Sunny Thursday

I don't remember exactly what the temperature was when I woke up. In the lower 40s Fahrenheit. 

We had a visit from some of the neighborhood deer gang.

What else ... Well, the plants in the greenhouse were looking pretty sharp this morning. 

I hauled out my pepper plants and my seedlings out this morning.  I'd say this is starting to look like a typical greenhouse.  There's a catchall corner, even! 

I have more water bottles to haul out there. I still need to plant other seeds.  Maybe this weekend. 

The decision was made to leave everything in the greenhouse tonite.  I looked at the lows for the night and they aren't anywhere near freezing.  Not gonna like, I am a bit nervous. The water bottles seem to be helping keep the temperature up. 

I was catching up on some gardening emails this morning and came across an article that discussed which direction your greenhouse should go. I'm wondering if I should have oriented this greenhouse in a different direction.  Things are still doing awesome, but I wonder if things would go even better if it was turned differently.

The tomatoes are looking so good. 

Especially this one. 

These are all roma tomatoes.  I learned those are determinate plants so they probably won't grow ginormous.  Though that would have been fun to see!

All the babies in the little coop are still segregated to their own corners. 

"We are just little babies.  We wouldn't hurt anyone."

"Those little guys scare us!"

A few more days and the little ones will be snuggled under the big chicks. 

I was really rocking it this morning before work.  Either that or I forgot to do something. 

In any case, I decided it was a good time to make a bundt.  

The recipe I used came from "Tastes better from Scratch," and it a copycat recipe from "Nothing Bundt." Which, from what I can tell, is a franchise cake company that I've never heard of until about three months ago. 

It's a good recipe.  Definitely takes care of any chocolate cravings a person might have.  My son loved it and said I should definitely make it again. 

The other "exciting" thing I did today was cleaning the house exterior. It's a project that started a few weeks ago by my husband and son. I thought I got it all done today.  Then walked around the house and realized one whole wall was missed. Drat! I know what I'll be doing this weekend. 

Then I had the boy use the leaf blower to get the oak leaves out of the landscaping rocks around the house.  The leaves aren't so bad, but those pine needles! They stick in everything. 

I forgot to take an update photo of The Grass Project. My son has been faithfully watering it a few times every day. No grass sprouting just yet.  Maybe we haven't had enough days of warm weather? 

In any case, I'm glad to see my son starting this project and seeing it through.  No one told him to do this.  I don't know that I would have bothered to do all he did to prep the areas. I'm proud of him. 

Cleaning chicken butts

This morning my son said to me "Did you think you'd grow up to be cleaning chicken butts?"  

Of course not! But it's now one of my many talents.  Hobbies? 

This little one earned itself "spa time." Basically, I had to soak it's little booty because it had pasty butt.  It's a condition where the chicks could spontaneously combust.  Not really, but it's a very serious thing if it isn't taken care of ASAP. 

I actually don't know if it had pasty butt, but there were dingleberries back there and I don't take chances of it building up to become pasty butt. 

They usually protest until they hit the water.  Then they relax until you take them out of the water again and wrap them until until they are dry enough to go back with their flock mates. 

I went out this morning, took a look around.  The plants I left overnight in the greenhouse made it.  By now I shouldn't be surprised, right?  I've been keeping such a close eye on the forecast and being mindful of what the lows are going to be. 

I walked over to my new rain guage, so see we received 2.5 inches of rain yesterday. 

Most of the morning was foggy and cool.  Then early afternoon the sun burst through the clouds.  Buy that time I wasn't feeling like bringing the plants out.  I brought everything out yesterday, thinking the rain would stop in the early afternoon and it stayed rainy and cool all day. 

Things will go out tomorrow. 

I brought out the chicks we are keeping out to the small coop.  The bigger birds didn't know what to make of these smaller creatures invading their space. 

I found it amusing that the older birds were cowering in the corner while the younger chicks were scratching the pine shavings and making themselves at home. 

The other fun thing that happened today was a fresh hatch. Babies!

They seemed like a fast hatch out.  They were alert right away and on their feet. 

There was a nice variety of colors, too. 

They have been pretty quiet, with the exception of the odd baby falling backwards and then sciping for someone to tip them over.

Dreary Tuesday

It's been a dreary day, all day. 

When I woke up the temperature was around 36 degrees Fahrenheit. 

I went out and looked in at the shelf greenhouse. Everything looked all right. 

Baby cabbage

Baby iceberg lettuce.

I went out to my greenhouse and the plants were looking good out there, too. 

The morning drizzle turned into an all day rain. Drag! I was hoping the sun would come out. At least it's good for the grass seed we just planted.

Since the sun never showed itself the temps in the greenhouses didn't get much warmer than 40. 

Doesn't that sound awful after I've been babying all these plants?  

Well, I took pity on them and brought the majority of everything back in for the night.  Except for the one flat of plants.  I figure they will do all right since they are all cool weather crops. Right? (Fingers crossed)

I went to the shelf greenhouse and discovered there is a leak in the roof.  Oh no!  

My seedlings have been floating in water for who knows just how long. 

I drained everything as best I could.  I definitely see a shortcoming to these peat moss flat things.  If you aren't careful, they will break apart on you.  

For dinner I made a low carb chicken pot pie. There is a recipe I found a few years ago at Peace Love Low Carb.  It's always a hit when I make it. 

A quick little update on the baby buns.  Their eyes have opened and they are starting to leave the nest and explore.  Shadow may be ready for a break.  

Kicking them out of the nest

This morning when I woke up the temperature was 43 degrees fahrenheit. My first thought was "I could have left everything out"

The day started with rain.  Which was perfect. It was a nice long soak.  The kind you want when you are trying to germinate grass seed. 

Then the sun came out and played peek-a-boo in the clouds for a little bit. 

All in all, a really nice day. 

This morning I was watching a youtube video about growing lettuce in the garden.  Several times the person said that lettuce can be direct sowed before the last frost date.  

So I got to thinking ... and that can sometimes be a dangerous thing. 

This evening I checked what the overnight low is supposed to be and it's far enough away from freezing that I decided to throw a little caution to the wind and leave a few things out in my greenhouse and the shelf greenhouse tonite. Not anything that I would be devastated if I lost. 

All the seeds I recently planted, like on April 23 (?) It's iceberg, cauliflower and cabbage.  I'll just toss more seeds in if something happens. Technically it's double insulated.  Things should be fine. Right? 

This, however, is a little harder for me.  I started these plants back in February. 

I didn't dare open the greenhouse to take the photo.  I wanted to keep as much heat in there as I could. This is a test tray.  I put my columbines, a few lavenders, at least one lettuce and broccoli, and chives in the tray, set them more in the center of the space and close to the water jugs I have in there, to try and keep them close to what is kicking off heat. 

Will everything still be okay tomorrow morning? We shall see. 

This evening my husband and I went for a walk out in the back 20. It was a lovely evening.  Bugs are definitely out now. There were mild discussions about blazing a new trail so we can walk and drive the ATV without going through a small pond that seems brand new to me.  Maybe I didn't spend as much time back there as I thought I did. 

Then the evening wrapped up with snuggles with a few of the chicks. 

This one in particular seems so spoiled.  It easily falls asleep in my husband's hands. 

Tomorrow, last I saw, is supposed to be cooler temps and afternoon rain. Probably a good day to be indoors and ponder things, when I'm not doing work for pay. 

Sunday projects

Today was another day full of outdoor projects.  Projects on the biggish side. 

My son and husband spread out grass seed in the back yard and covered the area with hay.  I think my son had no idea what he was getting into when he decided to start this project. 

Gonna be doing a lot of this during the next month.  The next three days are supposed to have rain. 

While they were seeding and making the back yard beautiful, I was breaking in a new toy. 

The last big purchase we made before the safer-at-home order was a new rototiller. Bigger and better than the previous one. 

I haven't done much of the garden rototilling because the old big machine we had was too unwieldy for me.  

The other rototiller we had was too small for our garden.  I could handle that one just fine, but it just wasn't cutting it. 

Enter this new bad boy. Or girl. Whatever.

I thought it felt like three hours to rototill the garden.  My husband says it was a MUCH shorter time. 

In any case, I'm really pleased with the machine. I'll be running it again at least once. Since I have the time, I'm going to really work the soil and get the amendments in.  

This evening I took a short walk around the property, checking out everything. The cherry trees are starting to bud out. 

This is our first cherry tree.  It was slow going when we first got it.  It rained every time it blossomed out, before the bees had a chance to find it. Not last year, but the few years before that I was hand pollinated the blossoms.  It was worth it. 

Our second cherry tree. We purchased it last summer.  It made it through the winter. Yay!

Baby iceberg. Seedlings grew quite a bit in the last couple of days. 

Baby cabbage. 

Baby lettuces, basil and broccoli.

I think this is buttercrunch. 

Baby basil. 

Some of the various pepper plants, in my greenhouse. I'm still hauling everything in overnight. It will be worth it, I keep telling myself. 

Black seeded simpson lettuce. 

Lavendar and columbines.

I am pleased and very happy to share that the tomato plants survived the night in the garage. When I woke up at 6 a.m. the temperature was just below freezing. 

I look forward to the time I won't have to haul these pots back and forth.  In the meantime I have my trusty red flyer wagon to help me.

I have had this wagon for at *least* 20 years. It was given to me by my husband for a birthday gift. It's original job was to help me move pots around in my container garden, back when I was a city gal. I can't tell you how many containers I had. I was always moving them around and changing things up.  I think people used to start walking by my house just so they could see everything.  Not kidding even a little bit.  People used to stop and tell me how much they enjoyed seeing everything. 

Yesterday I logged in more than 16,000 steps.  I was so tired at the end of the day. I was actually falling asleep while I was writing and proofreading last night's blog entry.  I went to bed early, too. 

Today I've logged in almost 14,000 steps. My feet are SORE. If it rains, like it's supposed to, I should have no problem recuperating the next day or two. 

Another gorgeous day

When we moved out to the county I thought I'd never have to think about planting anything in pots, unless I wanted to plant flowers and make the place look pretty. 

Today we made a trip over to my mother-in-laws, to pick up some pots I used to use years ago, I grabbed a couple other things, but mostly I wanted the pots.  I forgot how many I used to use when I lived in town. 

When we got back home from running errands I filled up the pots and planted ... 

Tomatoes!

The tomato plants I started back in February (?) are finally in a permanent home. They can't stay out overnight just yet, so I'll be hauling them into the garage for nighttime.  I'm crossing my fingers that they will be fine tomorrow next morning.  Night time temperatures are not supposed to get below freezing during the next week. 

My son decided he wanted to clean up the pine needles in the back yard.  He spent several hours raking up pine needles and I helped him dump them in various spots out in the woods. 

A man who used to live down the road would rake up the pine needles in his yard twice a year.  He was retired and it was probably good exercise for him. He had one of the better looking yards that had pine trees in the yard.  We have *huge* pine trees in our yard.  It looks like a park, or something. Until this year we've never had much time or inclination to do this sort of yard work.  Since my son decided on his own to do this I thought I'd support him by helping him out. The back yard is looking a little rough right now. I know it will get back to normal as the spring turns to summer.  The grass has just barely started growing. 

Since we we going to be out in the back yard for the whole afternoon we decided to let the chickens out since they were basically revolting yesterday.  

Yesterday they stood in front of the door and refused to move.  They wanted out and they wanted out NOW. 

Today we opened the door and let them out.  The took their sweet time exiting the coop. Poor Feffer got stepped on by one of the hens. For some reason he was too afraid or nervous to burst through the crowd. Later he was racing around the yard, happy to be a free and wild bun. 

What did my naughty hens and roos do when they realized they could roam the yard?  They immediately picked random spots in all the wrong places to make dirt spas. Very frustrating!

They were happy to be out and about.  We kept a close eye and the area and made sure to make a joyful noise.  There hasn't been any sign of predators, but we are still going to keep the birds mostly secured for however long it may take before we feel comfortable letting them roam, or we catch that fox.

Chicks hatched out today.  They are still hatching out.  We are literally selling them as fast as they hatch.  It's wild. 

Meanwhile this little cutie will be staying with us. 

Beautiful Friday

When I looked out at the world this morning.  This was before 5:30 a.m. Pre-coffee. 

I didn't have to make a fire this morning.  Yay!  We went the whole day without a fire. I'm sure we will need one tomorrow morning, though. 

It wound up being a really beautiful day.  I had all the windows open.  The frogs were vocal all day. My son asked me why we can hear the frogs so well but we never see them.  Good question. 

Over my lunch hour I went out and did some yard work. 

Thanks to our area getting getting snow before the ground froze it made for a mess this year.  The plow trucks ripped up sod and dumped chunks of asphalt in the yard. 

It's a little overwhelming to see all those big chunks of the road in my yard.  

I definitely don't want to hit them with the lawn tractor.  Yikes!

The other day one of my best friends posted a meme on my Facebook wall, saying it reminded her of me. 

I had to laugh because it's so accurate! 

Can you see the round hole? 

I frequently poke my face near it so I can see if anything is growing yet. 

Guess what? 

Can you see the itty bitty green specks?  My lettuce has sprouted.  Planted on April 21 and I have seedlings emerging already.  No heating mat.  The shelf greenhouse gets pretty warm. 

This afternoon I went out to my greenhouse and was looking things over.  With the day being so lovely outside it got pretty cozy inside. 

I wish I had take photos this morning because I'm convinced my basil almost doubled in size. 

This is my first time growing basil.  It seems to be going well.  *fingers crossed*

For dinner I made salad for the side.  I went out and harvested some lettuce leaves to add to the mix. Then I realized I didn't have quite as many lettuce plants as I thought I had. 

But still ... I'm already harvesting lettuce from the garden.

Other things from the day: My son found a recipe for a lemon smoothie.  I sort of winged it.  It came out more sour than anything. Ooops. 

Since I already had the lemons out I decided to make a batch of lemon curd.  And then I made myself a batch of overnight oats so I can enjoy some curd it in tomorrow morning. I can't wait!

During the golden hour.

Days are getting longer

This morning when the alarm went off and dragged my sorry carcass out of bed, I took a look out the window and saw light in the sky. I get up around 5:15 a.m. If I want any "me" time, I need to get up early.

It was a welcome sight to see it getting light out so early now.  Too bad it's not getting warmer that early in the morning.  It was still pretty cool out.  Sun for most of the day, which is nice. 

It was a fairly quiet day, for the most part.  Which was good.  My thoughts were all over the place today. 

My son helped my haul all my plants and seedlings out to my greenhouse. We had a lunch out on the deck.  It was nice to be out in the sun, but that breeze ... 

Then I dragged him out for a walk. He was not happy, but I know he appreciates it once we were back home. 

Speaking of my greenhouse, the other day we had strong winds.  I made a short video showing how the greenhouse holds up in the wind when it's tethered down well. In a Facebook group I see that people ask a lot about this style of greenhouse and other people say "Be sure to do this and that." I thought it would be nice to share how one looks when it's actually in a strong wind. 

Remember all those chicks that started hatching out yesterday?  They are all gone, but for two we kept for ourselves.  I don't know what happened but we got lots of calls and texts for chicks.  

Chicks are still hatching out and we have another set to hatch out in a couple days. 

Ever since last fall I've noticed these little holes in the ground.  It was too cold for snakes and too small for gophers. What could it be?

This evening, when I was bringing my stuff back from the greenhouse I was a little chipmunk run into it's hidey-hole.  Mystery solved.