Happy Easter

We had a great time coloring Easter Eggs this year.  I was wondering if I should actually spend money on buying white eggs to color but I am so glad I didn't.  Our eggs are the best.  I picked out the lightest of the eggs and we colored those.  They turned out great... and of course made the best deviled eggs for Easter dinner.

Getting to know the new chickens!!!

The new chickens are getting with the program.  Ty has made them feel at home with our family,  The chickens have been happy and producing lots of eggs.

New Additions to Our Family

The new girls getting use to coop.

They would not sleep inside for a little while but now they are in there with the rest of them

Troy's coop expansion has been working out very well.

Another little critter found in the garden.

Well actually they were all located on my dill plant.  I have finally gotten dill to grow this year and these guys were trying to destroy the plant.  We removed them with tweezers and took care of them...

I have really been enjoying my time in the garden and with the chickens.  My garden is definitely a trial and error process.  I have about 3 heads of cabbage coming in pretty good.  I however planted about 7 plants but only three are developing.  I have brussel sprouts that were growing great and now have stopped growing.  Our weather has been crazy lately.  We get a cold front and temps drop in the 40's and then 3 days later we are back up in the low 80's.

My next pictures will be of what is still growing from my winter planting.  Cherry tomatoes, broccoli, cabbage, Swiss chard, I am also in the process of planting for the spring

Recent Backyard Harvest

Here are some recent pictures of what has been going on in the backyard.

I haven't had a chance to get anything new planted but I did get a lot cleaned up and I am almost ready to plant.

Broccoli for dinner

Cherry Tomato Plants

Fresh Kids and Fresh Carrots

 

New Addition to the Chicken Coop

Troy added on an additional run and extended the coop to make more room for our new 5 chickens.  These new hens are going to start laying eggs in about 4 weeks.  We are super excited to have them.  It should take them about two weeks to get use to our home and then they will be allowed in with the others and to roam free around the yard in the evening time.

December Garden

I have been trying to keep up with my garden but through the holidays I definately struggled with the weeding, watering, and pest control.  Although everything seemed to grow and we were able to harvest so great tomatos and lettuce.  My green beans, cucumbers, and zucchini all started off very promising but did not last and I am not sure why.

Here are some pictures from the beginning of December

December 2, 2012 Garden

Broccoli - Dec 2 2012

Carrots growing from seed in a recycled grow box I made




First tomato plants that I planted in the garden








 New garden bed with Swiss Chard, Tomato plants, and Cucmbers growing from seed

 Worm composting bin

 New Green Bean plants

November Garden

Here are some recent pictures of the garden progress

What's for dinner

We have been getting about 10 Okra a week.  I think our plants may be done.  I have to do some research.  I save them up and then make fried okra for dinner.  The boys love it.

This is the bucket of micro greens that have been growing very well.  It looks a little weak because I just pick a bunch for dinner.  It is coming back though.

These are the other lettuce plants.  We have been having salad everynight.  Can't wait to get some tomatos to go in the salad.  We also have some peppers coming I have picked two or three but I think I picked them too early. 

This is the bucket of spinach.  Again I took this after I picked some for dinner.  This is the best spinach I have ever had.  We had it cooked in pasta one night and have had it in salad the last two nights.  I have planted two more buckets but plan to plant more. 

The garden seems to be growing well.  The buckets for the lettuce and spinach are working out great because it helps keep too much dirt from getting on the leaves. 

The buckets that I used we purchased from Firehouse Subs for a couple bucks.  They each had a lid.  I cut each bucket in half and then drilled holes in the lid and the bottom.  This created two planting buckets.  I filled each bucket with a mixture of topsoil and cow manure.