Lots Of Planting

A Bit of Shopping
After a bit of breakfast at McDonalds we popped into lotty quickly to let the girls out then headed off to the farm to get a few supplies for the chickens. This time we also had to pick up some chick crumbs as we have eleven eggs incubating at home and they'll be needing food when they (hopefully) hatch later this month. Back at lotty with everything put away I made a start on cleaning out the coop and took the first load of soiled straw up to where John was making a fire. It wasnt burning as well as we'd hoped so I had to wait a while before carrying on with it. The chickens had a bit of fun hopping in and out of the coop from the open side panel.

More Planting
Last weekend we planted three rows of potatoes, two of carrots and two of beetroot which felt good as I was worried we wouldnt be getting everything out soon enough. Having had a quick look at my monthly seed planting spreadsheet I found that so much of it was due to be planted this month. So while I was waiting to get the wheelbarrow back the Blur and I went into greenhouse one to decide what we would plant today. Seeing that there was a packet of cucumber seeds the Blur thought we should plant them first. We wanted to plant some sweetcorn but as we'll be needing around 100 we have to go and buy some seed trays too plant them in as we do not have enough individual pots, and it would take too much compost.
Having just bought a bale of straw the Blur put our blanket over it and made a comfortable little seat for us. While I filled the pots, watered and covered the seeds the Blur wrote the labels and put the seeds in each one. So we now have cucumbers, yellow courgettes, green courgettes, Italian and beefsteak tomatoes, pumpkins and peas all potted up in greenhouse one.

The Trouble With Chickens
Whilst the Blur and I were inside, John was outside preparing a bed for more strawberries. He came into the greenhouse a few times to get more plants and ended up with around 32. This done he went into the hut and returned to find the chickens scratching about on his strawberry bed. Not wanting them to get demolished by the chickens he made a cover using some canes and netting, but unsurprisingly Penny who can wriggle herself through almost any gap to get what she wants was in there like a shot. I bought a bag of onion sets this week so John took the planting of these as his next job. After digging over another patch he let the chickens have a little scratch around in it before planting. Once they'd moved along he raked it over only for Rita to start playing around on it again. It was nice to see the cockerel joining in with them this time though. John did manage to get the onions in though and we now have 50-60 planted along with the others that we have done from seed.

Some Little Jobs
As well as the planting there were a few other little jobs to be done. Firstly I gave the shed and food bin a bit of a tidy up as there were empty bread bags and food containers in there. I also raked up the straw by the compost bins as the girls had been kicking it about (I think making a mess with straw is one of their hobbies). John watered the seeds in greenhouse two and weeded around the broad beans which have shot up this week. We also had a game of piggy in the middle with the Blur. Having been stuck at home most of the winter she told me she was looking forward to being able to spend more time at lotty running around when its a bit warmer.

Never Ending Work
Having eggs incubating at home means we are going to need a new coop to accommodate them. We have a pallet which I can use to make the base and a few other parts and tomorrow hopefully we'll get the other wood I need to finish it. The new coop at home will also house the cockerel as and when needs be as he is not supposed to be living at lotty. We have a long shopping list of lotty items, one being chicken wire so I can extend the run upwards so the chickens cannot escape, and alot more compost if were to get everything we want planted. I have Karlas class and the other year five class coming to lotty to see the chickens next week so I need to have a bit of a tidy up and write down what im going to say to them.

Its been a lovely day, and the weather was pretty much on our side even if it could have been a few degrees warmer. Thank you John and Blur, I look forward to the fun were going to be having as summer draws closer.