a Welsummer except she has green legs and feet. The Marans look more like the older Olive eggers, but they have black legs and feet, they are really pretty birds. The Buff Orpingtons vary in shade from pale to butterscotch, the two NH Reds don’t look like the adult ones I have (one of them is above the Buff on the left edge of the photo. The variety of Easter eggers are all attractive but each one is marked differently. I have never had a flock that were so distinctive that I could tell them apart, except for the Marans unless they are together and two are smaller. We should start seeing pullet eggs in about a month. Some of them are already developing real combs that are reddening.

    Today, more prep for the weekend with Son 1 and Grandson 1 here to get some exterior house maintenance done. First up is to go get the basement dusted and vacuumed and the beds made with fresh sheets.

    Off to work.

  • Failure

    I am now convinced that Ms. Houdini and Ms. Apprentice are magic. Somehow they keep finding ways out and I keep sealing up new holes, plus they are not laying their eggs in the coop and I can’t find where they are laying them, but I’m sure the skunks and raccoons will find them. I should be getting 5 to 7 eggs a day and am lucky if I get 4.

    After our walk today, we tackled erecting scaffolding on two sides of the garage in preparation for Son 1 and Grandson 1 to come this weekend and put a coat of stain on it. The next couple of days will be spent gathering the expendables needed to get the job done. We own 9 or 10 sections of it and most of it was stored in the garage, so it didn’t have to be carried too far. I toted it out and together we put it together minus the walkboards which are too heavy for me to lift to above shoulder height, but what was done will save them a lot of time this weekend. We will get the garage doors stained again and probably the side window, again to save them time, then mostly I will be the gofor to keep them hydrated and fed. The upper front dormers need stain too, but that will have to be another weekend and the rental of a cherry picker to get Son 1 up that high safely.

    It rained most all day yesterday and as it began to clear off last night, the fog settled in the valley behind us before the whole farm was engulfed.

    I love the play of the fog in the mountains.

  • Sleepless Nights, the mother of solutions

    Last night was a sleepless night, or a sleep is optional night. I was frustrated when I went to bed because I had opened the hen pen to let them all out a couple hours before dusk figuring all eggs for the day had been laid and since Ms. Houdini and her apprentice were already out and I didn’t want to play hide and seek or fetch to put them away. After it was dark, I turned on the front porch lights and noticed that two of my plants in pots on the front stoop had been dug into, one half dug out and in the grass. And the increase in outdoor work has caused my shoulders to ache at night and I hadn’t taken anything before settling in for the night. While lying there restless, I had an idea on how to enclose the hens’ pen without requiring me to crawl in duck walking to lock them in. The coop is a large A frame with each vertical of the A nine feet long. I figured if I stapled fencing to the frame outside the coop front, strung a ridge line out to a tall pole, I could create an A shaped pen. Because it isn’t framed, it sags some, so a 4′ wide section of the plastic fencing almost totally encloses the outer end.

    The six step in posts along the sides hold the fencing to the ground and provide a post to which a length of cord can be tied putting a little tension of the side A’s of fence. The post nearest the camera puts tention on the ridge line. I thought I had it set and came in to prepare dinner. Hubby let the pups out so he could prepare their dinner without them begging and he said one of the hens was in the front yard and the dogs totally ignored her. Drat, that meant there was still an escape hole, so after dinner, a few more places were secured together with cord and another step in post placed to hold the fence to the ground. In all the years I have raised chickens, this is the first group that has insisted on getting on the porch, digging in potted flowers, and tearing up the flower beds. I am still 5 or 6 weeks before the pullets are laying and the mature 8 sent to freezer camp. I really need to dismantle the rotting chicken tractor and figure out how to give the pullets some free range time without them learning the bad habits of the older hens.

    Yesterday while digging the comfrey for my friend, I decided that the asparagus solution is a raised bed set on cardboard and started with new crowns. The foot deep raised bed frame was ordered and will be here this weekend. Today I was able to find new crowns and purchased a dozen and the bagged soil to fill the raised bed.

    That does mean no harvest next year. I will let the current bed play out until June, then dig it up and use that space for the half barrels with thornless blackberries in it. The new raised bed will be easier to keep weed free and will allow me to finish laying cardboard and mulch in the remaining part of the garden. The Asparagus Crown packages also indicate I have not been treating my current bed right, which could account for it’s dimished output. And the new half barrels of blackberries will give me more fruit with blackberries, raspberries, blueberries, ground cherries, grapes, apples, Asian pears, a peach tree that has yet to provide usable fruit and a plum that has still not produced any fruit. We have plenty of wineberries and blackberries growing wild, but most are difficult to get to until the hay is down and most of the blackberries the past few years have been the small, harder, very tart ones that are slightly bitter and don’t make good jam or cobbler. There is enough space for a 4th half barrel for raspberries too, that would give me 4 of each. And there is still hope for the fig that was transplanted into a half barrel and is beginning to leaf out. I do love my gardens, both flower and fruit and vegetable and trying to put away enough goodies for us to enjoy when fresh food is harder to come by.

    I may look to making a wood frame and stapling heavy plastic or looking for old storm windows someone is discarding to see if I can make a cold frame from the deep bed the potatoes are planted in. They will harvest before fall crops have to be sown so we might be able to have carrots and some greens into early winter. With a good crop of potatoes, onions, and garlic, frozen beans and peas, canned tomatoes, peppers, and pickles, some carrots and greens would be very nice until the hard freezes occur.

  • The Other One

    A couple of days ago, I introduced you to Ms. Houdini. When she gets out, she comes running toward me to be let back in the pen and coop at dusk. This is Ms. HA (Houdini’s apprentice) who discovered she too can escape, however, at dusk, she does not come running to be put away with the other hens. For the past two nights, I have found her here…

    She lets me pick her up and as soon as we round the end of the house, she begins a mighty struggle to be free.

    Yesterday, I left them locked in the coop until early afternoon, hoping that they would all lay their eggs in the nesting boxes. I only found 4 eggs.

    When we got home from the Farmer’s Market and Nursery this morning, I lured Ms. Houdini and Ms. HA back to the pen, hoping they would lay their daily egg in there. At the Market, I purchased an Elderberry and wanted to get it in the ground promptly, so I gathered my tools, water, hole filling soil, a ring of fence, and a stake and set about the task of digging into our very rocky soil, looked up and there they were again, in the yard. The Elderberry was tucked in and watered and the ring of fence staked over it to protect it.

    As I was taking my update picture for one of the spinning challenges first thing this morning, using the succulents that were moved outside yesterday as backdrop, I remembered that I also needed a bag of Cactus, succulent soil which I got at the nursery while we were out. The pots need dividing, some bits discarded, some replanted.

    I had two peppers growing in the hydroponic garden that needed to be put in the ground or in pots and decided to pot them and put them in the herb part of the walled garden. While I was doing that on the side of the house, I heard the “egg song” and dashed around the front of the house to see if I can figure out where these two are laying their eggs, but though she was standing near a garden, I couldn’t spot any eggs. I guess I’m going to have to us longer poles for their enclosure and run monofilament or bird net a few feet higher than the 48″ fence to see if I can keep them in. I don’t want to keep them locked in the Palace as it is dark.

    The fig half barrel was shifted to near the walled garden so it get watered when the garden gets watered and the smaller half barrel of herbs was placed in the walled garden with the two peppers in pots near where the other planted and potted herbs are located.

    The rest of the vegetable garden is going to get seeded before the rain comes in tomorrow, hoping it gets watered in well, though I do have a second sprinkler in the vegetable garden plot.

    It has been a fairly productive early part of the day and we still haven’t gone for our walk. I think I will go plant some seed while I wait to do that.

  • Blackberry Winter and Growing Things

    The littles aren’t little anymore and they don’t walk anywhere. They flap and flutter out of the coop and once all are out, bump breasts and fly across the pen. They are an entertaining morning event.

    Yesterday we walked bundled up like for winter in a chilly, breezy day. By last evening, it has gotten milder and stayed mild over night and today is pleasant. Our walk was around the pond today, which was teeming with new life. There were thousands of tiny tadpoles, turtles the size of quarters, and small fish but I couldn’t get close enough to get any good photos of them. One of the geese has hatched 4 goslings and she and proud Papa had them out and about, pretty fearless of the walkers on the path.

    Salamanders sunning on the retaining wall.

    And flowers providing some color where there was none only a couple weeks ago.

    The peas in the garden are climbing the trellis, potatoes are sprouting tufts of green leaves, garlic and onions standing tall. The tomatoes and peppers aren’t showing any new growth yet, but as soon as it warms again, they will. The fig moved to the half barrel is showing new leaves and new growth as are the transplanted raspberries. Soon it will be time to plant the cucumbers, corn, beans, tomatillos, and ground cherries. Every year, I plant some lettuce, spinach, and chard or kale and every year they don’t do well and I purchase it cut and clean from the Farmer’s Market. I am still hopeful that the transplants will provide some food for us. The hay is thick and as tall as the deer bellies as they walk through it. Mowing of hay will begin around the area soon, if the rain doesn’t throw the schedules off like last year. It is definitely taking a turn toward warmer weather.

  • Let me introduce you

    I want you to meet Ms. Houdini. She is a beautiful bird that was supposed to be an Olive egger, even has green legs with face puffs and a beautiful gold necklace. But she lays pink eggs and there is no enclosure that can keep her contained.

    For the most part, she is submissive to me and will squat when I approach and I can pick her up and return her to the enclosure. She is also, the leader of the pack, the head hen and always the first one out of the coop in the morning.

    Last Sunday, I found her, the two Olive eggers that lay green eggs and a New Hampshire Red on the north roofed porch, lounging on the chairs, table, and under the swing. They were unceremoniously chased off and a lemon juice spray generously sprayed around the deck perimeter as I read that chickens don’t like citrus and citrus smell. That didn’t even slow them down, so they were penned up while we went to meet Son 1 and family for our Mother’s Day picnic. When we arrived home, near dark, Ms. Houdini greeted us from under the cedars. I put window screens across the porch opening and they started coming under the rail on the east end which is a bit higher off the deck than the rest, so more screens were added.

    Unable to easily get on the porch, they began going under it. I don’t want eggs layed there to attract snakes, skunks, and rats, so I am in the process of moving bowling ball sized rocks to make the opening too small for a hen to enter, but larger enough for air flow.

    Since hens love to scratch and dig in soil and since their move to the Palace, several of the hens decided to forgo the nesting boxes in the coop and have begun making hidey holes in the soil in the flower gardens. I wouldn’t mind that if they weren’t tearing up the day lilies and digging up the Calendula and Zinneas, so fences have had to be erected everywhere.

    This slows some of them down, but i am still finding at least one egg in there each day. I can’t see if there are any under the porch, it is too dark even with my brightest flashlight. In total frustration with them last night, after dinner, I took two 25 foot long pieces of fencing, an armload of unused garden stakes, and made them a containment pen. This morning, they were turned loose into the new pen with a scoop of scratch and a clean bucket of water. It didn’t take Ms. Houdini any more time than I took to fix my coffee and yogurt before she was on the front porch which I hadn’t blocked off yet. She can get out, but has no incentive to get back in on her own and if I catch her and put her back, she will eat, drink, and get out again. Short of a 6 foot roofed cage, I just can’t keep her in. I wonder where I will find her egg today, if I ever do.

  • Another beautiful day and more work

    Night before last, we decided to go have dinner at our favorite Local restaurant which has a large outside patio shaded partially by a canopy, partially by trees, and nearby buildings. When we arrived, surprised that there was no one on the patio, we noticed a sign on the two doors stating that they were closed for two days for upgrades. There are two other nearby restaurants with patios, one of them a new micro brewery so we decided to try it instead, though neither of drinks anymore. It was a huge mistake as far as I was concerned. They had no shade, no umbrellas, and it was in the 80’s in the hot sun around 5 p.m. I didn’t care for their menu and ended up with a small spinach salad that was ok, but nothing special. Hubby got a burger that he liked, but thought there fries were just so so. At any rate, I ended up hot, headachy inspite of consuming two large glasses of ice water, and getting too much sun for my first day in short sleeves and a skirt.

    Yesterday, we met our daughter and granddaughter at the local nursery to pick out peppers for both of us, perennials for the walled garden, and flowers for the front of her house. They must have had a dozen varieties of pepper starts, some already in 4″ pots, some still in the 4 cell starters. They picked out their varieties, I added Seranos, Cayennes, and one of the Red Bells she bought, that came in a 4 pack and she only had room for 3. Daughter picked Tubrous Begonias and Impatiens for the front of her house. I got a Shasta Daisy, Sneezeweed, Yellow Sedum, and a purple Button Flower for the walled perennial garden. They will bloom at different times and are all perennials. After digging them in, the chicken challenge was faced again as I found them in there yesterday morning and daffodils dug up. There were 5 unused tall fake bamboo poles that were placed around the perimeter and the mesh cut in half lengthwise so it is about 3.5′ wide. The mesh was fastened at the upper edge with tomato tie tape and anchored at the bottom with rocks, and now surrounds the walled garden. The edge along the rocks in the lower left corner of the photo was fastened to a couple step in posts with one that I can lift out to get in the garden and to fill bird feeders. Though the poles are visible, the mesh you can barely see.

    The new flowers were well watered in while we went to the pond for our daily walk before dinner. After dinner, since the long range forecast looks mild, I planted the tomatoes and peppers, put a thin layer of straw around the tomatoes and ran the first row of string trellis. As they grow, more straw will be added and additional runs of the string trellis. The garden got a couple hours of water too, to soak the peas, potatoes, and newly planted tomatoes and peppers. The row cover over the lettuce and brassicas isn’t allowing enough water into that bed. And yet again, I got overheated and too much sun. Though not to sunburn level, it is time to get new sunscreen and move my gardening to early morning and after dinner.

    At the nursery today, I looked for a fig. That is where I got the one planted in the ground that doesn’t stay warm enough in the winter regardless of how I wrap it. They didn’t have any, so I will monitor the planted one, last year it put out leaves when I thought it was dead. If it does again, I will try to transplant it to the half barrel that can be moved into the garage during the winter months.

    This evening, I need to begin the string trellis for the peas which seem to be recovering from the freeze and will likely improve more now that they were well watered last evening. I’m not sure I have enough cotton string to make their trellis. That should go on my shopping list.

    The Tomatillos and Ground cherries are in peat starter pots, but not yet germinated. Soon I will start the cucumbers and the winter squash. The popcorn can’t be planted for at least a few weeks to a month, so I don’t want the winter squash to get too large as the corn needs some size before the squash starts it’s runners. They are a short runner variety, but I still don’t want them to crowd out the popcorn. Bush beans need to wait for another month before they go in the ground as well. The garden is coming along, though I still see no growth from the potatoes and the lettuce and brassica area needs to be uncovered and weeded, there is a lot of spinach coming up. A nice vegetable for baby spinach salad.

    I do love this time of year. We have another day in the 80’s but cloudy then tomorrow a return to the mid 60’s for a day or two but the nights stay mild, so the garden is good to grow.

  • A Walk and a Garden

    The beautiful day was not wasted. A walk along the river was enjoyed, followed by a trip to the Nursery and home with 2 Coral Bells for the front, a nice perennial so those pots will just need pruning and feeding for years to come. There was a smaller one in the back that got too much sun, and one in the daylily bed that got no sun, so they were put in the front in pots as well.

    They are shade lovers and should do quite well there. A matching set of pots is on the other side of the stoop.

    Two pots of red and candy cane petunias came home and since they were in nice pots, they didn’t get transplanted, just put in place to compliment the red Geraniums. This morning while enjoying my coffee and egg, the Hummingbird was checking out the red flowers.

    A six pack of full sun sedum and a Ruby Hen and chicks were added to the cart and they were planted in the terra cotta strawberry pot and added to the back steps as well.

    There is one pot on the bottom step on the right that I don’t know what was planted in it before and I’m waiting to see if anything emerges from the tuber in it before it is dumped and replanted with something else.

    As it appears that my fig either didn’t survive the winter or at least burned to the ground again, I will get a new one and plant it in a half barrel that can be brought into the garage or basement during the winter. Rather than buy another larger half barrel, a smaller one was purchased and the buried pots of mint and lemon balm were transferred to it and buried to their rims.

    I had wondered why the daily quota of eggs had been so low, thinking that the hens were just aging out, but when I went to remove the mint and lemon balm from the barrel, I noticed in the small space between it and the house, was a cache of 8 eggs. They can’t be more than a week old because the hens have only had free range for a week.

    The smaller half barrel is now in that spot but I left their depression, at least I know where to look now. Those eggs will be kept separate and cracked in a bowl one at a time, to make sure they are okay before using. The first one used this morning was fine. Silly hens, I don’t want daily egg hunts.

    The littles, not so little anymore, even though they are in the pen during the day and back in the coop at night, still come running for treats.

    This flock is so pretty with the variety. The eggs will be so interesting with 5 breeds. And two of the pretty all black Marans with black legs and beaks. Three have feathered legs, the other two do not.

    This morning, the bed for the tomatoes and peppers was remeasured and drawn out on graph paper to see if it will all fit and it looks like I’m in good shape. I need to go pound in the posts for the Florida trellis for the tomatoes. More volunteer raspberries have been dug and pulled, I guess that will be an on going challenge for a year of so, but if they are removed often enough, eventually they will give up.

    Today is another beautiful day in store, so I will go get to work and take a walk to enjoy it.

  • Olio since it isn’t Sunday for Musings

    Olio: a miscellaneous collection of things.

    The outlook forward is spring (with summer for the next few days.) In a week’s time we have had freezing nights, snow flurries, strong wind, chilly gray days, and 83 f expected for today, tomorrow, and Thursday.

    This morning, the Geraniums took up residence in their deck pots. Last summer, those pots would blow off the deck and down the steps in strong wind, and they are too deep for the root system of most decorative plants, so this year, I filled them 1/3 full of fist sized rocks before adding the soil and planting the bright red flowers.

    Geraniums and Petunias are my favorites to put in pots on the deck and steps. There are two empty pots on the top steps that will hold a pair of Petunia plants as soon as they are purchased. The two pots on the stoop on the north side of the house are always a conundrum. I want color, but it doesn’t have to be flowers, I have used Coleus in the past with some success but I think a variety of Begonias that was successful in the past might be what will go in those pots. The Spider plant babies that overwintered in the utility room need to be planted in the hanging pots and put out on the porch.

    The tomatoes are beginning to bloom, still in the 4″ starter pots on the deck. Mother’s Day is the magic date here to put them in the ground, but if the future forecast stays mild, I might sneak them in a week early. They are strong, healthy seedlings, the first successful tomatoes seedlings I have ever started. There are several purchased pepper plants also on the deck with some Thai basil. They live there unless the nights are going to drop below 45 f but that isn’t in the forecast for the next 10 days. Soon the tomatoes will be divided up with daughter for their garden and my 10 will get staked out in the garden. And a few more pepper plants, of different varieties, though I still have more than a half gallon of dried Thai peppers so I don’t think I will plant them this year. Maybe cayenne for crushed red pepper flakes that get used generously here and Serranos so Sriracha style sauce can be fermented in the fall.

    The Hummingbirds are becoming regular visitors again, though still no photos. I should make a fresh batch of nectar and clean the feeders for them. That is a weekly addition to the summer routine. Once the flowers and grasses are blooming and seeding, the other feeders will come down and be cleaned up until fall. I miss seeing the little flocks of small birds during the summer, but when they can forage on their own and the bears and raccoons are active, the feeders come down and are put away.

    The net on the walled garden has had little effect at keeping the chickens out, but at least they can’t scratch through it. There must be a solution short of an ugly fence around a flower and herb garden. Since the Baptisia either didn’t come up or was scratched up, I ordered a shrub already started. It is a perennial, so once it is established, I’m good. The Cilantro germination test showed that the seed was viable, so sprouted seed was planted and it looks like there may actually be some developing.

    A trip to the Nursery is in order to fill the remaining deck pots and decide on other additions to the walled garden. I garden full of blooms that will come back each year and spread to fill the area is my dream, a few plants at a time. There is a patch of Brown Eyed Susan that comes up on the edge of one of the fields they hay, I would love to transplant some of it before it gets cut down, but have had very little luck moving it. There is a clump by the garage door that has over the years established itself there inspite of the the chicken scratching in that area. Two of the clumps of daffodils I planted on the east side of the garage keep getting dug up by the hens. Once the daylilies and Iris in that bed begin to show, I fence off that area, but my fence isn’t long enough to go all the way around the daffodils too. I love having my chickens, but dislike the havoc they wreck doing what comes naturally.

    The two freeze nights last week burned the Peonies and somewhat the peas in the garden. I hope they recover as they are one of our favorite vegetables from the garden. The onions and the covered bed did fine. I fear the potatoes that were planted just before the freeze may or may not have survived. While weeding yesterday, one of the “weeds” I dug up was a potato I missed last year with healthy sprouts, so it was transplanted to the raised bed with the other potatoes. Time will tell if anything comes up. If not, they can be replanted until mid June and I’m sure a bag of organic potatoes left out in the light will produce sprouts in short order. The Peonies have never done very well where they are planted, they have been there for more than a dozen years and have produced fewer than half a dozen blooms. Perhaps they would be happier in the better soil of the walled garden. That is a move to consider.

    Enough musings for today. Enjoy the nice weather if you are having it and if not, I hope it comes your way soon.