Friday 27 April 2012

Weekend Reading

I'd like to introduce a soon-to-be Friday ritual: the Weekend Read.  I got my hands on This Book

from our local (awesome) library and I can't seem to put it down.  Joel Salatin is very frank and very real and not for the faint of heart. If you REALLY want to learn something, read this book.

Whatever you do, wherever you are, Enjoy Your Weekend!

Thursday 26 April 2012

Blooming and Sprouting!

Well, Spring has sprung around our place, yay!  It is, by far, my favorite time of year.  Of course, I love the hot Okanagan summers, sitting lazily lakeside, enjoying warm breezes and cool waves.  But, oh, Spring!  Things are budding and blooming here, especially with the bit of rain we've seen in recent days.

Things like our first Garlic!

... and starting pumpkins indoors -- in eggshells (why not?)
Oooh! And the peach trees we started last year!  Can you say Peach Jam, Peach Pie, Peach smoothies...
... and just for the sake of beautifying the yard, gotta love the forsythia and tulips!

What's blooming and sprouting at your place?

Monday 23 April 2012

Knitting Bliss

Today was a knitting day.  Knitting makes me happy, it calms my nerves and I get to create something for someone I love.  What could be better?

Today was one of those days that are the "hurry up and wait" kind of day.  The kind where knitting just fits right in.  Daughter had a dance recital in Penticton this morning: Hubby drove, so I got 1 hour each way for knitting.  Then there was her dance class and THEN soccer practice.  I might as well do something productive, yes?  YES.  It just fits that I am working on a very colorful pair of socks for said dancer/soccer player.  Busy day?  A little.  Productive and happy?  Most definitely.

Sunday 22 April 2012

New Life on Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!
We celebrated Earth Day in a grand fashion around here -- firstly, our 2nd batch of chicks started to hatch, 2 days early!!  A welcome change from batch #1, let me tell you.  So, right now, we have 3 newbies to add to our flock, one of which just hatched about an hour ago.
Here is one of the first ones:
This little cutie looks more like an ameraucana than anything else, but she came from a brown egg!  That said, she would be about 1/2 Ameraucana, 1/4 Easter Egger, 1/4 ??.  Interesting!  And amazing to think that just 3 weeks ago, this could have been breakfast :/

Ok, I did say "firstly" which follows that there would be a "secondly"...
... we started putting in the garden!  Whee!  This is a major accomplishment as last year, we had to build the garden and fencing (to keep the lambs out) before we could plant and therefore didn't get around to the actual planting bit till the end of May.  So this weekend, we put in 4 different types of carrots -- in short rows, with the plan to plant in succession over the next month, spinach, a savory salad mix, and a row of watermelon radishes.  My 5 yr old gardener is already drooling over fresh carrots and the seeds haven't even been in the ground long enough to germinate!

How did you spend YOUR Earth Day?

Monday 16 April 2012

Once Upon an Incubator...


We set 41 eggs at the beginning of March and waited...
This was our first go with hatching our own eggs since we first tried it more than 10 years ago.  This one didn't go so well.  After 24 days (yes, 24, not 21), we got ONE.  One little lonely chickie.
She's now 16 days old and doing just fine!
After she hatched and we determined that she was IT, we set 39 more eggs.  I'm sure it must have been a temperature issue.  The thermometer we were using didn't seem to be accurate, on further testing.  We bought a $10 National Geographic digital hi-low thermometer and I moved the incubator upstairs, and put a wool blanket underneath it to help quell any draughts from underneath.
Batch 2 is due to hatch in 1 week.  Whew.  Let's keep our fingers crossed this hatch is MUCH more successful and little chickie has some friends very soon!