catching up

we actually feel like we are catching up. more of the garden is planted then is left to plant. we planted our cucumbers today.

i tilled enough of the garden to plant two more rows.

the immediately impending rows will be butternut winter squash, pumpkins and melons. i didn't fork anymore manure today. i was kinda sore and needed a rest from it.

yesterday i helped tabitha make a flower bed. these rocks were removed from our garden.


today i made an end-cap bed for the summer squash. the soil there was awful. i brought in new soil from a stash down the ravine. i could barely push my wheelbarrow up the hill.

i made all the cuts for the joints using my chainsaw. when i was done it fit fairly tight.

i mowed the yard and used the clippings to mulch the tomatoes.

they are really starting to take. now if we can just keep them safe..


the black-raspberries are setting tons of fruit. our bees have been very busy.


the strawberries are starting to produce. we are getting a small basket daily now.


the broiler chicks are all feathered out and happily munching our yard.

there are fifty in this chicken tractor right now. well separate them into two groups very soon.

they fertilize their area within a few hours.


beets, an older row of beets, onions, mixed greens and potatoes.

our rows are 37 feet long. we'll be eating beets very soon, yum.

this is my bright green patch of arugula. just to the left is toscano kale. that stuff is very full flavored green. i love it steamed. we stole this idea from our neighbor.


i managed to hang the chicken feeder and install their sills to keep their sawdust in on the floor of their roosting area. now that they are in there i noticed a few changes that i'll need implement. luckily this is easy to do on a work-in-progress.

i also broke out our new weed-eater. we have been resisting getting one of these things since we moved here. it has such an awful carbon footprint. i finally justified it because we have to keep our ditch-line cut to keep modot from spraying evil chemicals on our road frontage. i did get the four stroke version since it pollutes significantly less than the two stroke version. it has less power and is slightly heavier but that is a compromise that i'll happily make.

tabitha took out most of our attempts at goat proofing. our fence rows look much better now. especially since i weed-eated them.

happy mothers day..