Plums!!!!

I've been trying to grow fruit for years.  I've had no success from fruit trees, but look:

This is such a beautiful sight!  The tree looks very healthy, and it is covered in little plums for the first time ever.  I'm hopeful....

Gardening 2019

I've been pretty busy in the gardens lately, in between the rains.  As usual, I'm trying to grow more vegetables than I have room for. 

This picture turned out pretty blurry.  It's the old treehouse site, which now has 1 pecan tree, 1 dwarf mulberry, 4 blueberry bushes, 1 rhubarb crown (also shown up close below), 2 hills of cantaloupes, and lots of bok choy and arugula.

These pretty tulips are just getting started.  My early tulips are done, but we have new ones starting to blossom.  You can barely make out the bluebells in the background, which are also blooming now.

This is part of the hugelkultur, which is covered in pea plants but also has loads of arugula, some tomatoes, sunflowers, pumpkins, cabbages, and maybe some sweet potatoes if that late snow didn't kill all of them.

This is one of the two square foot gardens.  This one has mostly kholrabi, but also some radishes and peas.

I planted potatoes in grow bags.  This one is Irish Cobbler, and it is the best looking right now, but the others are also growing well.  I need to add more soil to this one.  I planted three different kinds of potatoes this year.  The others are Kennebec and Red Pontiac.  All of the seed potatoes came from our local Feed and Seed store, which is convenient as well as inexpensive.

I just transplanted the tomatillos outside.  I grew them from seed, and as you can see, they are very healthy plants.  I've got loads of tomatoes in the ground, too, but some of them aren't looking as healthy.  I started them much earlier than usual, and I think they were needing to get into the ground.  I am hoping they look better in a week or so.

Chick Update

The chicks are getting bigger.  They're not in the super-cute fluff ball stage anymore.  

I've opened the side of their pen so they can explore the whole little yard.

They've been enjoying the freedom, but then they scuttle back under the heat lamp.

In this picture, the ISA Brown is on the left, with a Turken behind her.  The other two are Sapphire Gems.

Alleluia!

I hope everyone had a blessed Easter!  I made everyone take pictures after Mass, before they all looked too disheveled!

I fixed a leg of lamb, and it turned out very well.  Nathaniel's parents and a friend joined us for dinner.  The weather was perfect, so the kids got to hunt eggs outside.  

Spring

Spring has really arrived here now, and it's beautiful.  Some of the tulips just opened today:

There are also white, yellow, orange, and red ones just opening up.

Of course, with spring often the storms come.  We had a quick but strong storm this morning, and the power was out for about 6 hours.  Our little chicks need to be kept warm, so I put them in a box and brought them inside.  It was at least 10 degrees warmer in the house, so they resided in the living room until the power came back on:

All ten seem to be just fine, though, and now they are all back in their (much) bigger pen outside under their heat lamp.  

I've been puttering around in the gardens.  I've moved some cool weather crops outside, like cabbages and kholrabi.  I keep wanting to get everything in the ground, but we are still a couple of weeks away from our last frost date, so I'm trying to control myself.  I have moved a couple of warmer crops outside, but they are "extras", so if it does get too cold, it won't matter so much if they die, but if it doesn't get too cold, they should get a head start on growing faster.  We'll see.

All Aboard!

We had one more adventure planned for spring break week - a train ride!  We traveled to New Haven, KY to ride the train.

They have a little museum, and several old train cars around the grounds. Then, of course, there was the actual train ride:

Spring Break Adventures

We had a fun spring break, with lots of little adventures.  Here we are at the St. Louis zoo.  Unfortunately, Gyunay is half-hidden behind Lydia.

Gyunay enjoyed riding on Elijah's shoulders through parts of the zoo.  

We visited Nathaniel's sister for a couple of days.  In addition to the zoo, we got to attend Mass at the Cathedral:

It is so beautiful, and the mosaics inside are breathtaking.  We came back to go through it again, when Mass wasn't being celebrated.

We also celebrated a couple of birthdays.  This little lady turned 10!

And Elijah is 16 now.  We also spent some time with my nieces and nephews.  

Gyunay got sick one day, so there are no pictures of him with the baby.   He recovered fast, though, and was back to playing the next day.

And then we came home and got chicks:

The gray puff balls are Sapphire Gems, and the black one is a Turken.  We have 10 little chicks: 3 Turkens, 6 Sapphire Gems, and 1 Isa Brown.  I'm sure more pictures will be forthcoming as the kids play with them.

March Harvest Totals

March is a lean month, and although the chickens are laying much better, we still got less eggs than February because we lost a couple of hens last month. 

Carrots - 4
Eggs - 157
Microgreens - 1/2c

Next year I'll have to overwinter more carrots.  They are so sweet and delicious!