They are two and a half weeks old today and have more feathers than fluff now. Mrs. Dashwood one evening accidentally flapped her way to the top of the water feeder and had no idea how she had done it but was quite proud of herself nonetheless. When she jumped off and tried to get back up there she couldn’t manage it. The following evening she could do it at will. The next day while I was cleaning the brooder, Elinor flapped her way to the top edge of the box. She was too unbalanced though to get anywhere and I caught her and put back in the brooder. None of them has managed to do that again and Bookman and I have been extra careful to make sure they don’t try.
Friday evening we introduced them to lettuce. They loved it! The idea of each one being able to tear a piece off from the leaf in my hand was not something that entered their heads so each time one of them would tear off a piece the other three would chase her around the brooder to try and get it. The same thing happened on Saturday. It is hilarious to watch them.
Today I gave them a broccoli floret. It did not meet with the same excitement as the lettuce. They are a little scared of it and not sure what to do with it. You can see for yourself:
Mrs. Dashwood is the black one with the white flecks in her feathers. She is a barred rock. The other black one is Margaret. She is an australorp. The dark red/brown one is Elinor. She is a Rhode Island red. The light tan one is Marianne who doesn’t look so chipmunkish anymore. She is an ameracauna. They are so much fun and it is hard to not spend all my time watching them. It seems like every morning when I get up they have grown bigger overnight and gotten more feathers.
Barton Cottage is coming along. Today we began putting up the walls. Did we begin with the easiest wall, one in which we only had to cut out a window and do nothing else? Of course not! Not having any idea how to go about it, we tackled the hardest wall first. This wall is the cleaning access wall. The bottom half of it folds down to make the inside of the coop easier to clean. Because we are insulating the walls, we essentially have to cut two walls for each side. And on this side we had to do wall and door and make sure we could get the door open and closed! This took us all day. The other three walls will be easier. I hope.
In the garden I cut back last year’s dead perennial stalks in two front yard beds, uncovered the tulips pushing up through the winter mulch and pulled back the winter mulch from the perennials that are already beginning to sprout. This took me an hour.In the back yard, Bookman put out stakes for the peas and strung twine between the stakes. We intended to plant the peas this evening but we are so tired it is going to have to wait until tomorrow night. While Bookman was creating pea trellising, I was cleaning up the herb spiral. It looks like the lemon thyme survived the winter as did the oregano. The sage, however did not make it. I would have been surprised if it did. I never give it winter protection and it is marginal here as a perennial anyway so I just treat it like an annual. Bookman and I spent about an hour at our various tasks.
All of the shrubs we transplanted to the chicken garden are doing really well, leafing out and getting flower buds. That is a relief that the move did not kill them!
We moved the greenhouse from the south kitchen window to outside on the deck. Temperatures have warmed up enough that we don’t have to worry about it getting too cold at night and not warm enough during the day. The tomatoes are doing great, the peppers are slow growing but also doing great. Marigold, basil, and a few other things too. The onions we started, not so great. They began well but we over watered them a few too many times and they got damping off disease and all but three have keeled over. Oh well. On the bright side, I don’t have to make any paper pots to start the sunflowers!
The weather in the coming week is supposed to be nice pretty much every day. Bookman and I mean to take advantage as we can, so posting this week will probably be spotty. We’ll be outside working on the coop or doing things in the garden.
Biking
Saturday Astrid and I went out for our first long ride of the year. We went on our familiar loop from last summer, about 60 miles/95 km. The morning was sunny and warm and the road full of potholes. About halfway through my ride the wind began blowing with a few great cross-wind gusts that almost blew us over.But Astrid and I were so happy. It felt good to be outside again. I waved, said hello and good morning to lots of people I passed. I called, “nice boxers!” to a guy out walking his two boxer dogs and then hoped he knew I was talking about the dogs and not something else!
On our ride we saw a snake! There were also robins everywhere. Lots of redwinged blackbirds too and
cardinals. The frogs were also in full voice and at a few ponds they were so loud I couldn’t hear the music on my iPod. I also saw several turtles sunning themselves along the edges of a marsh.I think I mentioned I signed up for a 30 mile/48 km gravel bike race for women at the end of May. Well, I signed up for another gravel race for early June. The Dirty Benjamin is a 100 miles/161 km gravel race with a field limited to 400 riders. I registered in the open women category. Yes, I think I might not be completely in my right mind. Given the two gravel races, and how much I enjoy riding on gravel, I am considering getting Astrid a sibling. Astrid is a road bike and while I can trick her out to make riding on gravel more comfortable, if gravel riding and racing is something I am going to do regularly, I might as well have the wheels to do it and not force Astrid into being something she is not.
I have a gravel racing clinic next Sunday night where I will learn about all things gravel racing and I will make my decision after that.One more thing: This coming Saturday I will be getting my new tattoo! So next Sunday there will be more Dashwood video, garden photos and tattoo photos. So excited
“Today I gave them a broccoli floret. It did not meet with the same excitement as the lettuce.”
I could say the same of my kids (especially when that lettuce has lots of dressing on it)! The Dashwoods are adorable. Thanks for the update!
LikeLike
AMB, ha! Sometime during the night they decided to attacked the broccoli because this morning it was completely gone!
LikeLike
Stefanie….all kinds of excitements! Love the chics! Tattoo and bicycle races and Dashwoods….very happening!
LikeLike
cirtnecce, I love all the excitement but could use a day of quiet reading at the moment to recover. That’s not going to happen though! You only live once, right? 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love the video! “Oh, it’s green, maybe it’s just as good as the last stuff she gave us!?” “no, it looks weird, let’s rather ignore it so it can go away on its own!!”
LikeLike
What a wonderful video. I hope they get educated about broccoli and get a little less excited about lettuce. Lettuce wars – fantastic!
LikeLike
Ian, the lettuce war was a hoot. Some time during the night they decided broccoli was ok because this morning it was completely gone!
LikeLike
Hooray!
LikeLiked by 1 person
smithereens, thanks! Yup, I loved how they all turned their backs hoping it would disappear!
LikeLike
Astrid really is a beauty. Oo la la.
Exciting about the tattoo! Can’t wait to see it.
LikeLike
nikki, heh, thanks! Looking forward to the tattoo very much!
LikeLike
I love all your Dashwood news. Was particularly impressed at the way Mrs Dashwood (I think) at first tries to protect Margaret from the Alien Broccoli, then goes back to have another peck at it and screams hysterically!
The good news is that hens continue to do that ‘Aaaaarggh what is this crazy food?’ thing all their lives. Even with food they’ve had before.
Your coop is amazing. More Pemberley than Barton Cottage.
LikeLike
Helen, yup, that’s Mrs. D. She is top chicken, the first to investigate everything and all the other wait for her to figure it out first. Her scream when she pecked the broccoli was hilarious. I didn’t know she could make that noise! Glad to know they have the same reaction all their lives. I’d hate for the entertainment to go away once they get bigger. And thanks! We are quite proud of how the coop is going since we have never built anything before!
LikeLike
Keep those chick flicks coming! I love watching and listening to those little girls. They’re growing so fast! I can’t wait to see your tattoo, too.
LikeLike
Joan, more video next week for sure! They grow so fast I have to have documentary evidence that they were small and fluffy once 🙂 I too can’t wait to see my tattoo!
LikeLike
Pretty darn cute.
LikeLike
Thanks Grad!
LikeLike
April has been a really busy month, hasn’t it? Are the law students nearing the end of their semester, too? The chicks are cuties–do they get along well together? Is there such a thing as an ‘alpha’ chicken? It should, by all rights, be Mrs Dashwood, of course. I pulled out the herb kit you sent and it sits on my desk now in contemplation of planting. I need to read the instructions and see when I should get it ready. That may be the extent of my gardening, though I might do a flower bin or two. And my yard is in *dire* need of attention. Can’t wait to see your new tattoo! (Oh and your boxer comment made me laugh!).
LikeLike
Danielle, it sure has! Finals are at the beginning of May so all the law students are frantically trying to finish projects and soon they will be frantically studying! The chicks get along really well. Yes, there is an “alpha” chicken, they have a pecking order with Mrs Dashwood as top chicken and Elinor second in command. Margaret and Marianne seem to be about equal status. Good luck with your herb kit. I hope it turns out to be easy. 🙂
LikeLike
Eeeep watching the Dashwoods trying to figure out Broccoli is just so adorable! 🙂 Good to hear your plants survived the moving. We had some nice weather over here but since it’s April it’s super changeable and last night we had frost. I had to put a pot on my eggplants for this night. Hope the nights will become warmer soon. Happy cycling! 🙂
LikeLike
Bina, they are definitely entertaining! April here is very changeable too, snow is still possible into early May though over the last ten years that has become less and less likely because of a warming climate. I still have a hard time trusting there won’t be frost. Glad you were able to protect your eggplants!
LikeLiked by 1 person
So much excitement! Can’t wait to see the new tattoo–I have one in progress too!
LikeLike
Carolyn, you’re in the process of getting a tattoo? That’s exciting!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh, it’s my fourteenth, but yes, I’m really liking this one 🙂
LikeLike
Very cool! This will only be my fourth but definitely not my last as I am already thinking of the next one! You know how that goes 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
So busy! I love listening to the frogs in the springtime. Hopefully you don’t mind too much that they interrupt your music!
LikeLike
biblioglobal, I love hearing the frogs too! Their singing is better than anything on my ipod!
LikeLike
Your chickens are too cute!
Our sage lasted two years but the wind killed it off in the end; growing basil was hopeless, slugs got it within a day both times we tried. Didn’t think of a greenhouse though…
I think your idea of a second bike’s a good one; you’ll make use of it after all. And a second race sounds a great idea 🙂
LikeLike
Charlie, thanks! They are so much fun as you know since you have/had chickens. Basil turns out to be really easy to grow here I just have to start the seeds early in the greenhouse which is a really useful thing! Whether or not I get a second bike will depend on if I can get bigger tires on Astrid and if that will be enough.
LikeLike