Eat, Drink & Be Merry

After cleaning out the coop yesterday (and letting the dust settle), I went back in and sat on my little stool to watch the chicks.  One of my followers asked if I get anything done?  I do, but it's difficult to walk away from these cuties *smile*!

When I walk in, they're usually sleeping, but after I've been sitting for a few minutes they head for the feeder or the waterer.

That's a mess o' chicks!  They're growing really fast which is bittersweet.  Chicken Mama would love for them to stay small and cute but, then again, Chicken Mama is anxious for some farm fresh eggs also!

For those of you reading my blog for the first time, I have 13 Americaunas which will lay green eggs, 13 Rhode Island Reds that will lay brown eggs and one rare exotic chick that was sent to us for free from the hatchery that I ordered them from.  I'm curious to see what breed she or he will end up being!

I wonder what makes them want to eat and drink while I'm in there?  Of course, actually seeing them eat and drink makes Chicken Mama very happy!

Check out their wings and can you see her little tail in the photo above?

I enjoy watching them drink... throwing their heads back to swallow!

So far, everyone appears to be quite healthy.

After their little bellies are full it's time to be merry!  They run across the coop flapping their wings as they go and 'peeping' the whole time!  After their exercise, it's time to preen themselves (which will be another post!) and then they start settling in for another nap.  That's when I have to tear myself away so that I can get something done *laugh*!

After leaving the coop, I checked the fall garden.

There are flowers on the cucumber plant, the cantaloupes and green beans.   The tomatoes, green peppers, okra and purple hull peas are growing nicely but have no blooms on them yet.  We do have some green beans growing though...

We're hoping for enough at one time to do some canning to put away for winter.

There have been lots of butterflies and moths hitting the blooms in the garden and the Dianthus that surround the outside of the garden.

The God-given instincts of nature are amazing!  There aren't any blooms on the Purple Hull peas that this moth is on so I'm not sure why he was lighting all around these plants... must be a reason!  I'm just glad the little pollinators are doing their jobs!

Happy Friday!

Linking up with

Till next time,

Fall Garden Progress

Good Monday morning folks!  I hope everyone had a fabulous weekend!

Country Boy and I have been busy working on and prepping our fall garden.  This is the first time we've attempted a fall garden so it's going to be interesting to see the results!  Our Spring garden did not fair well this year.  Partly due to the local wildlife helping themselves to the buffet and partly because our soil is not really soil, it's mostly sand.

So, with both those things in mind, we scoped out a new area for our fall garden.  We decided on using the old chicken run and making some major changes to it.  First, Country Boy removed the 'roof' made of chicken wire and heavy duty screen.  Then he trimmed some tree limbs as well as removing a few trees that were blocking the sunlight or just not doing well.

Next, he cut the vertical chicken wire in half, then we removed the weeds and hand-tilled the ground using a pitch fork to turn the soil.

We made our own raised beds using trees that were cut down to help thin the woods on our property and added some pulverized garden lime to the beds.

We raked and hand-tilled the lime mixing the sand soil and lime well.  We left that sit for several days and thankfully, we had several nice rains to help settle the lime.

Meanwhile, we worked on some of the finishing touches like adding top rails, stapling the chicken wire to the new supports and rails and relocating some existing plants like our banana trees.  See them in the far right corner?  We lose them every winter.  They were originally planted in shade (hmm, I wonder why with all these trees *laugh*) so we thought if they received more sunlight maybe they would come back quicker or I could cover them and maybe we'll get some bananas some year!

The rails will eventually get painted and I'll add some planters that will hang from the top rails for my herbs.  We still need to add a gate and the old coop will be repurposed into a garden storage shed.  Country Boy will cut a door out where the old chicken ramp is so that we can have access to the garden tools from inside the garden.  (He has to psyche himself up to tackle this project because it has been empty for quite some time and several of his not-so favorite pests have moved in!)

Meanwhile, I started several seeds in the greenhouse while we waited...beets, radishes, sweet peppers and tomatoes.  Does anyone know why my radishes get so tall and lanky?  I thought they were supposed to produce leaves closer to the radish.

Once the garden soil is ready we'll sow the leaf lettuce, spinach, green beans, garlic chives and cabbage directly in the ground.

Since the lime has had a chance to settle, Country Boy added some of our compost from the Hillbilly Compost Bin and some organic garden soil that was a generous gift from a co-worker of Country Boy's!

Notice the difference in the colors?  The center aisle is the original sand soil.  The soil in the beds look good!

We're praying that all the preparation we've done to the sand soil will result in a decent crop this fall!  Enough so that we can enjoy fresh food, share with family and friends and can some for later!  For those of you who have been following me for a while you know that I want a pantry full of nothing but home-grown goodies!  Yummy and so good for you!

I'm linking up at The Homestead Revival for Barn Hop #27

Stop by and check out what other homesteaders are doing!

Till next time,