Why, yes, Spring. Yes, it was you I was looking for (for which I was looking? anyway…). Thanks for being all fashionably late and stuff.
True to weekend form, let’s just stick with a no-frills bullet point list of how Chris and I celebrated nicer weather today:
- Attended an awesome urban backyard chickens workshop over at Fall Creek Gardens. Maggie, you crack me up (and make me feel like less of a crazy chicken lady, what with all we do to keep our chickens healthy and happy)!
- Planted some of the kale in the outdoor beds. Looking at the forecast for next week, I think I’m going to get the rest of the kale and maybe the cabbage in the ground tomorrow, too.
- Bought some propane, hooked up the new turkey fryer, and prepped the new giant brew kettle to make our first attempt ever at brewing our own beer tomorrow! (Note: Chris really did all of the above, but I’m super stoked to boil up our first batch tomorrow morning. The brew kettle is comically large and made me laugh out loud this morning when I walked into the kitchen, as it takes up our entire kitchen table. Pictures to follow!).
- Planted a flat of sweet clover and started my own barley fodder trays to give the chickens some nice, fresh things to eat until we have the garden fence firmly in place. I’ll let you know how the barley trays works – it’s my first attempt at it, but it sounds ridiculously simple. Knowing me, I’ll find a way to jack it up.
- Went to the grocery store to buy, among other things, ingredients to make another delicious egg casserole and Neufchatel cheese from scratch. It will be my first attempt at making such a cheese and only my second attempt at cheese-making ever.
- Turned over a bunch of compost, uncovered glorious amounts of worms, and opened the compost bins up to the chickens. At one point, four of the five girls had jumped into the bin on the hunt for worms, pecking and scratching around. Help me process that compost, chickens!
So at this point in the garden, we have garlic, lettuce, kale, and a bunch of seeds, just waiting to germinate. Spring: the most wonderful time of the year.
Space-Farm Continuum 
Homemade cheese and beer…awesome!! 😉 My Neufchatel is hanging now with hopes it will be ready for our Sunday morning eggs!
You inspired me, Chris – I had to make the Neufchatel happen! I hope it works out. 🙂
What types of herbs do you like best in yours? I’ve still got a ton of dried rosemary from our garden last year… but I also have lemon balm and lavender. I’ve wondering if rosemary-lavender Neufchatel would be totally weird in a good way or in a bizarre/gross way.
We got very excited over the barley fodder trays. Since winter does not seem to want to leave anytime soon (there’s snow in the forecast for three days this week – WTF?), our girls will not have access to fresh, growing green stuff for weeks yet. The barley fodder tray sounds like a great idea.
I think they really might be *that* easy to grow, too! I bought 4.5 pounds of barley seeds for something like $8, used about .5-lb. to start, and I have little baby sprouts coming up now. In another 7 days or so, the girls will be in heaven! Give it a try – super easy (and I even forgot to water them yesterday).
Gosh, spring couldn’t get here fast enough. Your chickens will love the clover and barley grass. Mine are ecstatic to have fresh greens, and I know the eggs are healthier too.
Once we get the new fence up around the garden, that will help a lot, too. I feel SO BAD not letting them out into the grass, but now that I’ve got seedlings in and no fence between the chicken yard and the rest of the yard, I can’t let them scavenge willy nilly. The greens will help in the meantime.