silly selfies
Everybody’s posting selfies, so here’s a few of me and some of my best friends. Not quite the PM of Denmark, but we all tried to smile our best!
long shadows over community plots
Skippy, Suzie and I walked through the community garden plots yesterday. At 3 pm the shadows were very long – the sun sets at 4:15 now. I still have some kale in the garden, but I think this bitter cold has probably made it too mushy to eat. Only a couple days until the solstice. It will be nice to see the sun gradually rise in the sky and the shadows shorten.
waiting for snow
This is our new back yard. My garden space to be is the open area in the center. My new tractor/lawn mower is the under the green tarp with the orange cart behind. We have a big pond that we look out on. Its 13 acres and frozen over now after a couple weeks of unusually cold December weather. Our old metal row boat is overturned on the shore, waiting (a long wait) for spring. The first flakes are falling now at dusk (the early 4 pm dusk) as our…
icy cold
My outdoor thermometer is registering 12*F! Ouch. I’m sitting by the fire and quite comfy. To make my chickens feel a little better, I got a ceramic heater for them and its on for the first time tonight. Its bringing the temp in their coop up to 23*F. I know they are OK are in the bitter cold temps, but I want to keep them happy so they’ll lay some eggs soon! No eggs yet. The 3 girls are 22-26 weeks old now. I want eggs!
chicken update
Skippy and Suzie have gradually gotten used to the chickens. The chickens know where to go for safety – under their coop – and the dogs have learned that the chickens can move fast and fly a bit. I am very pleased that I can now l leave the chickens out to forage a while and not worry about the dogs getting them. A bigger worry is the hawks and foxes. So far, so good. I’ve been giving the chickens about an hour a day out of their coop.
sunrise over the pond
“Red sky in morning, sailors take warning…” This was the sunrise before our first snowstorm of the year.
world soil day
Yesterday was world soil day! Who knew…. I celebrated by making squash bread with homegrown squash (and my sister), feeding my chickens the leftovers, and composting their poop! (OK, we had a martini too..) Yeah DIRT!
cleaning the coop
Today I cleaned out my chicken coop for the first time. I’ve had the 3 girls since nov 20, so that’s exactly 2 weeks. I have a remote thermometer in the coop and it’s been registering higher humidity every day and was up to 90%, even on a dry day. So I got my flat edgeding shovel, my green garden trug, and sooped out all the poopy wood shavings. It nearly filled up my compost bin. yeah! I am going to have great compost this winter even if I have…
late fall is a perfect time for new raised beds
I was walking my dogs this afternoon and noticed my neighbor has built a couple new raised garden beds. And she has a nice big delivery of dirt waiting to fill them. This made me think – why I am waiting ’til spring to build my new garden beds? This is a perfect time of year to start a new garden! Any fresh soil, manure or compost added now above tired or compact soil will help to refresh it over the winter. (Judy noted this in a recent comment.) The…
This is a journal of my vegetable gardens. Skippy thinks the garden is his, even though I do all the work. We're located near Boston, in USDA zone 6. I have bees, chickens, fruit trees and berry bushes, too. I use all sustainable organic methods and strive to grow all of my family's vegetables myself. -Kathy
weeks and counting until my last spring frost
My garden this week
Skippy’s vegetable of the month – Egyptian walking onions!
