In Which A Trip To TSC.....

just gets out of hand! Went to the local Tractor Supply store (my favorite store in the whole wide world!) and what did I find? Baby chix! On sale. As in clearanced out! And no more coming in! So I did what any sane, logical, demented farmer would do, I bought a bunch of them! See! Aren't they cute?
So, 47 new babies have arrived! and were housed in my bathtub, something hubby's not real fond of, but what was I supposed to do? They had to be contained, and they had to be somewhere that was waterproof, washable and I could put heat lights on them.
Below, is an example of the elaborate Chicken Condo's that I've built. My architech brother would be rolling in his grave, or maybe just laughing so hard.... never mind....
Anyway, enter the Chicken Condo. Several rooms, some with food, some with water, and 2 with heat lamps. This all lives on a tarp in our guest room until they are feathered out and it gets a bit warmer outside, then they go to the adolescent cage. There was a time I used to keep them in the barn in lights, but they got drafty anyway, so for a few weeks, they live inside.

That wasn't the only fun we had this weekend. After our momentous trip to Tractor Supply, we decided to stop by Walmart and what did we find? Come on, think about it, what sits outside of Walmart on the weekends, attended by cute little blondes in a box marked "free......". Yup. Kittens! They are so cute. 3 of them are identical, I've named them Inky, Stinky, Blinky and the other Chuck because well, she's not identical. So 4 barn kittens have come to call our zoo home. They have so much fun up in the hayloft, climbing in the hay, hiding between bales, waiting for the slightest breezes to stir up the loose strands of hay, pouncing on each other, and that's not even counting how much fun there is to be had up in the eaves. A Disneyland for kittens! That's what a hayloft is. Especially since there isn't a Mother to tell them "No"!

I didn't get ANY gardening done this weekend, the weather was beautiful, but circumstances beyond my control kept me away. I've decided to start the rest of my seeds using the paper towel method. So far the only seeds that aren't responding to this treatment are the parsley, but they take a long time to germinate anyway. I direct seeded (into pots) tomatoes, peppers, and some flowers, but being away from home and not able to tend them didn't work out so well for them. So, paper towels it is! And, because I don't buy stuff like that, I use extras that we always get when we go to places like Dairy Queen and McDonalds. That experiment will play out over the next few weeks. Tonight, maybe, just maybe I can get part of the garden tilled. My onions are doing GREAT!! My asparagus is peeking up and my strawberries NADA! I'll give them a few more weeks, then take the roots back and get a refund. Seems like I should see some green within this time!