We took time to do a bit of household maintenance around here this weekend. The door on our old wooden mailbox wouldn't stay closed anymore, and I've been worried about getting splinters when I picked up the mail. So Aries built a new one, in the same little red house style. When the paint was dry, I got out my old sign-painting brushes and lettered our address on both sides.
Even though today was nice, the possibility of snow is in our forecast for Wednesday. And the low temperatures have been around 25ยบ nightly, so we're still using the
woodstove biomass converter quite a bit. Today Aries took things apart and did a chimney check, to see if it needed cleaning. Everything looked really good. We have been burning more hardwood lately, and that burns a lot cleaner than soft pine.
I did some laundry and got it out on the line, and then got out in the garden to prep the rest of my Early bed. I have garlic, shallots, and spinach up already, and some onion plants ready to set out. In another area I have leeks, broccoli, and arugula that wintered over, so I might move them to this bed, and then sow some peas and more lettuces. I spread some compost (and had to fight the chickens off to get it into the wheelbarrow - they follow me around like little inquisitive puppies) and a sprinkle of my own recipe fertilizer blend (equal parts bonemeal, bloodmeal, and greensand), turned the dirt over and raked it out smooth, and laid out a soaker hose. But I didn't want to plant anything else until I'd fixed up some bird deterrent. A couple of the chickens, plus the guineas, have been flying over the garden fence regularly. Aries said just this morning that one of the beds looked like it had been used for bombing practice - the chickens had dug that many holes.
I got out all the whirligigs my father-in-law made, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing with bits and pieces of salvaged wire. I added to the fence where the chickens had been flying over, and used some other wire to make a cage-type barrier over the planting bed itself. Everything is temporary, so I can move things around as needed when I plant other sections. Most plants usually need to be protected only when they're just coming up. I'm thinking if I can stop their daily incursions into the garden for a while, the chickens will find something else to get into. We'll see.
Even though today was nice, the possibility of snow is in our forecast for Wednesday. And the low temperatures have been around 25ยบ nightly, so we're still using the 
I did some laundry and got it out on the line, and then got out in the garden to prep the rest of my Early bed. I have garlic, shallots, and spinach up already, and some onion plants ready to set out. In another area I have leeks, broccoli, and arugula that wintered over, so I might move them to this bed, and then sow some peas and more lettuces. I spread some compost (and had to fight the chickens off to get it into the wheelbarrow - they follow me around like little inquisitive puppies) and a sprinkle of my own recipe fertilizer blend (equal parts bonemeal, bloodmeal, and greensand), turned the dirt over and raked it out smooth, and laid out a soaker hose. But I didn't want to plant anything else until I'd fixed up some bird deterrent. A couple of the chickens, plus the guineas, have been flying over the garden fence regularly. Aries said just this morning that one of the beds looked like it had been used for bombing practice - the chickens had dug that many holes.
I got out all the whirligigs my father-in-law made, then spent the rest of the afternoon playing with bits and pieces of salvaged wire. I added to the fence where the chickens had been flying over, and used some other wire to make a cage-type barrier over the planting bed itself. Everything is temporary, so I can move things around as needed when I plant other sections. Most plants usually need to be protected only when they're just coming up. I'm thinking if I can stop their daily incursions into the garden for a while, the chickens will find something else to get into. We'll see.
1 comment:
Bio-mass converter ~ LOL
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