Happy Spring

Hello, friends.  I hope your week has been a good one.  Last week, I prepped a bed, and planted the remainder of the chard.  Having leftover sweet potatoes on a cold morning, I made a pie.  I changed insurance the first of the year, and with the new one, I get $50 in OTC benefits quarterly.  I placed and quickly received my order for this quarter.  I'm pretty happy about that.  Our Barred Rock chicks shipped on Wednesday, were supposed to arrive on Friday, but didn't make it to the Greensboro hub in time, so didn't end up at our PO until Saturday.  Amazingly, they appeared fine.  There was one that seemed less active, and we think it's probably the one we lost on Sunday.  It really surprises us that they're shipped "Priority", rather than overnight.  They all seem to be eating and drinking well, and are as cute as they can be.

shortly after arriving

I finished weeding two out of three asparagus areas.  I'm placing cardboard around the perimeter of our newest bed, to help cut down on weeds.  Speaking of which, there has been a crew working on cutting all large limbs near the powerlines along our road, and chopping the undergrowth.  When they came to let J know they were working in our area, he told them we'd love chips, if they needed a place to drop some.  We were delighted to get a load a few days later.  They talked like we may get more, which hasn't happened yet, but we're very happy to have this load.  When I came to the house, to let J know they were dropping off chips, I intended to give all the guys some soap as a thank you, but they were already gone, when I got back out there.  We have so many uses for the chips.  I was already planning to clean the coop the day the chips arrived, and used some for that, as well as some in the new compost system.  We plan to use most of them in the garden, for paths and mulch.  

I shopped the clearance sale at Vitacost, getting some good deals, and got an additional 4% back, by going through Swagbucks.  Vitacost was recently bought by iHerb, and I'm sad to see the majority of what I had been getting is no longer being carried.  I redeemed a $25 GC from Swagbucks, using a sale for the equivalent of $3 off, plus used another $3 redeemed for an activity.  Golden paste, suet and hummingbird food were made.  I saw a post online, with a hummingbird in Charlotte, and then saw that the early ones arrive mid-March, so I put the feeder up on Sunday.  I always keep Easter in my mind as the approximate timing for hummingbirds, but as that date moves around so much, it's not very accurate.  I made my first batch of compost extract, following the instructions of the permaculture consultant, and used it to water all the lettuce, chard and broccoli plants, as well as all the seedlings in the house.  J has been broadforking a row in the garden, which our consultant said is much preferable to tilling for healthy soil.  I'm doing lots of shoveling and forking, with our new compost system, so we're both getting regular workouts.  I'm working with a chiropractor, for the first time, and he's told me I have wonderful range of motion and excellent spinal health.  So nice to hear, when you're in your upper 60's.  Staying active must make a difference.  I hope I can do so for many years to come.