Sunshine and rain. And more rain.
Well, we needed rain and we've got it. My request for some nice steady nights of rain obviously got missed though as it's been raining for a day already and it's not due to stop for about another 3. The water table is still unusually low though- even with all the rain we've had (and it rained quite a lot last week too) our hole-that-will-be-a-pond is still dry at the bottom and I'd have expected water to be pooling in the base by now. Our clay soil retains water very well.
The ducks enjoy the rain and are out pootling about in the mud. The poor chickens are less enamoured.
We got the new rescue chickens a week ago. We got 4 instead of 3 in the end, so meet the MASH girls;
They've settled in well and are in with the others now which is fine apart from some confusion over where they should sleep at night. I found them all huddled on the perch in the run the first night and spent 10 minutes hunting in the rain for Margaret last night and eventually found her in a covered dust bath.
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| Hedwig, Lizzie, Luna and Ginny are all in there somewhere... |
The ducks enjoy the rain and are out pootling about in the mud. The poor chickens are less enamoured.
We got the new rescue chickens a week ago. We got 4 instead of 3 in the end, so meet the MASH girls;
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| Left to Right Max (Klinger), Peggy (Hunnicutt), Margaret (Houlihan) and Mildred (Potter) Florence the chicken had worked out they had food in there... |
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| I'm not sure what kind of system they came from but I suspect barn reared. Poor Peggy and Max especially are pretty much bald from the neck down. |
We had had quite a lot of sunshine before that (I'm slightly worried that may have been summer) and got some jobs done in the garden.
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| The bonus of having a tall son. For scale he's over 6'6"tall! |
I may have got slightly carried away with beans this year. I've planted up the bean arch with Czar on one side (white seeded runner that should be good for drying) and a yellow and a purple French bean on the other and then hastily created this new bed for Cherokee Trail of Tears (small drying bean) on the small ladder, a red flowered runner in the middle (Firestorm I think. I got the seeds at a seed swap) and then Greek Gigantes (butter bean style) up the enormous wigwam. They're now underplanted with nasturtiums, lettuce and squashes. The ladders were here when we moved in and nether are strong enough to be used as ladders anymore. The bean poles are field maple cut from the hedge.
Son had a tent up in the garden for a couple of days and George discovered a lovely place to snooze in the shade
I was also given a solar wax melter by my bee mentor which is fantastic. Place it so it's facing south, put old wax in the top and it melts and runs through a mesh to fill a trough with clean beeswax for candles, balms and salves or exchanging with the bee keepers shop for more foundation.
I'm wondering if it will work as a solar cooker?!
Early morning giggle with the names....Thank you. Animals are so very interesting, aren't they? Glad you are having some rain, and hopefully, more summer! Still waiting on a more substantial harvest, but grateful for anything I get, as is is all a bit of trial and error.
ReplyDeleteHave a lovely day!
Patricia/USA
I was muttering darkly about chickens last night as I searched for half an hour in the dark and rain for Peggy. I looked everywhere in the run, counted heads in the hen house about 3 times and poked about in bushes, trees, the greenhouse... I eventually gave up and went to bed. I went out again early this morning and she popped out of a hedge of feverfew on the wrong side of the chicken fence (that I'd looked in last night. Obviously not very well!) At least she's ok, if a bit miffed and a bit bedraggled :-))
DeleteFingers crossed for your harvest, hope nothing else is eating your crops.
I really hope no-one sits on George! You have a very tall son! Paul is 6'4 which seems ridiculously tall to me (5'3) and the poor man keeps bumping his head on the low doorways of our historical cottage.. but then he has Dutch heritage. He is a completely normal height for a Dutch man.
ReplyDeleteMy husband is 6'4" and I'm about 5'9" so we were never going to have short children but he's a lot taller than everyone else in the family by quite a long way. He can stand behind me and rest his chin on the top of my head, which is a bit disconcerting! His girlfriend is 5'1"....
DeleteOh, and his favourite colour is orange and so as a young teen he had a lot of orange t-shirts and tops. On holiday in Europe people would often mistake him for Dutch because he was tall, blond and wearing orange ;-)