Tomorrow, another dozen or so tomatoes go in, then 3 52-day-old chicks get introduced to the freezer. Last night, the largest one weighed 6 pounds! That, actually, is below their performance standards, but I limited their feed somewhat to prevent leg problems and losses from sudden heart attack deaths. Probably a little meatier & less fatty that way, too.
Thunderstorms went through late yesterday; last night; and this afternoon. As soon as it dries enough to work the soil, the corn, beans, etc --lots of etc-- gets planted.
All of the bare root trees and small fruits we planted last week have leafed out, even the black walnut.
One mini disaster to report: about 1/3 of my winter rye has lodged, it has all headed, and is otherwise doing fine. It will make it difficult to harvest, though.
Finally, after about 12-15 years, I got the Brinkman turkey fryer out of its box, assembled, and tested. I'll inaugurate it by scalding the chickens in it, instead of dry-plucking them, like I normally do. I hadn't done that in years, as I was always unhappy with the results; turns out, I was doing it wrong by keeping the water at a rolling boil, instead of 180F. I'll try it again, and see how it goes.
Too much work for something that most people aren't going to eat anyway.
/johnny
Daughter is thinking about raising some chickens too. For eggs first, but maybe will process some for eating at some point.
Neither of us have space to really do that, but she has a friend who is willing to let her use her land and help with the feeding for a share of the eggs.
52 days doesn’t seem like a huge expenditure of time. I was thinking that it would be like from spring to fall before they would be ready to eat.