Inching closer...

Slowly we are getting closer to actually planting the seedlets!! I decided to send one of the kids out to do the latest arm workout...weeding the garden.  My daughter, less than cheerfully, went out and and actually got a pretty large area cleaned up!  She went out with a scowl on her face and came back huffing and puffing 30 minutes later.  Beads of sweat were forming on her face...might be she just sprinkled herself with water...actually after my workout, I believed her perspiration was the real thing.  I think she thought she'd been out there for a much longer time, because when I said it had only been 30 minutes, she had a pained look on her face.  After I reminded her that she could get paid for this...happy attitude required...she went out and did more work.  Amazing what a little monetary incentive can do for a person!  Here are her efforts below:

Pretty good since I did an hour's worth of work and didn't get nearly that much done.  Must be the advanced years of mine.  Ha!

The Bermuda grass is really awful and next year, I need to handle that before it gets too crazy.  The stuff is a menace as I mentioned before.  Great if you want a beautiful turf surface...not so great when you would like to access the soil below. 

This is the horrible Bermuda grass...

...and this is our arsenal of tools we use to get this awful stuff out.  From left to right:  the weasel, one hula hoe, rake, another hula hoe, and finally the claw.  Such a viscious assortment of garden tools...  I'm pretty sure a rototiller might have been easier...but on a positive note, we saved some money and have gotten better looking arms.

In other news, more specifically chicken news...the hens seemed to be content and are still producing a good number of eggs.  We happen to have about 40 in our refrigerator at this time.  Either we will be eating many meals featuring eggs, or we need to give some of these away.  I'm opting for the latter.  I have been scouring recipe websites and books for some good egg recipes...found a few, so hopefully I can get creative with some of these eggs.  Of course, I think my favorite meal with the eggs is an egg sandwich...toast, with cheese, a fried egg, some ham, and another slice of toast.  Yummo!!

I'm jumping around to subjects here, but I don't think I ever posted a photo of the chicken coop where you could see the whole set up.  Below is a picture of the condos where most of the egg laying takes place.  Yes, occasionally we still find an errant egg in either the garden shed or another random lacation.  Someone keeps plopping them out in the dirt by the ramp.  I guess the effort of actually going up the ramp to the condos is just too much for some.  That's fine while the weather is nice, but the ground gets pretty hot when the sun beats down on it in the summer.  The tree that grows right next to the coop is getting leaves and once summer  hits, the coop is almost completely in the shade.  We are going to install an automatic waterer, once I purchase it from the farm store, and get that hooked up.  For some reason, filling water receptacles is super hard at my house.  The dogs' is usually empty and the chickens NEVER have water.  It's funny to watch them either get drinks from the drippy spigot out front or try to get drinks from the dog water that occasionally has been filled.  (In defense of the children who are suppose to fill the water dishes...the labbies do like to go "swimming" in their water bowls and sometimes this is the reason for lack of water.)  Most of the time, it's called laziness. 

Coop Mama going to check on her brood...who were already safely tucked away in the egg carton in the refrigerator.  She squawked rather loudly when she finally got to her condo.