 |
| The metal for the roof arrives! Safely unloaded after the truck was almost swallowed up by the very soft mud |
 |
| Leveling and squaring the roof has been the most difficult, tedious, and frustrating part of building so far. |
 |
| Our friend John is much more experienced with roofing and spent some time with Chris to make sure it was done safely and correctly. |
 |
| It was hot, but thanks to the drought we have been experiencing it didn't rain |
 |
| Chris spent many hours at night, in the cold of spring moving rocks by hand to create a small retaining wall along the East side of the house |
 |
| Some of these rocks are huge! I guess he's pretty strong! |
 |
| He found some really interesting rocks. See the profile of a face? |
 |
| I found a tiny newt in the garden! Great little bug eaters to have around! |
 |
| Our several hundred garlic plants put in last fall produced several hundred delicious garlic scapes this spring! I made 20 batches of scape pesto for the freezer and 7 pints of pickled scapes. I used weeds (Pig Weed and Lamb's Quarters) in the pesto too. One of our favourite pasta and pizza toppings! |
 |
| Mama Salt hatched out some more babies this year. See the tiny pip in the egg on the right? We could hear it peeping! |
 |
| Peek-a-boo baby chick! |
 |
| I gave Salt 12 eggs to hatch, but I forgot to mark them. Two days later she had 18 eggs under her! I guess her sisters decided we needed more! Unfortunately, 18 eggs is too many for a hen Salt's size to sit on. Some eggs ended up not incubating properly and didn't hatch. Some were also ready to hatch later than the original ones I let her have. Once the first batch of eggs hatched, Salt abandoned the unhatched eggs to tend the new chicks. I had to quickly rig up a makeshift incubator out of a margarine container and plastic wrap set to warm in the sun so the last few had a chance! We hatched out 3 more babies and Salt accepted them as her own, 11 fluffy little chicks! |
 |
| Salt is a good mama |
 |
| I think that's the same expression I make when the kids are climbing all over me in the heat.... |
 |
| They're growing so fast! |
