Backyard Farmgals

Our backyard farm is the proud owner of week-old baby chicks.  They came in the mail to the SLC airport last Monday.  It was a mad panic as we rushed to get kids out of bed, dressed and fed so that we could pick up the chicks.  All thirty were alive and well inside their packing crate and were peeping away. The first thing that we did was bring them to their new home.  The temporary chick housing is a large plywood box that we can unscrew and lay flat for storage.  In the bottom, we put untreated pine chips.  It is important that the chips are not treated by any chemicals because the chicks like to peck at them and I am sure that they manage to swallow a chip or two.  We also turned on the heat lamps.  We have two lamps and they are above the tiny coop suspended about 18-inches off of the ground.  You will know if your light is too high or low by how the chicks act.  If it is too high, they will huddle together to stay warm.  If ...

This was a huge week for all of us gardening fools.  Unfortunately for me, it rained every single day that I had off work and was sunny and beautiful on the days that I was gone.  I was fortunate enough to almost break a few bones in my foot on Tuesday which got me off work early on Thursday and Friday.  If you think that I promptly went home and iced, elevated and rested my foot like a good nurse, you are mistaken!  I painfully donned my garden boots and went to plant garden #2.   With Woodman’s help, we have been able to terrace the garden at my mom’s house which gave us the opportunity to square-foot part of it.  I got almost everything planted.  I am still a little leery about the basil and a few other plants, it’s just too blasted cold for the most tender things.  If summer ever gets here, I will have pesto from my basil! The potatoes are popping up through the ground.  I started to hill dirt around the plants.  It is so exciting...