One week later....

The chicks are one week old now and all are doing fine. They are getting bigger, louder and yes a bit smellier. I change their tub out every couple of days and that helps a lot. Roseberry continues to be the most inquisitive, loud and dominate of the bunch. Every time I walk up to them she's the one who stretches out her head and looks at me when the others run to a corner and huddle. I really, really hope she's just the dominate hen and not Barney the Rooster.

As you can see they are getting their wing feathers and little tail feathers. That's a plastic ear of corn we threw in there for them to roost on.

Roseberry staring me down.

PJ started on the chicken coop. The framing is pretty much done, I think the foot print is about 4x10'. The whole thing will be enclosed in metal mesh and the coop will be on the left with the nest boxes hanging off the outside on the left so we won't actually have to go into the run to get the eggs. If PJ's back is up to it he is going to try and finish it this weekend. Then it's my turn to paint it and make it pretty. Some names we have been considering are The McMansion, Cluckingham Palace, Castle Cluckenstein, Eggopolis, The Cluster Cluck, The Chick Inn, The Coop-a-Cabana and the Millennium Chicken.




I have my garden mostly planted for now. I have carrots, green onions, broccoli, cauliflower, red beets, golden beets, swiss chard, corn and snap peas all planted. I'm waiting for the soil to warm up a bit more for my bush beans. I will be getting lots of tomato plants and starts for zucchini, acorn squash, spaghetti squash, eggplant and bell peppers from my Mom in a few weeks. I also have an herb bed that has some dill, oregano, thyme, cilantro and parsley for now with plans for much more to be planted as I find them. I've looked at three different nurseries for rosemary and have yet to find it for some reason. I do have chives, mint and sage planted elsewhere in the yard.

As you can see I'm trying the gardening by square foot method this year. The first box is planted with multiple vegetable, the second is all snap peas and the third is empty for now but that's where the beans will go when the soil is warm enough.

Middle row box one and two have multiple veggies. Third box is still empty, I haven't made up my mind of what to put in that box. Maybe dahlias or just another veggie box just staggered 3 weeks behind the rest. That was the box that had Bridget's wild flowers in it last year, that's why it has the little white picket fence.

Front box is the herbs, second is empty for now (It's the one that the girls dig in looking for worms) and the third is the asparagus box. The green house still needs to be cleaned from last year, but that's were the eggplant and pepper plants will go.

We've been enjoying asparagus from the garden the last few weeks.

Close up of one of the broccoli starts after the rain yesterday. I really wish I had a macro lens.

I think there's nothing better than fresh veggie's from the garden. Pioneer Woman agrees with me and had a great post From Garden to Home: Why I Love Growing Vegetables. Also Cheap Healthy Good had a great post about Why Eat Local? which is another pursuit of mine.