Lazy Gardener's Little Town Farm

[Lazy Gardener]

90* today with intermittent light breeze. It may be my imagination, but: It seems like there are not as many potato bugs as there have been in years past. I wonder if it's b/c of all the poultry litter that I worked into those areas? Every can full of hand picked potato bugs gets tossed over the fence into the duck's kiddy pool. They do a great job bobbing for bugs.

I did some watering, some weeding, planted one more tomato, some onions, flowers, and sage. Spread some grass clippings. I used my first bucket of weed tea. Interestingly enough, I had put some mint into that bucket, and there were NO mosquito larvae, even though that bucket had been sitting long enough to be a mosquito breeding frenzy. Oh what a stench!!!

We went to town compost area and picked up 2 barrels of light, fluffy stable litter. Currently, we can only get 2 barrels at a time b/c there is a toneau cover over the truck. I've used up all of my cardboard, got one barrel of litter spread. Need more cardboard or newspaper before I can do more mulching.

Ticks continue to be an "issue". I'm killing about 4/day. Ducks are getting out into the yard for 2 - 4 hours/day when ever we are home. Chickens were let out yesterday for a couple hours.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

95* today. I feel so sorry for the ducks. Hate to pen them up, but... they get what they deserve. They took me for a merry romp down the road and through the yard first thing this morning.

 

[farmerjan]

Makes me think about getting a call early in the morning because there are cattle out.... it is tooooo early to deal with that some days....

 

[Lazy Gardener]

SNAKES! This warm weather has made the snakes happy. Saw one yesterday, and almost stepped on a huge one tonight, when I was shutting up the chicken coop. I love my snakes, but they are a bit alarming when I almost step on them! Thankfully, no poisonous vipers here!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Most common snake here is Garter. But, we have a bunch of others, all non poisonous. Here's a list of varieties I lifted off the internet:
Here in Maine, we have nine different species of snakes:

• Common garter snake, the most common and perhaps most recognizable snake.
• Northern water snake.
• Red-bellied snake, the smallest snake we have in Maine.
• Smooth green snake.
• Milk snake.
• Brown snake.
• Ribbon snake.
• Ring-necked snake.
• Northern black racer, the largest snake we have in Maine and a state endangered species

I think I've seen all, except for the Milk snake and the Northern Black Racer.

 

[baymule]

No poisonous snakes? Lucky you!

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Yes, I am truly blessed.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

We got some rain last night/this morning. Sweet blessed rain. Not much, but a bit. Temp down just a bit from the scorching of the last week. Running 2 AC 24 hours/day has barely brought house temp down enough to be able to sleep.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

My husband saved me from an absolute tragedy/calamity today. We went to TSC to buy dog/cat food. He looked in the bins full of cheeps. One bin had Black Australorpe pullets, marked down to $1 ea. I've never seen discounted chicks here in Maine. But, hubby saved me from a horrible accident. I was able to exit the store w/o putting any cheeps in the car.

 

[Larsen Poultry Ranch]

My husband saved me from an absolute tragedy/calamity today. We went to TSC to buy dog/cat food. He looked in the bins full of cheeps. One bin had Black Australorpe pullets, marked down to $1 ea. I've never seen discounted chicks here in Maine. But, hubby saved me from a horrible accident. I was able to exit the store w/o putting any cheeps in the car.

That sounds like he caused an accident, they were totally supposed to come home with you! I have been avoiding tsc here because I didn't want to be tempted into bringing home chicks.