While I was gone…

Camping was only one of several recent adventures–about two weeks worth. In my absence, the garden has been burgeoning.  The labyrinth is hardly labyrinthine anymore, it’s so overgrown, and a sweet potato flower has curled into the driveway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The back is full of vegetables.  We’re eating the tomatoes as fast as they ripen, but there are plenty of other delights: carrots, cucumbers, squash, potatoes, onions, scallions, and lots of kale and spinach.

Is there anything more delicious than produce from your own garden?

Meanwhile, despite foxes, the chicken population has been growing, too.  I had ordered four chicks by mail before my eggs hatched, as insurance for winter eggs. However, only one of the four survived. I tried to get the mother to take the extra chick after our eggs hatched, and it seemed at first that despite the difference in size (three weeks old compared to newly hatched) she would accept her. But after a few hours the next morning, she was treating her like a threat. The girls convinced me that Toasty (their name for the chick) was lonely and needed friends.

She did seem lonely, and we decided to take her to board with other chicks until she was old enough to go in with the hens. When we got to the chicken farm, however, the girls fell in love with some of the exotic chickens, and in a weak moment I agreed to get a couple of pals for Toasty.

 

Now the girls have left, and we have the mother hen and chicks from my eggs in one pen, and Selina, Ruby, Chessa, and Toasty in another pen. The original hens (the ones that have survived the fox) are in their coop. It’s getting to be quite the menagerie around here. And my big job is going to be to fox-proof it all.

All I can say in my defense is that both chicks and 10-year olds are very cute!

3 thoughts on “While I was gone…

  1. I always like your produce and poultry reports. It’s a good thing you are raising chickens and not rescued lion cubs, you wouldn’t stand a chance!

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