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[EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>]

I haven't heard anything on the job, which I am taking as a bad sign
that they don't want to pay me what I want, so while I can, I am still
playing in the dirt.
On 2/25, I transplanted my cole crops to the outside beds, made hoops
for the beds out of pvc hose, and covered the beds with old linen
material...voila row covers..  So far it is working fine, plants are
growing underneath and doing great.  The wind keeps blowing it off, so I
used clothespins to attach the material to the sides of my raised beds.
It's rigged, but it's working. :)  Spinach, radishes, etc. are coming up
and starting to grow in the outside beds. The chickens got loose and ate
my peas, so I had to replant them.  To refresh memories, I have 5 raised
beds...3 from last year that are ready for planting(Beds 1,3,and 5), one
I am topping off with waste hay and old chicken coop caked litter(Bed
2), and one that still is in the "sticks in the bottom" stage.(Bed 4)  I
want to keep Bed 4 open through Spring so that I have a place to put
wind/storm debris and branches, so right now, I am concentrating on
getting Bed 2 ready to plant for the fall.  It's taller than my other
beds, 30 inches or so, so it's a lot to fill.  There's wire in the
bottom, a layer of rocks that I picked up, then about a foot depth of
limbs and sticks..then I had some old cardboard-large pieces, and I
placed that on top of the sticks.  I raked some hay/poop up out of the
pasture where the hay ring had been, and put that on top of the
cardboard. For the last few days, I have been adding the old, composted,
caked chicken litter to the top of that as I clean out the old coop.  I
also put some of this stuff on my asparagus bed to prep it.  I can only
do one large wheelbarrow load a day(9ft3), as all the pickaxe work and
shoveling is hard on me.  It's getting done though. After that layer,
I'll rake up some additional hay/poop out of the pasture, and call it
done.  The raised garden beds aren't perfect or pretty, but they are
working great for me so far.  I don't know if I mentioned this or not,
but the other day, when I untarped bed 5 to check it, I dug around a
bit, and found an earthworm 4 inches from the top of the mulch, which is
basically almost 3 feet above ground level.  I was psyched!!!  That bed
only has rocks, sticks, waste hay, the remains of last summers pepper
plants,and straw in it, and apparently the lower layers are decomposing
fine. I love it when my crazy ideas actually work.
This past weekend was very, very windy and it was no big surprise that
the polycarbonate roof on my greenhouse ripped off.  Right now, there's
a couple of 16' long 2x6's on the greenhouse roof holding it on.  I had
just cleaned everything in there, but of course, when the roof tore
away, all the pine needles, leaves and other roof/gutter debris fell
right into the greenhouse, so now I have to clean it again.<sigh>
Luckily, the tomatoes and peppers and curcubits were on the other side
and did not get "mulched". :)  I'm a bit frustrated with the curcurbit
germination.  Some of the seeds, I knew were old, like the pumpkins I
planted, but some were 'new' seeds..like the zukes, and yet the old
thing that germinated was the yellow crookneck squash.  No cukes, No
honey dew, no zukes, no straightnecks, no pumpkins....grrr.
I'm trying to look at it positively and I am rationalizing that I won't
have time to put up a bunch of zucchini bread and casseroles anyway, but
I so love zucchini.  I might have to buy some transplants.

Just wondering...
My hens are starting to lay again, but production is not where I would
like it to be. I'm curious as to what percent production y'all are
seeing out of your heavy breed layers.

Bev

--
Bevanron of EarthNSky Farm   Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the
ocean's depths, MY son is protecting YOUR freedom.