Coming up for air after almost a solid week of being glued to my laptop, following Iron Dog Snow Machine racers on GPS & comments on Iron Dog Group (FB). Family & the Iron Dog Group are the only reasons I tolerate FB (and Facebook Purity that lets me knock out the majority of the cr@p .... I couldn’t stay on it without FBP).
Anyway, I did get some seeds ordered this week - Dragon’s Egg and Diva cukes and a kale variety called “Dazzling Blue Kale”. I just liked the name of the kale ... plus my dad is on a kale ‘kick’. At the local nursery (went very early .... before the guys were on the trail one morning), I found seeds for French Breakfast radishes, Nero Toscana kale, Jalafuego jalapeno peppers, Jade bush beans (have never grown beans before), & Tokyo Long White onions - bunching/scallions. I’ll buy my tomatoes & bell peppers in 4-packs, already 3-4 inches high) when they come in - very cheap & I’ve always had good luck with them from this nursery. Now I have to figure out my garden plan - I had one more or less in mind, but that’s out the window with some of the ‘extra’ seeds I got this year.
I’m working on ideas to protect plants that are going to have to be outside my veggie raised beds fencing for me to get everything planted. Deer love radishes, parsley & I’ve had them lean over a fence & munch the tops out of tomato plants .... crows like a lot of things too - they’ve stolen tomatoes & pecked up young zucchinis & eggplants in years past. The garden is out in the open enough that I generally do not have to worry about rabbits/squirrels - they’re afraid of the hawks that hang around our place. I’m thinking of simple, cheap frames for bird netting - that would probably do it.
Anyway, the weather is still nuts .... 30-40 one day, high 60-low 70’s the next. We normally take a risk planting in April - late April/early May is when we can usually get things in the ground (but still have to be ‘watchful’ for the odd very cold nights). January/February have gone by pretty fast - I’m thinking March is going to drag a bit because I want to get in the garden so badly.
Last thing - the fox got another 2 chickens in broad daylight this past week. There is one laying hen left. There is a very old ‘retired’ hen as well - the two are now in the same coop and appear to be liking each others company. This coop is totally secure at night and has buried wire & a tight door. The other coop was mostly secure at night, but the run had no buried wire & this last massacre, the fox got in the door down at the corner. My SIL saw the fox 2 days later - big, beautiful red one, just sitting in the deer food plot, surveying the chicken coop scene. My guess is it’s a female that is going to have kits under the barn - in previous years, when the fox had kits under the barn, my SIL lost a lot of chickens. So .... looks like maybe some chicks are in the future for this spring to replace the laying hens. I loved those hens ... great egg layers & interesting personalities, too.
PS - 4-H lamb update - my great-nieces, ages 6 & 3.5 have their very first lambs this year! The never-handled-before wild “woolies”, after 3 weeks, are now eating food out of the girls’ hands, standing (instead of running away) to be patted, wearing halters, & (mostly) leading around the barn. They’re still a little stubborn at times, but the leading gets better every day! The girls are doing a great job taming/training the lambs. They have a 4-H show the end of April & the lambs need to be ready to show by then.
Sorry to read about the predation on your chickens! We have the same problem, with the new addition of fisher cats. They are wicked! And their scream will make your hair stand up. We ended up electrifying the perimeter fence around the chicken pastures. Worked very well. But then last week in the barn a possum got two of the laying hens before we caught him. Darn it.