What a lovely season spring is, to see the quick transformation from cold and desolate to warm and green up close and personal is an enriching experieince, and one full of awe and wonder too.
It seems like just a couple weeks ago I had to keep a fire in the house and was anticipating the buds and blossoms that have now arrived, spring sprung suddenly. You can see from the photos how quickly these changes took place, all of them have been from this week!
So whats been up at Cedarville? A whole fucking lot! ahaha, that's the nature of spring I suppose. Anyways, I will show you guys some cool things that have occurred....
(Happy chickens in new enclosure)
Well, this thing is cool, but also sad. Some of our chickens got preyed upon by predators recently. First, we just found a dead chicken in the coop and the other chickens were eating it.... gross, yes.... chickens can be pretty scary honestly, they are small dinosaurs. Cannibalism is outlawed, but try imposing rules on chickens.... good luck!
Anyways, we did not know what happened to that chicken so we were extra vigilant, but a few days later two more chickens died! One of our red ones went missing, only piles of feathers to be found, and our big fluffy white one (the one I wanted to eat the most lol) had its head torn off and guts all over the place, scary and nasty! This time we could tell some lil monster had literally dragged the red one up and over our fence, there were feathers everywhere... A big mystery still.
And I say this is cool (although sad) only because it spurred action on our part. We made the run of the coop really small and secure, as the last one was big and not very secure, and the chickens love it! See them on their perch? I actually like having them in a small enclosure when we are not out and about, it makes for good chicken watching.
(my favorite chicken, she is a bitch and sounds like a raptor, but looks so cool. Her name is Tiny-spotted-dino-cow....)
We are in the process of building them a bigger and better coop and run anyways (my dream coop). We also only let them out when we are out and about during the afternoon mostly, and are always on the watch. Also, one of our hens went broody! I have never had a broody hen or hatched chicks on my own before, so I am super stoked! We will be replenishing our chicken stock after the flock got thinned out by nature I guess.... everything works in cycles.
(broody hen is actually an angry pancake.)
Oddly, I get a lot more emotional when our roosters die then the hens.... but perhaps I am just becoming desensitized. I only wish I got to eat those hens rather then whatever mysterious little predator....
Anyways, onto more light hearted adventures. Bees! This old ass cherry tree that my dad took as a stump from his childhood back yard is blooming and the bees love it! I love it too, and the fact that I can stand in the middle of it and see like 10 + kinds of bees buzz around my head.
They are so busy, I have no reason to be scared, they are all my friends anyways. The pruning I did for this tree really helped too, perhaps we will get some fruit off of it this year, but if not I plan on grafting some different fruits onto it whenever I am meant to do that...
I found that bumble bees, the fuzzy super buzzing ones, are the most photogenic of bee. The rest move around really fast and especialy when you get too close! But not the bumble bees, nope, they are so fuzzy, cute and busy. Too busy to care about me having a photo shoot with them that is.... I also found that when photographing bees of any sort, most likely you will photograph their butts sticking out of flowers. Bee butts galore!
Ahh, bee butts. Have you noticed a couple different kinds of bees? I think there is a mason bee in here too. They are smaller, shiny and mostly black. There are many other kinds on this tree, but none of them seem to want their picture taken. Ahh well, someday I will document them all. Hopefully I will get to the bee ID workshop tomorrow at the local university, so I can identify them all properly.
Now, onto the gardens!
Transplanting baby seedlings is one of my most favorite activities, its just so fun to handle these little wonders. Although, I can't wait to get soil block making devices, so I can transplant without disturbing any roots. I also wish that the mice would quit munching on my seedlings too.....
This is my DIY cold-frame/hothouse sorta thing. The frame is an old frame that goes on the back of a truck that was laying around uselessly, so I took it over here by my seedlings and set it up with some Plexiglas on-top. Viola, works wonders! I can even leave tomato babies in here overnight. Here in the Okanagan, nights still can sorta dip below freezing still but the days are damn hot and it gets into the high 20's already! Its finally the season for dresses, and so the coldframe is a good place for my cute plants, and especially for my pepper seeds which need to be hot to germinate.
Now, welcome to the garden! It is always 420 here... hahaha. This clock thing is really handy for keeping all these little tools in one place, considering I do not have a garden shed yet. Ahh, so many things to do and build.
Flowers and mints...
Kale and playgrounds.....
Happy pea shoots!!!!
And in another little garden patch on our property.... strawberries and rhubarb are ready to say hello! OOO, I can't wait to eat you... grow strong!
If you can't tell... I am largely driven by my stomach. Plus, I just love plants. A friend of ours is bringing us some tobacco seedlings to add to my collection as well, and my nasturtium seedlings have popped up too. Such happiness! Many joys!
Anywho that just about sums up the pretty and interesting things going on here, sorta. At least at my end ahaha, and all I really care for are chickens, plants and bees. There are plenty of other projects going on this spring, we are in full force here at scenic Cedarville! Perhaps I will get around to photographing other peoples projects as well.
Until next time, my lovely internet friends, have a blast! Make positive impacts! Bee the change! <3
