The Front Porch Swing

[Beekissed]

It was a glorious day here at Hilton Head SC, came here for a visit as hubby attends a seminar. God is great apart from enjoying the weather and the beach, I got a call yesterday as we were driving on our way here and got offered the Job I went for interview thanks all for praying, will be starting next month. We are broke but this is the best vacation ever and it's my birthday month. God keeps showing me how good he is.

You all be blessed.

Congrats!!! That's truly blessed news! What a great birthday you've had.....God sent you a present among the many. I praise His name to the highest!

 

[lazy gardener]

I just love that there are so very many ways to keep a garden. Bee, your garden looks so nice and neat, and weed free... and obviously, that clover is great as a nitrogen fixer, bee forage, and later as fodder for the chickens. In my yard, if I did the black plastic, it would be an ant fest throughout the growing season, yet others in my neck of the woods use black plastic without any problems.

Bee: re: clover planted around the squash: I'm guessing it would do just fine. My dad loves to use round up. Now, that's a discussion for an other day!!! One year, he killed the grass in a spot every 3 feet in the middle of a field. He then planted corn seed directly through the thatch, and harvested a wonderful crop of corn. Of course that man can also grow a 2# tomato in the middle of a gravel driveway. but he's old school Agriculture man... has a spray for everything. In spite of that, he's taught me so much, and that's where my love of all things growing came from.

 

[rrrmamma]

Finally have a chance to sit down for a few minutes. Well, I have been sitting, but sorting through the final paperwork for Mom's estate. My brother left some loose ends and I am trying to piece together what I have to do to collect the $25,000 second on Mom's house. I used to work in real estate and law, but this is in CA and I am not understanding what is going on. The balloon payment is due in August and I think I missed a deadline on notifying the buyers. I may have to find a CA real estate attorney to give me some advice. Doug is out of town and that gives me some time to focus on paperwork
Acquired 2 adult Guineas today to go with the 2 juveniles I have. The people I got the GP's from had them and managed to trap them for me. I think I am getting 2 more as soon as they trap the other 2. Then I am done acquiring birds, except I want a few more broad breasted bronze Turkeys to go with my only survivor from my chicks. The coop is still not finished. When he gets home from New Jersey he had to go to Kentucky to pick up a flatbed trailer from his brother.. Why did I want a farm at my age????
Made Chinese food for Madi and me tonight. Ginger orange chicken, fried rice and mixed veg in a Teriyaki glaze. I am trying to wean her off fast food, but we did go to McDonalds today so she could have her sweet tea. Guess we are going to eat and call it a night. God Bless all.

 

[Beekissed]

Because usually folks can only afford to farm after they have reached a certain age? That's pretty much the same for everyone nowadays as youngsters are not getting started out on the family farm much any longer.

We are having a gentle, soaking rain right now...the kind that I love for the gardens. No high winds, just a good soaker. Good for sleeping too....love the sound of the rain on the metal roof.

Had the luxury of a cool shower after a hard day of lifting heavy things, sweating through my clothes, working moderately hard and basically getting good and tired....that shower was truly a blessing and felt so very good!

Hope everyone who needs rain is getting it tonight!

 

[MistyMountain]

Got a question for you all, chicken related. I could go create a thread…. but I truly trust you all-- your honestly and experience.

MJ, my fav white EE has been spending a lot of time in the nest box. She has been in it the past two nights at bed time, and spent a good amount of time in it the other day. If I approach her in it she just quietly bock bock bocks, no puffing up and no attacking me when I take the eggs out from under her. I can remove her from the nest and she goes along like there are no problems, eating scratching drinking. She looks good. She pooped normal. Feeling her hind end and belly seems normal to me (though the number of hind ends and chicken bellies that I have felt can be limited to her and chica for reference… they have totally different builds). The last egg that I am certain she laid was on the 24th. She may have laid the 25th, but I am not sure. Her eggs are usually light blue and have a bumpy texture. I certainly collected 5/5 EE eggs on the 24th. Could she be entertaining the idea of going broody? Hopefully? And not something more serious?

 

[Beekissed]

Got a question for you all, chicken related. I could go create a thread…. but I truly trust you all-- your honestly and experience.

MJ, my fav white EE has been spending a lot of time in the nest box. She has been in it the past two nights at bed time, and spent a good amount of time in it the other day. If I approach her in it she just quietly bock bock bocks, no puffing up and no attacking me when I take the eggs out from under her. I can remove her from the nest and she goes along like there are no problems, eating scratching drinking. She looks good. She pooped normal. Feeling her hind end and belly seems normal to me (though the number of hind ends and chicken bellies that I have felt can be limited to her and chica for reference… they have totally different builds). The last egg that I am certain she laid was on the 24th. She may have laid the 25th, but I am not sure. Her eggs are usually light blue and have a bumpy texture. I certainly collected 5/5 EE eggs on the 24th. Could she be entertaining the idea of going broody? Hopefully? And not something more serious?

Sounds like she is playing with the idea of broodiness but is not fully committed. Those birds I just evict from the nest when I find them or, if I really want to break them, try another method to break the pseudo broody out of them...when they are not committed to the job, they are neither good for being a mama nor are they producing, so they need a broody buster solution.

You could try leaving a few eggs under her in a nest all her own and see if she gets more serious...if not, I'd break her of it if you are needing the eggs.

 

[Windy Bay Farm]

Amen! We don't have to be anxious for anything, do we? We can let our requests be made known to God, with thanksgiving, and the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Hallelujah for that! Take a look at my baby garden..just starting to get some growth....but no muddy paths, thanks to clover!

My goodness that is one heck of a beauty of a garden, Bee !! Looking so nice and neat... I'm a tad bit jealous !

Girls, I don't know what your weather or day is like where you live but I must tell you about this glorious day! The honeysuckle has started to bloom...the smell is most heavenly and redolent of summer. The sky is so blue and the clouds tower white and fluffy over the house like mansions built in the sky. The lawn is greening and growing, with buttercups, clover and little purple flowers all over the meadow...I just saw my bluebird rising from the flowers into a tree and the flash of blue was like a blessing to my heart....God has made all these wonderful things...just breathed them into existence! How amazing is that? It's hot here but there's a little breeze...it's humid but not deathly so. I took a break from spreading lime, potting flowers and spreading mulch in the heat of the day to sit in front of a fan and drink the best well water around these parts...crystal cold and spring fed. Going to kick back and wait for the hottest part of the day to pass us over, to fellowship with some wonderful women, and to praise God, from Whom all blessings flow. I dearly hope you all are having as wonderful a day as I am having...or even better! If you haven't been outside to see the things God has made, try to take a break and breathe in that summer smell....soils, grass, humidity and sunshine....it will be like breathing in the love straight from the Lord, because He made it all for our enjoyment and pleasure.

Amen and Amen !!

 

[heartsizedfarm]

Got a question for you all, chicken related. I could go create a thread…. but I truly trust you all-- your honestly and experience.

[COLOR=333333]MJ, my fav white EE has been spending a lot of time in the nest box. She has been in it the past two nights at bed time, and spent a good amount of time in it the other day. If I approach her in it she just quietly bock bock bocks, no puffing up and no attacking me when I take the eggs out from under her. I can remove her from the nest and she goes along like there are no problems, eating scratching drinking. She looks good. She pooped normal. Feeling her hind end and belly seems normal to me (though the number of hind ends and chicken bellies that I have felt can be limited to her and chica for reference… they have totally different builds). The last egg that I am certain she laid was on the 24th. She may have laid the 25th, but I am not sure. Her eggs are usually light blue and have a bumpy texture. I certainly collected 5/5 EE eggs on the 24th. Could she be entertaining the idea of going broody? Hopefully? And not something more serious?[/COLOR]

Sometimes if I have a sick one she does use the nesting boxes to hide out and back off from the crowd.

 

[LindaB220]

We are about in the same zones...supposedly we are zone 6 but I'm thinking that has changed with the recent climate changes. We have very clay soil also, so this is a great way to keep them from compacting. You don't have to cut the clover as it only grows so high but if it does grow higher than you like you can just mow it down...the pieces that fly over to the plants can be green mulch.

That's not plain black plastic but suppression "cloth" which is a very thin plastic with perforations all through it to allow for water and heat exchange....very thin but very tough. They use it mostly in landscaping to suppress weeds but allow for moisture retention and weed suppression. The commercial growers use it also. This is the first year we've tried it...it's a little pricey for my taste but we really wanted to see how well it worked. So far we really like it. The worms love it as well, which is all good in my book.

We are a little leery of using plain black plastic in gardens....my sis did that one year and saw it moving one morning. She pulled back the plastic to find many, many snakes had taken up residence under there to solarize themselves in the morning....all kinds of snakes. Yeah..nightmares.

ETA: We will use the same pathways of clover for a couple of years or more, only plowing the rows. We replant the rows to clover for the fall. Then, eventually, we plow up the whole place and put the rows where the pathways used to be and just keep that cycle going...it's a good way to rotate the crops and amend the soils.

I absolutely love the look of this. Unfortunately I bought red clover.

On another note, I've got my first eggs in the incubator. Sitting at 99-100 The humidity was 70 so I took out a little water. I'd like to keep it at 45 or so until day 18. Also one question, I let the shipped eggs sit out for 24 hrs as requested. They said to not turn on the turner for up to 36 hr but I think I want to start it in the morning. I started them at 6 pm. This is just thoughts through reading. Anybody have any different advice? Total bonkers today.

Something to end my day on , a wonderful site I saw and shared.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152148962997499

 

[Beekissed]

I absolutely love the look of this. Unfortunately I bought red clover.

On another note, I've got my first eggs in the incubator. Sitting at 99-100 The humidity was 70 so I took out a little water. I'd like to keep it at 45 or so until day 18. Also one question, I let the shipped eggs sit out for 24 hrs as requested. They said to not turn on the turner for up to 36 hr but I think I want to start it in the morning. I started them at 6 pm. This is just thoughts through reading. Anybody have any different advice? Total bonkers today.

Something to end my day on , a wonderful site I saw and shared.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10152148962997499

And such a handsome man, too....very cute!

My boys sing along with Taylor Swift's "Our Song" and it's hilarious to hear and see...they even had a whole bus of soldiers singing along with it~in the girly voices~once.

I used the red clover once in a mix with the white clover...the red got very, very tall! Pretty, but leggy and tall, so I had to take a weed eater to the paths because I was up to my knees in clover.

I'm pretty much a newbie at incubating, so I'm sure someone will chime in on that.....I'm just a cardboard box type of incubator-er....