So, some of you may have noticed I titled yesterdays post, Thursday chatter...and I spent the entire day thinking that yesterday was Thursday. I had somehow lost an entire day...Holy Cow, how in the world did that happen??? I guess its not always hard to do at all. But I'm back on the main page, and I am happy that we are setting our clocks forward tonight. Now it does stink to loose that hour, but at the same time, it means the days are going to be longer, and getting warmer. It got into the 60's today, so that made me pretty happy.
My hubby and I spent the day doing chicken chores. We went to our local hardware store to pick up a bag of lime for the chicken house, to take care of some of the ammonia that unfortunately is a part of chicken ownership. I was talking to the guy in there and we were talking about chickens and worms...I always make sure to bring up my worms, because they are part of my farm. Well we were talking about fishing worms, and he very much so wants to be able to sell night crawlers, and I let him know that I do plan on raising them in the very near future...well if I can keep the cost at a certain point so that they can sell them cheaper than anybody else, we may be able to do something. So I've been scouring the internet looking at the different containers, and looking to see what I can get for how much. I'm putting a good deal of effort into this, because I would love for this to happen. To be able to sell something I grow locally would be 100% awesome!
We did get the lime bought through all of the conversations we had, as well as ordered new handles for our pressure cooker, since there was an unfortunate accident with ours when we last used it. (one of the handles just cracked right off, and since the one needs to be replaced we decided to just go ahead and replace both so that they match) After much turning of the bedding in the chicken house, we sprinkled a couple of cups of lime in there and got it turned in, and I can already tell a big difference, although I think we're going to have to do a couple more in the morning.
I got to thinking about how I love having a variety of chickens for eggs. They aren't supposed to be pets, but I can't help but to enjoy them and care for them as if they were. I feel as if it gives something back to me in the area of relaxation and enjoyment. So I thought about the varieties we now have in here growing. We have Buff Orpington, (oh pardon my spellings, even though I've had chickens for almost a year, the different breeds are still new, so my spelling will take a bit of time to catch up) Jersey Giants, Black Australorp, Silver Laced Wyandotte, Ameraucana (basically Easter Eggers) and of Course my French Black Copper Marans, and some Blue Marans, and then my mixed mutts. I think I've done a fine job keeping it from being all one thing or another. I don't want to breed all of these birds at all, I just want there eggs, and maybe occasionally towards spring I'll grab up some of their eggs and throw them in the incubator just to see what comes out. Mostly I'm going to concentrate on the White Leghorn/Rhode Island Red mix, the Rhode Island Reds, and the Wyandotte/Rhode Island Red mix.
Of course I'm going to be putting forth more effort into my worms as well. Once we get the rabbits here and set up, I'm going to be so thrilled to have the rabbit poo to put in with the worms, which will really make them thrive and double, and grow.
Our compost pile has gotten a little large. I think we are going to need to get in there and get it turned before it becomes too difficult to turn, without paying somebody to come in and turn it with a back hoe or something. I'm almost certain that what's in the middle of it is going to be some kind of beautiful. Between the coffee grounds, egg shells, food scraps, grass and leave clippings, its going to make for one heck of a garden....oh and I almost forgot about the bedding from the chicken coops/house that's full of chicken manure...so I'm hoping that our garden will turn into something magnificent. I've read about how wonderful you can make a garden full of clay once you start composting and then tilling it in. I'm quite excited about the prospect of having a garden that gives us as much as we put into it. We really do put a lot of time and effort into it, but these last couple of years have been highly disappointed with what we get back out of it. Of course the fact that last summer was so hot and dry, and then the year before everything stayed so wet that the plants yellowed. Its just not been a great couple of years for the garden. But I have high hopes...and a bunch of empty canning jars just waiting for the return of the spring garden.
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