ugh

so this is what happens when you don't blog for a while. You have so much to say that you feel overwhelmed and it seems easier to just not blog.

I'm going to attempt it anyway.

Last week hubby took a week off of work and we made huge strides in the all of our projects.

We put in screen doors! Yay!

We got our square foot garden all put in and even planted some things. We ended up using plastic sheeting under the whole garden including the walkways. Its in huge sheets (not cut up) so we should have 0 weeds coming up. The only holes in the plastic are from the metal anchors used to hold edges of the plastic down and also some fence posts hubby put in for the tomatoes. I'm so excited! We have peas, lettuce, onions, shallots, garlic, and strawberries all planted.

I found a place for extra strawberry plants. My parents garden. They won't need it this next year, and my sister won't want it this summer (she is staying in their house). So I'll either be selling strawberry plants or strawberries next year.

Our broody hen is no more. I ordered chicks to put under her and 2 days before they were supposed to arrive she decided that sitting on a nest was for the birds. So I'm currently raising baby chicks inside in a cardboard box. Yay me.



While I'm sharing pictures, here is Charlie. he is ready for his spring haircut!



I've been plucking our rabbit already this spring (basically gently taking her loose, shedding fur from her). I blended some with some wool last night and boy was I in heaven. It made such a soft yarn. And it didn't take a whole lot either. About 10 parts wool to 1 part rabbit fur. so soft!

So last week we were able to go through almost every room in our house. We cleaned, went through boxes, organized... it feels so good to have everything so organized!!!

Back to the chicks. I ended up getting 2 Rhode Island Red hens and then after much discussion with hubby, a rhode island red rooster. That was done with the understanding that he could quite easily become dinner. I also got 2 straight run Ameracaunas. Straight run means that they haven't been sexed. I also let my 5 year old choose the chicks from the brooder so it would truly be random. So I could have 1 rooster, or 3. Since you only want 1 rooster per 8 hens, we would then have to cull or eat 2. I'm not as traumatized by that thought as I once would have been.

We found a cutter bee house on Craigslist for $30. These are those square box like houses that you see in farmers fields around here. We bought it to make into a hen house. Our current house is just not big enough for 9 chickens...well, it might be, but it would be a squeeze.

Another thing about that darn not-broody chicken. She hasn't been laying me any eggs! So she is eating for free. When chickens go broody they stop laying. so she stopped clear back in March. I may have to resort to the cayenne pepper method that is much talked about over at www.backyardchickens.com . Basically you feed them some cayenne pepper and it does something to kick their egg laying abilities back into gear.

The goats may have to go. They were being agressive with the sheep this morning. They were out of water and I filled up their trough. Well the goats were butting the sheep to get them out of there. Goats could kill sheep that way easily due to their horns and even (in the case of no-horns Lucky) just butting them. Sheep don't butt. Goats could kill sheep because they are so much bigger and they like to butt. Because sheep give us wool and goats don't do anything but eat our weeds (which sheep also do) then the goats are automatically out.

I think that is everything that has been going on around here.

Mom and Dad leave in about 3 weeks! AGH!