Not Cold and Wet ... For Now

Where have I been?  Oh, I've been lazing about, eating bon bons, listening to Queen and singing along when they get to all my favorite parts in their songs.  You know.  Stare at the moon all day ...

Not.

So not.

Yesterday I drove around for hours getting stuff for the new chicken coop.  The peeps are so big now.  So very big.  They're starting to look less like chicks and more like actual chickens, only miniature.  They still have their little soft peeping voices, though.  I especially love the one (I haven't watched them to figure out which one does this) that sounds like a sparrow, complete with a soft twerrrr that she does when she settles down for a nap.  She has such a lovely, talented voice.  

Anyway, after I got the initial supplies, my DH and I set the first four posts.  We were going to make a light chicken coop that we could move around, but things being what they are, and seeing as we have a ton of 4x4s in the barn (4x4s are not light) we decided to build a heavier, permanent structure using mostly the materials we already have on hand.  We worked until late-ish in the evening, and then I fixed meatloaf, mashed potatoes and corn for dinner.

Today will be another all-day work day outside.  We have nice weather so we have to get out there and do stuff while we can.

In other news, sadly, the corn is a wash.  Between cold weather, ceaseless rains, constant slug and worm onslaught, and my inability to go out there daily to help keep pests at bay, nothing survived.  Sadly, half my pumpkins and squashes didn't come up (but at least I do have the other half) and I lost quite a bit of the baby grapes on my gewurtz and canadice grape vines to two recent deer raids.  The veggies that have survived are growing at such a slow pace that it seems like they'll never get any bigger (except for, oddly, the tomatoes which are doing okay, even if the fruit production is going very, very slowly.)  Still, there is some happy news.  Some of the cutting flower beds are sprouting nicely, I have beautiful peppers, basil, catnip and other goodies still in the greenhouse waiting for better weather that still might happen, and even if this summer never really warms up there's always next year.  

Thank goodness that we don't have to survive on what we grow.  I suspect that we would get very thin this year if we didn't have a grocery store to fall back on.  I'm also thankful that if this cool weather continues, I'll have an opportunity for a really spectacular autumn/winter garden, with overwintering carrots, leeks, kohlrabi, and other tasty veggies.

I'll go out and measure the soil temps today.  It may be that I can put out at least some of the peppers now.  That would be nice.  The greenhouse is getting very crowded from tall, lush plants which is aesthetically rewarding, but the plants will never get as big nor produce as much in as they would if they could really spread their roots and streeeetch.