Farm Fresh: Garden Fence and Chicks Growing

 This week I finally got the garden all fenced.  7 ft T-posts and 6 foot fencing will discourage the deer and buried chicken wire will hopefully deter the groundhogs. I also need to keep my own livestock out, but they are not too hard to deter.  It is still a temporary fix because we plan to triple the garden's size over the next couple years.

 Chicken wire still needs to be buried on the frontside and wrapped up on the inside. A couple of home chipped piles of mulch are awaiting spreading.

 Hubby has been working on getting the woodpile under control.  He took this week off from his real job to work for me at home. He chipped tons of smaller sticks and stacked and split several piles of larger logs.

 He used the new tractor rake to work on clearing a path to some wood behind the barn.

 Here are a few of the stacked logs waiting for our future need or for people from the ward who are looking for some firewood.

 He borrowed a splitter from our friends and started loading up the next log shack.  We are thinking that each full log shack might be enough for one winter... We will have to see how that goes. In any case, we have plenty of wood for a long time.

  I have been carrying plants outside to get acclimated (the second time for the cabbages).  I planted some under row covers about 3 weeks ago. But then the temperature last week was down in the 20's and killed 3 of the 8 plants. I have a bunch of replacements ready.

 On Saturday, I replanted my cilantro outside in the herb bed and a row of leeks along side there. I planted a couple other rows of leek starts mixed with beets in the main garden (per recommendation in the book Carrots Love Tomatoes).

 Big bunches of daffodils are blooming in the herb bed and other parts of the landscaping - so pretty!

Everyone says meat chickens grow incredibly fast. I guess you need to see it to believe it.  I use the red bulbs in their heat lamps to keep them calmer. 

 Look at them! They are a little over 2 weeks old and already have half their feathers in.  They are supposed to be able to go outside no later than 4 weeks old.  Most chicks can go out after about 6 weeks.  We can already tell that there are quite a few feisty roosters mixed in here.  That is normal since it is a straight run.  They are generally a lot lazier than the layer chicks - very quiet and sleeping a lot-- which make sense since they are growing so fast. Now that weather is finally getting warmer we can bring them outside for short spurts.  The books recommend that they start going outside no later than 25 days old in order to become the good foragers that the Red Ranger variety is known for being.  We will plan to keep 3 of the hens and try to breed some meat chicks of our own next year.

  Garden goodies under the grow light inside - tomatoes, zinnias, and marigolds are visible here. I have so many plants that I have turned off the timer and just been rotating through my plant sets around the clock 8-10 hours per set.