Homesteading Update: Farm Friends & Spring Starts

             Hey folks! As any writer encounters from time to time, I've had a bit of writer's block lately. So, I bring to you another update in pictures. It's been a weird, somewhat busy week, and I've been very scatter-brained the past few days. You guys don't mind a bunch of pictures, right? We did finish the rabbit hutch, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get that post up for you guys next Monday! But, we are off to my parents house this weekend (have I mentioned 5,000 times that I almost always write my posts several days in advance, if not farther out than that?!), so I just do not have time to get to it this week, unfortunately. Sorry!

             I feel like I haven't shared many pictures of the critters lately, so here's a few! Miss Gabby, our newest addition to the farm, is there on the left. She's getting pudgy already! Not sure why. I don't feel like I overfeed her. Who knows. I didn't notice the way Mr.Bruce was staring at me on the right until I was putting this collage together. Ha ha! Silly boy. He's a little, erm, “possessive” still, of his food and I have to feed them separately. Crazy kids. He'll be getting a run for his money once she gets bigger than him, I'm sure. ;)

             Starting from the top left, there is Tawny. Of course she looked away as I was taking the picture. She's a sh**head in more than one way. I think I've mentioned it before recently, but she LOVES drinking from the hose because it drips like crazy. Well, I had to get a new sprayer head (oh darn!) so um, yah. It doesn't drip any more. She's not very happy about it. Seriously. She acts like a crackhead when she even sees the hose. She even pecked me the other day (and not softly!) when I was reaching for the sprayer! I wasn't very happy. She's a quirky little thing, and I can't stay mad at her long, though. I will have to try and remember to get a video of her sometime when I have the hose out.

             That little white fluffball masquerading as a chicken is our Silkie Bantam Francine. Currently aka Broody McBrooderson. She sure is a biotch when I try to check under her for new eggs/ones I don't want her sitting on, but she's been doing a good job so far. I just wish she were bigger so I could have left more eggs under her! XD Right now I have 4 of the other Easter Egger, Yasmine's, eggs under her. She lays faithfully, they're huge, and she's not really mean or anything, so we wouldn't mind having more chickens like that. ;)

             These 3 little chickies are part of our newish gang. We started out with 7, but I don't feel like talking about it. -_- The Silver-laced Wyandotte in front is Silver Fox, the Buff in the middle is Ducky, and the Golden-laced Wyandotte is Goldielocks. However, as you can see in the last picture, we still have one that needs named! She's a pretty little black and tan Easter Egger. Any ideas?

             Believe it or not, we've been doing a lot of seed starting and planting already! I just hope we don't regret it. :/ Starting them was mostly my idea. My husband insisted they (should be) fine planting outside. We'll see...

             Anyways, we've got a nice little set up for starting seeds in our sunroom. I just wish it got more light in there. Not terrible, but not great this time of year still. We've started quite a bit of cooler weather crops already, like broccoli, spinach, lettuces, etc. as well as herbs, though they're not taking off very quickly. I finally got smart and drew some diagrams of what we planted where so we wouldn't have to worry about the popsicle sticks bleeding or falling of the lids etc. etc. If I remember right, that stuff on the bottom right is called rock wool? Hubby found it on Amazon or something and decided to try it out. Basically it's like the little planting trays we already have, but you can reuse them! Pretty cool, right?!

             My father in-law found an AWESOME deal on a roto-tiller recently, so he came over and finished tilling up the little garden the other day. We've already transplanted some of the cooler weather plants that I listed above to out here. We also put our greenhouse over the majority of the first plants we put out there. That's actually where the dry spot is in the one picture, so I'm not sure what's up with that because you can see the condensation on the inside of it when it is on the ground.

It looks like grass, but that stuff growing underneath the line of red yarn is actually some wheat action! Pretty sure I already mentioned this too, but it will be for chicken feed. :) Still not sure about the clover that's supposed to be growing next to it. :/

             Have you guys planted anything yet or started any seedlings indoors?