Olivia and chicken feet

Spring is here, and the craziness of summer is my life. The garden got such a late start because of the rain and cold temperatures. I started thinking I would never get seeds in the ground.
The last few weeks have been productive. It looks like almost everything is popping up, and the gardens look good. I am running very low on mulch, so nothing is mulched the way it should be. The weeds are running rampant.
I am excited about the “upper garden”. This was an area chest high in weeds when we moved here. I started taming the area by laying cardboard down and covering it with hay or leaves. Two years ago I planted berry plants up there. Last year I planted a few vegetables up there. This year, thanks to lots of manure, mulch, and time I have planted corn, popcorn, oats, Jerusalem artichokes, quiwa etc. I don’t know if they will live through the deer. Rabbits etc, but I will give it a try. I would really like to keep it natural and unfenced, but I don’t know if that is possible. I went up tonight to check on everything and found that I forgot to cover the popcorn rows after I planted them. Guess what happened??? The birds ate all of the seeds. I replanted it all tonight. The corn I planted last week is coming up, and I am excited to see what grows to harvest.
I am gaining a bigger and bigger following for my eggs and vegetables. The poor chickens can’t lay fast enough for my customers. I am amazed at work when I hear people talk about how good the eggs are, and they would never go back to store bought eggs.
OK, I wrote that several weeks ago .. Time just gets away from me, especially this time of year!!
Phil and I decided we needed to butcher a chicken or two to see how big they really are. Saturday Phil and his friend went into Glenwood to garage sale and run some errands. While they were gone I caught three chickens and butchered them. I was disappointed that they were so small. I was hoping to send them off to the butcher soon but that is not going to happen. They ended up weighing only 3# dressed. I must say, they tasted wonderful! We grilled one with Dorothy Lynch dressing brushed on the skin and Phil beer can grilled another (using coke). The last one is in the freezer.
One of the cool things about chickens is they will eat almost anything. A few weeks ago when I butchered a pig I boiled the head thinking I would make head cheese ….. I just could not do it so I gave all of that to the chickens. They picked the skull clean in no time flat! After I finished butchering the chickens I gave them all of the innards and feet. The only thing I threw away was the feathers and head.
Saturday evening Delana and the kids came over (to wish Grandpa happy Fathers day). The kids love running around and getting into everything. Olivia was in the chicken run and came out with 2 chicken feet. She was waving them around walking them etc. She wanted to know if she could keep them and take them home. I of course was laughing so hard tears were running down my cheeks. I told her she had to ask her Mom … Mom, the vegetarian of course totally freaked and said a resounding NO!
Later I asked Caelum to help me give Mable a haircut (his job is to hold her on the table). Olivia saw all the black dog hair on the ground and wanted to that THAT home as well. Mom didn’t understand that either! (I have to wonder what the kids want with all the junk they want to take home from here)
I wish all the kids were here … I would love to have grandloves out here all the time!