Yes. I am alive and well. Yes. The children are alive and (sort of) well. My oldest boy's bout with the consumption is nearing its end, praise the Lord! Many of you have emailed your concern that I have fallen off the face of the earth. I'm not blogging at the break-neck speed customary for me, and you've been worried. Thank you, you sweet readers, you! Y'all are the bees knees!
There is one primary reason why this old computer has not been my friend lately. It's called SPRING!!!! SUNSHINE!!!! BEAUTIFUL WEATHER!!!! The nectar to my winter weary soul!
My friends, spring has sprung, my tulips are gorgeous, the dogwoods are blooming and the azaleas are in spectacular form! How can a girl stay inside with all that going on? She can't. She must get outside and supplement her Vitamin D with copious amounts of much needed, much missed, and much craved sunshine! It's the way God intended!
So, to give you an idea where I spend 20 out of 24 hours these days, here are a few snapshots from the past few weeks...
My boy and his love affair with the apple.
One view of the current 27 raised beds in my 'new and improved' garden space. Plus, (cover your ears eyes, Mr. P) I plan to double that by next year!
Already in the ground are my Chandler strawberries, seven different lettuces, two kinds of radish, turnips, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and onions. I also have my summer crop started inside.
I'm really excited about my strawberries this year, though they don't produce well until the second year. Don't they look spectacular?!
We cut down another bazillion trees (that's almost as many of my tax dollars as Obama plans to spend on his socialist agenda) to make room for our 'orchard'! The orchard has one lone peach tree so far. I didn't want to kill off a bunch of expensive fruit trees so we're starting with this one and we'll see how well it grows in this spot. Next year I want to add two apple, one plum, and two varieties of cherry trees. Yum!
Down at the bottom of our backyard Mr. P, armed with a bobcat, cut out our chicken run. Since this picture was taken, we've planted nutritive grass seed for the chickens and covered the area with hay. The rolling chicken coop has been built and the finishing touches are going on the chicken house. Technically, the chickens will be old enough to go outside on Monday. BUT, my favorite weather man tells me that it is going to turn chilly (60's) this weekend. Boo. Hiss. While 60's is not the end of the world cold, I'm afraid it's too cold for our little hens that have been safely and snuggly living in their indoor brooder with a heat lamp. They, like me, will fall over and die in such extreme conditions!
That's where we are so far! I'm attending weekly gardening classes and my brain is on information overload. I can't wait to see if everything I've learned actually works. For me. The woman that can't sew a straight line with her sewing machine despite lots of great teachers and lots of great classes. There are some tricks you just can't teach this old dog. I'm hoping gardening isn't one of them!Until next time... when that will be, I can't tell you. It's sunny and warm outside!
8 comments:
It's a good idea to "harden off" your chicks before moving them out, just like you would greenhouse plants, by lowering the temperature of the brooder. If properly "hardened" in this way, they can handle freezing temperatures at 3-4 weeks old.
You might have said this somewhere, but what size are your raised beds?
I'm so jealous of your amazing garden. I tried to grow a garden one year and it didn't work at all!
Everything looks so great! You all are doing a fantastic job. : )
Tracy
Kristen, our beds are 4ft x 4ft each.
Becca, you should have seen my garden last year. Pit. i. ful.
Sherlock, I'll pass that on to my resident chicken girl, Poppy. Thanks!!
Tracy, thank you!! You are always such an encouragement to me!!
I am so envious of all those raised beds. I want raised beds. Wahhh! We have deer that pass through on a daily basis and they eat everything. We grow a few plants on our deck whcih is 9 feet up, so they can't get to the plants there.
If we could just get a big fence put up to enclose a garden, it might work. But there are also several ground hogs prowling around out there. grrr....
Yes Sherlock, I have been gradually lowering the temperature in my brooder since the beginning. My brooder light isn't completely off, but I'm almost there. So with the nippy temperature of our basement and a brooder light about 2 1/2 feet away, I'm pretty sure they're almost ready. ;)
I have 6 garden boxes. Ugh, not enough I am afraid. We need to take down a few dozen trees to, if I am going to expand, we just don't get enough sun.
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