Seedling update

Things are getting a little crazy in here.  I went and got the plastic for my hoops, but was unable to get the right PVC piping to get them up today.  Hopefully, tomorrow, I'll be able to take Hubby's truck and get everything warming up. 

The lettuce is huge, as you can see.  The onions are ok, but I think I've lost a few.  I've never had good luck with onions.  They start out well and then I end up with them damping off, despite doing as much as possible to prevent it.  I can't plant them for a while yet, so I'll have to continue to baby them inside.

These are the brassicas and a few flowers in the background.  The plan is to erect the hoops and warm the soil, then plant them out in about 3 weeks.  We'll see how that goes.  The weather has warmed nicely and doesn't look like it will be cooling down too much in the foreseeable future.  Even the weatherman said that he thought that the worst was over.  Since we haven't had much in the way of spring here in New England for the past few years, it would be very welcome.  Yes, Kiwi, we do have spring every once in a while. 

I had a picture of my peppers, but they seem to have disappeared.  They are coming up slowly, as is expected.  The first came up within a week, but the rest are popping up here and there.  They are certainly doing better upstairs than they have in the basement. 

The chickens wanted to say hello again as well.  How are your seedlings doing these days?  Have you started anything yet?

What I do when it gets above 50 degrees

I clean out the chicken coop!

These are some seriously happy chickens.  They have new forage!  They're also in more sun than they have for the past few months.  

We had a gorgeous day yesterday as well.  Unfortunately, we had something going all day, so were unable to be out in the nice weather.  Today is just as wonderful.  It's 11 AM and already 52 degrees.  Since the ground is still far too frozen for me to do anything with, I decided to clean out and move the chickens.  

They had been moved a few times, until the snowy weather got the better of us and we could no longer budge the tractor.  We were using a deep composting system.  Lots of bedding composting down, mixed in with chicken poo, made for some great manure for the beds.

I got enough manure for 3 of my 4 x 12 beds.  The beds are still frozen solid, so I just spread it over the top.  In a few weeks, I'll be able to work it in a bit better.  The manure is still too hot to plant anyway.  It should be perfect by May, when I will do the majority of my planting.

 

This is where they were, under J's deck.  It was about 6 inches thick of chicken gold.  They were so excited when I moved them.  Pecking away at the new dirt, taking little dirt baths.  A few of them were a bit muddy, but for the most part, no worse for the wear of winter.  

We have had a good first year with them, thankfully.  We had a bout of what I called 'poopy butt', but some yogurt to eat and some apple cider vinegar for their water, cleared it up quickly.  I'm thrilled that we didn't lose any over the winter and we're talking about more for this year!  I did find that they have been wasting a large part of their food.  We'll be trying for a new feeder design to prevent them from scattering the food all over the ground.  

In the meantime, they will still be in the backyard.  They still need the water heater to prevent freezing.  Our nights are still in the low 20s.  I'm also in the process of weaning them off of their supplemental lighting.  By April, they should be pecking away in the front yard.  

For now, they're happily laying us eggs in their newly cleaned home. 

Signs of spring

This time of year always finds me outside looking for signs of life.  I'm usually dragging the kids through mud to show them the swelling buds.  They usually say something like "Great Mom." and then run off on their scooters to enjoy the sun and warmer weather.

Today was no exception.  We've had some fairly nice days this week.  The days have been in the upper 40s with lots of sun.  The snow is almost gone and although much of our state will get snow this week, we're forecasted to get mostly rain. 

 

Today I found daffodils poking their little heads up.

 

Peach buds swelling.

 

Cherry tree buds doing the same.

 

Toby was out enjoying the sun, but he didn't want his picture taken.  He was more interested in having me throw large muddy sticks for him to fetch.