April Showers

April showers are not just the stuff of old sayings this year, and I have been working away on the garden in stolen moments between downpours, and trying not to get too impatient for the field to dry out. I’ve never checked the weather report so often in my life. I even made it a tab on my browser.

We did manage to work one section on two dry days last week, and I started getting those potato rows hoed before more rain came. As this point, I am planning on getting them planted this weekend rain or shine, soil structure be damned. Potatoes are tough, so hopefully they can take it.

The garden area next to the house is ready to go, and already there are radishes, carrots, kale, New Zealand spinach, beets, broccoli and cabbages coming up.

Pepper seedlings are growing in the makeshift clothes rack/seedling shelf by the window.

Several varieties of tomatoes are soaking up the sunshine in the laundry room.

The greenhouse is filled with salad greens and seedlings.

All the fruit trees are coming along nicely with leaves and blooms. I’m dreaming of fresh, juicy Asian pears every time I spy this one across the yard.

Our 14 meat birds are getting fat and happy in their little brooder bin. It’s the first time I’ve raised Cornish Cross, and these little guys are absolute butterballs!

The “teenager chickens” are out in the pen with the others now, and enjoying scratching around in the straw and congregating at the watering hole.  The pecking order seems to be going smoothly, with our tiny white-crested black Polish hen, Lucy, being the only antagonizer. With the even match in size, I’m not too worried about the chicks holding their own.

There are some colorful characters in this bunch. I’m crossing my fingers that there won’t be many roosters in this batch of straight-run bantams. Especially this little gray silkie. I really want to keep it.

And all this time my two little farmers have been doing what country kids do; climbing trees, making mud pies, getting into shenanigans and lending a hand from time to time. I think my son is just about as impatient to plant those potatoes as I am. He asks about it daily. Growing food must be in his genes.

I’m glad to see the Winter passing and jump back into the busy pace of the growing season. It feels really good to apply yourself wholeheartedly to such practical work. Sometimes it gets hectic and crazy, and I wonder what on earth I’m doing, but when I put my own food on the table at the end of the day, it is absolutely worth it.

I’m looking forward to those May flowers.