Farm & Garden, June 2

In the garden:

All but 1 tomato plant are set out.  The 1 was the victim of the stroller-smashing accident, and when the whole thing was mostly busted off, I set it like a flower in a cup (a sippy cup, actually...).  It sprouted wonderful roots!  It's been hardening off on the porch, and hopefully I'll be feeling moveable enough to set it out today.  Total tomato plants will be 27.  The girls had messed with the plants, and several little packs of tomatoes were missing their labels, so I'm not sure what's out there.  I do have 3 "juliet" salad-style tomatoes, 3 "old german" stripey-lookin' things, 6 "mountain fresh" which I bought because they were tall and their tag had only a handwritten title, and no other information (I think that's why they were still available).  I called my neighbor and had her google them.  I also have 4 little bush-type plants, and I forgot their name (but the tag is in my apron pocket, I think).

The SFG holds 4 peppers, a huge bell, a 'chocolate' bell, a 'sweet cherry', and a 'garden salsa' - hot one.  I have 3 more of each Sweet Cherry and Garden Salsa with the tomatoes.  10 total pepper plants.

The onions in the SFG have sprouted!  The carrots are getting their first real leaves, if/when Organique will stop scooping out handfuls of dirt and seedlings.  I also don't like it when she scoops up 'weedy' garden dirt and adds it to the SFG.  Argh!  And I can never move fast enough to intercept...

The lettuces are getting bigger (again, the ones Organique hasn't uprooted to add to her 'soup').  The largest are maybe a fist-sized clump.  Not sure when I'll be able to bring myself to pluck any.  They're so pretty!

The SFG potatoes are really growing.  Four per square foot seems excessive to me, but maybe the fancy dirt makes up the difference?  I also have 5 garbage bags set in the ground with about 6 potatoes each.  They're beginning to sprout.  As are 5 little seedlings in a row across the surface of one... I'm not sure what they are or how they got there.  They look possibly like melon or squash, maybe even sunflowers.  Maybe I should transplant them...

The SFG has 7 cucumber plants.  I don't know if I'll get a trellis built, or let them wander off into the wilderness.  So far they haven't died, but they don't seem to be growing much either.

I have several herbs in the SFG.  Chives, sage, thyme, oregano, cilantro.  I started basil seeds, but they're not acting real hardy yet, and I don't know that they'll get there or not.  There are still a handful of empty squares that had assignments on paper, but not yet in reality.  I may change my mind.

Yet to do:

Set out pumpkin starts, zucchini (I found some eventually), yellow squash (I'll be hatin' the squash, huh?), and the butternut squash a friend gave me.  Of course, the sippy-cup tomato.

Have Hubby rototill a spot for the sweet corn he ordered.  So much to do on his off-time!  So little off-time to do it! :)

Critter-wise, most of the Mutants are still eating and drinking.  Hubby is on call this weekend, but Sundays are usually slow; maybe we can do it then (with the plucker!?!), or on Saturday evening if he's not too done-in.

The seven little white turkeys are alive and well, which surprised me some.  As soon as they could (and it was soon), they would jump up onto the edge of the bedliner/brooder, occasionally getting down to the ground.... the same ground the Meat Mutants occupied for some time.  Turkeys are susceptible to chicken germs or something like that, and I was worried.  Hubby never got around to moving the hoophouse, and eventually ALL of the turkeys made it down below, and there was no trying to capture all 7 every night to put them to bed.  They're still down there, knocking over their feed and water daily.

The 3 geese are quickly outgrowing the garden cart.  I'm not sure what to do with them yet.  They and the turkeys are both without heat lamps, after surviving one night where we forgot to plug it in.  I think that's always how that works out.  They're so big, but they're still 'babies' - 3 weeks old today, I think.  Their feathers are still the soft, fluffy kind, and they'd probably still be hawk-bait if they were somewhere exposed.  They LOVE green stuff, and eaven choked down several morning glory vines the girls tossed in.  They prefer alfalfa and clover, of course. :)  I'd like to know if they'll eat thistles...  Then I might know where to put them. :)  A guy at Hubby's work grew up eating farmyard geese, and warned him they were the greasiest meal he'd ever eat.  Sounds like a self-basting bird, to me!  I hope we like them.

Still to do:

Take the plucker shaft/flange back to the shop and have them figure out how to center the shaft.  The guy got it off a bit, and the balance just won't work that way.

Get the plucker operational (it should be, after putting the shaft back on) and kill the Meat Mutants.

Find a better home for the geese.  They're still too small to stay inside field fencing, I think, and I'm not sure if poultry netting will keep them in (it's not electrified).

Maybe kill a rooster.  One or two of our four are a bit too aggressive.  Organique ended up with a scratch on her hand due to one of them.  Too bad he's the prettiest.  The big Light Brahma is really mellow, as is the Buff Orpington.  It's the Brown Leghorn and the Black Australorp that are problematic.

Fix the shed to keep chickens out, and fix the coop to keep chickens in.  That way we can find their eggs!  And my porch will be more presentable...