Time to plant out those tomatoes! These guys were started in the living room under grow lights way back in March. When they outgrew the living room, they moved into the green house where they hardened off for a good few weeks. They were just about grown out of their little gallon pots and ready for some extreme compost, so out into the mega bed, our whopping 16 footer,  they go. 

First we topped the bed off with a good six inches of rich organic compost and attached PVC hoops to hold up some plastic. Tomatoes aren't known to do so well when their leaves are heavily rained on, so the plastic will keep the overhead water minimal, and also trap in heat. 

Holes were dug for each plant and sprinkled with some home recipe complete organic fertilizer. In they went and then got a good drenching at the base of the stem from the garden hose.

Our cute little pullets have finally blossomed into these beautiful hens.  

 Their new feathers are so shiny and colorful. These girls really are stunning. I think they know it too, they've started to walk with a prideful bounce in their step.

"Snacks?"

Smart and friendly too! These girls know where their food is coming from!

Today was our first day as vendors at the Carnation Farmers Market!

 What a great energy this market has! We feel lucky to be there.

 
It's been fun, exciting and a bit stressful getting everything ready for our very first farmer's market. The boxes had to be built, the signs painted and the tablecloth bought. But everything came together, and was drop dead adorable, for the big day. We met lots of friendly customers, covered our stall fees for the day and had a great time.

Every other week, starting today, we'll get up early, harvest our produce fresh, pack up the truck and drive out to Carnation for an afternoon of work at the market. 

Reality

There's a lot of reality in farming. Sometimes that gets lost. It's easy to start out with perfect visions of an ideal world where everything and everybody gets along.

See, we thought that the presence of horses and the dogs would keep predators at bay. Fact is, the horses and dogs tend to stay close. They go where we go.

Lulu and I set the birds loose on the pasture, smiled at their delight, and went back up to the house. The dogs and horses followed. We thought everybody would be fine as we left to run errands.

When we returned, I started down to check on the birds and tuck them in for the night. Something wasn't right. Tex ran over to me and looked... off. I thought maybe he'd done something, but that wasn't the case at all. Sorry for thinking that, Tex. My guess now is that he looked guilty because he felt it was his job to protect our birds and he was unable to meet the task. There was a lot of fence between him and the birds. He couldn't have gotten there even if he wanted to.

The clearing was empty. No chirping, no quacking. Not a single sign of our birds. Well, that's not true. There was one sign. My eye found the red, feathered stillness next to the coop. My heart sank and I expected the worst.

I ran over to see that one of our hens had been killed. Her wounds were devastating and consistent with descriptions of hawk predation.

The other birds were all in the coop. They were huddled under the nest boxes and they looked scared. They were hushed, as if making noise would cause the terror to revisit.

I called Lulu and she hurried out to the pasture. The day was turning to night and there wasn't much we could do except bring a bucket to collect the remains. We locked up the coop and set off to bury our little hen.

The Birds Go Out to Pasture

The day started off so well. We decided to move the chickens and ducks to the back pasture where they'd have lots of space to run around and lots of horse poop to pick through. Their presence would have the added benefit of reducing the fly population, which would keep the horses more comfortable.


It was an idyllic setting and the chickens and ducks looked so very happy.
In hindsight, we should have known better. But at the time, it was perfect.

They were beautiful. We were naive.