Memorial weekend! Yay!

Memorial weekend. The Man has three days off in a row and we are taking one of those days to go for a ride on the Harley. I spent most of Saturday outside in the garden mostly building up the potato towers. (see march 8th blog, Fifteen days and counting) I did most of them with the straw and then had an idea. Why couldn't you line the towers with brown paper bags from the grocery store? They still hold in the soil and they go in faster and leave more room for growing in the towers and they compost. After having to buy a bale of straw at $9 it is also a lot cheaper. So I did two with bags as an experiment. I guess the down side of that is the bags wont add as much compost at the end of the season. Decomposing straw really adds a lot to soil but at $9 a bale I think I would rather spend my money on compost.











Earlier I had started peas in the house in toilet paper and paper towel tubes cut into 2 inch sections and placed in a cake pan or flat plastic container. I added soil and one pea per tube and kept them watered with the intention of planting them in the garden with the tubes. One container had a paper liner in the bottom. Not a good idea. The pea plants like to attach themselves to the paper on the bottom and it is hard to pull them off. The other container had no paper liner on the bottom and the roots just slid right off and I was able to plant them with a minimum of disturbance. I also grew them under a grow light and noticed that after awhile the paper tubes gave off a moldy odor. (They went out on the porch after that). But at least I have a row of peas that will hopefully produce something. The rest I planted in the garden in the normal way even though it was late.

My original 6 chicks that were raised by my Buff Orpington are now teen agers. They are still trying to find their place in the flock. The four Americana's will lay pretty green/blue eggs and make a lovely dozen  for my customers. The other two are Dominique's a breed on the endangered list. The one with the scissor beak will probably not be much of a layer but is such a pet now that she thinks she can fly up on my shoulder any time she wants. She is all personality.

The two silky mom's are busy raising their brood together. They definitely know which chicks are who's but seem to have reached an agreement to not fight with each other and that makes my job easier since I only have one chicken tractor to put them both in during the day to keep them safe from the other birds.

With all these pictures this post wouldn't be complete without a picture of the geese.

This next week promises to be very busy with a 16th birthday coming up. Because the man and the oldest girl have unusual work and school schedules I am having to do different birthday things on different days. One day will be a family dinner at home with the requested home made mac and cheese and a chocolate cheese cake for the birthday cake. Then the hard stuff will be done on two other days. I will let you know how that turns out.