a little father's day math...

Okay. Wow. I decided this morning, being Father's Day, I would do some math to feel good. I wanted to figure out just how much square footage of planting space we have and are going to plant. First, I started with just the two gardens. Then I realized we have lots and lots of raised beds and planting spaces. Plus the arbor. Plus the greenhouse. Plus the berry patch. Wow. After spending lots of time measuring, then some more time converting and adding, I came up with 135' x 228' of actual planting space. That's veggies and herbs and a few flowers (we don't have many of those! Most of our space is for herbs and veggies!). If I did the math right, that's 30,780 square footage of planting space available. Again, wow. I do feel blessed!

A week of finds:

1. Grape vines for the arbor, from the Alpine sharing gardens.

2. Free canopy for Tigger, found on a craigslist ad.

3. Another bamboo pole, another roost for the birds! That's two 8' roosts for 21 birds... more than enough space!

4. We discovered we have to have a pre-hatch tracking system for broody hens. I am developing the system now. Watch for updates!

5. Sunshine! I expect to have the garden tilled by Monday evening!

6. The weed-eater has died,... long live the weed-eater.... found an electric replacement at goodwill for $10. I believe it was donated because the spool was a complete tangled mess. This proved to be an easy, simple fix.

7. Feed store only 8 miles away has the same local feed at the same price as the feed store 18 miles away!

8. Two huge saw horses. Free w/ the truck canopy!

9. Neighbor is looking for locals that will ride her horses! The Queen & Isabelle are really digging this one!

Weekly Update: chicken herding, lopped limbs, and greenhouse jungle...

-Those rascally chickens! trying to keep them from going down the driveway to the road, or out of the front yard even, is turning out to be a fun challenge! Although they killed my miner's lettuce, they still seem to be a source of amusement every single day! I am so entertained by how intelligent they are, and by their individual personalities (naturally). Big Momma is still rooster her 1 egg. The babies are getting HUGE! some are as big as the layers now!

-Jack & I did some simple pruning around the yard today. Mostly around the arbor. Got to let that sun shine in!

-Some of our starts are going in the ground this week... And high time to do it! It is a practical jungle in there! Not to mention the untrimmed grass that is now at chest level - oops... never trimmed it when we put the greenhouse up, and now that the weed-eater is broke, it looks like I will have to pull it out by hand! I plan on laying some sort of ground cover in there when I am done...

-Helped Jack haul in his Hot Tub, and got to planning more of our hot tub adventure. Same place, but now that my shoulders lifted part of the 800lbs of his empty, figured I better start planning the footing structure and getting it done, because once it's in, it's in!

-Just found out that Glory Bee sells their second-hand 55 gallon food grade barrels, for $10 - That's $5 better than the other place I found, and I believe they are closer! So the rain harvesting system is on!