A Few Things

Some things to catch up on...
In garden news:
I've got two plots, big and small, both are fenced and planted. I've got peas, beans, popcorn, squash, cucumbers, watermelon, arugula, spinach, peppers, sunflowers, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, garlic, cabbage, broccoli, and carrots in. I may plant some more greens and flowers. So far this years is going much better than last. I planted five or six varieties of beans last year only to have the rabbits eat every single plant. The bunnies are keeping out mostly with the fence up, although they have snuck in a couple times and eaten a handful of my tomato seedlings. Grrr. Hard to believe that I actually succeeded in growing seedlings indoors this year, but I did!
We also planted some trees. And by we I mean me. Three apple, three peach, and two paw paws. I've also got one alive and one dead blueberry bush to plant but have not gotten around to that yet. I suppose I probably won't plant the dead one, maybe the company we ordered from will send me a new one though.

In bird news:
Like I mentioned before, Mother Goose did not hatch anything, but the ducks did! They hatched out two fuzzy ducklings, and around the same time we had a lone hatcher in the incubator so I just added that little guy to the nest and he/she fit right in. It has been one of the cutest things ever to watch mama duck walk around with the little ducklings following her. They are fast! So sad though, we just found two of the ducklings dead in one of the "ponds" (baby pool). They must have gotten in but couldn't get out and drown. We had no idea they could even get in, but the ponds are now empty or shallow to keep the last little one safe.
As cute as the hatchlings are, I'm over the broodiness that seems to be contagious. In our crappy chicken house on the hill, we've got three ducks and three hens rotating nests, which means I can't collect any of the scrumptious duck eggs (who even knows where the chickens are laying) that are laid up there because I have no idea if they will be fresh or rejected from a nest. And trust me, you don't want to accidentally eat a rejected egg. Then down in our other chicken house where all birds should live but refuse to, we've just had six hens go broody this past week. There are only six nesting boxes down there. Tonight I collected one egg total, which is just sad. A couple weeks ago I was getting over a dozen a day in that chicken house alone. Either the non-nesting gals are laying elsewhere on the farm or are squeezing in next to the hens setting and adding to clutches.

Miscellaneous news:
*I made my first batch of kombucha. The kids love the stuff, we tried strawberry which was good and grapefruit which was not. At all.
*Speaking of fermenting things, I'm going to be teaching a class on such at the library next month.
*Our farm is going to have a booth at the local farmer's market this summer. It starts in June and as of now it seems my table is going to be somewhat bare for the first couple Saturdays. Thanks a lot, hens.