Flowers and Chickens
I will answer comments first today. When I bought the tablecloth fabric, the girl cutting it said it would make great playhouse curtains. I was very amused that some one made a comment about it reminding them of something along those lines. I use sort of heavy cotton for my dishtowels. Some of the stuff you find in the calico section may be all cotton, but it can be really lightweight. The kitchen-y prints I’ve found in JoAnn’s were mostly heavier stuff that was exactly what I wanted. If I’m going to make my own kitchen towels, I want them to last. The towels I’ve been using are ones my grandmother made from flour sacks. A few months ago I was looking at a reproduction fabric site and was amazed that the towels were really THAT old. My grandmother made them over many years and gave loads of them to my brother and I to play with. I was also surprised to find out how cool prints from the 1930’s were. I can’t wait to get some and make kitchen curtains.
So much snow has melted over the past week around here, that I have started thinking about the garden and flowers. Yesterday I got a bunch of flower seed and a big tray to start them in. They are all perennials for an eyesore area in our yard. I had intended it to be a rose garden, but it turns out that roses prefer not to grow there. It has become a weed infested eyesore except for early in the spring when daffodils and tulips planted there bloom.
With spring coming, it is also time to think about replenishing our meager flock of chickens. We decided not to get more ducks. There are 7 of them and that is probably plenty. They will probably build a nest and increase, anyway. We have so few chickens left that I can’t believe we are still getting enough eggs to eat. I would prefer to get cochin bantams because they are little, cute, and not destructive. Large chickens are destructive if given half a chance. They especially like to dig holes in flower beds for having a dust bath. I would also prefer to get only hens. They don’t sex bantams, so I have to choose between only hens and cochin bantams. Last year, we ended up with only 1 hen surviving out of 1 dozen baby chicks. She happens to be one of the survivors of The Beast. I expect that all of the youngsters that died were hens. We had very bad luck last year.
So much snow has melted over the past week around here, that I have started thinking about the garden and flowers. Yesterday I got a bunch of flower seed and a big tray to start them in. They are all perennials for an eyesore area in our yard. I had intended it to be a rose garden, but it turns out that roses prefer not to grow there. It has become a weed infested eyesore except for early in the spring when daffodils and tulips planted there bloom.
With spring coming, it is also time to think about replenishing our meager flock of chickens. We decided not to get more ducks. There are 7 of them and that is probably plenty. They will probably build a nest and increase, anyway. We have so few chickens left that I can’t believe we are still getting enough eggs to eat. I would prefer to get cochin bantams because they are little, cute, and not destructive. Large chickens are destructive if given half a chance. They especially like to dig holes in flower beds for having a dust bath. I would also prefer to get only hens. They don’t sex bantams, so I have to choose between only hens and cochin bantams. Last year, we ended up with only 1 hen surviving out of 1 dozen baby chicks. She happens to be one of the survivors of The Beast. I expect that all of the youngsters that died were hens. We had very bad luck last year.
Comments
I read about homesteading with heritage breeds in Mother Earth News. They talk about how they have Dorking chickens that are "old-fashioned" and so "know how to forage for food, hatch eggs, and successfully raise their young." They said they keep the males apart and that makes things smoother. One day I would like to have chickens and sheep and cows and such.