Tuesday, August 29, 2006

Make Hay While the Sun Shines

I finished building some nest boxes for the chickens this morning. I built it from an entertainment center we had that got warped when we had our furniture in storage while our house was being built. I was surprised how good they turned out. I got six nest boxes, and Tom helped me put them up in the chicken coop. I think I will make some curtains to cover the entrances. Right now the hens just look at the boxes and prefer to climb into the wood chip bag to lay. I will give them a few days to get used to the boxes before I take away the bag.

This afternoon, Tom, Ed and I went out to the field. There weren't many zucchinis or cucumbers, although the plants are loaded with flowers. I dug up the sweet potatoes and Yellow Finn potatoes. I was surprised at how many potatoes I did get considering how bad the drought was. They many not be very big, but they are a good enough size to eat. No sweet potatoes though. Too bad. We went through the pumpkin patch and picked the ones that were mature -- 21 New England Pie Pumpkins. There are more growing, but the deer have decimated both the pumpkins and the winter squash sections horribly. I almost picked the few pumpkins I thought were close to being mature, but I decided to leave them in the patch and hope for the best. My Agribon 19 fabric is supposed to come tomorrow. I hope to have everything covered before frost. Tom and I both cut more grass. We almost have the field done, and there is yet the meadow to do.

Tom and I remeasured the length of the high tunnel. We will get some 2" x 6"s for the base in the next couple of days. There aren't too many good days left to get work done.