What did you do in the garden today?

And I talked to the folks at Farr's (Farr's Has Everything!) and they said getting canning jars and lids is going to be even harder than it was last year. That their supplier is rationing them out a tiny bit at a time. I know the Walmart I do my grocery pickups from has been out of everything for months, the while I still see some on Amazon, the prices they're asking are insane. Not likely to be many in yard sales here since this is such a small rural town and just about everyone cans so I'll have to start hitting the Coos Bay yard sales I guess. @WthrLady, you said you reused lids? How do you go about it?
I know it's not a good idea and we're not supposed to, but I have re-used some lids after water-bath canning. I'd love to buy new if I could find any, but there are never any in stock at any of the stores I go to!

I try to be really careful when opening a jar, so as not to bend or put a dent in the lid, or to put any rips or scrapes in the rubbery edge surface where it seals. I only re-use it if there are no dents, bends, rust, and after closely inspecting the seal and making sure there are no faulty spots or places where it's detaching. So maybe one out of every three or four lids, I use a second time, but only for fermented/pickled products. And of course, I make sure the new jar I use it on gets a good seal.

I realize it's a risk and I'm not recommending this to anybody, just saying I've done this and never had bad results.
 
Sunny and 40 today. There is going to be bare ground soon! I left the pitchfork on the front porch so I can test the compost pile every day to see when it's thawed enough to turn. That stuff will be the basis of my potting soil this year.

Lots of sunny days coming up. Abnormally sunny. I like abnormal when it's like this.
 
I’m so close to being done with the fence. I’m sick of building the fence that Id rather weed. Hopefully I can finish it in the next 2 days.
Yesterday, I got the collards, cauliflower, broccoli and cabbage in the ground and part of the spinach. for about the last 30 minutes I had a flock of wild turkeys hanging out in the garden with me. I also got a little hand weeding done.
Today I’d like to finish most of the fence and prep the soil for the daylily, beets, chard and carrots. I’d also like to prep the soil for the Iris and weed the main garden but I doubt I’ll have time.
 
Good morning gardeners. Still frozen here in New England. I can't get into the big garden because the gates are still frozen in several inches of ice and snow. We are anticipating a big warm up next week, enough warmth that will likely wake up Yogi and friends. A pack of coyotes stormed through the neighborhood the night before last. OMG it was like a nightmare. They were moving so fast they must have been stalking a deer. The chickens were fine, but I did not get any eggs yesterday. I'll be replacing the plastic fence around the chicken coop with something a bit more substantial when the ground thaws. Since that area is over the septic drain field I can't really plant in it, but I can put containers on top of it. More gardening space, I like that. I finally made the trip to HD. I picked up the paint for my kitchen cabinets and more seeds. I misplaced my rutabaga seeds so I was hoping to find some there. No luck. I'll keep looking. Still debating whether to plant butternut squash this year. I was hoping to find seeds for the bush variety that doesn't spread as much and has smaller squash. I'm waiting until next week to begin seed starting. In the meantime I started scraping the wallpaper in the hallway just beyond the kitchen. What I thought would be easy is a real pain. This wallpaper is the thin papery stuff and much harder to remove than the other stuff. Oh well, at least it's a small hallway. As soon as the ice cap thaws from around the fruit trees I'll be pruning them up. You asked about the tunnel cover @Sueby, I used heavy plastic, nothing else. I may do this again in a different bed when the iceberg covering the garden recedes. I have two types of kale to try this year. My neighbor had very good luck with the dinosaur kale or black lettuce as some call it. My favorite is the curly kale but I'll be happy with whatever grows.
 
Whew! Seeds for tomatoes and peppers and gourds planted in cells or small pots.

Today plan to start some Marigold seeds.


Once again, I'm starting a lot of varieties of peppers and tomatoes. but, I will refrain from overcrowding the tomato bed - a weakness I have. More garden space for me as my 4H kid will not be doing a garden project this year.

Chickens cavorting in the garden the other day:

DIRT!!
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GRASS!! (it is Rye and Winter peas as green manure - will turn over to rot soon)
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COMPOST!! Three of our four oldest chickens - Age 3 years old.
Kili is in the back, Sylvia is in the middle, and Galadriel is the white EE.
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Running away from me, but here is a 1.5 year old BJG female and Red Dorking Female. The BJG has gotten fairly large.
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Currently the only male. He is a Black Langshan. He is 7 months old. He seems to not yet have claimed the throne of flock leader. Can't say we've seen him mount any of the girls and he seems to steer clear of the girls in general. He IS the youngest chicken in the flock, however. So, I guess he will need a surge of hormones, that will most likely hit soon with the increase of light, in order to decide to take on his role of flock leader and protector.
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I walked the dog out "to the sign," ie, the stop ahead sign. We came back through the field, and there is still 4-5" of hard packed snow. Because it's still well below freezing at night, you can walk on top of it.

So while I'm eager for the big thaw, it's nice to be able to walk through the field and not get wet feet.

Gonna stab the compost pile with the pitchfork later and see how it's coming.
 
YAY? It's wildfire season.
Might wash windows later today MIGHT
WIll put up saw horses in the pop-up, check the seed trays, hope to do the nest boxes. I'd rake the wayward gravel driveway from the lawn and the neighbor's road edge, but there's flint mixed in the gravel and I'm not putting a steel rake to that on top of tinder dry grass. LOL.

I'll be spreading fertilizer in the fields as soon as I can locate it, but I can spread the water retention material with the tractor before the next rain.
 
@Wee Farmer Sarah I hate wallpaper removal. Even done right it can be a tremendous pain depending on how old and what kind and what kind of glue. I have a few tricks though if it might help. Score it with a box knife first, spritz with water/dawn dish soap mix, let soak for ten-fifteen minutes, then scrape. There are more heavy duty methods, and if you like I can query DH for them. He's a professional handyman and has been there done that a few times.

Our snow yesterday didn't start to stick until... um, about 6 last night. Now there's a layer of ice on everything under an inch or less of snow. That translates to waiting to go outside for anything until the ice melts, for safety reasons. I'm not allowed to fall on my butt or otherwise until September.

Sprouts are looking good, still wondering about the basil, waiting on that spinach. Eternally waiting for the spinach... I swear I'm going to start calling this variety eternal spinach instead of bloomsdale.
 

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