Upon the Laying of an Egg

February 18, 2009, marks a momentous occasion at The Realm. So does June 21, 2009. What's so important about those dates? Well, February 18 is the day that we brought home 10 Cuckoo Marans chicks to join the household, and June 21 is the day Skye found the first egg laid by our lovely ladies.

Time is short this morning, so just a quick overview. I'll write more details later. After returning the males to the neighbor who gave us the chicks, we have 5 lovely Cuckoo Marans living the the Chicken Tractor designed and built by Love. In April, 3 little Cinnamon Queens from a local farm supply store joined The Flock. This Sunday, someone laid her first egg, which Skye scrambled and ate for breakfast Monday morning.

More details of the Chicken Saga to follow, I promise. If you'd like to see more pictures, check out Fowl Friday over at Skye's blog. Right now, I have to fix sack lunches for the day and get ready to leave The Realm for another day at the library.

Counting Down

Yes, I'm counting down the days to my summer break, which starts Friday! I hope to get back in the writing mode. I've been in the mood for a while, but it always comes down to: do I garden or write? do I sleep or write? do I spend time interacting with my family or write? Somehow, writing never wins.

But as I was gardening in the early morning today (yes, I can get some gardening in before work if I get up at 5:00, and it's much cooler at 5am than 5pm), I finally realized why I haven't been writing. While I never write as much during the school year as I do during the five weeks I am "off" in the summer, this spring has been pretty much a desert. But Love went back to work in January. I had gotten used to those extra hours his schedule while working on his master's had allowed me. Now they're gone, and the house is the wreck it always becomes when I'm trying to juggle work, family, my gardens, and the house. The house always comes in last. And that's as it should be. I don't clean house for life.... I garden for life.

June Ozark Gardening Calendar

June 1
Kitchen Garden:
Plant bush & pole beans, carrots, celery, corn, cucumber, eggplant, melon, radish, & summer squash.
Transplant long keeper tomato and peppers.
Indoors:
Plant brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, & fall crop celery.
Cottage Garden:
Cut sage back halfway.

June 10
Kitchen Garden:
Plant various beans & southern peas.