Three Weeks

Time goes by so fast. Three weeks have passed and so much has happened: rain, sun, family, chickens…Here is the update.

Peppers are forming, though the plants are still small

Finally! The rains of late May and early June have ended! I thought it was never going to happen. I heard we had about 20 straight days of rain. Of course we had a few more off and on before there was a good dry stretch. People have asked how the weather has been affecting the crops. Earlier, I would have said, not too much, but now I would say it has had more of an effect. When the sun finally came out and the ground dried out enough, the green beans went in. Unfortunately, it was three weeks late and they didn’t all germinate well. Beans will be late this year. Other warm weather crops got in the ground on time, but not all have had the usual early season growth, so will also probably be late. I am still harvesting cool weather crops, but as those finish up, there may be a gap before the warm weather crops are ready.

Our nephew, Jonas

Just about three weeks ago, we got a call from our nephew, Jonas, who was doing some hitchhiking around the western states. He was in Portland and wondering if he could take us up on our offer to visit and help out. Jonas is an artist, and since he arrived while it was still raining, he made some killer name tags for the new delivery bags. Of course, once the rain stopped, we put him to work outside. Steven’s dad offered to spade our front lawn, turning over the grass so we could till it up for a new blueberry bed. No reason to turn that offer down. Jonas helped out by digging out some shrubs around the old lawn.

Our nephew, Cameron, washing pots: a good job for a 95+ degree day.

Meanwhile, we were making plans with another nephew, Cameron, to come and help out for a few weeks. Cameron arrived last Sunday and will stay for two weeks. We put him to work right away planting some shelling beans out where the orchard used to be. (These are new beans I am trying this year. One is a fresh shelling bean, that is also good as a dried bean, the other is a dry shelling bean.) Next up was weeds. He is helping us clear the weeds out of the grapes. Both of these nephews are brothers to Paige, our niece who stayed with us last summer (Jonas older, Cameron younger).

The first sick Rhode Island Red

The day after Jonas arrived, our sick chicken passed away. Really, we were surprised she made it as long as she did. Her abdomen filled up with fluid again, not long after her last visit to the vet, and she stayed full. I am sure it wasn’t very comfortable for her, but she was a trooper. The same day she died, we discovered another Rhode Island Red was sitting all day in a nest box. At first, we thought she was broody, but then that just didn’t seem to fit. She didn’t act well. I decided to take her to the vet, as I was already planning to go to take the deceased body of the first sick girl for the vet to study (other chickens had similar problems and she wanted to find out more about it). Turns out, the first sick girl had cancer throughout her internal organs. She was one tough girl. The second sick red had an egg collapse inside her and it became infected. Even though the vet cleaned her up and gave her a good prognosis, she died the next day. Sigh. Now there are ten girls.

Our big girl, the second sick Rhode Island Red