Quieting Life

At Long Last, Chickens

We finished building the coop and the run this weekend, and yesterday we went and picked up some chicks from Wing and a Prayer Farm. The chicks are about 5 weeks old, a mix of Faverolles, Columbian Wyandottes, Araucanas, and some other stuff (maybe Tammy will post a comment and fill in the holes). I'm not sure which, or if any, are purebreds; we were so caught up in the delight of selecting our 12 hens, and agreeing to be chosen by one of the roosters. That's him on the left in the picture.

Planting Day

Current Vermont folk wisdom says you should wait until Memorial Day to plant out warm-weather crops. I've been monitoring the long-range forecast on Accuweather, and temperatures looked to be on a warming trend, with nighttime temps in the low 50s and daytime in the 70s and 80s. When Saturday broke with clear blue skies and promises of temperatures close to 80, I decided to go ahead and plant.

In other years, I haven't had the time to get an early start on the garden, so Planting Day would mean a full 8 or 10 hours out in the sun and dirt. But I already had onions, spinach, cabbage, celery, peas, lettuce, and arugula in the ground, so I could afford to be a little leisurely. It was such a gorgeous day, I decided we should have a late breakfast out on the deck.

Trail Crew

As part of maintaining 'our' trail, TJ has improvised a number of small bridges to get us across the perennially mucky spots (there are alot of percolating springs along one stretch), carting a ragtag assortment of shipping palettes and surplus lumber out into the woods. Along one particularly boggy stretch, the wetness has got the better of the bridgework, and the boards are mostly rotted and spongy, or else slick as ice. 

Even taking greatest caution, nearly everyone who's walked it has skidded out and landed hard. TJ's been strategizing through the winter and finally devised a replacement.