as their 'cake' .... and I KNOW it will be gone in 2 seconds! Curious will pretty much growl everyone else away from the salad, so I have to make sure I spread it in several areas so everyone gets their fair share....she's such a pig - for a chicken!
I am also celebrating Amelia's first birthday because I know she was born/hatched in May last year - just don't know what day.
.............. And, why not throw in a birthday wish for Evie anyway!
So, I haven't posted since February...wow...well, it's been busy here even without blogging about it.
Among other tasks, we've been doing the spring chores: 2 rounds of weed-eating and mowing down all the new grasses and weeds; pruning and mulching the fruit trees; mulching around all the olive trees to save on water and starting all the vegetable seeds.
Last weekend we planted all the plants that Steve started: poblano peppers, padrone peppers, 3 kinds of 'paste' tomatoes, melons [it's called The Best Melon You'll Eat...and it is!], anaheim peppers, serranos, jalepenos, tomatillos, cayenne, zucs, 2 kinds of cucumbers, a special pepper from Peru called Aji.
In the summer, juicing the peppers for a 'green drink' is a wonderful thirst quencher about 11 am after the first round of maintenance duties. Can't wait for the crop to get goin'.
Right now, Gabby and Evie are both in broody mode: puffed up and sitting in nesting boxes trying to hatch imaginary eggs...They both growl at me, but I take them off the nests twice a day to make sure they poop, eat and drink. Then, they both spend a long time either dust bathing or preening feathers...it's a mad dash back to the 'eggs' after about 20 minutes....I think they sit on them even overnight!
And, unfortunately no eggs from them while broody - and it usually lasts about a month! Darn.
Last year it was Curious broody twice; this year she hasn't gone there yet....lucky for me because she's giving eggs along with Amelia right now...Amazingly, Fearless, who isn't normally a big producer of eggs, managed to lay one 5 days in a row! That's a record for her! So of course she had to take a break and re-group. Amelia still does 5 or 6 a week, cute little white ones...
Evie has filled out all her feathers and has become a beautiful girl: just still skittish around me....here's a recent profile of her gorgeous feathers;
