June

June 8, 2019

This month has held new adventures.

Sadly one of our chickens died. It was moving slow and seemed to just want to sleep. We separated her from the flock and put her in the smaller coop/run area. We put her near food and water. The rest of the flock would come by the fence to check on her. At times she seemed to perk up but mostly she slept. The first night she put herself in the coop, the second night my husband moved her in. The next morning she had passed on. My husband buried her. She was one of the KFC's that our children really liked because she was friendlier and seemed smarter. Our son was at work and somehow we failed to tell him. Several days later he asked about her, if she was doing better. Oops. Sorry.

Our son built, filled and planted a 4*4 raised bed with trellis for his Senior project. Our daughter is caring for one as a goal for her Personal Progress. I have 3 others I am caring for and we have a "main" garden area for corn, pumpkins, big squashes and extra tomatoes. The back bed is mostly planted with strawberries and we have two raised raspberry beds and others planted on the north side of the house. I am working on a herb bed in front of the house and just added some Lavender. I started Basil, parsley and sage inside. My Rosemary and Lavender did not do well from seeds so I bought some. I plan to add some garlic and garlic chives to the onion chives, mint and other herbs already out there. I love all the green coming up :)

Today a Western Tanager flew into our window so hard it left some orange and yellow feathers smeared on the window. Odd because I have not cleaned the windows yet this year. They are kind of dirty. Poor bird sat stunned on the near by bush for quire a while. So long our 4 year old was out talking to it and getting pretty close and it didn't fly away.

Our poor mower was abused last year then I made a few mistakes with it and hastened its demise. We think long term we want a big riding mower, but in the mean time we bought a self-propelled mower and a lighter weight one to work together to keep the property reasonable mowed. I called my Dad to ask about mower advice. I love that he gave me the advice to research it. He suggested going to a lawn equipment store to talk to knowledgeable employees. We looked into that and decided to research online. We learned a lot and feel good about our purchases fitting our current needs and resources. I am so grateful for my Dad's wise advice.

Sadly we killed our weed eater too, but it was corded and really a gas or battery one would better meet our needs here. We are currently investigating them....

We have been working on a 100-200 foot long "flood bed" along our creek. It is a 2-3 foot tall raised bed to help keep spring water in the creek and also provide a place to plant perennial foods. We felt it would provide multiple uses in one, and hopefully be more attractive then a giant berm of dirt and weeds or un-kept grass.  It is kind of hard to balance allowing for natural beauty and controlling the chaos/weeds... it is fun trying though :)