I spent a lot of time this week getting a house and paddock ready for our two new Great Pyr puppies, Buffy and Faith, who arrived today. They have their own shed, and a decent sized paddock surrounded by cattle panels, right near the house. As a bonus, it keeps Bjarki in. The plan is that by the time they can jump the fence, they’ll know where home is, and be big enough to take care of themselves. We think they’re older than the advertised four months, old enough that Maggie didn’t go all “aunty” the way she did with Disa’s pups. They are clearly puppies though and we’re sure she’ll come around.
We hatched 23 Icelandic chicks a couple of weeks ago, and the woman we hatched them for only took 8. The other 15 are out next to the Chanteclers preparing more garden for us. The book says that at this age they should be kept at 80F. We kept them above freezing and they’re doing fine. There’s another batch in the incubator, bound for Oklahoma. Meanwhile, since we’re not currently selling eggs at bridge (The weather has been way too nice to give up beautiful afternoons.) we have four dozen eggs a week that need a destination.
Spring continues way early. We’re three weeks ahead of normal. So far, all of the cool weather crops are really thriving in the veg garden. The first Centauria bloomed last week, and we’re on track to have iris before Memorial Day. Unfortunately that means the lily beetles got here early too. I found the first of the season yesterday. It’s time to have a talk with the chickens. There are several volunteer trees under the flowering crab next to the gazebo. One of them is almost certainly a hawthorn hybrid. It has a few thorns ad some of the leaves are like hawthorn leaves while others are like apples. I didn’t know this could happen, and I’m wondering if maybe we let the rootstock fruit at some point.
