good day sunshine

the sun is finally emerging again. with the vast amounts of rain we've been getting, all my seeds are just sitting there, not sprouting or doing so very slowly.

last night, i noticed spaghetti squash finally emerging. the beans are also sprouting but that's about it. no edamame, okra, acorn squash, 2 other winter squashes, cukes or watermelons.

and, everything i've planted is just sitting there. the tomatoes look sad, i've lost a few. the peppers were disappearing to the rabbits, we made tiny cages to cover them. they aren't growing though. neither are the 6 celery plants or basil or anything else.

the potatoes are slowly merging but they were planted long, long ago.

i still have some basil in pots and it's growing quicker than the stuff in the ground. i wonder why. they are both outside.

harvest wise, i've gotten about 1 dozen strawberries per day. jaden and sage gobble them up w/in seconds. i've sampled a couple but that's it. it's too much fun watching the joy on their faces from eating them.

the portable chicken coop is done and is in place in the back pasture. the broilers seem happy. i've got pictures on the camera to download and post. next up is the fencing for the garden to keep out the chickens and allow us to let the chickens free range all day and then renovating the garage for the WWOOFer who is arriving july 7. we actually have 2 coming jun 1 - 14 but they'll be tent camping. the july one is a single mom with a 3 year old and will be here for 1 month. then we have another one coming in august. here's hoping it's a better experience than last year!

we currently have 10 eggs in the incubator. we started with 36. when the hens brought the numbers down to 13, we brought them inside. i candled them last night and discovered 3 bad ones. so, here's hoping the remaining 10 will work out. i'm thinking of putting them back under the broody hens next tuesday (hatch day) so they will raise them and stop this silly broodiness and get back to work giving us eggs. i'm considering pulling a few more eggs and trying for a 2nd round. we have another hen going broody that i could put them under at the end of the 3 week period. i just hate taking away from our egg supply to do it. but we desperately need more hens to lay so we can supply more eggs. ahhh, such a vicious circle!

thanks for all the comments on the previous post. i am looking forward to this experiment. right now, the seeds have been ordered. i think everything i ordered needs to be planted in aug/sep time frame for overwinter storage. i'm consulting the root cellaring book (that may be the title, i don't remember but it's one of the popular ones on the subject written by a husband and wife, possibly last name bubel or something like that).