April 30th, 2010

Yesterday afternoon SweetPea, "T", "B" & I, set up the brooder house for the first batch of chicks which are coming on Wednesday. The heat lamp is on for 24 hours to make sure their home is at the correct temperature to receive them. The chick thermometer is in place. Soon as the weather clears, I need to finish the doors to the chicken house and one section of the yard fence and then we are good to go in there as well. Then I need to build the chicken coop at my house. After that, to build my rabbit cages & nest boxes as I am going to raise meat rabbits again. I think I am going to build six holes.

I set up more spores for making my mushrooms here at home. I already have buyers for them and I picked up 3 bales of straw from my neighbor who had them left over on her porch from Fall decorations. I will pay them back in mushrooms. I plan on inoculating the straw by this weekend. I also made another gallon of yogurt last night as I was at the end of my last batch, so there was just enough to mother this one. I have been going through a smoothie almost every day as it is the only way I can stand yogurt without cooking with it.

I am holding out on making sourdough starter until my friends get here from Canada as they want to see how it is done. I am so very sad that my starter from 2005 died in my mother's refrigerator a couple of months ago. I carefully brought my beloved starter down from Canada, then mom bought a new fridge and the starter froze as the temperature was not quite regulated in the new fridge for a couple days.

If the weather seems like it is staying dry as it looks to promise it will be today, I will remove and be painting interior doors and trim outside on the sawhorses, as well as the trim around the ceiling and my closet doors. There are a few things here and there to finish up the house. I need to get some measurements. If I am going to get lumber, I may as well start building my asparagus beds. I have 50+ "Connover's Colossal" starts and I need to get ahold of the person that I gave my started "Esparrago Grueso de Navarra" asparagus to. "M" if you read this and I forget when I email you next, did you get any seed back from them yet? I also want to acquire a purple variety, such as "Purple Passion".

The potatoes are starting to come up and the earthworms have been stymied from popping the onions back out of the soil. I have had to go into that section of the garden daily and stick onion sets back into the ground. It is a yearly tradition no matter where I live.

Afternoon Update:

I took my bedroom closet doors outside and got one painted. While it was drying on the sawhorses, I tilled the area where the asparagus beds are going and I might go get the wood for them tomorrow and get them built so I can take my baby asparagus out. The "Kennebec" & "All Blue" potatoes got planted and I weeded the little amounts of grass which were coming up from the roots left over from when I tilled up the garden. The "Hood" strawberry plants got planted in their temporary home for this year and the raised bed for my herbs got hand harrowed. Planted my "Empress of India" nasturtiums in my 7 hanging planters. I still have not found my hummingbird feeder.

This morning I was pricing out wire for building rabbit cages and Diane, whom is a kindred spirit  (we met at AgFest) called me  and is trying to convince me I want American Chinchillas. I am half tempted as they are on the critical list of the American Livestock breeds Conservancy, but know that the Californian breed will be giving me a better feed to meat ratio. Diane raises American Chins and has won BIS with hers at an  A.R.B.A. National Convention in recent years. Since I am probably going to end up with 6 holes (cages), I could actually raise both breeds and have a trio of both. It's a thought. Maybe I will even start showing rabbits again. I already let a couple people know that I am available to judge 4-H rabbit shows and showmanship once more. At one time I had a herd of 100 rabbits. Mini Lops from the very beginning, Flemish Giants, Standard Rex, Creme d'Argents, Champagne d'Argents, blue Satins for a little while, English Angoras and Californians.