March

Wow! March is almost over - so crazy to think that it will be April soon. Is it just me or is time going really fast? Maybe it's because there is always something to be done when I'm not at work...that must be it.

Well, let's take a look at the happenings for the month. Weekday stuff is hit and miss depending on what after work activities I have on the calendar. Let's get started!

As usual the chickens were moved the second Saturday of the month. I remember that day being pretty cold, but it was clear and then was sunny later in the day. So that was a plus.

Thor and his girls quickly got to work on the chip pile

I have also noticed that since then our feathered creatures have been "admired" from the road - whether people are walking by or driving. Sometimes people will slow down to take a look or even stop their car in the road and gawk - Oh, I see you people out there...keep it moving...chickens we have chickens people! However, I do like it when there are walkers and they stop to take a look. If we are lucky and see them we will go out and meet some of them - like...A mom and her two young daughters who live across the street and down the road a little. Lenny was making a fuss of some sort, so I had to look and there they were in the driveway just looking at the chickens. So we walked out and talked to them for a few minutes. She is another kindred spirit as far as eating "clean" food goes. She is very passionate about feeding her family food that is grown without the yuck-o stuff and opting for pasture raised meats. Tom even took the girls to gather the eggs for the day. That was a fun connection that day - they kids have since been by to visit the chickens with their nanny.

Vacation time! I took a week off from work and we worked on a couple of things, but mainly the Chicken Tractor. It's still under construction, but I am hopeful that we can get a lot of the metal work done and hopefully installed soon. Then we'll be able to attach the hardware cloth and the chicken wire. It has been a long project for sure, but it the Justin Rhodes took longer than my vacation week for sure.

The weekend before vacation week we visited Tsugawa's Nursery in Woodland and got some bare root apple trees (3) to start out mini orchard. We are going with the Mother Earth News small tree method. Check that out HERE. That was a couple of weeks ago and this is what they looked like when we put them in:

I took a look at them this week and they are starting to bud out a little bit. At least we didn't kill them by cutting off more than half of their "body." These trees should stay at around knee height. We'll see.

On the first day that I didn't have to wake up and go to work I worked on getting some of the spring veggie seeds into one of the garden boxes. Right now that consists of Spinach, Arugula and Bunching Onions - Red and White. Over the next few days more seeds were sown into soil blocks, veggies and flowers. Some of those are actually sprouting now. I need to get some peas and carrots planted and maybe some lettuce too.

Hoping for all of these to sprout so they can all go into the garden

One of the garden boxes that was cleaned out during vacation week

We had to run some errands to pick up supplies for the chicken tractor build so that took us to Harbor Freight, Parkrose and Shurway. Those places were more of a necessary evil rather than a fun trip for me, but not terrible when you factor in that Parkrose has free popcorn!

The Java girls are growing like crazy and they REALLY need to get outside soon. I'm thinking of how we can get some sort of small kennel-like/cage thing put together for them so they can at least spend some time on the lawn. 

This was last Saturday - they are a little bigger than this now!

I've been looking on Craigslist for an outdoor kennel or some sort of cage thing that we could set up. I'm starting to feel really bad for these little ones they could totally use some fresh air and finally get out of that box. Even the Jerseys had some time outside before they went outside full time. Maybe this weekend I'll figure out an outdoor pen for them.

Overall, this month has been good and I really need a break from the craziness at work. I'm looking forward to attending the Good Friday service at our church tonight and then worship time on Sunday. 

Happy weekend!!