Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[Dreamzchaser]

Dang sebrights. Now lil mama is also broody! Those 2 are no joke. Lil mama went broody 4 times before a year old. So here we go again. She is laying though. Babay mama is not. She sits on that ceramic egg like its going to chirp,lol After teh egg from lil mama was laid, I closed their nest boxes. If I let them out, I need to close all up because they will go into teh coop and sit there with the big eggs,lol

I have a brooder ready now but I do not want more sebrights. I would like ISA brown or RIR so they can sit on them and hatch them. I want egg production. Their are so small eggs. Yet again, I would love what will come from them and Pitbull!
Finally finished the front of the house with the push lawn mower. So tired. I need this tractor fixed ASAP! I am not doing the back yard. That will take me a week,lol

 

[RaZ]

I made my first trip south of I-69 in 3 years. Once I was fully moved in up here I promised myself that I'd never go down to the cities again. Only 2 places that I'll go is to Fowlerville and to Chicken Stock. Made a visit to F'ville today. Next month is CS22. On the way down there I saw 4 different flocks of free ranging chickens. Much like the covid thing, there seems to be a good number of folk who aren't taking the HPAI issue very seriously. Even on some of the FB forums people are downplaying AI. There is no way that I'd be buying or trading chickens with strangers.

With any luck we will have a 30 day remission of HPAI here in Michigan. I'm hoping that the ban of live poultry shows/swaps will be lifted before our CS event on June 25.

 

[Folly's place]

Me too!
And three free ranging flocks within a mile of my house! Today a peacock wandered down our road about a mile from here, checked at the nearest house, and he lives a bit further down the road, where more birds are outside...
Mary

 

[saysfaa]

Rutgers and Roma were the only determinate varieties of tomatoes the greenhouse had. I got five 4-packs of the Rutgers then filled the flat with 4-packs of single blossom marigolds, cucumbers, broccoli, and peppers - in varieties I don't have seeds for.

One of the cucumbers was a bush variety. That might be fun.

I also got one plant each of German Johnson, Cherokee Purple, and Black Krim tomatoes to try.

If the remote garden goes well, I'll try to get more of the determinate tomatoes.

 

[Sally PB]

Today I moved all the garden starts from the green house outside. They're in large dog crates, covered with a bedsheet. I had much better sprouting percentages this year compared to last. I think only 2 out of 60 tomatoes didn't sprout, but some are very small compared to others. 5/8 for peppers, and 7/8 for basil.

My best sprouter this year: 20/20 Amish Paste, from my saved seeds. Last year was 19/20. I think they like it here.

 

[TheDandyLion]

I have a "roma" that is now in its 6th generation here. It grows very well. This year I'm trying out Rio Grande & Sheboygans. One of the Rio's has fruit already. The Sheboygans started out great but are not likely these colder days.

My peppers are also already going to fruit. Seems early to me, but I started the seeds in February so maybe its normal?

I never had luck with amish... Maybe I'll have to get some seeds next year to try again.

 

[Folly's place]

Yesterday I found the poison hemlock starting to come up in the huge patch we have along the road. So I'm trying to find the best (least awful) herbicide to kill it. There's 2,4-D and similar stuff, or glyphosate, even more broad spectrum. No good choices, far as I can see. We have more of this miserable killer plant, but along the road is the worst!
Any thoughts? I can't imagine that concentrated vinegar would do it, or how much we'd need...
Mary

 

[aart]

Yesterday I found the poison hemlock starting to come up in the huge patch we have along the road. So I'm trying to find the best (least awful) herbicide to kill it. There's 2,4-D and similar stuff, or glyphosate, even more broad spectrum. No good choices, far as I can see. We have more of this miserable killer plant, but along the road is the worst!
Any thoughts?

Pick the lesser of two evils.
Bummer.

I can't imagine that concentrated vinegar would do it, or how much we'd need...
Mary

Doubtful.

 

[aart]

Well, the chip pile is in better shape than I thought, plenty of chunky chips left to bolster the run bedding. Was able to move 2 loads yesterday and 2 loads today, now my foot says no more.

 

[1muttsfan]

If it's not too large a patch you might be able to cover it with some heavy black plastic and cut off it's sunlight. I managed to get rid of some really invasive Japanese bamboo that way once, but it took a lot of work