Lil chicks

This was last week... they've tripled in size since then.  Time for a new picture.  These are the meat birds.  It's have to believe that in September they will dress out at 11-12 lbs.  They just grow incredibly fast.

The Garden continued

We has a little excitement in the chicken coop today.  Mr. D went into the coop to collect eggs.  I was in the garden not far away and soon I heard him yelling for me to come.  I came as quick as I could and he had a board across a metal trash barrel.  He told me to go get a lid big enough to cover the can.  We have lots of barrels, so I ran and grabbed one quickly.  Inside the can was a fox.  Apparently Mr. D had caught him in the act of terrorizing our hens.  He had killed 3 and was looking for more.  Well in my opinion once they get the taste for chicken there's no coop safe from that fox so we did the only thing we could and that was his demise.  It's a sad thing for the fox, but happy for the hens who will not worry about him again.  I don't think he was very healthy anyway.  It looked to me like he was suffering from mange and had quite a few ticks.  I took pictures of him, but didn't want to post any here.  There are many out there who are not happy that you have to kill any animal, but farmers know there are some limits.

The garden is doing much better after the recent rain.  Strawberries got a little too much water just when the berries were developing, but we picked all the red ones we could find and hope the rain will ease up now and the rest will be good too.  They sure are yummy.  We don't grow enough to save them up, but we enjoy them right away.  I had mine with some yogurt.  Yum, Yum. When Brandon come next week maybe we'll have enough to make some shortcake or have some over ice cream.

Here what the garden looked like this morning:

Amazing what a little rain will do.  Notice the cover over the strawberries.  If we didn't do this the Cedar Waxwings would be all over them.  Sorry the pics are so blurry.

This is only about 1/4 of the garden.  The corn is also up and the squash, cucumbers, tomatoes etc are all doing well.  I'll take some better pictures next time. 

Hope your gardens are all doing well this year.

The garden is in and started - From last week....

I wrote this last week, but of course did not get it edited and posted.  So here we go...

Progress on the garden...

On May 28 we tilled the garden.  For two days before that we hauled in a couple loads of manure and put in all the compost and chicken manure from last year.  This makes the soil rich and dark and great for growing veggies.  We also get plenty of weeds, but the soil is soft, so pulling weeds isn't a huge issue. 

We planned out all the spots for the veggie seeds we had... here's our list from earlier...


Miragreen - peas
Gotta Have - It corn
Ozark Beauty - strawberries
Gentry Hybrid - summer squash
French Breakfast - radishes
Macintosh apple tree
Herbs ...
Sage
Dill
Basil
Thyme
Marjoram
Jacob Cattle - beans
Romano - pole beans
Straight Eight - cucumbers
Burgess Buttercup - winter squash
lots of winter squash seeds, lettuce, carrot, pak choy seeds left
Ruth Bible beans

Some were ordered, some were saved from last year....

We planted some other things too...
Lavender
Several different types of Basil to see which we like the best.
Pak Choy (free seed)
Kale  (green -eating and also flowering)
Beets
Carrots (from some free seed that were given to us)
Lettace (free seed)
Since we pull the last of the Parsnips we planted some of those, but we won't be harvesting them for a couple years.
We planted three variety of winter squash that we especially liked from last year all from saved seeds.  The planted we started early are doing well.

I also planted some flowers in pots for sunny areas.  I can't see paying such high prices for flowers.  Some of these that I planted are prennial, so they will be back next year too, some are annuals which will only be around this year because we have not space to keep them indoors.

Nothing purking yet... was very dry for a couple weeks....

to be continued.

Getting ready to plant

We've been busy getting all ready for planting day on Monday.  Hoping for at least a bit of dry weather on that day and the day before.  The weatherman has been saying thunderstorms, but we are hoping they will miss us.   The dump truck had to be registered to the tune of $180... then there is some repair before it is inspected but we have till June 10 to do that.  We'll haul in 2-3 loads of manure because it is the best stuff to grow in... weeds galore, but we just feed those to the birds.  The chickens have been let loose in the garden this spring so not only have they had lots of green stuff to eat, we have gotten rid of quite a few of those pesky weeds and added a little fertilizer too. 

I planted the window boxes this week and a couple of potted plants for the end of the driveway.  The grass needs to be mowed and I probably can get to that tonight if it's not raining. 

Monday is planting day.  We have a map worked up and ready and the tiller is ready to roar.  I hope we will be able to post some pictures here on Tuesday. 

We are planting Romano Beans, Ruth Bible Beans and Jacob Cattle Beans, cucumbers
Lutz Winter Keeper Beets.  I bought 6 Roma Tomatoes and 6 Jet Star
We have Peas of a couple varieties, Zucchini, and as usual lots of winter squash from saved seeds, We bought corn seeds and I always plant sunflowers.   This year we dug up the last of the parsnips, so I purchased some more seed though that won't be harvested for another couple years.  If our growing season we just a little longer we could have a new crop each spring, but I let the last ones grow two years and they were just right.

Some of the herbs came back, but I started some others in the little greenhouse.

Here's some of my spring blooms in the garden this year.

pink barrenwort

lupines - no flower spikes yet

double daffodils - nearly all gone by today

not sure of the name, Mr. D bought these for me the first year here
I really like the little (cornflower) blue blossoms.

more little daffodils... light colored ones have multiple blossoms
on each stem

doesn't look very big, but was quite a job to get sod and rocks
out of this bed... day lilies and iris planted here... very wet!

That's what's happening at our place so far.  Lots more to do though, so more pictures later.

Rain, Rain, go away....

don't know what it says on this clip art, but liked this little rainy-day picture

I wanted to get down to the end of the driveway to take some pictures of the flower beds, but twice now I get 1/2 way down the driveway with my camera and it begins to pour.  The poor daffodils are all bowed down in the wet.  I did notice the bleeding hearts have come back from last year and they are blooming.  Also I noticed some slugs on different things... gotta get those egg shells down PRONTO.

I will get some pictures on here as soon as I can.  Mr. D was out weeding the veggie garden and I cut some rhubarb to sell along with our eggs.  We have two rows of rhubarb and it's usually the first crop to come up.  We got a little asparagus last night too.  Yum. 

I want to send you to one of my favorite blogs...  Across My Kitchen Table  my friend Mrs. T has some great comments about springtime there.  She is also a wonderful "cooker" and baker and likes to share her recipes.  We have enjoyed her cooking at church dinners and special occasions.  We have twice been to their home for Thanksgiving which have been wonderful times of fellowship, fun and of course delicious food.

We have known each other for quite some time, but have only become true friends in the past few years.  I have great respect for Mr. and Mrs. T and am glad to call them friends and of course we are family... in the Lord which makes it even more special.

Hope you enjoy her blog as much as I do!

Finally a little spring

We've had some beautiful spring weather the last few days.  Yesterday and today is wet and will probably be wet the rest of this week, but last week was so nice and warm with many sunny days.  It makes the wet days tolerable.  I noticed that the new little apple trees are beginning to leaf out finally.  I was afraid for them after such a hard winter, but they are coming along.

The day before Mother's Day, our local fire dept auxillary had its annual plant sale.  We bought some wet-loving plants to put in down at then end of the driveway.  It is always wet there, but the water seems to flow right through and in the dryer season will be dry, so we picked up some more day lilies...

These are "Kwanzaa Double Day lilies.  They will probably not bloom this year... or maybe they will.  The other day lilies that we had there already have bloomed very well for the past few years.  We also got some iris...

The Siberian Iris

larger Purple Iris...

and we also transplanted our German Bearded Iris which had multiplied well, but did not do well where we had it planted because of slug attacks.

These should look pretty all together there.  It will be nice if they all fill in that wet spot.  Mr. D also went back on that Monday and asked if they had any left-over plants.  He wanted to get me another Peony.  So the lady who helps run the plant sale went to her own garden and gave him a little Rose Peony...

Of course none of these pictures are my flowers... mine look more like orphan green stems and leaves right now, but we are hopeful that they will fill in and look nice next year. 

Mr. D was able to use the Blazer to pull out all the small trees that were growing on the road-side of the rock wall over to the neighbors driveway, so now our driveway entrance looks more manicured.  I'll take some pictures when the sun comes back out so you can see the progress.

I just love to get my hands into the dirt.  Thank the Lord we have summer... makes all the long winter tolerable.

Hope you are all having a good week.

Mud Season Continues

While I was away, Mr. D strained his shoulder so is not able to lift much on one side.  This week we needed to purchase chicken feed and we get 550lbs at a time in 50lb bags.  Our driveway is impassable due to mud season.  Here's how it goes.  The station wagon is parked at the end of the driveway.  I take that to work, go at lunch to pick up the grain 'cause the feed store closes at 5pm.  Load grain into the back of the wagon.  After work I park the wagon at the end of the driveway and haul all sacks past the mud hole and into the back of the truck.  Then drive the truck as close to the coop as I can get... which isn't too close.  Haul each sack through the mud to the coop and empty it into the grain bin.  It probably wouldn't be so bad, but I'm just not used to all that hauling.  Then we had produce too.  My boots almost came off in the muck a few times too.  Once I almost fell into it.  Yuck!

It seemed quite a bit dryer this morning, so maybe soon we'll be able to drive up again.

I noticed the flowers are starting to work their way up through the soil.  It is exciting to see the green.  Down in town here the Forsythia are blooming... first flowers of spring and I've noticed a few Daffodils here and there.  Where I work is about a week ahead of where we live on the seasonal calendar.  We are just beginning to see signs of spring, but there is still snow on the ground especially in the shady spots and out in the woods.  Our little pond just opened up last week so the ducks can go swimming again... happy little ducks they are too.  The first day one of the Muscovy mommas was out there washing and preening most of the day.  We have one momma who is setting on her eggs so we'll probably have some little ones in about 3 weeks.... yippee.

I don't know if it's the same momma who gave us a bunch of ducklings last year or not.  She was sure persistant and would have raised several clutches if we'd allowed her to set more than once.  It was so hot last year we had trouble keeping it cool enough in the coop.

We will be ordering chicks in the next couple of days for delivery in June.  We need to replenish our supply of egg layers.  When we hatch out our own we get too many roosters.


APRIL 24, 2011
RESURRECTION DAY

I Corinthians 15: 12-22

Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?
But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen:
And if Christ be not risen, then [is] our preaching vain, and your faith [is] also vain.
Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that he raised up Christ: whom he raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not.
For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised:
And if Christ be not raised, your faith [is] vain; ye are yet in your sins.
Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
But now is Christ risen from the dead, [and] become the firstfruits of them that slept.
For since by man [came] death, by man [came] also the resurrection of the dead.
For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.




II Corinthians 9:15
Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.



We had a wonderful Resurrection Day.  Very busy.  When I sat down for the morning service it was such a release just to sit and not be moving about doing something.  We had a nice sunrise service, then yummy breakfast.  I so love the fellowship and of course the good food.  Then we had Sunday school and morning worship.  After the service we came home and enjoyed a beautifully warm day.  We'd had snow on Saturday.  Though is was a little discouraging to see snow falling the day before Easter it is not unheard of around these parts and Sunday was so nice a warm that it all melted the next day.

Here's what we found...


Little babbling brook... only runs in spring and early summer
and when we get a big rain in the summer.
Sawdust is from a tree Mr. D had to remove this winter.



The pussy willows are going by getting ready for leave and green.



First harvest of spring... sweet parsnips that have over
wintered in the garden.  We had these and roast chicken
for dinner.  Very yummy.



 

little yellow wild flowers

The ladies are getting all clean... not all the snow is gone yet.

The boys are keeping an eye on their hens.  Notice how dirty
Mr. Muscovy is... he never takes a bath.  Must be a guy thing :)

I hope you all had a wonderful day with family and remembering what a wonderful gift God gave us through His Son.