Snap-Pea Tee-Pee

Get it, snappy (snap-pea) tee-pee.  A sign my jokes are bad is that I have to explain them.

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We have no shortage of unwelcome saplings on our property so when we cut them down I recycled them into a tee-pee for our viney legumes.

I left an opening on one side only because I think it would be cool to go inside it once it is covered with plants.  Kids will like it anyway.

One little pea finding its support.

Arch 'gate' is also made of cut down sapling.  I planted Sweet Peas to grow up this.  Hopefully vines will improve its crocked appearance, oh well....

Things are behind here in regards to peas and other cool weather crops.  It has been a cool spring so I am not sweeting it, literally.    Though you can't see them lettuce, beets, spinach, cilantro, leeks, onions, carrots and white potatoes are also hiding/sprouting in there.

And the asparagus is still making its presence known, getting 1or 2 meals a week from it.  We will keep cutting it until the spears start getting smaller in diameter (the diameter of a pencil or smaller), showing we need to let it 'go' so it can start storing energy for next year.

Duckies growing very fast, but still cute.  I think they are about 4 weeks old?  Staying outside all the time now (biting my finger nails when I think of the raccoon and weasels, hard to keep them out).

We also doubled our chicken flock, adding 7 more Production Reds (RI Red/Delaware crosses) to the mix.  The initiation hasn't been that bad, as the older hens are not torturing them too much.  The farmer who raises these from hatchlings always trims their beaks to keep the peeking attacks on each other less harmful. Notice the size of the red combs on their heads, I hear you can tell how close one is to laying their first egg by the size and how red it is (it gets larger and more red).  I anticipate these will start laying early to mid summer. (14 eggs a day).

The older ladies are all enjoying the longer days and each are finally giving us an egg a day. (During the winter, shorter days, not all of them lay eggs daily.  The Production Reds are our most consistent.)

That is it for now, stayed tuned for exciting piggie news (it is exciting to us anyway).