Fun in the Sun

It was a beautiful weekend in Southern Nevada.  We did some weeding, banded some of the romaine to help it find it's shape, cursed whatever is eating the beans as they emerge from the ground, changed the straw in the chicken coop, and cuddled our future dinner.  It's hard (for me anyway) not to grab a bunny every time I'm outside.

We trimmed one of our trees, an African Sumac that is one of our wedding trees.  We saw some that were really trimmed nicely and realized that we could keep our tree looking beautiful without looking like a overgrown mop.  We did a big trim a while back, but didn't want to send it into shock so we only went so far at the time.  We did a little clean up on it today and it looks great.  And even better, we brought the chipper back from the property that last time we were there, so we'll be able to make chips to spread over our paths, or use as mulch by the fruit trees.

We finally got our potato seeds in the mail on Friday, and they went into the ground yesterday.  We got a variety, just to see what might work best here.  We have a white boiling potato, a fingerling, a russet-type, one that has a red skin and white inside, and another that is red inside and out.  We also had some that grew last year in the garden that we saved and planted since they started sprouting.  I hope they do well.

Some of the romaine is forming nice heads on it's own.  I tend to rip off the
outer floppy leaves to give to the chickens and rabbits.

One of the beans that the evil bean sprout eater didn't get to last night.
We're going to head out there tonight after it gets dark to see if we
can figure out for sure what it is so we can keep them away.

Peas, beets, carrots and leeks.

I've noticed this on the radishes before, and I think it's weird.
It's like the ends of the leaves are leaking.

Cauliflower

We found a celery hiding in the fennel.

Peas are grabbing the trellis, now we wait for the blooms.

They were bunched up in the nesting box for so long,
 they seem to be unable to sleep unless they're piled up.

We found two large trays a couple of weeks ago.  The trash guys pick up bulk trash every couple of weeks, and a neighbor down the road had created quite a pile.  As I would drive by, I look over to see if anything was salvageable and I saw two large trays.  Maybe at one time they were trays like you'd see bread sitting on when they refill grocery store shelves?  I'm not sure, but a few days before I noticed them, I had seen something on a blog about using the flats you get at the nursery that hold the smaller pots to grow a section of clover, grasses, and legumes to feed her chickens.  I thought it was a great idea.  It's hard to grow anything in their area, and using the flats lets you grow greens for them in a different area, then bring it over to them when it's big enough to fill them up.  And now I have two large flats that the hubby started for me with buckwheat seed.

Soon to be chicken food