The Greenhouse Effect

Oh, Memorial Day, the start of summer. Is it ever actually nice out on Memorial day weekend? Here, it has been a rain/snow/hail kind of weekend. I have been told by a number of people that planting anything outside before June 1st is a terrible idea. I thought they were pulling the newbie's leg, but now I am a believer!

Fortunately (for many reasons!) we are moving this summer and I had already deceided not to plant anything in our massive (at least an acre) outdoor garden space, but I have been planting as much variety as humanly possible in our section of the greenhouse.

While it's been frigid outside, the greenhouse has been producing! I think a greenhouse here is worth its weight in veggies! So far this is what is planted in my section of the greenhouse: kale-that has been producing for months, it's really amazing!, sugar pumpkins (hopefully for brewing a pumpkin beer!), 2 kinds of summer squash, broccoli, beets, carrots, green beans, (at least) 4 kinds of lettuce, spinach, arugula, leeks, 4 kinds of tomatoes, and in planters that will be taking with us when we move: more tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and and eggplant. Wow, that seems like a lot! I've planted pretty much everything 'too early'-but clearly it wasn't too early because everything is alive and growing! I guess a pro on not knowing what I'm doing is that I have no rules to live by!

I am most excited about the green beans. Oh, my little green beans! I am thinking that by the time we get back from our kayaking trip, we will actually have some to eat! I only wish I had started more, but I will be starting some to plant outside in our garden when we move. (I want to move right now!)

I am second most excited about all the greens. In this row I have romaine lettuce, red lettuce, and little baby winter density lettuce. I also have little baby spinach and tango (a curly leafed) lettuce right next to them.

As I said, I really don't know what I'm doing, but that makes everything more fun. What I have learned so far is to water everything more that you think they need and to just try whatever you want-because really it's just veggies, not rocket science! And I am jealous of you Midwesterners! With all of your thunderstorms and tornados-at least you could grow all of everything I'm growing in the greenhouse outside with less work or worry!

Out and about!

What a beautiful day! After days, weeks, months, (years?) of long cold, cloudy, snowy and rainy days -the sun is finally out today! What else is there to do on a beautiful Tuesday but let the chickens out to play and clean the coop.


The question for the chickens was should they or shouldn't they. It took them a while to decide if they should leave the safety of the coop.



One flew out, then scrambled back up the chicken wire. I didn't realize this was possible and it was pretty impressive to watch!


Once they were out, they were out running and flying around!


BJ had to get into the action and say hi to all the chickens. They didn't seem to mind getting their butts sniffed at all! BJ was very curious, but very cautious and I was very impressed!

As you may have noticed, these ain't chicks any more! We know that we have one rooster-a black Australorp. The big question is what in the world are the crested ones!?! We have no idea. The bigger they get the more they look a like, we really have no clue!

Rooster:

Libération!

The chicks are finally out of the house! While the chicks are still getting used to their spacious new coop, it is Keith and I who are enjoying the glorious freedom of not having a dozen chickens in the house anymore! We happily don't have this in our front room anymore:

We had a few final touches to finish yesterday before the whole coop could be opened to the chickens. Keith and Hugh installed a roost for the chicks. Hopefully being able to chill out on the roost and look at the mountains will inspire loads of eggs! I got in there to stain the remaining bare wood to seal up everything.

The chicks could not have had a more beautiful day to move into their new house!


And these chicks are monster sized compared to the tiny little chicks they were only 7 weeks ago. (and the black one in the middle is a rooster-we now refer to him at Col. Sanders!)


Just a reminder: chicks day one:


Moving into the coop is a learning process for the chicks. They haven't learned that they need to walk up the ladder to sleep up in the cozy coop. While they did quickly learn how to walk up the ladder, they never stayed up there very long. As the evening got colder and darker, they didn't move upstairs. We paused to movie we were watching (Chicken Run) and manually moved them all up.


This morning Keith opened up the coop at 7am and I fed them at 8am, but the chickens were not ready to face the world until about 10am. They figured out that I moved the food down on the ground, so the only way they were going to get breakfast was to mosey on downstairs. Eventually they'll figure everything out that they need to!