Chicken Bath

It's been an unusually mild winter here, the say. El Nino has seen to that. And yet, the months of snow and cold have stretched out as slowly as they can. I'm just impatient, that's all. 

In the Fall we prepared a place in the shed (make that, set up a huge cage that takes all the space in our shed) for the Hens. I didn't want them to have to endure the ferocity of winter in their Little Yellow Hen House and I knew that the amount of snowfall would make it difficult / impossible to access them. So, into the shed they went. We made it as comfortable as we could. Straw bales, roosts, heated waterer, nesting spaces. We got mats for the floor so their little toes wouldn't freeze on the cold concrete and put a heater in there to raise the temperature just a little, - oh, and a thermometer to check the temperature in there several times a day. (We're just a teeny bit doting).

Well, it worked! The chickens have survived! They've thrived! On the less cold days, we open the shed door to let in sunlight and fresh air. Two of them, Dolly and Henrietta moulted in the Fall, and stopped laying. They took a well-deserved break and in January as daylight increased they started laying again. Good little Hens! We love our fresh eggs every day! And one thing we know they love is their bath! A wheelbarrow containing sand, ash and diatomaceous earth serves as their favourite entertainment and essential grooming station. The dust flies as three contented Hens enjoy splashing about. It's funny, when one Hen goes in, they all pile in together. I just sit there, on the garden chair, and smile at them. 

Things are becoming Seedy round here...

A few weeks ago we ordered a huge batch of seeds from Veseys Seeds. I couldn't possibly tell you how much we spent... Well, a minuscule box arrived today and I did raise an eyebrow or two wondering if only a couple of packets arrived. To our great delight the package contained 36 packets of seeds. All that potential is frightening and terribly exciting. Our whole summer garden arrived in that small box.  Only slightly daunted by the prospect of the work that lies ahead to make those little seeds do their thing, we poured over the little envelopes.

36 packets of Seeds

We have grand ideas this year. Each year they seem to get grander and each year we complain when we have to get out there in the hot humidity of summer to weed or dig. But when one is almost at the back-end of a 5-month winter all one can imagine is endless green and glorious colour from flowers! We plan to keep Bees this year (more about that later) and in order to keep them well supplied with pollen and nectar we are designing and planting a Bee Garden. This will be a large new patch we will till and plant from scratch. We have all sorts of flower seeds that we understand Bees will love. We have things like Butterfly Flowers, Rudbeckia, Asters, Cosmos, Dill and Borage. I want to make a Sunflower teepee, - Pinterest is an endless source of creative ideas and a magnificent time-waster!

Hopefully the Bees will visit the veg patch as well as we have several new varieties to try this year. I persuaded Peggy to buy something new in place of her beloved, tried-and-true Roma tomatoes. So we're hoping that Plum Regal and Mountain Merit will do the trick. Another new thing is Rainbow Swiss Chard. We plan to use our many straw bales (used to help over-winter our chickens) in a bale garden experiment (also thanks to Pinterest). We hope to plant strawberries and melons in the straw bales. We've decided to give up on planting cucumbers, - we've never really been successful. Also, tomatillos are not worth the wait.

The next few weeks will see us very busy in the Growing Room. We'll be preparing the towers of shelves, rigging up dozens of lights, filling hundreds of seed pots and planting trays and watering and examining daily for the first tiny green shoots that promise to be magnificent specimens. But tonight we're revering the small seed packets, shaking them to make sure there's something inside, looking at the picture on the front and imagining those flowers or veggies on our garden this year. We can dream. It's -4C out there tonight but the snow is beginning its humongous melt and we are glad!

The Longest Month and a Beginners Guide to Groundhog Day.

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From Steinback.online Feb 2nd 2016. He is waving the Manitoban Flag

It's February. The longest month in the year.......It's only the 3rd of February 2016 but the month has been going on for weeks already. It's a cold crisp morning and of course the snow is still pretty out here in the country and the blue skies are filled with fluffy white clouds and the sun is shining brightly and everything is beautiful in its own way, and the sound of a little plane up in the air somewhere make it feel as if spring is just round the corner. And maybe it is! Here in Canada, yesterday was Groundhog Day. Sadly Winnipeg Willow (a real groundhog) died last week and so was unable to perform his/her yearly duty as far as predicting when spring would arrive. and all festivities were cancelled as a mark of respect.  Surprisingly, I am unable to ascertain what Brandon Bob predicted but I am able to tell you that Manitoba Merve from Oak Hammock Marsh, (North of Winnipeg and between the big Manitoban Lakes)  predicts just six more weeks of winter and thus an early spring. How do they predict the weather? Well when they are let out of their little cages early on Feb 2nd, or thereabouts, and if they see their shadow then it's a bad long winter still ahead but if they don't see their shadow it's only six weeks to go. I am hung up on the bit about seeing their shadow.....how do you know when a ground hog sees its own shadow? Apparently it's frightened when it sees its own shadow...ok....but how do you know it's frightened? Perhaps it's really pleased to see that shadow!  Bad enough when it's a real ground hog but perhaps Manitoba Merve can tell you what you want to hear as he is a puppet......yes.......only in North America. But wait! No......The origins of Groundhog day are lost in the midst of ancient times. Thousands of years ago as my Celtic ancestors celebrated the winter Cross Quarter Day (which later became the Christian Candlemas Day)  on about Feb 2nd they dug a good old British Badger out of its hole and predicted the weather from his/her reaction to his/her own shadow........It lies deep deep within us to need a little levity in the depth of winter and as groundhogs and badgers should all be keeping warm underground at this time, and are probably not happy at being forced out into the open on a cold February day,  perhaps Manitoba Merve the Puppet is no bad thing.

Getting through January........

So it's that time of year in Southern Manitoba when it's -20deg C before windchill and my Beloved is out womanning the snowblower to keep our paths clear so Molly the Dog can run a little bit without disappearing in the snow drifts and its a very grey day and will be again tomorrow and thoughts turn to planning for spring and there is an urgent need to tidy up the garden and plant something, anything!

But then look at it!

Back

Front

           

Not a lot of outdoor activity today and yesterday wasn't much better although it was sunnier and it's always easier to feel happier in sunshine even if the wind chill is below -30deg C. What can one do if one can't do it outside? Well there was a space in the growing room with nothing in it......it has been annoying me for months

The Space

I must digress a little in order to clarify the term "Growing Room" in the context of our little world. Just the other day someone asked me if we used it to grow tall, spiky leaved, interestingly perfumed plants, especially as we use a lot of lights at certain times of the year. When I eventually cottoned on to what I was being asked I not only recoiled in horror but wondered if other people were wondering the same thing. No, no, no! It was a small, dark, windowless,cold, miserable bit of our garage until it was transformed two years ago into a small,light filled,dry,insulated space with windows, lighting and a little heat to keep it at about 8-10 deg C, in winter. We use it for all sorts of thing including: starting off seeds and young plants for the veg and flower gardens so we can plant out as soon as the snow melts and the ground is defrozen (yes I know it's "defrosted" but "defrozen' gives a much better idea of reality) ; storing last years produce such as butternuts , onions,  potatoes; overwintering geraniums and herbs; pottering about in when desperate to see a bit of green and when the garden shed is surrounded by 6 ft snow drifts and several hundred yards away across snowy wastes

Back to The Space.


' We need more shelves!' I had exclaimed at some point.

We found a flatpack full of wonderful shelves and brought it home and looked at the box for weeks.Then we trundled it into the GR where it was in the way. Today was the day to unpack the box, read the instructions, apply the rubber hammer where necessary, and build a masterpeice. And so it was and Lo! 6 shelves on wheels appeared in The Space and all was well. And suddenly, there was on the shelves, a multitude of interesting and very useful objects which had been lying aimlessly about the place for months.

I still wanted to plant something but what? I sparingly watered everything green and growing and chatted to Wilfred. Wilfred has been around. He started life as a Factory Gnome and then became a Shelf Gnome in a British supermarket. He soon became a Garden Gnome in Surrey UK where he was very happy but circumstances meant that he had to emigrate to Canada where he became a Step Gnome looking after containers of flowers on the front steps of his new home. There was a tragic accident and Wilfred sustained a terrible head injury. Although he recovered somewhat he has never been able to resume his former duties so now he is a Windowsill Gnome in the GR and he is currently supervising  Siberian Iris(es) which may or may not bloom soon.

Wilfred wasn't much help but I remembered a small packet of 20 Anenome de Caen which was left over from a failed planting last year. I found a small green trough and used our own seed compost which I had rescued from the compost heap before it froze in November and filled a big container in the GR for just this very purpose......planting something in the depths of winter when desperate.


Satisfied at last and with the daylight beginning to fade I retreated into the depths of the lounge where the seed catalogues live, and with curtains closed, the fire on, a cup of tea and the last of the Christmas biscuits I resumed dreaming of spring flowers, and long hot lazy summer days in the garden.