World's Worst Farmer

Yes, that would be me.  My garden was a complete and utter disaster this year.  I'm not completely sure why, but I think I may have gotten complacent with all the rain we had in the spring.  It's possible that I forgot to water as regularly as I should have.  Still, it seemed as though everything was going pretty well, then suddenly everything died.  Example:  I had, like, 5 zucchinis.  Nobody ever has just 5 zucchinis; usually it's more like 500.  This is how bad my garden was.  I managed to kill my volunteer rhubarb, which breaks my heart, and I never got a single potato - and those suckers were expensive!  The basil did come through for me.  Good old basil.

Undaunted, or an incredibly slow learner, I have ordered garlic, leeks, and onions for the fall.  Apparently the leeks are on their way; the bulbs will ship at the end of September.  I'm hopeful that cooler weather will encourage me to be a little more active in the garden, and water from time to time.  Wish me luck; I'm going to need it.

Raising Chickens Is Very Hard

It is sad to see my last post.  Since then, we lost all 3 of the younger chickens to racoons, first 1, then the other 2.  You think you're protecting them but they're incredibly vulnerable; you just can't think of all the ways they can be killed.

So we bought 4 more, because our older one, Chiquita, becomes quite weird when she's alone.  Within a week, she herself had actually killed one of the chicks.  We had kept them separated but they managed to find a loophole where we thought we had secured everything.  It's quite discouraging.

The good news is that the remaining 3 chicks are thriving, and Chiquita has started laying eggs.  Yay!!  It is the most amazing thing to peek into the nesting section of her coop and see a little brown egg sitting there.  I'm not sure I'll ever really get used to it.  Now I just have to learn to like eggs!