The Garden April 2011

The weather is finally turning to spring and we spent it preparing the garden!

This is one of our compost piles, the one we are currently dumping in. We dump the manure and kitchen scraps into the pile, which is built on the side of a hill. The chickens scratch through it, but we don't turn it, it just sits, usually for 12-18 months.

This is the pile we are using for dirt. It has finished sitting. We are using it to make the new garden beds. After we dig out all the usable dirt it will become the new dumping spot. The other one will be covered with mulched leaves to cook until next year.

Beautiful and full of earth worms.

Murph spreading the black gold into the new beds. He moved more then 100 sq feet of dirt this weekend!

Some fresh dirt in the new beds. Potatoes and onion sets went in, peas, beans, lettuce, spinach already in place.

I love art in the garden. This was salvaged from the dump. The back says it was collected on the beach in 1967, I presume it was painted back then too. It was just tossed away, thankfully it now has a new life.

Soon the fruit trees will go here. They lay in the basement, dormant. The nights are still below freezing so they will wait a little longer to find their way here.

I decided to plant the asparagus. I have never planted it before. I have researched it and we prepared the beds correctly. Still, when the time came to put it in I wasn't exactly sure which way was up!

The asparagus on the right was my first attempt. Were the tubers the asparagus? I thought so. As I looked at them, after I planted them, I could see they were roots. Then I read the directions more closely, "spread the crowns". Spread, okay, take them out and start over. The bed was exactly the right size for the asparagus we ordered...how did that happen!

It was warm and sunny all weekend..the piggies came out!

Life is good!

Playing outside

You'll be seeing lots of these "outside" pictures. We spend most of our time here. School, for us, will also be primarily be outside. She is learning so much already, I can't imagine her being happy if she couldn't be outside for most of her day.

This is her new watering can we found, at the dump, where we find lots of great toys. So sad how much perfectly good stuff ends up in the landfill. People are so wastful. We make the best of it though, it is amazing how many things we have gotten there for all of us!

Putting the chickens to bed. We just yell "come on girls" and where ever they are they all come running.

Scout in the horse shed...looking for her helmet.

She found it. She loves to where this, I guess she knows it means fun stuff to follow!

This was Zach's hat when he was little. She found it that morning and wanted to wear it.

She is interested in coloring now.

Petting one of the girls.

Saying "hi" is one of here favorite words. She especially likes saying it to the animals.

You can see here her mouth is open, saying hi to Tonto, her pony.

This is our compost pile. The area closest to Scout was the oldest. We have already dug it out to make our new raised beds. In back the chickens are scratching in the newer stuff that we will use next year.