Garden pictures

 March 15th was the last average freeze date for our area, which means that I have been spending even more time in the garden. In the last 3 days I have started putting all of the warm weather crops in. First I put in tomatoes and peppers.

Small Red Cherry tomato plant

Beefsteak and Roma tomatoes

 Next I hilled up the potatoes.

They are growing so well

 The zucchini and straight neck squash need their trellises, that's on the list for tomorrow.

Zucchini

Yellow straight neck squash

 The asparagus is finally growing, I was a little bit worried about it.

Asparagus makes me happy

 Mike planted the sweet corn. He insisted on Silver Queen, because that's what they grew when he was a kid. I'm just thrilled with the idea of fresh sweet corn, so I let him have his way.

Corn, with potatoes, onions and garlic in the background

 We also planted the watermelons, acorn queen winter squash, jack-o-lantern pumpkins, and sugarpie pumpkins. All together there are 30 hills.

Squash and melons

 In the herb bed I have parsley, leaf celery, cilantro, basil, chives, sweet marjoram, dill, mint, tarragon, and a tomatillos along with the cherry tomato I planted a couple of weeks ago.

Apple mint, thanks to Kirk who sent me some root cuttings

Basil

Tarragon

Parsley

Sweet Marjoram

Cilantro

Leaf celery

My cherry tomato is growing like crazy

Dill

Tomatillo 

We planted lots of other things that I didn't get pictures of: okra, collards, swiss chard, bush beans, the last of the broccoli, and eggplant. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but that's most of it.

Other than working on the garden we made a run to the feed store, where I got a new gardening hat. I don't usually wear hats, because I can't fit all of my hair up under them, but I hate sunscreen and I'm tired of my nose being sunburned.

My goofy hat, I untied the bow under my chin for the picture

 We also got new breeding stock for our meat rabbits. Since they won't be food I let the twins name them.

Our new Californian buck, Easter Bunny (EB for short)

Our New Zealand/Satin doe, Sweetie Pie

 The first thing Sweetie Pie did was scratch me. I used to think that bunnies were so cute, I don't anymore.

Every time I try to hold a bunny, I bleed

 Mike brought me home a present on Friday that I've been wanting for ages. A garden fork! It may not seem like a good present...unless you're a gardener. If you are a gardener, you know that it's an invaluable tool. I'm so happy with it.

My fork

  Here is a full view of the garden, as of this afternoon.

 Since I've been spending so much time outside I've had lots of chances to get pictures of the animals.

Our young rooster, Pipsqueak will be going to one of my Mom's friends soon

Since I plan on cutting this small oak down anyway I let the goats munch on it all they want

Oak trees are their favorite food

Coco was scratching her head on this pot

They look dead, but they're just taking a dust bath

 I've also been able to watch all of the wildflowers start blooming. We probably have 4 acres of wild mustard and another acre of bluebonnets, along with smaller patches of indian paintbrush, western primrose, wild sweet peas, and more that I don't know the names of.

Wild sweet peas among the mustard

I don't know what this is, but it smells amazing

Indian paintbrush

Lily in the bluebonnets

Walking onions among the bluebonnets

Dewberries beginning to bloom

Huge patches of wild mustard

 And now a few pictures of the kids.

Aislyn loves to help me in the garden

Ian's getting so big

Lily loves her big brother, and Gabe loves his "Grandma kitty"

After a long day in the garden

Lily is so proud of her peas and garlic

And one last picture of the eggs I collected today. I got 11 from my 15 hens.

It's not just a hat, it's also an egg basket

I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their weekend. Blessed Be

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!

Spring came early

The view from my back porch

 Spring really seems to have arrived. The grass is long and lush and waving in a warm breeze. The goats are thrilled with all of the variety when they get to roam around. A mouthful of grass, the top of a juicy wild mustard plant, a few munches of the cedar tree, or some pear branches recently pruned off the trees...yeah, pretty much goat heaven.

Yummy

 Wild flowers are starting to bloom too. There seems to be some jasmine down the hill near the creek, I can't see it, but I sure can smell it. The hen-bit is blooming, there are tons of tiny purple flowers, about as big as a lady bug, which I can't seem to get a good picture of. Then there are some others that I have no idea what they are.

I don't know what it is, but it's cheerful

Lily is particularly fond of yellow flowers

 Some of the seedling are out in the garden. The artichokes, cabbage, spinach, parsnips, and salsify went out this weekend. I also planted carrots and decided where to put the okra (which is apparently giant, who knew?)

Parsnips are in the ground now

So is the salsify

The onions are growing slowly

The garlic is already 6-8 inches tall and growing like crazy

Cabbage

Artichoke

Marking carrot rows with sand

 Others are being hardened off so they can go out in the next week or so. This is the part that I often have a problem with. I can't even tell you how many times I've forgotten to bring plants in when it got too hot/cold/windy/rainy and killed my poor seedlings. 

Tomatoes are nearly ready to be transplanted

Spending some time on the porch

Getting ready for the garden

The lettuce will go in tomorrow

 Since the weather has been so nice the chicks have moved out to the brooder on the back porch. It gives them more room and gets them out of the house before the dust gets out of control.

The brooder

3 weeks age difference between the biggest and the smallest

 The fruit trees are showing signs of life. The pear trees that were here when we moved in are blooming up a storm and the trees we put in in the last couple of months are starting to get leaves. I know we won't get fruit from most of them for years but it's still exciting.

Pear tree

The bees love it

Apricot tree

Pomegranate tree

 I just have a couple more pictures today...

This is my friend, Carina, from middle school.

Carina

 This is her daughter Penny. She was diagnosed with cancer before she turned 2 years old. She was a tough little girl, she made it through all of her surgeries and chemo, things were looking good. Last week little Miss Penny had a doctor's appointment. The news wasn't good, she has relapsed. She's already started very aggressive treatment and is going to be dealing with a lot of side effects.  So I want my readers to send Penny and Carina good thoughts. If you pray (to whomever) please pray for them.

Miss Penny

Blessed be...