Monday, May 30, 2011

Memorial Day Weekend= Cookout, Manure, Gardening, and Free Range Chickens

    I feel like I say every weekend is a busy weekend, but this weekend was busy and productive so I have the results to prove it. Aside from the customary cookout, I spent the majority of the weekend working outside. On Sunday morning, my mother and I shoveled two truckloads of free horse and goat manure to use on what will someday be Capri Dames Farm; my sneakers and back will never be the same. Did you know that it's much easier to shovel manure with a spade than with one of those flat-ended shovels? Who knew?
    Much has been done on the gardening front. Sunday afternoon was spent planting more veggies in the raised beds. Carrots, vermont cranberry beans, green beans, zucchini, butternut squash, New England pie pumpkins, and onions (seedling transplants) joined the peas, heirloom lettuce, and spinach that have already made their appearance. I don't want to jinx myself, but so far, there's no sign of the ground hog and my peas have gone unmolested. I still need to order about another yard of loam to fill the last bed; this needs to be done ASAP. Then I'll be able to transplant the eggplant, a few tomato seedlings, and maybe some tomatillos, but those poor things don't look like they're going to make it. I really need a seedling heating pad for the warm weather plants.
     Monday was spent wedding and de-crowding the second flower bed in the front of the house. It looks much better than before, but we still need to put more bark mulch down and fill in a few holes with an appropriate plant. That will be an ongoing project. Monday was also clean out the chicken coop day. The litter is now composting in my compost pile.



     The pullets (a.k.a. "The Girls") are doing well. They are growing like weeds and today was their first adventure outside of their run. They took to it nicely, exploring the gardens and eating bugs. They took a tour of the yard, never straying far from one another. I was worried about them venturing into the road, but they had no interest in it. The Mischevous One was none too pleased that he had to watch The Girls from inside, but The Snuggler was just interested in staying cool on this 85 degree day.













     Overall, it was a busy but productive weekend. Of course, now that I'm sitting down, I'm starting to think about all the things that need to be done next weekend. . . 

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