Late Spring = Busy!

I know it's been a few weeks since we've posted last. We been so busy with things here on our little corner plot, we rarely find time to sit down with our computer and write. Since we wrote last the end of April, we've put down flooring in our living room, got our new furniture in, and put our living room somewhat back to normal. We're not done yet though, there's still the stairway to finish, trim to touch up, and pictures and decorations to put on the walls. All of that will happen as we get a rainy evening here and there over the summer.

Outside is where the big things have been going on. Ryan has been working hard to get our fence built, so we can get our grown turkeys and laying hens out on pasture, and hopefully get a couple of calves for beef by next spring. Right now he has all of the steel t-posts in the ground, and only has 7 more wooden corner posts to get in before he can start stretching the woven wire fencing. This past Saturday, Ryan and his brother worked to get the beginnings of our new poultry shed going, so hopefully we'll have a much larger place to house our 2 adult turkeys, 5 laying hens, 1 rooster, 4 turkey poults, and 25 meat chicks.

As you can tell from my listing above, we are practically overrun with poultry right now. We acquired 4 turkey poults the 2nd of May, in case the eggs Esmerelda was sitting on didn't hatch. That turned out to be a good thing, evidentally first time turkey mothers aren't always successful. She ended up breaking most of her eggs, and is now sitting on 9 chicken eggs, none of which are broken. She seems to have gotten the hang of brooding now, we just wish it were turkey eggs instead.

The 25 chicks, well we just decided that since we were growing so much of our vegetables, we try growing some of our everyday meat too. We ordered the chicks through a hatchery, a deal called picturesquely the "Frypan Special", 25 assorted heavy (read old-fashioned)breed chicks, straight run (both male and female) for $17.00. These breeds take a little bit longer to fatten up, but unlike the more modern Cornish-cross meat birds, they tend to be sturdier and better foragers. And if a few turn out to be breeds we like, we can keep them into adulthood, without worrying that at 10 weeks of age they will get too fat to walk or do much of anything besides eat. And we will be watching the young roosters closely in hopes observing a future flock leader. Our current rooster, which we were so excited to get after losing our last one to the neighbor's dog, has turned out to be mean and a pathetic flock leader. What makes a good rooster? A pleasant crow, docility in relation to humans, gentleness with hens, unselfishness, i.e. he will hurriedly check out any food thrown into the pen, and then dole it out to all of his ladies instead of gobbling it up himself. But I digress . . .

Other things going on . . . we have almost everything planted in the garden. Early crops are growing strong: potatoes, onions, spinach, peas, and radishes are green and leafy. We have just put tomatoes and peppers out in the last two weeks. They are recovering from transplant shock well, and are actually starting to grow. Everything else we depend on to sprout from seed, and when it doesn't, we plant it again.

Otherwise, we enjoy the heritage of previous homeowners, irises everywhere. My favorite combination being yellow irises, red-orange poppies and purple phlox, the inspiration for our wedding colors last summer.