Yesterday started out in the worst way possible. Death is never very far away when you’re raising livestock. Poor little duckie. A female, too. Every time a predator kills, it provokes feelings of grief, impotent rage and violation. Guilt over not having protected those who depend on me and frustration and – most of all – […]
Of course now that I have way too many chicks, two of my hens go broody at the same time. Almost the same time. This hen sat on her eggs for 2 weeks or so ( more than 2/3 total incubation time) And then one night I opened the nest box to find this one […]
So the bees have been weird lately. First, despite my best efforts (checkerboarding the brood frames, adding on multiple supers which they persist in completely ignoring) both Darjeeling and Lady Grey swarmed. In fact Lady Grey produced two swarms. Which both obligingly rested side by side on a smooth vinyl fence and made for the very easiest bee […]
Stuff is doing so well in the greenhouse that it’s making me wish I’d done this years ago. I have never grown peas this exuberant, never grown lettuce and spinach with such gorgeous, unblemished leaves. Here’s how the main bed looked in there in early April: That red-and-yellow box is a worm compost bin. An old cat […]