It’s almost spring, but the weather is taking its time warming up. I’ve been spending a lot of time in Farmer’s Purgatory, washing out seed containers to reuse them, mixing up seed starting media, and fussing with my seedlings. Using rainwater to water them is a new thing this year for me also. So far I have no complaints, other than that I like to let it warm up to room temperature before using it. Just have to remember to dump the barrels over before mosquito season!
This week I planted some tomatoes, eggplant, lavender, and potato seeds. I’ve never grown potatoes from “true seed” (i.e. NOT little chunks-o-potato) before. I ordered 100 seeds, and they sent me something approximating 500. I called the seed company last night to see what the germination rate was, thinking maybe they sent so many because germination is low. No, they said, it’s 80%. So I have about 300-350 seeds in the trays right now. Good thing we have a lot of space out in the field, because I also have a pile of normal seed potatoes coming later.
The broccoli and some of the onions are taking their first trip outdoors today in their trays. Hopefully I remember to bring them in before they get too stressed out.
The dog discovered the chicks this weekend. No, she didn’t eat any (so far), but one of her new favorite places to hang out is just outside the door to their room. Every once in a while, she whines a little.
So, on Sunday, Mrs. B and I were sitting in the living room while the baby slept. We both heard, but didn’t really notice, the dog whining a little more than usual.
Later, we went to the kitchen for a snack, and noticed that the chicks were quite a bit louder than usual. Strange. Well, we both thought it’d be a good idea to check in on them — it had been a couple hours — so I snuck past the dog into the bonus room
From across the room, I could see that the chicks were all running around their little area, and there was lots of loud chirping. When I got closer, I could see that the loudest one was pinned under the water bottle… they had knocked it over, and one was stuck! I rescued it, it joined its friends in the opposite corner, and things settled down in chicken-land.
Silly chickens.
A couple weeks ago, I ordered some chickens. This weekend, we set up the chick area.
This morning, the post office called at 6AM to say that the chickens were there. I went and got them, and they’re running around their little pen.
We’ve got 5 araucanas, 10 silver-laced wyandottes, and 10 barred plymouth rocks. We’re hoping to get about 10-15 layers, and the rest will be for meat.
