Chick chick here, chick chick there, here a chick, there a chick, everywhere...

Wow, where did 3 weeks go since the last post? Lots of things happening here, both good and bad. Here is Freckles with her adopted babies, 7 meat chicks. I timed her setting so that her borrowed eggs would hatch the same day we were to pick up the meat chicks from the feed store. She never noticed the switch.

Chicken Little hatched out a batch of little layers also and gladly accepted the crew from under Freckles, so now she is mothering 10 of them.  The yellow ones are from the white rocks and the dark ones from the ancona. All fathered by our white rock rooster, Fancy.

They grow so fast, here are two of Little's bunch a week later with real feathers. One flapped into this visiting boys' hood, prompting fits of giggles.
In the not so happy news, two of the horses got inside the garden fence one night, the wind blew the gate shut behind them, and thats where I found them in the morning. Everything that was up and growing was pretty much stomped into oblivion, except the plants in the hoop houses, cold frames, and covered with ice cream buckets.

I had quite an undignified hysterical meltdown...but I'm good now. (sigh)

Not much time for painting with all the outdoor work to do, (and re-do) Here is a recent watercolor of Atlantic Puffins that we have made into prints and cards. I love birds of all kinds.

Busy, busy, busy...

So busy, so many projects and blessed with wonderful weather to be outdoors. There hasn't been frost since the 3rd week of march and the garden is up and growing. We're eating lettuce, spinach and radishes so far. We got on with this wooden pathway the last two weeks. It leads through a swampy bog to the far garden where the raspberries and blackberries grow. Carrying a full tray will be easier now with no muck to wade through. When the willows leaf out I'll tie them in a tunnel over the bridge.
I tilled up the floor in the older  greenhouse today, holding my breath so I wasn't breathing the gas fumes. Love my little mantis tiller! Its now full of sweet million tomato transplants. Sweet million are my favorites, sweet brilliant red tiny tomatoes borne in symetrical pairs along a long branch. They will have to be tied up later as they almost reach the ceiling of the greenhouse.
        Giant Tess has had a new coat of green this spring. She came through the winter somewhat patchy

so she had some mud/compost/lawn seed daubed on which has filled in quite nicely, it grew well everywhere but her bosom which she insists on baring to the elements. She will be getting  cement hands to replace the clay pair that keep eroding away with the rain just as soon as I find a tall man with large hands whom I can talk into putting said hands into a bucket of plaster of paris, to make moulds for the concrete.
Lately I scored the BEST recycle/trade ever! I got this wonderful useful cap for my truck essentially free. Actually the fellow traded me for three bottles of jam.  I know it's really good jam, but I did get the better of the deal.

Plants are blooming everywhere, tulips, daffodils, and over by the pond, I think these are marsh marigolds.
      The greenhouse is so full, I have to make some more cold frames to get the cukes and peppers and other warmth loving stuff out into the garden. It gets pretty chilly for them when a fog rolls in here. Once the greenhouse beds are somewhat clear of transplants taking up space, more tomatos are going to be planted into the bed. Looks like a job for this week.
Ha! I just did a double take at the truck photo...it looks like the greenhouse/chicken house is loaded on the wagon...

Here's my son and daughter in law in Fredericton getting into the garden spirit. Over the weekend I helped them get a raised bed garden going, 3feet by 10 feet.They will be amazed at how much good food can come out of such a small space.

Ok...the grandson is only on this post because he's gorgeous...