Oh my oh my! There is an actual cucumber developing on my cucumber vine!
The cucumber vines are happy in their wire enclosure (recycled from the cage we cobbled together for the growing chicks), and are now climbing the wire. I put up the wire the keep the critters out, but I’m happy that the cucumber is up off the ground.
My eldest likes the green part of the green onions, but not the white part. She will eat them straight! So when it is her turn to cut up the onions the white bulb is left behind. On a lark, I took one of these lonely rooted ends and stuck it in a plastic baggie with a wet paper towel and hung it in the window. It grew. So I stuck a couple more in there too. We’ll see how sustainable this system is!
Update on eggs: two more eggs! And we had our first egg breakfast. And I remembered to take a picture of an egg in the nest box.
Update on Navi: Her crop was smaller but solid in the morning, so we are treating her for impacted crop. I have learned how to hold a chicken, prop open her beak, and squirt vegetable oil down her throat. Not easy, let me tell you. I have also been massaging her crop. I can nearly get my fingers to touch through the middle, so I am hoping I have been able to break up the mass. I let her roam for awhile then put her back in the isolation ward.
My nasturtiums have sprouted! We kept them well watered (which was easy because they are near the chicken runs where we are still sprouting wheat and rye grass on rotation, and those get watered three times a day). They haven’t starting vining yet, and there are definitely no blooms, but that they sprouted at all is quite exciting.
It was rather exciting to see blossoms on my cucumber plant!
I planted cucumbers as an experiment with a second summer garden. Two of the three mounds have vines! Alas,the peas I also planted don’t seem to be fairing as well. I think something found them delicious because there is only one pea vine, all the other sprouts have disappeared. We’ll see if I actually get cucumbers before the first freeze (which doesn’t usually happen here until November). It will be a first, as this is as far as I’ve managed to get cucumbers.
As a bonus, here is a video from our camera in the coop of the chickens heading out into the runs after the automatic door opens in the morning.
My school house lilies bloomed! I was pretty sure that I had killed them off when I wasn’t watering the area this summer (on accident). But they sprouted up from the bulb and flowered in just a few days – coordinating with the start of school. They are planted near my rosemary because I thought they were garlic chives. They stay because they seem to like it there.
Critters and Craft 