Savannah Scrapbooking

RIP Geraldine... (I'm pretty sure there's a lesson to be learned here.)

Poor Geraldine!  Our little red hen, the ONLY frickin' hen we had that was actually earning her keep around here by laying an egg a day, has gone to the great chicken farm in the sky.

Yep. She's dead. 

And unlike the untimely demise of Echo, our Rhode Island Red, at the clutches of some wild chicken-ass eating predator, Geraldine's death was self induced. 

See, about a month ago, we brought home two new baby chicks (and for some reason I NEVER took pics of them...bad scrapbooker!) The chicks have been living in a pen in my mom's workshop for the last few weeks, while we waited for them to grow their real feathers. 

So last Friday, Big Dave built a barrier in our chicken coop so that we could release the babies into it without having them get pecked to death by the big chickens... simple right?  Oh sure, anywhere else in the world it would be simple, but not in Dhuland.  Our motto is, "If something CAN go wrong, it WILL go wrong."

And sure enough it did.

Maybe it's just a coincidence, I dunno, but Big Dave put the babies into their separate pen, Geraldine went bat-shit-crazy, flapping her wings and squawking at the interlopers, and the next day she was DEAD.

Dead as a fat red chicken on an old dirt floor.

Big Dave said it looked like she had been on her roost, took a HUGE dump, and fell backwards dead on the ground. I think she gave herself a heart attack over those damned babies!

And now we're left with Edith, who is a full on looney bird, that refuses to lay eggs no matter what we try, and two babies who won't lay their first eggs for months.  Grrrrr.... chicken drama.

Now I'm gonna have to buy eggs from the grocery story... bah humbug!  I've gotten quite spoiled with our little one egg a day hen house. 

Awww, poor Geraldine.  I'm gonna miss that fluffy lady.  RIP my dear faithful egg provider.

(And no we didn't eat her.)

I think the moral of the story here is that old birds shouldn't get themselves all worked up over young chicks.  Hmmmm... Yes, that works on a couple different levels doesn't it? 

;)

 

 

The First Harvest!!

Guess what's for dinner tonight?!?!?!

Chuckle~~

My first shirt tail full of happiness came this morning, as things in the Dhuland garden are starting to rev up...

I'd have like to let the zucchini grow a little larger, but the damned chickens pecked at it leaving it with an open wound that would no doubt attract insects or rot, so it got plucked early.

Damn chickens.

Good thing we like 'em. 

In fact we like 'em SO much that Big Dave and I expanded their coop this past weekend.  We brought two new baby chicks home last month (still haven't taken any pics of them... BAD mama) and decided that if we were going to expand the flock, we needed to give them a little more room to roam.  So we lifted the roof of the coop from the back-breaking 3.5 foot height to almost 6 feet. 

That's some hot, nasty work right there let me tell you...

Ah, there's something so speshal about sweating your balls off with the man of your dreams, covered in chicken shit.  Good times, yes... good times.

But now the ladies can fly up to a high bar in their coop and stretch their wings, which should make them happy chickens.  And we all know what happen chickens mean... more eggs!  Well, maybe... Edith has been protesting for months, and I'm just not sure what her reaction is going to be when we introduce the new pullets...er, teenage chickens, into the coop. But, she better start poppin' out some damn eggs is all I'm sayin.

I could always add chicken to the stir fry~

 

Buckets o' gold...

So far, so good... y'all have heard me griping about my bad squash luck in years past, but at the risk of jinxing their progress, I must take a moment to celebrate the progress of my bucket babies...

We've got a proliferation of females...

...and the blooms just keep coming...

I keep checking them for squash vine borers... those evil little bastards, and the coast has been clear.  If this works then I'll be hunting down some more big buckets to fill with my black gold mixture.  It's definitely true that soil preparation is a priority!

Come on squashies... grow babies grow!!

Chicken and rice... and some garden pics too!

It was a nice night, with the exception of all things flying and biting, so while Big Dave was throwing some horseshoes I decided to grab the camera and snap some pics.

As always, I'm up to eyeballs with oak leaves.  Grrrr... but they'll come in handy as 'mulch' later in the season.  The beds look kind of barren and forelorn at the moment, but there's all kinds of goodness preparing to burst forth from the soil. 

The bed closest to the camera houses peppers and some herbs.  Bed two is bean central, bed three will be where the canteloupes hang out with their pals, the okra. And finally the last bed will be full of squashies and zukes. 

The squash and zukes in the big blue barrels are lookin' pretty stellar already, with a few buds peeking through the foliage...

Like my protective attire? When the gnats and skeets are sucking you to the point of anemia, you'll do anything for some relief.  Little bastards.

 Awwww... lookit this little cutie!  Hi there precious... Mama's gonna eat you up reeeeeal soon.  The 'maters are coming! The 'maters are coming!

And speaking of cuties, have you seen a two year old onion plant when it's gone to seed?

Isn't it pretty?

Looks like one of the muppets and smells like an onion.  Cool right?

 

Garden in Progress...

I can't believe it's April and I still don't have the Dhuland garden fully planted.  And it's gotten SO hot... SO fast that I feel like I'm way far behind the ol' proverbial 8 ball.  Eeek! 

The bucket plants are doing great, but I've been procastinating on the raised beds.  So, tonight I finally sweet talked Big Dave into cranking up the tiller for me, and I got the beds cultivated, weeded and top dressed with compost.

I sank the peppers, caged the 'maters and popped some pea and cantaloupe seeds in the fresh beds... all the while, swatting skeets, sand gnats and May flies.  Grrrr....

But I got 'er done, and need to do a little more pondering about what else I want to put in.  I forgot to buy cuke seeds, so I need to head back to the Depot maybe tomorrow.  And then I've got to weed eat the walkways, and set up the irrigation system (der, a sprinkler on a timer.) 

And invest in some more bugspray... STAT.

 

A trip through the garden (that once was...)

Here we are at the finish line of my summer garden... otherwise known as WEEDFEST 2011. 

 
Sigh, it's always a bit sad when the heat, bugs and weeds take their toll on the Dhuland garden, and each year I swear that I'm going to overhaul it and plant a fall crop. 

But then I look at it...

 
~shudder~

And I think, "Aw heck let's just wait for some good ol' bitterly cold temps to wipe this place clean. " 

I mean seriously, even the compost pile is overrun by gourd vines...

 
We've still got some veggies that are steadily performing, like the peppers...

 

These bad boys just don't take no for an answer I tell ya.  Heck, we've got so many jalepenos, I can't keep up... they're turning red on the vine...

 

The six foot tall zinnias feel the same way...

 

The Dhuland garden is also a favorite place for self grooming...

 
Hello Scooter... how 'bout pickin' some of those banana peppers for me please.

So the place is a bit of a mess now, but there's plenty of opportunities to find beauty... let's take a looky...

 
 
 

And I even found a cute little friend peeking out of the grass...
 

Of course some things NEVER change...

 
"Please Mom, Please can I eat just one chicken? huh? huh? huh?"

 

Garden gone WILD...

Somebody grab a machete!  The Dhuland garden has gone willy nilly, helter skelter, boogety woogety.  It's madness out there.

However, if you overlook the tropical rain forest sized weeds that had taken hold before we went on vacation and flourished under the twice daily waterings, courtesy of the hose timer thingy, while we were at the beach for a week, then you might be able to see some of the goodness that was waiting for us when we got back...

 
Uh huh... Big Dave went out to take care of the chickens and came back in with his shirttail full of yumminess.

 
Dang, that there's a decent haul for someone who's been away for a week. 

I am SO thankful that Big Dave got me that automatic waterer, because the last couple of years we've returned home to find our garden charbroiled thanks to the brutal July heat and nonexistent rain.  And then it's always nearly impossible to get the plants jumpstarted again, so we circle the drain for the last couple of months. 

But not this year!  YAY!

In fact, everything is still growing and producing like gangbusters (with the exception of my nemesis, the squash of course.)  And the zinnias that popped up hither and yon without me even planting them are the biggest and most beautiful I've EVER had...

 
They're as tall as Miss Priss, and that ain't no small feat. 

And I think, I hope, I pray that I'll get up bright and early in the morning with the motivation to get out there and whip some weedy asses because it's truly a jungle out there.

Yeehaw!

Okra blossoms and pissy chickens...

I had no idea how pretty an okra blossom could be...

 

Wow... kinda like a pansy eh.  SUPER cool.  And so far my foray into okra growing is going very well. I've got a bag full of the little suckers and will be frying it up for din din reeeeeeeal soon.

Thanks to a break in the drought, my little Dhuland garden is a happy place...

 
The birdbaths are overflowing,

 
...and my rain barrel is slowly but surely beginning to rise.

However, the temps have been crazy hot,

 

...which is REALLY pissing off Edith and Geraldine...

 

They're on strike at the moment... no egg laying in four days.  I'm about to call in the negotiator (a hatchet) if they don't come to their senses.

 
No no, Geraldine... I'm just kidding...really.

(You better lay me a damn egg.)

 

 

Late Spring Windowsill...

 
It's a colorful affair isn't it?

After today's shirttail harvest...

 
...the sill is FULL.  Looks like it's gonna be a salad kinda din din night. 

Now, if only my DAMNED cucumbers would get with the program, take a hint, buck up and take one for the team, and make some babies.  They are, no lie, the bane of my gardening existence. (Along with the dreaded invasion of squash vine borers that have now declared themselves permanent residents in Dhuland.)

Growl...

Quick, somebody change the subject.

I know, let's turn our attention back to happy goodness instead of impotent curcubits and starving larvae. Yes, let me show you my absolute 100% no lie favorite flower in the whole wide world...

 
Hello there my buxom beauty... if I could wrap my yard in nothing but canna lilies, I'd be a happy woman. I've always loved them... seriously, they are my faves, but dangit they're some 'spensive additions to the garden.  So I can only plant them when I get hand-me-downs.  Which means that when my neighbor asked if I wanted a handful of babies I danced like an elf and quickly tucked them into the soil before he could change his mind.  And now they're flashing their dazzling smiles at me every time I walk by. 

I blow them kisses. 

I'm a dork.

And I've forgotten all about my non-existent cukes. 

And the bugs.

And I think I want some salad.

Without cukes.

I'm not bitter.

 

Garden update...

Oh yeah baby, the Dhuland garden is really starting to show its colors this week.  Yesterday I brought in a beautiful assortment of tomatoes, peppers and (yay) my very first okra. 

 
My okra plants have a lot more baby veggies on them, hopefully I'll have enough to toss into some gumbo in the next few days.  The jalepenos and hot banana peppers are rockin' my world, and they are an absolute necessity in my summer salads.

We're seeing some baby cukies (finally) and the squash are covered in male blooms which means the females aren't too far behind.  Hopefully these 90+ temperatures aren't going to fry them before I get a chance to. 

I think the only let down I've had so far is the Russian Prince Black tomatoes... they're nice and pretty with their dark purply coloring, but they're kinda squishy.  Don't get me wrong, I'll still eat 'em, but I don't think I'll plant them again next year. 

All in all, it's a good time to be a veggie lover... yUmmy!