I picked up a new book, All New Square Foot Gardening
He built me 6 2×3 boxes. The boxes from last year will be great for carrots and other deep rooting plants.
I asked the man what he wants in the garden. He replied, “Potatoes.” Anything else, “Potatoes.. and beef.” Maybe next time we move.
In September, I got a CSA box with wax beans. I knew they’d be so good if we just gobbled them up, but I wanted to test the idea of ‘putting up’ some things for when we don’t have the boxes. They were my first victims. I had ordered a copy of Making Sauerkraut
I pulled them from the back of the fridge at lunch today. They looked okay, none of the white yeast like in one of the jars of carrots.. I opened up the jar: no foul odor. I pulled out a bean: still crisp (you just blanch them before pickling, so they don’t turn out limp), light fragrance. I bit into it: slightly sour, no tart, tangy, tasty. Good. MissA was in the room. She was given a bite. I told her it’s a little sour at first. She agreed (made a face), “Sour,” and I finished mine and told her, “Sour, but good.” She heartily agreed (probably glad at that point I’d only given her one little bite and it was over with.. She’s my picky eater).
I served them up with dinner. Only MissA didn’t want to eat hers. MissB is my veggie lover and TJ will generally eat anything. MissC didn’t like the yellow ones, but ate up several green beans. And, the hardest critic of all said he’d eat them in small amounts like that.
Now to get him to like sweet potatoes…
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I’ve just about figured out what breeds each chick is, unless the Americaunas are madly crossed (and I really hope they’re *not* the yellows). I’ve narrowed the big chick down somewhat: Speckled Sussex, Dark Cornish, or Legbar or Kraienkoppe(looks almost exactly like this one!) -neither of these last two are advertised by the hatchery. We’ll see when s/he grows more feathers!
I’m having fun trying to figure out which chick is what using Feathersite.com’s list. I can’t seem to figure out which are the Rhode Island Reds. The pictures on the site show light red, like what I’m guessing are the frizzles.. So.. My guess is they’re the mahogany/brown ones.. Or, their feathers are growing in funny.. At the hatchery site, the bantam version RIR have much darker chicks (image of RIR from hatchery)..
We ordered 3 each: Americana, Red Frizzle Cochin, Partridge Rock, Buff Brahma (of which they hatched extra for us to receive the maximum potential # of live birds), Golden Sebright, Mille Fleur, and
4 each: Rhode Island Red, and Black-Tailed White Japanese
There was a minimum order of 25, so we just had fun ordering a few of each of a bunch. They don’t ’sex’ (check gender) the bantams, so we have good odds of getting the 4-6 hens we can keep in a variety of looks. We want some layers, that’s why we ordered more reds in our interesting assortment. I really hope one or both of the yellow chicks is female! Just one for looks would be nice. That was our favorite when we were ordering.
Monday morning, I called the Post Office to let them know I’m expecting chicks in the mail. The lady seemed a little nervous, she asked several times if there’s a phone number on the box. We then continued our day. At 5:11PM, the phone rang. The P.O. lady told me that the chicks have arrived, but the P.O. is closed. I asked if I may pick them up. She said I could, but the P.O. is closed. The lobby is locked up, but there’s a side door with a door bell. She didn’t specify where the door was. When I got there I glanced around the lobby, didn’t see a door, went out and looked at both sides of the building.. One door, no bell. Said a little prayer, headed back in and there it was.. A big obvious blue door. I rang and heard the quiet behind the door fill with peeps. They scanned by box and I took the little chicks home.
The minimum order is 25, and the hatchery usually puts in a couple extras to keep the numbers up. Plus, they often have a ‘rare chick’ thrown in. The chicks seemed to be alright when they arrived. Lost only 2 in transit, but there were some that didn’t eat or drink well right off. Before bed last night, we lost 2 others. This morning I awoke to 4 down and 3 not looking well. I’ve changed the water out and put milk in to hopefully keep them from Coccidiosis (a bacterial infection which can kill them easily at this size and season). Summer’s not the best time to get baby birds.
The rare is a full sized chick, the ones we ordered are bantams. I’m a little nervous the big one will squish the others. We have them in a box for now, Ben placed it in a closet (no doors, so I think they’re still getting a good air exchange). By the weekend after this, I’m sure they’ll need a bigger space. They should a a bit heartier, too, so they’ll get to live in the kitchen. For now, I’m focusing on keeping them as healthy as I can and trying to stave off any more listlessness in the tiny chicks.
Do you ever feel like there’s so little that you do? Here’s a little that I did:
It’s a simple cushion for the miniature garden set. I have the other 3 cushions and the table cloth cut out, they’re so little and quick to sew up!
Yesterday, we picked up some sprouted bush beans, a squash and a bell pepper for the garden. I’d like to make space for some carrots somewhere.
When we lived in England, the neighbor girls taught TJ about “wish fairies.” They would catch the fluffy seeds blowing by and say it was a wish fairy. Then, they’d make a wish and send it up to the clouds. TJ just found a fluffy yellowish seed and asked what plant his wish fairy comes from. Any one know which plants make fluffy seeds?
I bought a new set of patio furniture today. It was labeled “ice cream parlor set,” but it looked to me like the perfect bistro set for my new garden. The “cushions” on the chairs were easily removed by BB (2yo), and that gave me the idea to replace them -which I’m working on (one was made for trial, looks good, 3 to go plus a matching table cloth!).
I thought I’d also note on here that last year Ben asked me to avoid high fructose corn syrup. That was difficult at first! Today, as we were drinking our HFCS laden sodas at lunch at Aqui’s, we discussed buying some Sigg bottles so that we could bring our own water or what have you. This will save us money (it’s $3.30 for 2 refillable drinks) and quench our thirst (is it just me, or does soda leave you thirsty, too?).
This last week, I also made the decision to not knowingly have white sugar any longer. That is going to be the toughest! I will not be able to eat dessert most places. I *love* dessert. Yesterday, I ran out (on purpose) of white sugar at home. I’ve purchased Sucanat, and we like Rapadura, so we can still bake things, but we will slowly change what sort of things we bake. Muffins will be made more frequently than cookies soon, though we’ll still have our share of cookies.
I’m going to begin menu planning to budget healthy meals, and I’d like to start going regularly to the Farmer’s Markets (My friend, Mrs. A-, suggested one not too far from here on Wednesdays). The children love going to market, I usually let them pick at least one new or favorite item to bring home. When we get something unusual, we go online to find out how to prepare it in a way that sounds appealing. Then, we work together to make up the new recipe. This often makes it easier to treat them to new foods that otherwise wouldn’t be as appealing!
Today, I made up some laundry soap. The local Safeway carries Fels Naptha, so my soap is yellowy (next time, I’ll either make soap or buy a white one for looks, I think), and they didn’t have the Arm & Hammer Washing Soda, so I looked in the pool supplies for sodium carbonate (used to up the pH) and found it there (not labeled as washing soda there, though on the front it’s labeled as sodium carbonate and the back it does say soda ash). When I run out of my store bought detergent, I’ll begin to use the soap (should be just a few days). I’ve cleaned out the previous detergent bottle to put it in and when I run out I’ll have one more bottle, I think I’ll have enough space for most of the new soap that way!
It’s interesting to ‘watch’ my progression towards the ‘natural’ cleansers and things. My hair looks good, but is a bit oily to the touch currently. It’s been 2 weeks or so since I used product on it, though I try to shower and massage my scalp each day. I’m trying to use up the products I have and replace their use with more environmentally friendly cleansers. I saw suggested on another site (may have been sewgreen.com) to use the bath/shower water in the garden. That works great in the main bath, there’s a tub and I can just scoop out most of the water in a bucket and carry it out when the children are done. I may need to get a shower basin for collecting it in ours because there’s no tub in the master bath. My tomatoes and citrus will be quite happy this summer if I water them regularly!
I know I’m a day late, but here’s my green:
My wonderful husband splurged by getting me two citrus trees! The close one is a Valencia orange tree, the further one (at the edge of the hedge) is a ‘Eureka’ lemon tree. I’ve been wanting fruiting trees since we bought a house in 2004, even half-heartedly tried from itty bitty dormant ones, but they got run over by a lawn mower. Then we moved. I showed him the flyer for the local nursery and he agreed to head over there to look at the mini-citrus that are on sale. We wandered the nursery and, as we were looking at the minis, he noticed that the standard sized trees had fruit on them already. That did it! With all the moving we’ve been doing (once a year since we married until now) he didn’t want to have to wait more than a year for the first crop.
Ben has also been working on the aesthetics of my garden area. We chose the Scotch Moss for the color and he planted that as a ground cover. We got some sort of a runner-weed under the garden area and hope that a good ground cover will eventually choke it out of there.
“Watch this space.” Haha.. I was going to plant the sunflowers and smaller veggies over here, but the man had fun with the flower seeds. I can hardly wait to see what it blooms as! I think I’ll go and stick my sunflower seeds in there anyway, I was going to put them by the windows to help reduce the summer heat (we don’t have A/C).
Last week, we planted some seeds in the garden. Give it a little time and water and it’s amazing what happens! The salad is starting to spring up like crazy -we’d just scattered the seeds and now are slowly thinning it to give room to grow; yummy!
And, the peas are poking out their little heads!
In the late morning yesterday, we had the first rain of the season.. Well, the first rain since Spring! The girls pulled out their coats and Wellies and had a blast!
I’ve missed the rain so much! It’s already chilly. I had one set of flannel sheets that fit my bed, but none for the children (there is one set for the crib, I think.. but none for the beds they sleep in now). So, I ran off to Target to check the selection. NONE. They have jersey and they have some nice smooth sheets, but no flannel. So, I walked to the other end of the mall (yes, Target is a ‘department store’ in the local mall) and visited Linens N Things. They have Eddy Bower flannel sheets and right beside them they have some other label (maybe I should read it) flannel sheets for 50% off. Same original price, just half off. I was planning on buying a set for each of the children’s beds, but at that price, I grabbed 2 each! I may have to get another set for my bed.. with a baby due in “winter” I may have to change my sheets more frequently.
Ben found a good price and bought the plane tickets. I’ll miss him so much! The children and I will be off to visit family and friends starting next week. I’ll have to dig around and see if I have more nice cushy yarn to make socks for Gramma! I’ve started a shawl that I’ll probably bring to work on in transit (crochet hooks gets less worried looks from fellow travelers than 5 DPNs), and I’ve got a few other projects to tuck into my bag for at Mom’s and MIL’s.
signing off for tonight.
What are you doing while waiting, oh Sock Warriors? I’m expecting 2 packages by Thursday, which will arrive first?
Sunday, my husband built me 2 garden boxes and set up my garden! So, my son and I went and planted the seeds today. If you saw my previous post, you know that I’ve got a little sideyard/kennel thing that I hoped to convert. I must admit, Ben did a fine job of converting it!
The new raised beds he built and filled. We moved the strawberries & bell pepper in to the corner (I’m afraid they make take over the walkways, heehee.. strawberries everywhere!)
The hot pepper was moved inside the gate and surrounded by flowers for the children. The pallet and board became a nice staging area.
TJ planted a row of radishes and carrots by the broccoli in the closer box. In the further one is spinach, mesclun salad mix, mustard greens, and 2 peas -snow and sugarsnap. I’ve got to find some green bean seeds and the garden will be planted. To finish it off, I’ll just need some supports for the vines!
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