Homestead mailing list

["Lynda" <lurine AT softcom.net>]

Well, we had a day of thunderstorms.  The last one just ended about 1/2 hour 
ago with torrential rain and a lightning strike about 200' from the house.

I'm going down Friday to pick up somemore tomato plants and lemon cucumbers 
from a friend who has a greenhouse.  Her prices are less than buying from a 
nursery and she has over 36 varieties of tomatoes!  Lots of heirlooms.  Now 
I have to only take a limited number of dollars with me or I'll have more 
tomato plants than I have room <g>

The youngest kidlet is in the process of building a chicken coop, or rather, 
she is moving an old sheep shelter and making it into a chicken coop so she 
can get some chickens.  She decided to go with the old building because it 
is heavy sheet metal and we have mink and weasles and they won't be able to 
chew their way into the building at night!  Or, at least that is her theory. 
We shall see.

The grapes are doing really well, as are the raspberries and marionberries. 
Both the berries are big enough now to split and by next year we will have 
plenty for jam and not just eating.

Lynda
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Bevanron" <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>


> We had a nice summer shower a few minutes ago, just enough to make the
> humidity even more miserable, but everything is nice and green and I
> love the smell of the woods after(and during) a rain!  My new water
> catchment tank is about 1/3 full after the shower.
> I went out to check on my chicks and they are all doing fine.
> On the way back, I passed the plum tree-it's a Methley that I planted 7
> years ago- and it looks like the deer and birds have beaten me to the
> punch again. I was able to bring in a 5 or 6 quarts-just enough for a
> good snack-if you like plums the way I do.  I knewit inside the garden 
> fence, but at least it keeps the deer moving
> through the area.
> There's no sign of snakes in the barn as the hens are starting to lay
> again (5 eggs from 6 layers) so I hope to build up my supply and then
> once again try to get a hen to go broody.  The unknown critter(probable
> loose domestic ferret) that has frequented my barn since last November
> is no where to be seen.  I haven't seen tracks in about 4 days now.
> Perhaps he was eaten by something...perhaps he was the bigger egg
> thief....I don't know...I may never know...I just know that I haven't
> seen tracks in 4 days and I am finding 4 to 6 eggs a day instead of the
> 2 to 4 eggs I was getting a few weeks ago.