Random Updates

As I have so many things going on, I thought I'd update on a handful of them:

• The chicks in the brooder are doing great!  Only 7 casualties, which out of 200 chicks is very good indeed.  They've doubled in size at nearly one week old.
• The gardens are growing, with the corn, beans and winter squash all sprouted.  The front gardens look especially happy after the heavy rains of yesterday.
• The pullets in the Big Shed Coop are very pleased with themselves and have started roosting at night instead of snuggling on the floor.  This makes me glad, as up in the air is a little safer location to take a nap!
• All the kits are doing just fine in the rabbitry, growing like little sausages.  Magda has eight surviving kits, and Little Mama has her five.  That makes for a whole lot of babies!  The teenagers, which amounts to four remaining does, are ready for processing.  Hopefully, I'll get that done this weekend so some of the babies can be moved out to new quarters.  I think Little Mama is more than ready for her brood to move out.  They keep laying on her head, which doesn't look very comfortable for their poor mother.
• The hoophouse is exploding with growth.  I have never seen such happy tomatoes, tomatillo and pepper plants.  The tomatillo plants in particular are thick trunked and sturdy, like little leafy sumo wrestlers.
• The beans in the Community Garden plot have sprouted and look good, although slightly waterlogged after the rain.  Now to keep them safe from maurading deer and gophers.  There's always a challenge in gardening, isn't there?
• I think I've finalized my plan for this year's version of chicken tractor...which is good, since I need to build a whole bunch of them in the next couple of weeks!  Now I just need to get the stuff and start building.
• The goldfish in the stock "pond" are still alive and swimming.  They seem to be feeding on the water plants (that are multiplying rapidly) and stray bugs that fall into the water.
• Lucy the feral hen is still broody, and still wants to bite when she is removed from her clutch of eggs.  Evil Lucy.  Bad hen.

There you have it: the news from Quarter Acre Farm.  I'm off to put some chickens to bed, and then it is back to the sewing machine for me.  I have a whole pile of pillows to cover, and too many fabrics to choose from.  Oh, the options....