July 19th 2008

The word and work of the week around here has been mulching. Thanks to our friend and neighbor, Jim Hare, we got a rack of square bales (about 200) and 50 round bales of hay to play with this week. Since we don’t have hay storage space around here, we quickly went to work on the square bales. The ½” of rain we got gave us the perfect environment for mulching. The leeks and celeriac are now nicely tucked in and the cucumbers and squash have a nice bed to lay on. We’ll get some of those round bales over here and roll them out between the rows of summer squash. Then, since the weeds will have nowhere to grow (mostly), we’ll pull out the hammocks and take a nap!

Some of the round bales will be used to mulch the newly planted garlic this fall and many will be saved for next spring. This spring, when we tried to round up some bales, there was none to be had. Sometimes we learn from our mistakes!

The hens had their first outing this week and, most importantly, arrived home safely. We had wanted them to settle into their new home before opening the coop door. We did that last evening. They were introduced to Patches the cat and Sunny the dog who (thankfully) seemed not the least interested (the chickens not being bunnies). As we watched the moon rise over the pond, the chickens gradually made their way back home, settling into their nesting boxes for the evening. Maggie closed the door and we called it a night. Not Sunny though. He’s been spending his nights on deer patrol. He’s been moved from the beans to the beets to the greens and back again.

The other big project has been getting the beans picked! We planted 600 feet of beans in our hoophouse and they were ready this week. Bean picking was first thing on the agenda Wednesday, Thursday and Friday before it got too hot in the hoophouses. Enjoy!

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