Blooms and more planting . . .

 

Although no annuals have been planted yet, the flower beds are springing up some more perennial blooms.

I planted spearmint and peppermint.  Last year's pots did not come back, and I have yet to make a "weed" bed somewhere here.

I have not started to plant vegetables yet.  We are to get a low of 38/39 degrees mid-week.  I'll wait until that cold night passes.

Just the Bits

 The weekend was a busy one for us.  There was garden prep (needed weeded/tilled), dropped off donations, ran errands and started to build raised beds.

Put the new chicks in with the hens.  They are getting along.  There were a few pecks and that was it, but the chicks are not smart enough to use the ramp to get back inside for water and food.  I have to put them back in several times.  They will figure it out.

Some of the flowering bushes we planted last year are blooming now.  All of the flower beds are weeded, other than one rose bed.

Should-a, Could-a, Would-a. ~ Raising new chicks

The Should part:  I should have waited to get chicks after we built the new coop.

The Could have:  I could have had electric hooked to the coop, and no dust in the house.  Our garage is not heated, so their make-shift brooder is in the utility room with a heat lamp currently.

The Would have:  I would have had a brooder inside the new coop, making the transition much easier to introduce them to the hens, and again, no dust and mess in the house. 

If you follow my blog, you already know that a few years ago, there was a massacre in the original coop.  It was inside a barn, but after 12 years, raccoons and opossums, ripped holes in the chicken wire (rookie mistake in the beginning, don't ever use chicken wire), and killed more than half the chickens and all of the roosters.

A friend sold me this coop for $75.00.  It worked, but has no ventilation, I have to crawl inside to muck it, and the roosts are on the floor, so we had to install plastic roosts higher inside for them.  Feed and water is an issue with this coop too.  The windows do not open, and it's a hot house in the summer.  The sides do not open from the top to get eggs (which makes no sense to put them at the floor of the coop either).  Chickens like to roost high.  Laying eggs on the floor would encourage egg eating.  The entire layout of this coop make no sense for a proper chicken coop.  Anyway . . .

I cannot wait to get started on the new coop.  We are currently trying to see if the corners of the cement slab behind it (currently covered with trees, rocks, over grown wild growing things the birds planted) will have even corners to work with.  Crossing our fingers it works for the new build.  

Back to the title of this post....I have to get the chicks introduced and I have a smaller kennel that will fit inside this coop (for now), where I can introduce the chicks and keep them safe for the meanwhile, and get them out of the house.  Whew.  I will just pull the plastic tray out at the bottom.  Anyway....got it figured out for now.

 

Egg Shells ~ Lilacs ~ Rain moves in ~ Yarrow uses?

 

I  have been saving egg shells for the garden(s), and even when I shelled eggs for egg salad.

Lilacs are in bloom, and it smells wonderful outside.  I cut a few to bring indoors.

I love snail mail like this!  A Mother's Day card from a blog follower.  Thank you!

Rain is moving in.  We need it, but I wish the evenings were warmer to get this garden planted.  Spring time is always a battle of weather for planting.  I got basil, parsley and cilantro seeds soaked and planted before the rain.  Last year I had to buy plants for some reason or another.

Any medicinal herb gardeners here?  Wondering what the best use is for yarrow?  I have grown it for two years, and failed to harvest it.  I read it's good for IBS, ulcers, and other digestive issues, but wondered what your go-to is to make with it (if you grow it)?

Getting Outdoors ~ Doily Finished

 

The chicks are about 7 weeks old now, so they got a day of introduction to the hens.   They say your chicks should be as large as the smallest hen, before putting them in the coop together.  I had to laugh, as the hens were scared of the chicks and they were on the other side of the run fence ha ha!

My potted comfrey is springing back to life.

Updates with the garden(s):

-planted about 100 cloves of garlic for spring planting (it was very difficult to locate organic garlic for spring planting too).  As some of you read, voles ate our entire 80 fall planted cloves, so we moved the grow bags this year.

-started weeding the herb garden, and I will be digging up all the lemon balm and moving it to the water trough (hopefully I don't kill it, as I use it often, and I need to dig out some chives that moved their way to the green onions

-started weeding the larger rose bed (this one is terrible)

-asparagus is getting harvested

Asparagus is up that we grew from seed last year.  I gave up on it, but it did not.  It's on the weed-it list after the next rain.

-rhubarb is ready to harvest as well

Herb Garden Progress.  I filled the wheel barrow 4 times with weeds, it was that bad.  I got some of the flower bed weeded as well.  They are FULL of purple dead nettle, chickweed, and thistle.  My bum muscles are sore and my arms are scratched up.  I need a day of rest, and a slather of chickweed salve.  

My arms were covered with itchy spots. Not as bad as stinging nettle, but between that and a mosquito bite.  I had no idea that tall thistle, that is dead, can still have thorns on it.

Here is a before and in progress of part of the flower bed.  We plan to expand it (why oh why??), to make mowing easier.  We weighed a tarp down with landscaping stones to kill the grass.

 I think our plan is to put in a ground cover there, such as ground phlox.  We put it off last year.  It may be next year.  You can see the trimming has not been done.

Our hired help used to be hired to mow/trim once in a while, when we are pinched for time.  Not anymore.  We are doing it, as he has raised his prices.  He's not doing more either.  Actually he'd be doing it all in less time, so yeah, we are doing it now, and it's just taking it one day at a time.

I spent my birthday doing more weeding, replanting, and putting some starts in pots for donating to a plant fundraiser.

I also got a haircut and treatment to pamper myself at the end of the day, and dinner out.  Honestly, I would have been okay with grilled dinner on the porch, but we were in town, and our empty propane tank was at home.

One done.  Finished and blocked.  My new porch project.  Only one more to make for the living room lamps.  I ended up with a larger doily than the pattern said.  I took this on a road trip, so my stitches may not be as tight as they should be, but it still turned out nicely.  I found this pattern for free online.  

Square Pineapple Doily

Today is going to be a hot day.  No weeding today, as the ground is so dry right now.  The rain will be returning, and lots of it.  It's a brisk 49°F this morning but a high of 82°F. 

Getting more organized!

 One of the recent boxes to go through contained our DVD's.  We don't have a lot, but enough that it needed organized somewhere.  I was previously on a bookshelf in the closet. 

(carry handles)

Now they are in a zipper, dust free, viewable carry case that is stored up on a shelf in the closet.  They are out of sight, organized in one place, I don't have to dust anything but the carry case, and we can see the movie titles easily.  I had to order this online.  I could not find it in stores.

I bought these strong magnets at Menard's with the intention to put them on the grill, but I found a good use for them.  

I have metal shelving in my kitchen for jugs of water, vinegar etc.  I had been using S hooks, but they kept falling off.  These magnets hold my strainers wonderfully.  I am guessing you could find them in the summer grilling supply section in most stores.  These magnets are stronger than the hook magnets intended for refrigerators.

I bought this for the smaller bathroom.  Great for small places, and holds both cotton balls and Q-tips in the center.  Sorry if this one is a repeat.  I could not remember if I shared this one or not.  I tried to collect items to make this myself (gluing the smaller one inside the canister), but it ended up less expensive to buy it as is.

I also purchased a package of smaller zipper storage bags.  I did not like the ones sold at the dollar stores, so these were found online.  They are also the perfect size for my crocheted baby blankets.  Anyway, the initial purpose is to store bedding and pillow cases for our bed and eventually for the spare bed upstairs.

We are also moving the ironing board and iron, along with the holder we have mounted on the wall, to the bedroom closet.  It makes more sense.  There is an outlet easy to get to, we can store it on the wall, and easily take it down to iron any clothing, right in the closet.  Sometimes, just moving something makes the job go much smoother.

Rusty Canning Rings

 

What do you do with your rusty canning rims?  I see there are several videos on how to remove the rust and re-use, but is this still okay for canning, or worth doing?

With today's day and age, and inflation, and scary times, I'm hesitant to just recycle them and buy new.  Should I be removing the rust, and are rust cleaners septic safe?

I have a bin in my barn, where I toss anything metal into (that is small), for a friend who takes it to scrap when the bin is full.  He is unemployed, so I have been doing the saving for him.  Like, say when a fly swatter goes bad, and you have the metal handle left.  Stuff like that is tossed in the bin for scrapping.  I'm tempted to scrap, but wanted to hear any thoughts on this. 

Before anyone asks, no I have no intention to save and craft with, ha ha!  I'm still going through my crafting supplies, I have that much, ha ha!