Mini Roses added to Chicken Garden

These mini roses were added to the chicken garden today:). 

Pig Spaghetti Feast

Made Hammy and Petunia meatless spaghetti for dinner. Thinking I need to make 2 pots next time.... They loved it:)!!! 

Live Trap

The live trap is set... Hoping to catch the fox. Used part of the guinea, canned cat food, and canned dog food as bait... Will see what happens...

Another Dead Bird...

Another dead animal. Found the culprit this time... A fox. Going to set a live trap using part of our dead guinea as bait. Fox are difficult to trap but I am hoping it will find the guinea meat irresistible. Damn it.

Bush VERSUS Vine

Vine cucumbers can climb and sprawl out forever it seems. They produce A LOT of cucs at once. They need a place to grow (up fences, up a tripod, across a LONG garden row). 

Bush cucumbers are great for container gardening and smaller spaces.

I grow both because I enjoy the varieties each produce and having cucs throughout the season. 

Vining tomatos require tomato cages or stakes or another means for them to sprawl and grow to prevent them from breaking. Vining tomatos grow and ripen until a heavy frost kills them. 

Bush tomatos ripen at once and are great for smaller spaces or containers. 

Missing Runner Duck

So sad... One of our black runner ducks came up missing yesterday when we put everyone up for the evening. We searched their popular "haunts" in the woods with no sign of her. We are going to head down the hill toward the creek today to search for feathers and predator hideouts. We are now down to only 2 ducks (one is a male). We have chickens sitting on eggs, and several are duck eggs, so we are hoping for some ducklings in another week or so. Farm life can be so cruel. 

Re-Purposing

So... Today, I plan to re-purpose a portable greenhouse I purchased (similar to this one) into a "chicken" room. I will keep the door/flap rolled up permanently and will place chicken friendly plants inside. This will give the chickens something else to do to keep them busy and will make me happy because I will feel like I am doing something good:). Will likely place marigolds, catnip, mint, etc... inside the greenhouse. I will post pictures once I have it all set up and ready to go!!! Exciting! I love developing new enrichment activities/areas for the kiddos!