Ordered up some birds

Looks like I wasn't a moment too soon. I placed our poultry order for 2009 and it sounds like they are doing a booming business. Theya re sold out of many breeds through the end of April, lucky for me I don't want our birds until the middle of May.

I also found they are not being as flexible about your order as they used to be. In years past you could usually add just a few birds of your choice to one of their standard assortments, now they are enforcing their minimum order numbers strictly. The result of that is that I am going to have about 10-12 more critters than I wanted.

If anyone out there is interested in a few chicks or ducklings in late May, let me know, we are going to have 8-10 chicks, 3-4 ducklings and maybe even 1-2 turkey poults too many.

What we ordered:
1 Barnyard assortment - 2 goslings, 7 ducks, and 7 turkeys. Hatchery picks the breeds, so it will be a surprise.
Buff Orpingtons - Brown egg laying hens - very pretty golden color
Barred Plymouth Rocks - Boys and girls, but I am only keeping one rooster - another very pretty bird.
Cornish Roasters - A fast-growing "meat" bird, all white feathers.

Wintertime blahs

Late February. You've been drooling over the pictures in the seed catalogs for a month now, all memories of weeding and watering and cursing the squash bugs are forgotten, you need to GARDEN! But it's still to early to start any seeds indoors, no really, it really is, stop thinking about it. Well, maybe just some marigolds?

So what is the cure for this affliction? I wish I knew. Move to Zone 6 or 7? Probably not going to happen. You can only read so many books on gardening before they start contradicting each other and turning your mind to mush.

I guess I have a couple ideas for those of you that, like me , are frustrated Northern gardeners.

-Did you know that you can take those fresh herbs at the grocery store and stick them in a bit of rooting gel? And they'll grow! Ta-da, you have a kitchen garden without waiting weeks to grow from seed.

- Ok I lied, that's the only idea I have. But maybe you have something to tide us over until spring? Please share!

Cheers,

Doug