No More Poopy Coop!

Today is the funnest day of the month! Not really!

Coop cleaning is one of the messiest, stinkiest and dirtiest things I do. Top that off with an escapee chicken and nosy dogs, then you have a day of learning how to do many things at one time. Mainly, watching lots of animals at one time so no one gets hurt or eats stuff they shouldn't. (Yuk!)

However, it's a very quiet job. Raise hands to show how many would want to do this job? Thought so. These are my babies and I take care of them.

Lola

 Around the house, if you want something, you do it. This has been my job for about the past 10 years. They are so cute! All of my pet chickens have gone to the great farmyard in the sky. I used to be able to hold them or let them ride on my shoulder. Lola was the last pet chicken to go. She was really funny and a holding chicken. She liked jewelry and always pecked at my earrings and rings. That was the easiest way to catch her. Flash her some bling, and she'd come running!

Well. I have to go for the day.

Take care.

Rain, Rain. Go Away!

Beginning Thursday afternoon, we've had rain. Lots of rain! We were shin-deep in water on our property. Where we live, we are pretty much at sea level...maybe 1 foot above. If we dig a hole, we get water at about 1 foot. Sometimes a little more. This means we have to have a deep ditch around the perimeter of the property in order to grow things. Well, sometimes it still floods, but the ditches make the water clear off quicker. Needless to say, Thursday, Friday and Saturday our strawberry patch was pretty much flooded. One low end was under water along with our mustard greens and onion sets, which is planted in front of the last row. This is not good because the strawberry plants grow from the crown. Those shouldn't get soaked like that. I may lose part of the strawberry patch. As soon as I can figure out why I can't post pics, I'll get pics to show you the strawberry patch and part of the food garden so you can see what I mean.

Also, the chickens were partially under water. On days like this, I call them duckies because they sometimes have to wade through water. Luckily there is a large portion of their run which is high and dry. I'm sure they get upset when they get water like this. I'm thankful it only happens a couple of times a year.

Today, we have no rain. It is sunny! Yay! I went outside and got my potting soil and compost mix so I can transplant seedlings from indoors. Right now, I have red peppers, yellow peppers, eggplants and summer squash transplanted. They are sitting outside under the picnic pavilion hardening off for a bit. It's a little over 60 degrees F outside, so they'll be getting a little bit of air. Hopefully they will get good stalks from being outside. They're a bit spindly right now.

I've sunk the summer squash stems about 2" into their new pots. Some say that the squash won't transplant well and they'll die. I've wondered why this is? They sell the squash starts at the garden centers. I've always sown the squash seeds directly into the garden. So this is one of my experiments for this year.

In a couple of weeks, I'll be transplanting all into the garden after the frost has finished. Wish me luck!

Good luck to all of you with your gardens this year!!!

Strawberry Plants

We've been selling our extra strawberry plants this year. We have been propagating and using the Ozark Beauty variety for about 10 years. It seemed like a shame to till them under for compost, so we sold some. It's been fun seeing people and talking to them. Yeah. We don't get out much. Nor do we get much company since we live WAY off the beaten path. Actually, our road is well beaten! So we enjoy anyone who comes to visit.

Each couple who bought some plants had a story to tell. Some were getting a piece of country for their retirement years. Some were young couples just starting out. Some were first-timers with the strawberry thing. 'I've always wanted to try them.' they'd say. And I still had a bunch left over.

Sooooo...I took a bunch to some contractors at work - gratis. By a bunch, I mean several hundred plants. You'd have thought I gave them a million dollars. They seemed to really appreciate the plants and I showed them how to prepare them for the ground. I usually do this when I prepare the plants, but hubby chunked them out of the ground and put them into boxes for me. I was grateful for that!

Anyhow, one guy was left out and he really wanted some plants. Now, I don't have large plants left, just seedlings. Itty bitty ones, at that. So he's going to get a bunch of itty-bittys tomorrow. I hope he likes them. They may not bear this year, but he'll have a load of plants for next year! I got about 50 plants out of one of last year's itty-bittys.

I can't wait to see him tomorrow.

Take care. Happy spring planting!