Planting

Winter was LONG and EXTREMELY HARD this year, but seems to have gone out like a light.  We had only three frost days after the snow stopped, about 2 weeks of spring, then jumped into summer.  It's been hot, but I've been enjoying it.  A few days of rain have brought the blackflies out in droves.  Even that has not yet deterred my eagerness to be done with winter.

I planted the greenhouses over the weekend.

Greenhouse #1 got the brassicas this year.  Cucumbers and sunflowers down the centre again (pickling).  Onion seed scattered through the rows on the side.  Apparently I forgot to start cabbage inside, so I bought a little 4 pack, and put in a row of cabbage seed.  I'll have to see how it works out with a late start.The albino (sugar) beets went in as seed.

 
The tomato seedlings that survived were small, so I bought some jetstars and beefsteaks.  I bought seedling trays with those moss/weeve trays in it.  Total pain to keep watered.  I bought Sweet banana peppers, cherry bombs, and long slim peppers.  What can I say?  I was in the garden centre and I couldn't help myself.  Straight Eights in the centre, onions and radishes scattered on the sides.  I bought two pots of dill and planted one in each greenhouse, along with almost all of my remaining seed.  The dill hasn't done well the past few years, so I thought I might as well dump the seed.  If it doesn't grow I might as well buy new next year.

The garden is mostly planted, and the peas are up about three inches now. 

Peas
Peas

Mangels
Mangels

Carrots, radishes
Beans-vanderpol 6 weeks, radish

Lettuce
Swiss chard, lettuce

Spinach
Romaine, sunflower, green beans

Green beans
Green beans

Green beans
Green beans

Green beans
Green beans 

Of course, the weeds are up before the veggies...  #4 planted the green beans, and I honestly didn't think I had that much seed left, so I guess we'll see how it works out once they come up.  The rototiller broke before #1 finished tilling, so I'm a bit behind schedule.  It's fixed now, but not tilled yet.  Beets, corn, another tray of kohlrabi (what was I thinking?!), and a few odds and ends to go in yet.  I don't plan to plant any potatoes this year.  At this point anyway.  I'll see how much space I have left.

I haven't planted anything in the hugelkultur bed yet.  It needs about 8 inches of soil dumped on top of it.  Like a fool, I did not leave myself enough space to drive around it, so I'll have to wheelbarrow it in. 

Greenhouse #3 is under construction.  Barely started, really, but started none the less, which is good, since I still have pumpkins, melons, and watermelons to transplant.

Manure from the barn/pasture clean out is going around the original greenhouses.  I'm pretty much out of space in the perennial bed, and since that space is generally wasted, I figure it'll be a good spot to add more perennials next year.

Another Batch of Eggs

21 eggs in the incubator.  Fingers crossed that those chanteclers were in with a rooster before I bought them!  Temps in the house have stabilized, so this should be a good hatch- June 18th. 

Cluck, Cluck, Goose

The auction here is on Mondays. On holiday Mondays it's always busy. People who don't ordinarily come, bring their children, and the offerings from the sellers are always good.  Yesterday it was nearly insane.  This is the auction room, stuffed full of cages and boxes for Victoria Day.

Meanwhile, in the back room there were more boxes and more cages.  Enough to fill the auction room at least three more times.  It kept going and going and going!

The best deals tend to be in the very beginning, or towards the very end.  I started early, hoping to bring home some new hens to fluff up my flock.  The first few that I bid on went too high for my blood, and then I won a pair of medium sized white hens, for a very reasonable price of $8 each.  Had I known what I was bidding on at the time, I'd have been willing to bid much higher, because, in my opinion, they turned out to be a steal at $8 each.

You see the two white ladies on either side of the rooster?  They're Chanteclers!  The most cold hardy breed available, that someone (Sue?) suggested I look into a while ago.  I had found a breeder in southern Ontario who would ship chicks up here, but they're very pricey, and I wasn't sure whether I wanted to make that sort of investment to trial them.  Now I've got these two lovely ladies to test the weather, and in all likelihood, I know they can survive the weather within two hours of here.

The two reds in the photos above are probably Red Sex Link hens.  They were also a steal at a mere $7 each, though they have had the snot beat out of them.  The one girl is nearly featherless on her back right now, while the other seems to be in a better state of recovery.  They're both underweight, the centre bone along the rib cage quite prominent, but in my lonely coop, I'm sure they'll gain quickly.

The two you can barely see, digging into the dirt along the fenceline, are Barred Rocks.  They cost me the most at $11 each.

My meat girls were hiding out in the turkey shack, so no pics of them today.

My last purchase of the day...

You know I LOVE them!

It's kind of funny too, since I just stole Gackle's eggs yesterday.  She was building herself a nice clutch, 6 eggs, and they aren't going to hatch without a gander.  She'll be very confused about how nature works now, lose your eggs and receive two goslings.  Pippi and Peppy have joined the flock.

Goats were not getting the prices that #1 wanted, so Sheila returned home with us.  I will advertise her on the local kijiji for now, and see if she sells.  If not, we'll take her back to the auction another day.

Greenhouse Repairs

Greenhouse #1 suffered some damage over the winter.

Just one beam snapped.

Leaving the roof sagging.

The boys put in another post to patch it back together for this year.  I don't expect it will make it through next winter. 

The plan for now is to build greenhouse #3 this summer, so it will be ready to plant next spring.


#1 started tilling along the fence line.  I planted the peas yesterday, in the opposite direction of previous years.  dad used to alternate the direction on the garden from year to year.  I don't know if it'll make much difference, but I don't think it will hurt anything.  We'll see.

Meanwhile-

• Goats are going to the auction today.  
• Calves are doing well.  
• Grass is starting to grow.  
• Chickens and Gackle are living in the turkey pen. 
• Firewood is under way.
• The snow is almost gone, just a bit in the plow piles, and along the edges of the woods.
• New closet in my room.
• The bug died.  Cracked block.
• New roof over the wood window.
• Manure on the move... 

Parker

Black is easier to spot in the trees. 
 
He was born Tuesday night.

Clean, up and nursing.

He's almost as big as Patrick, Nelly's calf.  Not that Patrick hasn't grown a lot, just that he was a tiny calf. 

Dorie's doing well, as usual.  She just can't hide him very well.