The Maiden Voyage
Yesterday, the chicks spent the afternoon outside running around in the green grass and soaking up a little sunshine. They were happy as clams, scratching and digging, dust bathing, finding bugs, chasing each other around, and trying to learn how to fly. They’re all a little over a week old and it’s time for them to start spending as much time outside as possible.
I believe animals should be outside honing their natural instincts. These chicks will need to learn to peck and scratch so they can forage for some of their own food, no freeloading animals here (except the indoor cats). Of course the ducks had to come over and see what all the fuss was about, I wonder if they remember being inside this pen? The lady duck was very interested in the little chickies. Hopefully she’ll start laying eggs soon and hatch her own little ones.
It’s been fun watching these little lovelies grow up, it’s so amazing how quickly their wing feathers start to come in (they’re already starting to fly a bit). I feel like I know exactly what these little chickies are feeling, in spring I’m so excited to get outside and to enjoy the weather, no doubt they’ll be looking forward to their trip out each day.
Have you been able to spend time outside soaking up the sun and feeling grass under your feet?
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Keeping Track
I’ve never really had a real rain gauge in the garden. One was purchased a long time ago, but it broke quickly. Typically a straight sided bowl was how I kept track (usually the dog bowl). I really wanted to buy a beautiful Jeffersonian rain gauge, but they’re rather pricey and I’d rather spend my garden funds on compost.
Last time I ordered from Johnny’s, I added a three dollar rain gauge to my order. Now I can tell how much rain we’ve gotten. It’s been a dry spring here, so I’ve only been able to read and empty it twice. Nonetheless, I’m looking forwarding to monitoring how much rain we get this year.
Do you have a rain gauge in your garden?
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Friday Favorite: Weeding
Weeding is a garden chore that I don’t mind, there’s something very relaxing about it. I guess it’s the repetitious nature of it, it allows me the freedom to let my mind wander. Once again, it’s the season for weeding. I spent a half hour outside yesterday evening trying to rid an area of quack grass.
For me, it’s a wonderful way to spend an evening.
What’s your favorite garden chore?
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Growing Again
The day before yesterday I picked up a few more fowl to add to our flock. They’re guinea fowl, beautiful little birds that are supposed to be really great at eating ticks. Since we live in an area with lots of ticks and lyme’s disease, we figured they’d be worth their weight in gold.
I bought four from a local farmer and a friend is giving me her female, who is very lonely since her mate became fox food. She’ll fit right in with our 3 females and one male. Hopefully I can get some better photos when they get more used to me and when we start letting them outside.
These little guys are very beautiful. Dailon turned a storage area in our coop into a little coop of it’s own. They’ll be living in there for a week before being introduced into our flock of chickens. We’re also going to be adding more feathered friends to our flock in the coming week, stay tuned to see what we add.
How many feathered and furred friends do you have in your garden?
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The Triangle Garden
If you remember, last week I introduced you to Dailon and mentioned that he was already working on something. I also mentioned that the rock wall I was building was going to enclose a new garden space.
The new garden will be a triangular shaped garden right across the driveway from my kitchen window, which is why I wanted to put a garden space in this spot. It’s a nice space, with good soil and an old outhouse (that is currently being turned into a small chicken coop).
We started by clearing out a pine tree. It was planted in the middle of the space and was leaning.
There was also a raised bed made of railroad ties, that also went away. Mr Chiots was more than happy to get his tractor out for this chore.
The plan is to put some chickens in there to clean out all the weeds. Then I’ll figure out what sort of design I want to use. I’ll continue building the walls to surround it, and hopefully one day it will be a beautiful space that I can admire from my kitchen window.
Do you have any exciting garden projects for the summer?
