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Planting time, chickens, and more

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 Phew, taking a break inside the potato box. Had to put them by hand into bags so they could be loaded into the tuber unit planter. That's a tractor attachment that we bought used, it takes whole potatoes, cuts them into twos and fours, then plants the potatoes. So far we have two varieties in the ground, and more to come.





Had a visit from some younger family members who enjoyed chasing the chickens around.

We have a large outdoor temporary fenced-in area for the chickens. Every once in a while it gets moved around for greener patches then they dig away at it until it looks like the ground here. The fence is more for the chickens protection than anything.

They know when to go inside at night, but unfortunately when they are outside of this enclosure we have foxes, eagles, and other predators that we've already lost several hens to.





Our biggest rooster. He has a nice shine in the light. He and the other rooster do their best to protect the hens.
 We have some corn sprouting inside. Last year the crows got all the corn, hopefully some will survive this year. We need a better scare-crow.




 Getting strawberries ready. These aren't for this year, but next year. We have 4 different varieties. We also have 2 different varieties of raspberries.
 And a couple varieties of blueberries.

 Our personal garden. I planted lettuces, mesclun mix, basil, dill, spinach, bunching onions in these row covers.

This garden has a mix of mussel shells, aged pig manure, and Island soil. Had great success with it last year.
 Some chives ready to bloom soon.
A couple loose chickens are helping cultivate the soil.

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