FrankBlissett

Things have been quite busy the past couple weeks. Haven�t done too much writing � just a few fragments that I want to expand on at some point. My old Caravan is out of commission for the moment (severe front-end suspension problems), so we have to coordinate our use of the Buick in order to minimize miles on the van till it gets fixed.

The weather�s been warm lately, and may get to 50 F today. We did get a few inches of snow the other day, but that disappeared over the next two days. Aside from the snowstorm it�s been very sunny.

Most of the herbs came through the winter fine. The garlic is up and going great and the cats have already found the catnip. The marjoram seems to have died back, but I expected as much and had over wintered some. We also have yet to see the chives poking through their mulch � they should be okay though. We even had some chard pop up as the snow was disappearing a couple weeks ago. Being beet-greens, they will flower and die this summer. Till then, they should give us some nice greens � just in time for this year�s crop to get going.

Yesterday a table was set up in our plant-room and the tomato seeds were started. In a couple weeks we�ll start some basil in pots (should be ready just in time for the farmer�s market), with a lot more to follow outside at the end of May. We also got a short-season melon, and I�d be interested in starting a couple plants in pots soon to try and get a jump-start on the season. Most everything else will be planted out in May when spring�s really here to stay.

We got more free chickens a week ago. There were three standard barred Rock hens, two Ameraucana hens (they lay green/blue eggs), and a pair of blue Cochin hens. They also had a few Brahma roos that they wanted to get rid of. I took pity on a buff Brahma cockerel, and brought him home too. As he started maturing, he was harassed by their roo in the hen�s run. They then put him the pen with their other roosters, but it didn�t go well, so they turned him loose. My original thought was that we would give him and one of the barred Rock hens, along with the earlier Rhode Island Red roo and hen, to my mother when we visited this spring.

After a few days of being cooped up in a cage, I decided to let him out with our hens and see what happened. There was immediately trouble � a 1-pound banty hen thoroughly put this 10-pound cockerel in his place! Then another did. Then the little Silky rooster got in a fight with him and won. Things settled down, so I let them be and when I returned in a little while, the new cockerel was cowering in a cat carrier, tail end out. Since then, the silky roo has put him in his place a couple more times, but largely ignored him.

As much as I am loath to have to feed an extra mouth (and a big one at that!), it�s looking more and more like he�ll become a pet rooster. With the warm months coming up, he�ll mostly eat grass and bugs anyway. If he bothers the hens too much as he matures, I�m sure that we can always rehome him at my mother�s farm � along with a tithe of a hen or two, of course.