April, 2011

WOW! I have skipped posting for a long time. So very much has been happening.

Let me see where to begin - start with the bad. My dear, Peacer K, rapper Kitty to the stars is dying, slow but no pain. She is so thin now with this illness. Hurts me and there are so many tears, but she isn't in pain and I want her with me as long as I can.

Last night an evil racoon got in the chicken coop and killed a beautiful Buff roo. I think we scared him off. Had some wonderful new friends with me and they worked in his enterance and exit areas. I have a hen setting so egg count has really dropped as there aren't many other hens - YET!

Rabbits are doing very well in the producing side as well as at shows. My chocolate Satins have won several Best of Breed awards. Very excellent.

The GARDEN! WOW! It is really going well this year thanks to the help of friends who weeded, brought me plants, and did so much more just because I needed help and couldn't do it myself. If the rain co operates I will be getting more tilled tomorrow and some more things planted. Wonderful. Some times it's also just so nice to have people to just talk to about things. Speaking of tomorrow, Scott is getting his arm tattoo finished, I am getting a portrait of Peacer done and 2 rabbits are getting their ear tattoos fixed - - thanks to the wonderful work of the multi talented Evy. And she makes house calls!

Still talking about gardening. My 3' high raised beds are doing very well. The longest one is packed with tomatoes of several types and colors, then a bed of peppers, eggplant and Brussel Sprouts, 3 rd bed was green beans and the seed wasn't great so replacing it with Cubano peppers and next week cukes. The 4th and final of these beds is packed with cukes and I think they are what I am most eager to taste. In front of this bed on a bench are blackberry and raspberry plants that aren't ready to plant.

In the main garden behind the chicken coop nestled between ares of trees and hidden things are really going wild. Corn is pretty tall (putting in more tomorrow), Black Chowders are doing great, different squash are looking nice and growing more everyday. I added 18 more tomato plants there so I now have a total of 48 plants. Should be enough to can too. I started a compost pile near it, but with the chickens there just isn't much to add to it, so need to rack some leaves and like that. Right now it is pure poo.

Been making more and more of the citrus type soaps. The lemon and the orange have become top sellers. I have enough clear (shine to many) that I will be starting several extracts next week when I will have the peels, pods and all to start them. Sourdough starter is in the making for then too. For some reason I kept putting it off and now is the time to start several different ones.

Started making water kefir again. I like it and it is good for you. Makes a great summer drink. There are several other projects I plan to start then too. Reason I think, that I put things off is that I just knew this would be a busy week and there is a Bunn show on Saturday and I am going. Hope the Satins keep doing well.

This is enough to try and understand after such a long time absence. Will admit that I did miss the blog JUST A VERY SMALL LITTLE BIT.