Homestead Happiness, April Week 1

Overwintered crops, physical acquisition of seeds, workable soil, and gypsy ducks made us happy this week.

The chard and garlic under the row cover are really taking off.

Compared to the stuff planted the same week last fall outside the row cover, this garlic is at least an order of magnitude larger.  Plus, the chickens may have eaten the unprotected garlic.

Ducks in the front yard?  We only saw them one day though, so they must be transients.  Maybe we should build a second nest box in case any others stop by.

The fruit trees and dandelions are starting to bloom.  That led us to stand in the yard yelling at the trees to slow down, because our bees aren't coming for another two weeks.  That, in turn, led the neighbors to wonder if we had finally gone over the edge.  But our fruit trees seem to be lagging the neighbors', so maybe it worked!

Fresh chives for breakfast!

We were able to start turning over some new garden beds, which was good since we're already behind schedule on starting seeds and direct sowing things like onions.  Our hope was that taking off the sod with a mattock and piling it on the bed would inspire the chickens to scratch through the clumps, in the process knocking off the topsoil.  Unfortunately, they seemed mostly uninterested in it...until we took off the sod ourselves and covered it in compost.

Seeds arrived! Time to get our plant on.

 What made you happy this week?