By the Sweat of Your Brow

Outside of the sweet baby bubble...things are going and growing well in the backyard.

While I've been inside tending to our little chick, Andrew has done an incredible job being a new Dad, on top of maintaining his title of Chicken Wrangler and Green-Thumbed Gardener. He's been really attentive to keeping things watered, fed and weeded.

The chickens are big and though they seems to have thinned out a little with the onset of early summer heat, you can definitely tell they've matured. Their legs and feet have gotten really thick, their feathers are fully grown, and their waddles are red and well, waddly. They are still well practiced beggars and on several occasions I'm sure they've wondered if that thing I'm carrying in the pouch is a treat for them.



Thanks to my hubby's hard work, the garden is thriving. He's turned into somewhat of a mad scientist with our "farming" ventures. He's currently growing a batch of grubby worms to feed to the chickens for protein, and has given the garden a few loving sprays of 100% Beet Sugar Extract (Shrute beets of course). He fertilized for the first time just a day or so before some good rains came in, so from my perspective the garden had doubled in size within just a few days.



So far our highest producer has been ****drumroll please***....the yellow squash plants! I can't say I wasn't warned that they'd kick out more than we could consume, but we've had some fun with harvesting our veggies. A few days ago I went out to find Andrew in the garden after a long day of work. He had a strange bulky looking object sticking out of his back pocket. It was the bottle of garlic salt from our spice rack! When I asked him why in the world it was there, he whipped out his pocket knife, cut a ripe yellow squash, sliced a piece for each of us and sprinkled it with the garlic salt! I've gotta say, it was delicious. We've also picked a couple zucchini, an okra (yes, just one), 2 jalepeno peppers, and a good handful of beans.

On the harvesting horizon are a plethora of tomatoes, a fat cucumber, and several good looking ears of corn. Andrew loves corn. With a passion. So, despite the fact that there are about 8 healthy ears of corn popping up, he has continued to mourn the fact that he didn't plant more. Like a whole field of it. I'm not even joking. You simply cannot fathom how much this man loves corn. The other day he asked if we could have a dinner entirely comprised of corn. Not to put a wet blanket on his hopes, I might make a few other things that aren't so umm, well...starchy. lol



Though I was the one to start a few seedlings in the beginning, Andrew has done a fantastic job as the "laborer of the soil", fulfilling his Biblical role in toiling the ground. I am so proud of my farmer-man and it's SO much fun to begin harvesting some of our produce!



"Beans, beans, the magical fruit..."