This and That...

THE ONIONS ARE IN THE GROUND.

(Please do not tell Tony I took a picture of him in his baggy shorts.  He said it was too warm for jeans, so he put on his saggy shorts.  He's got others but these are the ones he wanted.  He says it's his farm and he can do whatever he wants on his farm.    Tony's tilling, and Dad's raking some weeds out.  It was GORGEOUS day!  I helped Dad a bit with the weeds, and then...

...Dad poked holes for me in the ground so I could plant the onions in them.  He made this little "poker" so make several at a time instead of just one at a time.  Then he backs up and goes inbetween the first holes.  Onions don't take much room...

This does hurt his back a bit, but not as much as the actual planting, so I did that. (and boy am I sore today!)  Another thing we did was move my garden boxes to an area closer to the house. Of course, I'll still have my rows of bigger items, but I thought it'd be nice to have the boxes alittle closer, so I could do salad/patio tomatoes and some smaller items that'd be convenient to the kitchen... maybe some herbs, flowers, etc...

We put old hay on the ground, a double layer of landscape cloth, and I will fill the boxes with compost, peat moss, vermiculite, etc.  I don't think grass is going to grow up through that.  Last year, I bought some cheap landscape cloth trying to save money, and all it did was promote the bermuda!  It thrived on that luscious mixture and the cheapo cloth. This year, I went to the nursery and paid the extra for nursery grade cloth.  I think in the long run, it'll be worth it.  Some things you get what you pay for... 

Thought I might even do a box of some lettuces and cool weather things before it got too warm. Most of the other crops won't go into the big garden until sometime in March after the danger of frost is past.

Here's a coupla pics of my onion starts in the ground. I put out 5 rows of about 97 each.  Some white Noondays, yellow granex, white super-sweet and a bundle of candy red onions.  I think we'll have plenty!

I also rotate my plantings every year to help the soil out and to prevent nematodes.  Look that up cuz it'd hard to explain.

I was out feeding the chickens some stale tortillas yesterday, just tearing them up and throwing them out in front of me.  They'll also come and take food out of my hand.  Gypsy wanders up, wags her tail, whines, and asks me politely for a tortilla.  Gypsy smiles, did you know that?  She "talks" to me, too, with all kinds of whimpers and sounds - if you heard her you'd understand. We can carry on quite a conversation.

Anyway, I asked her if she wanted a tortilla, and she answered that Yes, she did please.  She flopped on the ground and rolls over on her back and said, "see how cute I am?  I really need a tortilla".  So I gave her one.

Now, I don't know if she was actually hungry or not - she does have a little winter padding.  But she laid on the ground, on her back, with her tortilla for awhile just enjoying the sun.  Then, she laid it down and just lay there grinning at me and watching the chickens.

Well, the chickens noticed that she laid it down.  They looked on with interest and kept inching a teeny bit closer humming a little bit.  Step by step, and Gypsy watching them but playing like she didn't care.  Then, the chickens decided to have a go at the tortilla, so the chickens AND Gypsy charged the tortilla all at the same time!  Gyp grabbed up her tortilla and promptly moved to a different location and ate it, looking up to smile at the chickens every few minutes.  Oh this was well thought out, let me tell you!

OK, you chicken people.  Tell me if you have any idea what's wrong with this chicken's eyes.  She has been this way since late last spring.  The red skin in front of both eyes has swelled and remained so.  Sometimes her eyes seem watery and sometimes not.  I have isolated her a couple of different times and given her antibiotics by mouth and drops in her eyes.  Nothing has helped.  I wondered if she might be allergic to something like the bedding or could just be something in the air at our farm.

I don't know if it hurts her - she eats and sleeps and poops and lays eggs and does everything all the other chickens do, shakes her head sometimes, seems to scratch with a toe sometimes.  I don't know what else to do.  She seems otherwise healthy.

My question is:  Should I let her live like this even tho she might be itchy or bothered by her eyes OR should she be culled?  I would think if she felt bad all the time, she wouldn't eat or would gradually weaken, or something!  None of the other chickens have this problem so that's why I'm thinking allergies.  If y'all have any ideas, please let me know.  I don't know if she's suffering or not, and it pains me to have to think about culling, but chicken raisers sometimes won't fool with a problem chicken. They cull immediately.  I'm not really a chicken farmer, but I wanna do the right thing by her.

Gotta run - we're off to a superbowl party!  I don't care who wins, just getting together with friends that we don't get to see often is fun - the men will be in front of the tube, and the ladies will be in the kitchen catching up!  Isn't that the way it goes?????

Keep your dress down!