This and That

 We've had another rainy week here on the farm. I got some stuff out in the garden before the storm hit: lettuce, leeks, broccoli and one cherry tomato plant in the herb bed near the back door. Our last freeze day isn't until March 15th, but I decided to risk one seedling. It's close to the house so I can baby it. I have made a tiny greenhouse out of an empty 3 liter soda bottle to keep it from getting to cold.

I started with a green bottle, but found out it might not be good for the plant

Then I switched to a clear bottle and it's a very happy plant

  I also started a few tomato seedlings for my grandparents. They still have a pretty big garden every year and Grandma asked specifically for some seedlings. You just can't say no to your grandma... 

Tomato seeds in their own tiny soda bottle greenhouses

 As much as I am fed up with mud and wet, I'm glad for the rain. Last summer our creek dried up entirely, now it's flowing again and the turtles and small fish are back. Mike is hoping for some big fish soon.

One of the deeper sections of the creek

The shallow section that we (and the dogs) use to cross the creek

 The other good thing about all the rain is the wildflowers. I'm not sure what most of them are but they're pretty. Since I can't grow flowers to save my life I'm happy to have some around that don't require anything from me. 

Bluebonnets, I'm pretty sure

Bright and cheerful

Bluebonnets, rain lilies and some teeny tiny yellow flowers

 I also had another hatch this week. I got 10 Easter Eggers hatch out of 14 eggs set. Not the best ratio in the world, but oh well. The babies are adorable.

6 dark and 4 light

 We are working on getting new breeding stock for our meat rabbit project. We have a male and female but haven't had a baby in months. I think our girl may be past reproductive age at this point. Since they aren't pulling their weight and they aren't friendly (at all, they are MEAN) I'm going to have to figure out how to cook a couple of old tough bunnies when we get the new ones.

Don't be fooled by the cuteness,  those claws are deadly

 The big news this week is all about eggs. Yesterday we all drove an hour to buy a dozen or so Blue Copper Marans hatching eggs. The lady was very nice and had managed to save 19 eggs for us. Well, once we were there and looking around I couldn't resist getting just a few more. I'm still not sure how it happened. I took the 31 EE eggs I had been saving for my next hatch, just in case she wanted to trade. So I traded those for 31 New Hampshire eggs. Then I was sucked in by the smallest chicken breed in the world (which also happen to be kind of rare and expensive) so I bought the 2 Serama eggs she had. The odds are against me getting a male and a female out of just 2 eggs but I'm crossing my fingers. If I do get lucky I will have breeding stock to sell the babies to 4H kids or people who collect tiny, useless chickens, if not, well...I'll just sell them. Finally, the egg lady threw in 5 quail eggs for free. So 12 turned into 19, turned into 50, turned into 52, turned into 57. That is chicken math at it's finest.

I'm holding a NH egg and Lily has a Serama egg and a quail egg

30 NH eggs

19 BCM eggs, 1 NH egg, 2 Serama eggs and 5 quail eggs

 And now here are a couple more random animal pictures, just because I have them.

My EE/BO crosses, notice the rooster hiding behind the girls

Why did the chickens cross the driveway? They were following the goats

 Blessed Be everyone, have a great week!