dirt and chickens

 We spent the weekend getting the vegetable garden prepped and ready for tilling (the thistles are so bad!!!) so when I looked out in the back yard yesterday, this is what I saw!

These little moments are so precious - dirt, children (and not even all that young anymore - one is almost 14!! - but still loving the dirt!) and half a dozen chickens wandering around. Not your typical suburban life!🤣 I'm regularly grateful for our neighbors who don't bat an eye at the unusual views out *their* back windows! It helps that one behind us is one of Owen's childhood best friends (and the boys used to dig in this dirt together on a regular basis!), one is a delightful older couple whose grandkids are second cousins to our children (their daughter married Matt's cousin) and the third house is populated by a family that's rarely out in their yard anyway, and just takes our unique landscaping in stride.

The grafted tree

 

A few years ago we experimented with grafting, partly as a botany lesson for the kids, but also desiring to preserve the old apple tree that Matt's grandparents planted behind the house that is slowly coming to the end of its life. We had success with eight of the ten that we attempted, but then lost all but one to deer over the winter. HOWEVER, the one survivor has continued to grow nicely, and this spring has its first blossoms! Still undecided if we're going to pull the blossoms to get one more season of good growth before putting energy into bearing fruit.

a few of the girls

Bethlehen

Attila the Hen

Henrietta

 Growing well, but still have quite a ways before they're laying!

Harvest of the day

 It has not been a great year for the vegetable garden. Too wet and cool, I think. (And because it's been so wet, Matt hasn't been out there with his special fertilizer, either...that could also have something to do with it!)

But yesterday, for the first time, I was able to put together supper almost entirely from the garden.

Add a little salt and olive oil and roast it all up...yum!

We ALSO picked one of Eben's sunflowers today at his request. This spring when we were buying seeds, he was the one who voted that we don't just get giant sunflowers that grown 12 feet tall, but get "Pikes Peak" sunflowers which can get up to 14 or 15 feet tall! They have NOT disappointed, even with this less than great year. (This is just the very top of the plant - I cut it off as high above my head as I could reach, and then cut another 18" off so it would fit in the vase we have for it!)

The chickens are growing!

 

Henrietta and Rinnah.

Evania with Attila the Hen and Rinnah with Mrs. (Lavender) Allen Milgrave.

Thinning the carrots

 Last year was so dry. I think it rained twice all summer. This summer, we're short on sun. For once, the tomatoes and beans are doing not much of anything. 

But our carrots are growing well. There's always something that does well. That's part of what makes gardening interesting.

Last night I thinned the carrots, with this as the result:

Washed and chopped, and it's the start for soup for supper.

New residents in the Motley Garden

 It's worth noting that two weeks ago we got six new residents in the Motley Garden: Henrietta, Attila the Hen, Mrs. (Lavender) Allen Milgrave, Princess Leia Negg, Bethlehen, and Charlotte have moved into a coop Dad helped the girls build in the back of the small side of the shed.

It will be into the fall before we get any eggs, but we're hoping to have them doing some free-ranging and some time in a mobile run and have them do some work on the grubs in the gardens!

Here are the babies!!

This is Ebenezer with Mrs. Allen Milgrave. The night before we got the chicks, we read about a character in our book who was described as looking like a "sleek gray hen" so they decided if we got a gray one, she would be Mrs. Allen Milgrave. But she needs her own given name, too, thus the "Lavender."

This is Rinnah with Henrietta (I think. I have a harder time telling Henrietta and Charlotte apart.)

The girls helped Dad build a mobile run with leftover bits of lumber that we have laying around. We purchased hardware cloth, but everything else is just leftovers! Flipped over, it gives the chickens an easy way to have a little more space to run outdoors without concern for then destroying the gardens or hawks (or cats!) destroying them.