Snow!

5 inches of snow last night.

The chickens said "Heck No" and sat inside clucking at me.

Sprinkles peeked out.

And still said "Heck NO!"

They did come out later, after it stopped snowing and the sun came out :)

Garden 2012 Recap

We tore the garden out two weeks ago. I need to figure out the totals and then I'll get them posted.

The cocoa mulch I added at the beginning of the year has broken down nicely. It will add nutrients etc when it's tilled in. Due to the cost though, maybe do straw for rows next year.

All in all, I think the garden was successful this year. Not bad for the first time having a real garden here and hard as a rock, heavily compacted soil.

Next year -

Add a least one more plot
Maybe put pink pumpkins in the 3 Sisters Plot after/with zucchini
Spread out tomatoes, this year they were way too crowded
Black Krim tomatoes are a must
Cherry tomatoes are a NO

Update: 

Zucchini: 151.51 lbs

Pumpkin: 0.65 lbs

Jalapenos: 5.8 lbs

Green Bell Pepper: 2.25 lbs

Red Bell Pepper: 0 lbs

Sweet Banana Pepper: 3.73 lbs

Beefmaster Tomato: 0 lbs

Plum Tomato: 0 lbs

Sweet 100 Cherry Tomato: 0 lbs

Black Krim Tomato: 0 lbs

Rutgers Tomato: 0 lbs

Carbon Tomato: 0 lbs

Pantano Romanesco Tomato: 0 lbs

Unfortunately I did not get a good measurement of my tomatoes. I had tons and tons though.

Fishy Ishy pt 2

My local Petsmart got a fish delivery today, so we picked up some more male guppies. They got more Blue Wag platys but I didn't care for their color. I'll check back in a week or so. The $1 sale is on until 9/23.

Added 3 yellow guppies ($1 sale, Petsmart)

2 Tequila Sunrise guppies ($1 sale, Petsmart)

3 Turquoise guppies ($1 sale, Petsmart)

Fishy Ishy

I've had a 55 gallon fish tank for about 7 years.

Currently we have:

1 pleco ("Mr Clean", about 5-6 years old, it's about 7 inches long)

1 upside down catfish ("Upsie", about 5-6 years old, has been missing fins/barbs for years)

6 homebred Sunset platys

I don't have pictures of these yet... it's very hard to photograph a moving school of fish!

Today we added:

2 Blue Wag platys ($1.99, Petsmart)
2 Blonde Delta fancy guppies (male, $1 sale, Petsmart)

I will be adding more fancy guppy males and different colored platys soon. I'm considering a small school of Julii or albino corydoras too.

Wordless Wednesday - We Adopted!

Tomatoes are Ready!

The purplish ones are Black Krim. They are heirloom and very tasty! Also shown are Beefsteak, Rutgers, Roma and Sweet 100 Cherry. Oh, and ever-present zucchini :)

Yay Sutton!

Sutton, the last hold out, is now laying eggs :) So all four of my girls are earning their keep!