Another Picture Post

Another day of working outside, and getting prepared for what could be a big storm tonight. 

The last thing I'll do this evening is go around and make sure all tools are in a building, so that nothing can be a projectile in high wind.  

Keith and I sat on the porch and talked a while ago, and the winds began picking up, as the weatherman said they would. 

There was still dappled sun at that point, but it's gone now and the clouds have come over. 

Lovely, I left the screens in the picture, they are ready to go to the hardware store, and maybe this time Lilly will leave them alone. 

This, my friends, is what happens when uncomposted wheat straw is put on a garden bed.  

Wheat is coming up!  

Actually, it looked like grass, but I hoed it out this afternoon and put another top dressing on the bed. 

This is the wild bird feeder area... with about a thousand sunflower seedlings coming up. 

I won't let them get very far along. 

Here's one of the hens using the 4 x 4 pen I wrote about last night.  You see that they got in there today and made some soft holes where they could stay cool and bathe. 

I know it's hard to see in this picture, but all three chicks are out from under Nugget here.  Two yellows and a brown.  She's still setting the other eggs, but I seriously doubt that any will hatch at this point. 

I've been wrong before, though. 

I'm just praying these aren't 3 little cockerels. 

I'm cleaning up in the old hoophouse, and look what I discovered!  The English Lavender from last year has greened up beautifully!  

I was going to plant only herbs in the old hoophouse this year, but I've gone and done something different on a whim: 

I've planted granex onions in the whiskey barrels where we planted tomatoes last year. 

I stopped at my favorite nursery, Howard Pines, in Lawrence today, just to take a look at what was going on there.  The gentleman in charge was kind enough to take me back into their work area, where I could see the seed starting medium they are using.  They mix it with sterilized soil and a type of vermiculite material, (though not vermiculite)... the sterilizer was right there and running.  I am going to buy a bag of this material, I really liked it.  

Look at the heucheras: 

Yum. 

The weatherman says we are going to the thirties for the last two days of this week.  I'll be very glad when Mother Nature gets her weather worked out! 

And that's it for a spring afternoon from Calamity Acres. 

PS

Howard Pine's always puts a sign up in their greenhouses: 

"It's not time yet to plant your tomatoes and peppers"....

soon, that will change to: 

"Go ahead, it's time!"