I have spent a fairly productive day (for me) in between duckling watching sessions. Planted a Rose of Sharon in the yard near the pond. Scrounged up left-over chicken wire to protect garden plantings: 2 lemon cucumber plants, an ollalie berry bush, a climbing rose, some woefully pot-bound iris plants, a wisteria, and some previously planted tomato plants. Need more containers to hold 3 more tomato plants, and a watermelon start. I have a second ollalie and a raspberry to plant, too. Dragged the empty garbage can from the road. My neighbors pick theirs up and transport them home in the back of their pick-ups, but it's a shorter and straight shot for me to get it there and back home. It used to be a real trial for me to do this, but not any more, ever since I started walking to and from Gray's Corner every few days. I no longer need to stop for a rest on the way there. Before the rain stopped, I washed 2 small rugs and a runner, tidied up the plastic-covered coffee table where the house chickens perch at night, and moved the turkey poult and its 5 tutors from their brooder cage to a larger brooder bin. Sparkle the House Silkie has not only kicked her four chicks to the curb, but she's gone broody again as of today. The two cockerels are both starting to crow, but they still want to snuggle with her. Tomorrow I will select three or four eggs from the flock for Sparkle.... I think. I do have to figger out a way to kick all four Sparkle-raised chicks out into the general flock population so they sleep in the main coop. Punkin just came in with her 3 chicks and settled into their dog bed nest. She has been taking them everywhere all over the yard. She uses the secret hole in one gate... (Sparkle only took hers out into the fenced garden, but that's because SHE has never been outside of the garden herself.) It's almost time to let the Easter chicks out of their mini-coop and small run to mingle with the rest of the flock.
