7.17.09

Today was glorious ! I'm not sure if it ever got over 80. Very odd for mid July but wonderful just the same.

Fox, the rooster, is starting to mature and getting lovely iridescent sickle tail feathers. He'll have to have his own pen soon and we'll work on that this weekend as well as building Juniper a larger hutch. He's not aggressive at all but he's also not friendly. He acts like we're going to eat him if we even look at him. But I'm sure he'll be pet-able in no time :)

If one of the hens is broody in a few more weeks we may be able to have chicks this year afterall. I want them to be at least 2 months old before winter and it takes about a month (21 days) from fertilization to hatching. So if Fox is mature enough by the 1st week of August and we have a broody hen then we should have chicks this fall.

Earlier this week we got a bunch of old windows and some doors from freecycle. some will go to building the greenhouse, some to a cold frame, some will go to the goat house and milk room (eventually) and some will go to enclose the porch.

I also got two long framed screens which are perfect for drying racks. I was going to be making two new ones this year from screen doors but these will do wonderfully :)

There were 3 excellent old doors, two screen doors and a regular door. The old kind, very heavy and well made. I'm going to use them on the porch. I've had the crazy idea to enclose the porch using old doors so that I don't have to do any framing for screen.

Among the windows there were 3 odd long windows and I'll use at least one of those for a cold frame. Maybe all of them.

Then today, also from freecycle, I got several gallon glass jugs. I cut the bottoms off and use them as garden cloches or French Bell jars. I have some regular sized wine bottles but I wanted the gallon size. I'll keep a few back for mead (has to be made in a wide mouth but can be transferred to a jug after) and lavender water. The woman also said she can get plenty more :)

Thank you so much (((((((((((( Freecycle People ))))))))))))))))))) :)

I didn't make the Farmers Market this week. The muslin bags still haven't shown up and altho I ordered enough to get by from a different place, they didn't make it in time either. It must just have not been the right day to start selling there. And it does give me a week longer to prepare :)

We have a welder friend which I barter with a lot and he's made me a very cool iron sign holder. I'll try to remember to take pictures tomorrow.

I've gotten some individual herbs bagged up and I'll also be selling them from my etsy shop and website.

Blessed night all :)