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Saturday, June 5, 2010

More chicks, harvesting broccoli

I got the little Cornish cross baby chicks this morning. The post office called about 6:30 to tell me they were there. I don't function well before my coffee. So I made a cup of coffee and headed out to the post office to get my babies. All arrived alive and active. I had to put them in a tote till we got the old chicken house cleaned out that we had used for storage and move the bigger dark Cornish down there till they are big enough to butcher.


The little Cornish cross are sharing the brooder house with some smaller ones that I hatched. I have another incubator that will hatch on Wednesday of next week. So they will get added to the mix.
We went to the garden this evening to check on the progress of the battle with tater bugs. I did spray the taters again and hopefully this time will get them under control. Everything else looks pretty good. The broccoli had nice heads so I harvested those while I was there. They did better than I thought for getting them in later than usual.


Note to self: always take a basket to the garden no matter what. I was not expecting to have the broccoli ready but cut it anyway and had to put it in my shirt tail till we got to the house. Could have used a half bushel basket about then. So all that is trimmed, blanched and in the freezer. I had 7 quart bags stuffed full of broccoli florets. I don't usually leave much stem on the broccoli as it don't taste as good as the lil florets.
I checked the beets and most of them are the size of an egg, so probably late next week I will be doing beet pickles. I did notice that the cabbage had a lot of little holes in the leaves, so tomorrow I go back to the garden with some dry wood ashes and treat the cabbage. And I guess at the same time I will pick peas again. If they don't have more bloom on them I think maybe they can be plowed under after this picking. It is supposed to be a little cooler tomorrow, around mid 80's. Today it was too hot to breathe outside. Our thermometer was stuck on 90 degrees. Sure made the AC feel good.
Till next time, blessings from the McGuire homestead.

Stella

2 comments:

small farm girl said...

I always have to remember to carry a basket to the garden too. Or wear an aprin. lol

stella said...

lol small farm girl, now I guess we know why the elder ladies on the farm wore an apron all the time. To wipe lil runny noses and to carry stuff in. BTW my tee shirt will never be the same shape again.