Mysterious eggs, tomatoes in traction

I've been getting such a kick out of the chicks' gifts of eggs; it just tickles me that I can go out there in the morning, open the nesting box hatch, and find a few eggs---nature's vending machine. I often beat the kids out there it's such fun.

We have six chicks, three or four of whom we think are laying. So imagine my surprise, my delight, indeed my amazement, when I opened the box the other morning to find this:


The kids and I ran through the possible calculations: Did three hens each lay three eggs and one laid one? Two hens each laid two and two laid three? It was a chicken mystery.

Then Kevin sent a message: "I assume you found my little joke..." Joke? What joke?

Oh.

No, I hadn't noticed the eggs were cold, suspiciously cold ... refrigerator cold.

Okay, so maybe I'm gullible. It's probably the same quality that allows me to appreciate the wonder of natural variety.


Kevin made two nesting boxes for the chicks, which is supposed to be plenty for six. The other day, though, Big Mouth---our first producer---was dismayed to find both boxes occupied. She protested so long and so loudly that I went outside to find out what the ruckus was about. There she stood, inches from the poor hens trying to lay, squawking her head off, while the interlopers studiously ignored her.

So now there are three:

Nesting boxes aren't the only things Kevin's been up to. Instead of a sprawling pile, we now have a firewood shed:

The compost piles are up and running:

(As an aside, man alive, I never thought I'd end up cheerfully taking pictures of my compost! Life is anything but dull.)

Here's the whole back corner, with the chicken coop, compost, and shed, all built with salvaged wood.

And here's where we keep the salvaged wood now, tucked away on the side of the house (read: happily out of the way) waiting for future projects:

The wood shed is where the mushroom logs used to be, but we kept forgetting about them, so we moved them to the other side of the yard, by the walkway. Now they'll get more attention---and hopefully more water.

The squirrels are wreaking havoc with our sunflowers.

Apparently they can't climb over the thick honeysuckle to reach the sunflowers there. Next year I'll plant more in front of the vine-covered fence.

Then there was the tomato implosion. I've mentioned before that Early Girls are pretty much my reason for gardening. Well these plants grew so thick and heavy that they fell over, so we went into tomato triage:

Yes, that's a hastily constructed bamboo/redwood/rope/green yarn tomato scaffold, or, as the squirrels like to call it, the sunflower seed--eating platform.


It was a tough call---sunflowers or Early Girls?---but of course the tomatoes won out. More of the sunflowers live in vases now, brightening up the interior.

And the Early Girls? Their color takes my breath away:

There you can see green heartbreak: tomatoes broken during triage. Sniff.

In other parts of the yard, forget the corn---the pole beans have conquered the apricot tree:

I'm trying to figure out when the Lakota are ready to be harvested:

and we're getting ready for our biggest raspberry harvest yet:

My oldest always gets them before I do, so I'm hoping one of these has my name on it.