I've been working my current hours at my dispatch job on Saturdays and Sundays, as well as taken over my friend's dog walking business while he surfs all summer in Nicaragua. 40 days straight of work; I have named it the Summer of Doom. Also, our household is changing slightly, so between work and moving peoples in and out (which reminds me, I should introduce our cast of characters soon) I have spent very little time in the yard. I plan to fix that soon, mostly because John will be back from his trip but also I am losing hours at my other job. Time to tighten the belt and stretch my dollars, two very good reasons to spend more time in the garden.
Luckily, everything has been growing really, really well!
Kat and I ate the bok choy in a stir fry, and the butter lettuce has been great for sandwiches and salads. I realized too late that I should have been planting new starts every week to ensure a constant supply, but even without that I'm happy with what we've produced. I have plans to plant a few seeds every week from here on out, and hopefully all those guys do as well as the first ones. Well, except spinach, weirdly enough. I wish I knew what the problem was, but I will have to revisit that at a later date.
The tomato plant is HUGE but so far, just cute tiny yellow flowers. I keep sneaking peeks at our neighbor's plant, to compare, but they look to be in the same stage. I'm worried they just won't get enough sun in our area. Same for Kat's pepper plant and the green beans, which are growing but definitely not with the vigor of our leafy greens.
picnic with homemade bread and our butter lettuce
As for the chickens, Blanche has stopped laying, but i can't tell if it's from age or some other reason. Her feathers lost some color recently, but her weight is still good and she doesn't seem to be different in any other way. I'm paranoid, and at the same time I don't want to know. With the chickens, it seems so easy and yet so hard to get things right. The younger ones are doing well, and I'm hoping they start laying in early August. I'm so paranoid that they won't, but I'm always paranoid so we'll see. Worse case scenario, we find good homes (or harvest them, if I can ever work up the nerve again) and start over when I have more time and resources.
Speaking of which, I look forward to the compost and seed saving classes Garden for the Environment will be holding in August, ones that I will actually be able to attend, yay!
