The Last Supper

Why is this the last supper?  No, I am not going to butcher a chicken.  Hopefully this is not the last day on earth for any of them.  But this is their last supper in my garden - at least until next winter!  They are enjoying the dormant garden ever so much -- and proving that it is not really dormant, but very much alive with little critters.

My garden has way too many grubs, but I just live with them and leave it to nature to balance things out.  Now the chickens are adding to the equation, and the balanced state will look a little different - fewer grubs for one thing.  It will be interesting to see if the chickens' work in the garden will have a positive effect on it.

There are broccoli plants and Asian greens ready to set out, but it would be hopeless at this time.  These voracious eaters would be following me down the row gobbling up the plants and saying, "Thank you very much!  What's the next course?"  So the deer netting is going up tomorrow, and the dinner party at the Garden of Eden is over.  They will have to go back to scrounging in the pastures.

Androo worked very hard on Friday.  I wanted to extend the garden another four feet so that I can move some things into the main garden inside the fence, like strawberries and herbs, rather than having to put up fencing around many small beds that are scattered here and there.  The garden is 100' long, so Androo removed the sod from a strip 4' x 100' feet, a formidable task, and then was on board to milk Friday night.  He usually does my morning chores on Saturday so that I can get to market a little earlier, but I gave him the morning off because I knew he would appreciate being able to sleep in.  He put in a long, hard day!

The number of plants starting in the greenhouse continues to grow. Today is a leaf day, so I put in some herbs, cabbage, and lettuce.  I re-seeded lettuces that didn't germinate very well from our planting a couple of weeks ago.  Old seeds --I knew they wouldn't do well, but I emptied remaining seeds from the packages into the cells and am giving them one more chance.  Time to get the oldies out of the inventory.

The weather is cold, damp and windy, a very nasty combination.  My wood stoves have been cold for nearly a week, but I cranked up the one in my bedroom so that I could have a warm and toasty place to go after being outside off and on all afternoon.  It is good to be in my cozy house for the night.