Let nature take it's course (this one could be long)

What a couple of weeks. I don't even know where to begin really. Since the tale has been told of the John Deere, I will add only that the search for sheep is on. We (and by we, i mean, me) has settled on Katahdin Sheep. They are a good breed of meet sheep, that were developed in Maine (developed. . . that makes them sound genetically engineered. . .eeeek). They are hair sheep not wool sheep (sorry Laura), but still cute as a button and very prolific. On top of mowing our lawn the potential exists to fill our freezer and maybe sell a lamb to offset feed costs.

And so spring has sprung and now it is officially official. i shared the excitement of our new incubator?! Well. . . i never did get the darned thing calibrated (though i have ordered some new parts for it). Alas, i thought to myself no baby turkeys this year - not that we need more than the 12 or so that are in the freezer anyway. Then one day a few weeks ago we lost a hen. She had escaped, or so i thought.

One afternoon while collecting eggs, i heard some really weird noises from under the turkey coop. It turns out that our "missing" hen has been brooding a clutch of eggs underneath the turkey coop this whole time. Yes, she is part groundhog i guess. She has been sitting there faithfully on who knows how many eggs. Two fell from the nest some time last night, so i candled them this morning and confirmed that they are indeed fertile. . . "Let nature take it's course."
The baby chickens have started arriving. Some will go to Pearson's Town for the summer. The rest will offset our supply as we are dividing the existing flock with the Hogans. We are adding some new varieties including broilers this year. Stay tuned for that circus. . .

And yes, i won the war. . . sort of. Amy let me "grow" the garden. It is now about three times the square footage of the house. So yes, i won the verbal war. . . but. . . the actual expansion itself - the sod is killing me!!! i don't ever remember having to hit a patch of yard this hard with the tiller. We have used both a hand tiller AND a tractor and still the soil isn't fully turned. It's evil grass i tell you, EVIL. Stupid European grasses!!!! The chickens are enjoying the slow progress, and i will appreciated it later. As i make passes they have been coming in and feeding on the grubs, worms, and various other pests that have been lurking in the sod. Green pest control at it's finest.

Now my hope is that i can get the beds prepped in time to get the starts in. Nothing worse than crops that grow tiny heads because the plant became root bound in their cells. . .