We took a walk on the rail trail on Friday, it was about 65 degrees with a nice breeze. This yard was right on the trail and as we were coming up to it you could see a blanket of purple.
I made a quick make-shift area for the chickens to hang in that wasn't wet, and to keep them out of the run while we redid the roof. (Will post pics of that soon). I'm pretty sure they were enjoying the green grass snacks. And Mabel was enjoying the treats the chickens left behind, yuck. This time we used chicken wire, hopefully this will leave bigger holes that the snow will fall through next winter instead of sit on. We shall see.
My fantastic husband made me a broadfork this week! This tool retails for like 200 bucks, which is way too much for me to be spending hence the asking of the husband for favors. You use this in your beds to loosen the soil and mix in organic matter that you add to the top. It's better than using a tiller every year because you aren't smashing all the worms that you work so hard to get into your soil.
I used a tiller the first year to establish the beds, and I actually double dug a couple. I started with the double digging and quickly found that I would rather do just about anything on the planet than that. I was actually seriously thinking about how much I would have to pay someone to finish them. I read about double digging in John Seymours' book 'The guide to self sufficiency', which is most fantastic, that is why I thought that I just had to do it that way.... Then we bought a tiller to finished up. Anyways, with the broadfork you stick the tines into the soil and then step on the rail and rock it back a little bit just to loosen things up and get things mixed in. I can't wait to try it out.
Here's a pic that shows how we added on to the coup in the fall. I painted it green because I had it on hand and needed to get something on it before it rained, I planned to decide what to do with it over winter so I could paint in the spring. Well here its almost spring and i'm still not sure what I want to do. I was thinking just to paint it white and windows black to match the original portion, but now I am wanting to paint the whole thing a different color, only problem is that I will have to paint the siding. You can get Behr ultra that has the primer built in and you can use it on siding, i'm just not so sure if I want to try that or not. I'm afraid that it will flake off. The ghetto bags of leaves leaning against the coup were for winter insulation to keep the nasty wind from blowing underneath.
I moved most of the tomato sprouts out of their baggies and into the flats. They hadn't all sprouted so I will have to plant those late comers within the next few days. Then I moved the baby flats into the greenhouse, I have a space heater under the bench and wrapped plastic up over the flats and the lights to keep the heat in. Last year I had this whole setup in the kitchen, with the peeps in a huge cardboard box, you know, where the dirt bike was at, I guess we like having weird crap in our kitchen. I wish I had a baby wood burner in my greenhouse, I have seen that in some setups. That would be cool and cheap!
Here are some of the ladies, they were all interested in the laces of my sandals, they must have been setting off their worm radar.
When I get up in the morning and husband is sleeping in this is what happens to my side. Rough life she has.
