POOR PITIFUL

THREE SISTERS GARDEN

My corn plants are poor, pitiful things while the fields of corn I pass each day are lush and knee high. I’ll leave them in the garden, but I don’t anticipate the situation to improve. It has, after all, been 5 weeks since the corn was planted. It appears I’ll be buying corn for the chickens for winter.

I’m going to have to plant the beans soon. Since they are runner beans, and the scrawny corn plants will not support them, I now also need to figure out a trellis system for them.

Some, but not all of the seeds I planted last week (zucchini, crook neck, watermelon, etc.) have germinated and pushed leaves above the dirt. Hopefully, the squash will live up to its reputation and I will be gifting my friends and neighbors with an overabundance when fall comes around.

CHICKENS

We had rain throughout this past week. Some of it torrential. The result, besides not having to water the gardens all week (!), was absolute slop in the chicken run.

It was disgusting, slimy, full of flies and even I could smell the stench (after covid, my sense of smell only works for very strong odors, so it was definitely foul).

The rain cleared Friday evening and Saturday morning was spent mucking out the chicken run. We scraped it all the way down to the ground. Then I coated everything with diatomaceous earth and Oscar hung a fly trap. That’s the first time we’ve had so many flies that we needed a trap. Nasty!

I am still trying to get the hens to stop laying in the coop. With Eager still being broody and not letting the other hens lay in the bowl they had adopted as their chosen egg-laying spot, they have been laying everywhere in the coop and run. Everywhere except the nest box. This results in some really dirty eggs.

I purchased a fancy nest box and had it attached to the perch system at the level they usually perch, thinking it would be just a step away for them to go have a nice sit-down in a private spot. But my imaginary degree in Chicken Psychology failed me. Only Pecky will use the darn thing so I have to figure out how to convince the others to use it.

The first thing I did was pull the bowl, Eager and all, out into the run. She sat there a few moments wondering what was going on, got huffy, and stomped into the coop, grumbling all the way.

Second, while we had the perches pulled out so we could clean the run, Oscar moved the nest boxes closer to ground.

If that doesn’t work, I’m out of ideas.

UGH! BUGS!

If you didn’t know, the South has A LOT of bugs. This is the time of the year when the bugs return with a vengeance. At night the air is so full of bugs you can’t open the door without several inviting themselves inside.

With bugs come bug bites. I have bug bites on my feet and ankles. I have bug bites in my knee pits, shins, calves and thighs. I have bug bites on my arms and my back. Every day, I have new bug bites that need scratching. I remind myself that “this too shall pass” as spring moves into summer but, until then, UGH!