Isn’t he/she neat? This snake had a fake rattle so between the dog cornering it and us shooing it into the container for relocation - it was a little agitated. I ran into one of these last year and when non cornered it runs away. We snapped just a few quick shots and then moved it to a better location (ie not near the dog!)
Once again we were in the garden. In fact I expect that we will be in the garden most chances that we get for the next few months. We have much to plant and cultivate. Dratted rain hasn’t been cooperating much either. Today we hammered together some raised beds to house our lettuces (a bunny favorite) and my pet project of carrots. I’ve never gotten carrots to work but I’m not giving up yet!
The boys helped me plant another row of strawberries and I think we’ll call our new patch done. So long as the old patch isn’t tilled under we’ll keep moving plants to fill in for those that don’t make the transplant. And then the helped mulch around each plant and water the newest arrivals. Which of course translates to I gave my kids water, dirt and dried grass. Muddy little messes they were by the time they were done. In fact it was practically a whole day outside and we were once again sun-kissed on our cheeks by the time we headed inside. And it was a very dirty end to our week which made it all the better from the boys’ perspective!
All in all I’m pretty pleased with our earthy week. We didn’t really have a chance to talk about Earth Day itself but I plan to do that a bit more when we transplant our oak trees. But I’m certain that they were connected to the earth this week and that’s what was important to me.
Techincally we spent most of day five hanging out with Uncle K. But at the end of the day we dashed back to Grampa’s to pick up some baby chicken (hens) to replenish our hen house. Amazingly everyone - the two boys, the puppy and the chicks - made the ride home fairly well. We did have the whining voices of “are we there yet?” and “it’s taking too longer” which is becoming the norm for the last 40 minutes of the trip. But eventually we arrived home. But it was late and I was tired - so we just put the chicks in the living room for the night in a critter pen.
The next day we discovered that the basement was leaking so out the door went out best laid plans! I took Lil’B along to Jr’s piano lesson instead of him staying home with Daddy. Daddy meanwhile helped Gramps get the basement cleaned up and things lifted off the floor. *sigh*
After class the boys and I ran to get chick feed. While we were there we saw the baby ducks and geese but I convinced the boys that we should get our new chickens taken care of first before launching into a new project!
That afternoon we cleaned the hen house. Exciting no? Not really and dusty as hell to top it off. But it needed to be done and thankfully now it is for at least a little while anyway. The baby chicks are happily pecking around a makeshift pen (until they are old enough to run with the big birds). And my rooster is VERY happy as I put him back in with the ladies after a long winter.
Now he’s prancing around all tall and proud - hilarious!
