Yet Another Garden/Animal Update!

Wow!!! It seems that this time of year the days seem to rush by and before you know it an entire week has been spent.  I've been spending most mornings out in the garden. I'm trying to catch up with all the weeding that needs to be done, but that is a never ending chore.  I let it go for about a week right after the wreck and am still playing catch up.  For the most part though the garden is looking good and everything seems to be growing fine. Too bad they don't grow as fast as the danged weeds though!  

 Squash, beans, peas, peppers and a couple of tomato plants are showing their blooms.  The amaranth is starting to take off now after a fairly slow start.  I can't wait to see how it works out.  I've never grown it before and am really excited about it. 
Everything planted so far is coming up.  We have been picking lettuce daily and some spinach and Swiss Chard as well.   Now if we can just keep the bugs out.....  I saw my first squash bug yesterday. I hoped somehow they might have forgotten about me this year but I'm afraid that's just not meant to be.  Already the bugs have become a problem.  I've been alternately spraying with the garlic pepper soap and dusting with D.E.  for the past week so I'm hoping that will help some.  Dang bugs ate my turnip greens down n two days to where they look like lace they have so many holes!  This HAS to stop.  LOL!   



We still haven't finished up the last garden area we are planning on using.  This is in the same area that we had the first garden in last year but it's been extended a bit.   There are still two more rows to "hill up" and the drip line to lay.  I keep telling Mars we are running out of time.  Tick tock... tick tock...   I still want to get the watermelon, cantaloupe, more squash and the sweet potato's planted.  What room is left we will plant with beans or field peas to help with the nitrogen in the soil for next year.  This building up of the soil for the future will take time but hopefully in a couple of years we will start seeing the benefits.  

The baby chicks are all doing great.  The first five that hatched are now able to get all the way up to the top branch of the roost at night and are actually starting to look more like chickens than chicks.  The other four are right behind them.  I'm finally starting to get some eggs each day again from the hens.  They all decided to take a break at the same time and stop laying.  Of course that is probably due to the fact that they all decided they liked the chick starter rather than their regular food.  I don't have anything set up to separate the babies from the adults right now so there's no way to "make" the big guys stop eating baby food so I'm thinking the diet change messed with the egg production. Live and learn, right? 


Oh, the picture of the kitty up there?  That's our newest addition to the homestead. Meet Coco... Coco meet my friends!
                 ~~~~~~   Hey ... I'm Just Sayin' ... ~~~~~~~