Lilly & The Garden

Hello everyone, Here are some pictures of our planting this last week. It was so nice to get out in the dirt. We have had so much rain this last spring and it has been very difficult to get the garden in the ground. Farmer's Market will be a little bit late for us.

Lilly helping me plant tomatoes and peppers

Two birthday’s ago, our son and his family took me to the Yoder Auction where the Amish and English come to sell their animals. At the last Friday of each month Yoder has an auction that has chicken, ducks, turkey’s and lots of other kind of animals. It is so fun to go and watch the people there. I ended up buying 2 male and 1 female Black Cochin. I named the female Fuzzy Feet, because she has feathers all over her feet. Well, I didn’t need two males. My neighbor friend Gail and her son Mark John love chickens. I thought I would give them one of the males. They named him Timothy and he loves living at their farm. Well soon after my male died. Not sure why, but then I didn’t have a male and I so wanted to have them have little chicks. Mark John and his family were going on a trip, so they let me borrow Timothy. Fuzzy Feet started laying eggs. I then took the eggs and incubated them. At this same time another farm family had found a nest of guinea eggs that were not

going to make it, because the nest was in the field where the sheep were. Guinea’s are really good for eating bugs in your garden, but they do make a lot of noise. Any way, Lilly was born. It was kind of late in the season. Beings that she was so small she got to lives in a bird cage, that I hung in the front room on a hook. I know that is a little weird to have her in the house, but it worked out perfect for Lilly! She is now laying eggs. I am hoping to go to the Yoder Auction at the end of this month to find Lilly a male Cochin.

I took my little "Lilly" outside for her first time. She followed me everywhere. She even fell into the tomato holes a few times. It was so funny. Her legs must have been dangling in the hole, because she could not move. We had to take her out each time. She loved it outside though. Lilly and I worked away planting tomato plants. In each hole I put in a cup of alfalfa pellets and a crushed up egg shell. My husband did some reading on the pellets. We are just trying it this year and we will see how it works.

Lilly thinks she likes the outside better then inside. I have kept her in my little milk shed, that was used for storing the milk when my husband grew up with his family. They were dairy farmers. The shed works great as a brooder house for my little chicks and ducks.

Just wanted to show you what Taylor and I built. It is a garden tepee. It was not easy and doesn't look quite like what we wanted, but when it is full of little cucumbers for our "fridge pickles" it won't matter. We had such a good time laughing. We made a special memory together that day. As you can see, we put nasturtiums by the cucumbers. They are really good for keeping squash bugs away. Yes!!!! Hope that it works for me. Then I won't have to be "a squishin squash bugs! Can't wait for Monday to start planting some more things. I will keep you posted. Blessings to you!