March 26th Homestead Update

We had nice weather this weekend and much outside work was done. Our to-be espalier trees are all in the ground, they are 2 year old trees which isn't ideal for for espalier but such is the way of gardening most of the time. I also planted the 4 red current bushes I intend to cordon on our east side yard that is sun/shade mix, but currents can be understory plants so I'm not worried about the lack of sun. I was also given by my neighbor a branch of black currents, and told to propagate them by sticking whips of them in the ground, leaving about a foot above and 6" below ground. With luck a few of them will root out and I'll have some black current bushes.

I put the first round of baby chickens outside in the rabbit tractor for the first time on Sunday. They were pretty freaked out, the world is a lot bigger than the broody box as it turns out.  I snapped a rare picture of all three out in the sun, most of the time they stayed in the back huddled together for safety.  I let the two remaining adults chickens loose in the garden to "help" me spread the manure around.

Once I got the ground rototilled, Jake helped me stake out the new garden bed locations. Then I worked away at shoveling the walkway soil into the garden bed area. It's amazing how much soil is in the garden bed area. We had so much pathway in our garden layout before that the growing beds seem really tall. Which is good because it'll give the roots deeper growing space. I know the soil will compact with the rain but it seems huge right now.

Jacob meanwhile was working on finishing up our woodshed and transferring the wood into it's permanent home. We had built a makeshift wood pile and covered it with a tarp, since we got the wood and stove in December it was too late to actually build something. The shed is a pretty simple lean-to using two sides of the fence as walls and only covering one side with plywood. This leaves the east side open for access, since our prevailing wind/rain come from the southwest the wood should stay nice and dry.

 Before:

After: Without one plywood wall.

Since the woodshed is over in the "bee hive" corner, Jacob got a video of the girls flying. The Stripes hive we were sure would die had so little bee's going into winter, they are still weak but getting stronger as spring progresses. It's hard to see on the video but they are bringing in orange and pale yellow almost white pollen, likely from dandelions and crocus plants.