We were on vacation last week, and came back to find big changes in the garden! Given that my last post was on the garden as well, it’s pretty fun to see the changes from just nine days ago …
The garden is going beautifully strong. The cool weather and constant rain early on has made our lettuces and kales grow like crazy, and now that the sun has peeked through at least a couple of times, we’ve got flowers and blossoms coming out, too!
We’ve been planting the seedlings we started last month any time the sun shines here in Massachusetts … which means that during our two days of sun in the last month, we’ve been very, very busy! Here’s how it’s coming together.
We’ve been doing a ton of work starting to establish our veggies and herbs for the year! Here’s what we’ve got in the ground and what’s almost ready to plant …
We’re expecting new baby chicks to ship any day now, so once again I’ve put together a DIY brooder. A brooder is basically where they’ll stay while they’re teeny tiny until it’s warm enough and they’re big enough to move them to the coop.
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After Foxmaggeddon 2018 (when a fox took out five of our chickens over two separate days last year), we realized we can’t free range our chickens anymore. It was one thing when we were losing two or three over months to hawks, but now that the big time predators have discovered us, it’s time to build a safe pen for our chickens.
My daughter recently turned three, and informed me she wanted a “pig party.” News to me, since I didn’t even know she liked pigs, but apparently because they are pink and like mud, she and the pigs have a lot of interests in common. So I did a couple quick DIYs, because it turns out that the ‘child’s pig birthday party’ market is pretty darn dominated by Peppa Pig, who my toddler informed me is not a real pig, because she wears clothes. Lesson learned …
First, let me say that I don’t think there’s a way to 100% childproof a wood stove. That said, here’s how we’ve managed to make ours as safe as possible.
We have maybe the most perfect Halloween house out there. Literally every single time we have someone new working on the property one of the first things they ask about is if we’ve seen ghosts here. Before living in an antique home, I had no idea how many people (especially, and hilariously, the largest, burliest men who we’ve hired to do various work here) truly believe in ghosts.
Oh, composting. I’ve been composting for two years now. We have a septic system, so can’t put food down the drain. We also have a great need for compost due to our extensive gardening, and it’s really been amazing to use in the garden. So, what have I learned about composting?