Category Archives: Spring

Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day Hike at Forest School

Card (that is Dexie and I!) I am stylin in a sheer teal jumpsuit!!

Showing me around the school garden (which now has lots of raised beds; many with full cages around them to keep out pests)

She calls this the “Prickle tree”; the huge thorns look like deer antlers!

Homemade coaster!

And a crown!

She did all the sewing herself!

She said this design was supposed to be on the crown but she ran out of time

The pressure was on for the Spy’s Mother’s Day gift, right?! ahahah

Who doesn’t love cash? hahah

In other news, we have a new activity: hanging at the barn/horseback riding!

Leading Goose

Learning to use the curry comb

And the hoof pick

Boots/Hoofs

Rambo

Horsie Hug

Our friend/neighbor is the sweetest letting us tag along with her to the barn about once a week so she can learn all about horses!

Turning the horses out for the night

The planting and spring activities continue in the garden.

Eggplants are under the milk jugs

Red Celery

Pineapple (I like to just plant these for fun, have never been able to actually grow a pineapple!)

The white powdery stuff in the above photo is diatomaceous earth. I bought a big bag of it and am hoping it will cut down on the pests this year (especially squash bugs which are the worst!)

Diatomaceous earth (pronunciation: /ˌdaɪ.ətəˌmeɪʃəs ˈɜːrθ/), also known as D.E., diatomite, or kieselgur/kieselguhr, is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceous sedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. Diatomaceous earth consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. It is used as a filtration aid, mild abrasive in products including metal polishes and toothpaste, mechanical insecticide, absorbent for liquids, matting agent for coatings, reinforcing filler in plastics and rubber, anti-block in plastic films, porous support for chemical catalysts, cat litter, activator in blood clotting studies, a stabilizing component of dynamite, and a thermal insulator. Diatomite is used as an insecticide, due to its abrasive and physico-sorptive properties.^[10] The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects’ exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Arthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency, based on Fick’s law of diffusion. (from Wikipedia)

Plus isn’t the word diatomaceous just great?! It should be an adjective and I may begin using it as such.

Red Bud sapling

Red Admiral Butterfly

We have seen TONS of butterflies; including monarchs which I’ve never seen this early in the season!

We’ve also been diligently watering the garden

Blackberries coming soon!

Check out the cool beads we made! I love FIMO/Sculpey clay!

Chicken Coop progress

Happy Mother’s Day!

Spring Chickens

6 Replies

One with the chicks.

As you can see…

She’s not enjoying them at all.

Green on green on green

Zzzzzzz

Cardinal on her nest

First there were 3 little cardinals, then 2, then 1, then none. Bad spot for a nest? Hopefully photographing it didn’t disturb them. Maybe the black rat snakes are out hunting (even though we haven’t seen them yet)? Spring can be brutal.

At school the kids were drawing/contemplating a dead bird that met its end by flying into the school window.

We saw a run-over copperhead snake on our road (3rd one this spring!)! Again, a brutal spring for some. Exhibit D: the awful flooding in our area (we are up high and were thankfully not affected other than the kids having a week off school and bad traffic). All of the chicks are happily still alive and have enjoyed pecking around the yard (we’ve kept a close eye on them) but are still spending their nights in the comfort of our living room (in a bin).

Coop site planning

We cleared out a pretty good sized area.

And Smoochie…

Got the base of the coop built! Woo!

We also moved the rabbits out to this area; so the bunnies and the chickens will be neighbors.

Hey neighbor!

They caught some worms and the kids exclaimed, “I thought they were vegetarians!?”

Me: “No, look at them they’re like little velociraptors (especially when they blink).”

What’re you looking at?

Holding Specky

Check out Specky’s leopard print feathers!!

Puff Puff helping to weed the garden

I LOVE the salmon favorelle’s feathery feet!

Springy abstract sculpture

Chickens are way more well behaved than bunnies. I spent like 45 minutes one night last week (during the heavy rain) trying to catch Bun-Bun in the woods.

Cinco de Mayo

Goldie admiring the lovely edges of the garden plots

Where we planted…

Red Foliated Cotton (image from Baker Creek)

We have never tried growing cotton before; very exciting!

Dexie has been nice

Hopefully she will never discover that they taste like chicken!

So for any of you that are considering getting chickens; there is a ton of information out there in internet world about raising chicks but I wanted to give you the most important #1 tip we’ve learned so far about keeping chickens:

Just wing it.

BAHahahahahah

Late April in Spy Garden 2017

7 Replies

Leslie, Dexie

Well, we still have chickens in our living room. I mean, they’re in a large bin thing that we clean out daily, but still.

They still need to be under the heat lamps but they are growing so fast. This was the first time we brought them outside to play; so fun to watch them peck around.

Blackberry blossoms

Their new home is going to be right here:

On the left; where all that honeysuckle is now.

We are going to clear out a large area for their coop and a fenced pen. Construction begins this weekend!

Non-native (and very invasive) honeysuckle)

Curvy Garden

A volunteer pansy

Cardinal in our backyard (tons of them!)

Does anyone know what this is? I don’t but I tasted it and it is thick like spinach and lemony. I am hoping it is edible so I can add it to salads.

It grows in clumps like this and has a connected root system. (Ignore the kohlrabi intermixed with the mystery plant, I know what that is! ha!)

Yellow Wonder Wild Strawberry blossom

Lambs Quarters; which I usually weed but recently found it was edible (related to amaranth and looks much like quinoa plants) so am letting it grow freely in the garden this year.