Adding to My Garden

So, I planted my 4 new tomato plants, strawberry plant and Corsican mint. Took lots of pictures of those and a few of my herbs that are blooming already.

Blueberry bush blooming.

 Rosemary blooming.

Gem State tomato.

Bush Early Girl tomato.

Stupice tomato.

Koralik tomato and Alpine Yellow strawberry.

Corsican mint.

Lavender blooming.

This is the biggest lavender bush, the other is about half this size. The birdbath needs to be scrubbed ...

Egg Farm Visit

Oh, man. Wish I had taken the camera to the Kimball egg farm I went to today. I will go there in the future, too. Chickens everywhere, even heard a rooster. Lots of grass for them to run around in. Huge open pen. Got 3 dozen fertile Araucauna eggs (minty green!) and will be getting a couple of fresh chickens on my next visit in a couple of weeks. His little girl was running around in the chicken pen with a basket collecting more eggs. There were also a few heifers roaming around. Didn't ask if he sold beef or milk, though. Might next time. He also had a big Weimeraner I think he called Chuck as a greeter! It was a nice drive out, too.

Breeding Cage Set-up

So, I decided to breed doves again ... I know, I'm crazy. It's not like I really have a good place to set up the breeding cage (which is the old 3x3x3-foot puppy playpen I bought nearly 24 years ago for Quinn and Gemini ...) It's had a lot of use over the years. It's housed puppies, kittens, rabbits, doves, pigeons, cockatiels, sick dogs, sick cats and probably more that I can't remember!
Big Boy, Little Boy & Little Girl were all hatched in it two years ago (in May) and I decided not to breed any more ... Sold the 5 adults I had at the time and kept the 3 babies. But, lately I had been thinking about trying to find an easy-to-raise food animal.
Since I live in a mobile home park, chickens and other livestock are out of the question. Kind of hard to hide them! But, doves (and quail, which I would also like to raise) are small and can be kept indoors for the most part. The room off the kitchen that I call the doves' room (or the exercise room, since all of my exercise equipment is in there) is open and roomy and has the big sliding glass door leading to the covered deck. There is room for a couple more cages, but I am holding back for a while on getting more birds. I have carpeting in there - which I absolutely HATE! I plan to remove it in the next year and put in a different flooring. After I do that, it will be so much easier to clean in there.
Right now, the biggest issue is Nikky and Ezra getting used to having the doves down at their level and not up on a table they can't reach. Nikky is whining constantly at the side of the cage! Ezra is watching from afar trying to figure out what is going on! So, here are the pictures.

 Ready for the toys and bowls. The nest is on an upper level (made from the grill of another dog crate I have) in the back corner which will be less likely to be disturbed by little paws once the cover is on the cage.

 Waiting impatiently for the move. The little cage looks so empty now. Little Girl is sitting on an egg in the grit cup!

 Ready for the trio to move in.

 We're here!!!

I did have to move the swing and the manzanita perch after they moved in as the door wouldn't close completely the way I had the perch attached ...

 Ezra has a new favorite spot!

 The doves and Ezra love looking outside. I will still be letting the doves out on the porch on nice days by using the smaller cage to take them out.

 Nikky is frustrated and Ezra is loving being able to look out the door at the wild birds.

All done!

March 1, 2012

Noon
Another lazy day. Just been doing a couple of chats, re-introducing myself to Facebook (Yeah, I know - nuts ...), and vegging.
But, I lost another pound since 2/15! I am now 124 lbs. Five more to go to be back to my normal weight.

2pm
My mom's birthday is tomorrow. She'll be 72. I hope to take her to the Yolo Food Bank's Pig Day event at the Davis Farmer's Market on Saturday. They are having free pancake breakfasts.

I did get a load of laundry done today.
And, I did my trampoline exercises!

I also have another batch of eggshells in the dehydrator. I made the best hard-boiled eggs last night. Just perfect. No discoloring of the yolk and the shells peeled off so nicely. Yum. I should have taken a picture! And, used the water on the herbs on the deck this morning.