It's officially summer. Shayne and I celebrated by doing a bunch of yard work this morning. We had a big tree limb come down about a week ago after a semi truck bumped it. Luckily, our neighbor has a chainsaw, and he came over to help out. We gave him the cut-up pieces to use as firewood. Then, two days later, about a quarter of the tree came crashing down. It's been struck by lightning several times, and I'm guessing that the shock from the semi was just the straw the broke the camel's back. This section was HUGE, and we had to call a tree trimmer. Thankfully, the trimmers cut everything into small-ish pieces, and Shayne loaded them in the truck and took them to a friend of ours.
We finished mowing, trimming, and cleaning up the front, then I went out to work on the garden. There was tons of crab grass mixed in with the onions, but I think I managed to only pull grass and no bulbs. The tomato bed was surprisingly weed-free, and the bed with the cukes and sweet potatoes only had a few.
The chickens are about a month old and pretty well feathered. I've been letting them have the run of the coop, instead of confining them to the hen house. Today, I'm allowing them to venture outside. They're staying right by the coop, happily eating bugs, mulberries, and grass. I worry that they'll get eaten, but I feel bad if I keep them inside the coop. I suppose that even if they are killed, at least they've lived happy lives just being chickens. However, I want them to live long, happy chicken lives, so I'm keeping a close eye on them.
Much of the rest of the yard looks like a jungle. The mosquitoes have been terrible, so it's been hard to get out there to take care of things. We are seriously considering spraying, even though I'm generally against that kind of thing. Now that the chicks are running around, I'm even more hesitant. We'll see.
Strawberries have finally come in, and I've been gorging myself on fresh fruit. My local eating has gone out the window a little bit; I've bought pineapple, cantaloupe, and watermelon so that I could make a fruit salad. I'll use pregnancy as an excuse. I don't want to eat many veggies, and fruit just sounds soooo good. I've been having a hard time with food, so I figure I'll just eat what I want, when I can.
I found a bread machine on ebay for about $25 last week. I can and have made bread without, but I figured I'd give it a go to see if it's easier. Since the bread we buy is almost $4 per loaf, if I can quickly and easily make my own, the machine will pay for itself in a week or two. I thought it might be a worthwhile purchase that will help us save money when I'm off work.
We still have so much to do before the babies get here. I'm 12 weeks along, and it seems like this pregnancy is just flying by...
That great to hear the the pregnancy is flying by and that the garden is producing lots of berries! I find that if you stay on top of the weeding the plants will grow better root systems and produce more, plus you are never forced to week for hours on end (which usually causes me to weed out some of my veggie plants in the process!).
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