Joining the Community

We were recently gifted with a pair of Silkies.  Having watched 3 seasons of Community in the past week, it only seemed right to pull names from the show for our new chickens.

Meet Troy and Abed!

I can't wait to see their morning show.

Splish Splash

I love this time of year.  Hot enough for the pool but not so hot that I can't be bothered to move.

I never thought I'd say it but I kind of miss the hill in our old yard.  But only because of this.

Now that was a water slide!

Ducklings for Sale

Born May 22nd. Brown/white, black/white and grey/white. Unsexed.

$6 each

Her First Lego

Upping His Game

Ew.

New Page-Homeschool Resources

I added a new page to the blog for links to homeschool resources.  I'll be working on it over the next couple of days.  There are quite a few links over there already so check it out.

Things Are Growing

After a couple of good downpours, the garden has really started to take off.  All of these plants were put in last year, some from seed.  They are huge!

Lamium

Catmint

Bee Balm

Jacob's Ladder

A nice sedum squished in there.

Foxglove and delphinium.

A lone lupin.  I guess they didn't self seed quite like I hoped.

Identify?

I have some shrubs that I need identifying.  If I like them, I'm going to propagate them and put the babies in more practical locations.  Do you have any idea what they are?

Plant 1

Plant 1

Plant 2

Plant 2

Plant 3

Plant 3

Stockpiling

We are eagerly anticipating the impending birth of our first batch of muscovy ducklings.  

While momma #1 spends her days tending her nest, another of the girls is stockpiling eggs.  There's 22 in the tire, which is around the same amount that the grey duck is sitting on.  I'm expecting one of the brown ducks to start sitting on this clutch soon.  That leaves us with two more girls to get their own nests ready.

We should have our incubator up and running by the end of the week.  I've mixed the australorp flock in with the orpingtons so it'll be a mixed bag of chicks if we can successfully hatch them out.

Baby time on the farm.  It's so exciting!

Thornless

In addition to the asparagus, we also picked up 1000 strawberry plants and 30 blackberry canes while in Kentville two weeks ago.  The canes are of the upright and thornless variety.  

All that's left to acquire in the fruit department is raspberries and plums.  I can't wait to gorge on fruit!

A Workbox Update

The girls are finishing up their second week of using workboxes.  It is going really well.  It's amazing how a little organization makes life go much more smoothly.   The kids spend the morning on school while I deal with the animals and cleaning the house.  After lunch we're free to do whatever we want.   We're all getting more done while still enjoying plenty of downtime.

Here's a peek of what can show up in the boxes.

History Reading

Math

Yoga Poses

Tangrams

Alphabet worksheets

Reading

The Asparagus Patch

Our internet is still wonky.  The tech never came by to replace the wire.  Will call Bell and complain next week.   The other day Limey planted 40 asparagus crowns.  

They remind me of the Ood.

Anyway, after you've amended the ph of your soil to 6.5-7.0 you dig a trench about 10" deep and plop the root in.  Limey dug holes instead and added a little bonemeal to the bottom.  When the crown is in, you top it up with 2" of soil.  Basically you're hilling them like potatoes.  You just keep topping the soil up as it grows until the hole or trench is back up to ground level.

These are two year old crowns so hopefully we can harvest a bit next year.  The 40 crowns only filled up about a third of the designated asparagus bed so we'll be purchasing another 80 next year.  In the meantime, we're harvesting a friend's asparagus.  Fresh asparagus is fantabuliscious.