Mulch And Other Stuff

So this morning I put a nice layer of wet newspapers down 3 rows in my North garden. It looked so nice. Well, then later on I looked out there and there is my nice dried out newspapers flying all over the garden. It does dry out in the sun and the wind. I hadn't gotten back out to put old hay down on top of it yet. So I ran out there and threw some dirt on top til I can get back out there to mulch. And I am praying all these clouds floating around will have a little rain in them to wet those newspapers some.

I am just one person doing all this work. And I cannot seem to keep up with it all. I was outside just now and noticed the poor droopy tomato plants I had planted about 4 days ago. I had not mulched them yet and they were trying to tell me they needed mulch. Really badly. So I just did that. I have had this huge round bale of really old hay for a few years now that I have been pulling hay off of. SO I grabbed a wagon load and quickly mulched them all. The others have been mulched and are doing well. I counted them all the other day after planting the rest and I have 198 tomato plants. 4 had died or I would have had 202. AND I have room for about 30-50 more. That's alot of tomatoes. I need to stake them all now. I am going to use some fencing down the middle of the row and tie the plants on. I planted 2 pretty close together so I could do that. I also have lots of posts to use. I am going to use the useless tomato cages for the cucumbers.

I just tilled up the parts of the rows of beans and re planted McCasslen, Kentucky Wonder and Blue Lake beans. Also went ahead and planted cucumbers where I had planted some squash and zuchinni seeds. They never came up. They are between the okra rows. I have only had 4 zuchinni seeds to sprout so far. I think I got a bad batch of seeds. I'll get more and try again. Gotta have zuchinni. The squash has done pretty good. I am mulching them all next and tilling where some didn't come up and will re plant seeds. So much to do.

So what's growing in your neck of the woods now? I would love to hear.

I just took bread out of the oven. This is the best bread. And so easy to make. It's like a hard crust, soft inside sour dough type bread. I love this bread. It sits after I make the dough for 12-18 hours. It's all bubbly and smells so good. I like this bread for a good thick cut bacon and tomato sandwich. No other bread works for that. And has to be ripe home grown tomato too. So I have a ways to go for that to happen. (I was supposed to let the bread sit for an hour before cutting. Uh oh!)

I turned the AC on yesterday. It feels amazing! Anyone else done that yet?

I hear raindrops!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It is raining! For a few minutes anyway. Thank You, Lord! (And it is still raining.)

Oh, I put 10 Buff eggs under Hot Momma broody hen this morning. She has been broody for a week now and I have thrown her off the nest every day. Then I thought this morning that I should go ahead and set some good Buff eggs under her because I will be needing more hens soon anyway. So I fixed her a nice nest with fresh good smelling hay and 10 pretty eggs in a milk crate and she jumped right on in. And broke an egg. So had to wait for another egg to get laid and stuck that one under her. She is a happy Hot Momma hen now! So in 21 days, I hope to have 10 brand new little chicks. Watch them all be little mini Mr. Rooney's. Just my luck.

Do Green Beans Grow In Dog Hair?

Because that's what's on my living room floor at the moment. I could actually grow a whole new dog with all the hair in my house at the moment. Because I have been outside doing gardens and yard work the past 4 months now because we have had such a mild winter. And I have not cleaned my house!! Because it has not rained in forever. And I keep saying that if it would just rain long enough for me to be inside, I might just clean this nasty house. But IT HAS NOT RAINED in forever! So I have stuff growing in my house.

My seeder was not getting seeds through so I asked my husband to fix it. That man is SO attached to his recliner, he had to fix it there. In the living room. In dog hair. So he says to put some seeds in the seeder hopper thing. So I did. Then he says to roll it along the floor to see if any seeds come out. Well, of course they did. Because he's a guy and things work for guys. So he did some guy things to it and it works fine now. Of course. He's a guy. And I did not get ALL the green bean seeds up when I swept last week.

So hubby's coming home this morning and I thought I might just vacuume up some of the new dog on the floor and also found some green bean seeds under his recliner nesting in some of that dog hair. If only it would rain now, we could just pick green beans in the living room. Hey, maybe hubby could just sit in his nice comfy cozy recliner and pick us some dinner! Cool!

Well, it's been almost a year since I posted here. Geeze, what have I been doing?

The past few months I have been starting 2 huge market gardens. Have already been to the farmer's market twice so far with kale, lettuce, Swiss chard and onions. Been planting like crazy here. Just brought home another flat of tomatoe plants. WE NEED RAIN!!

Also in March my 5 ewes all had single lambs. We have 3 ram lambs and 2 ewe lambs. I will keep the 2 ewe lambs of course, to make my flock bigger. I went with all A names for this year. So the 1st born is a Finn ram named Abraham. He is all black. He is Darla's. She was pregnant with a Finn ram when I got her. I hope he stays all black. Lucinda, the Finn ewe, is blackish-reddish-brown and I want to use him to breed her. And the 2 ewe lambs. Then next is Adele. She is so cute. She is Leelah's. I went ahead and docked their tails since they are more wool sheep. Then next came Axle. He looks just like his momma, Gracie, who is a Katahdin hair sheep. I had to call my friend up the road to hold Gracie so I could pull his big self out. Then came Alfie. He is Fiona's. Then about 3 weeks ago Lucinda had Annabelle. She is SO pretty. Kind of gray with black circles around both eyes. I docked her tail too. It finally came off today. She is adorable.

Also had goat kids. Just 2 does were pregnant. Abby had a single little doeling on March 10th. I named her Iris Josie after my mom and neice who,s birthdays were the 8th and 9th of March. She is a little stinker, like her big sister, Zarah. Then Sandy had twins, a doe finally, after 4 years of all bucks, and a buck, who is amazingly gorgeous. I will keep the doeling. I named her Brie. The buck already is spoken for. He will go to a friend's farm in a few weeks. I named him Brick. He's all spotted. Just so cute. So now I am milking again!!

So I have been really busy lately. And need to get out there and get some chicken manure and til it in for the tomatoes. I am waiting for the sun to go behind the trees first though. It's so hot. And this is only the 4th of May. My sheep are miserable already. I told them this is nothing yet. I'll have to put a fan out there for them, poor things.

I hope everyone is doing well. I want to put some pictures up of all my babies. I will soon. Happy Spring and happy planting.