Spring Break!

Those were the days...well, actually, I never did the prototypical college spring break vacation.  I usually went back home to visit the family.  They are nice and all, but something tells me I missed a few things at Lake Havasu or Fort Lauderdale or whatever the new hotspot is these days.  I suppose I'll get over it eventually.  In fact, a wee bit of sun would make things quite merry here in the rose city. 

My 'greenhouse' is slowly coming to completion.  I've hung some rope lights to generate heat and plants have been out there for the past week.  There are some design flaws, but that is to be expected when I was just throwing things at the wall.  Here is what it looks right now.

It's sitting up on blocks, which allows quite a draft to venture in from the bottom.  I was hoping it would stay a bit warmer inside, but right now, it's only 3-4 degrees above the outside temperature.  I think if I were to dig down so that it rests on the ground would help retain the heat.  That's my project for this weekend.  Well, that and potting up peppers and tomatoes.  Lots and lots of them jumping right out of the flats.

I still have some veggie starts for sale.  Red & green romaine, swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, cilantro, catnip, onions (many types), and a few tomatoes.  Let me know what you are interested in and I'll hold them for you.

It's been a long week, as we've been nursing one of our chickens back from the brink.  She, somehow, swallowed a pointy triangular piece of metal at some point in the past couple weeks.  It left a pretty good mark going down into her gizzard, lacerating the esophegeal tube and puncturing the walls of the stomach.  The x-ray is something to behold.  We are trying to get a copy of it.  It's freaky looking.  At any rate, she's been in and out of the avian doctor's office the past week.  It does appear that she has turned a corner and is going to make it. 

After loosing another bird to a hawk a few weeks ago, we are having some bad chicken luck as of late.  I suppose that some chicken owners would probably say that's the price of admission.  However, these are our first birds.  They are more pets than anything else and we are attached to them - rightly or wrongly.  I suppose the next round of chickens we'll get, we'll have a more 'relaxed' attachment to them.  But not the first ones...those are first loves.

Time to get some sleep - hope your weekends are a splendid one.  And if you do find yourself in Lake Havasu, try not to laugh too maniacally when you think about all the poor saps trying to stay dry here in Portlandia.

Cheers!
Zach