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Monthly Archives: April 2011

A Champion juicer

Today in a country junk shop in Yadkin County, I came across a Champion juicer for $50. That’s a much better price than one can get on eBay. New, Champion juicers sell for over $200. This one is the current model (G5-NG-853-S) and is in excellent condition. I’ve thought about buying a Champion juicer for […]

Garden update

It’s been a week since the last garden report. We’ve had rain and excellent growing weather. This is as good as it gets for the April garden. Baby peaches Snow peas Spinach A tiny broccoli head A rosebud on the garden fence

Chicken report

The chickens are now about 25 day old. They’re growing new feathers and look rather shabby. They’re now spending their daytimes in a large cage outdoors, though they still come in at night to their smaller cage.

Garden report

Carolina jasmine. My sister gave it to me last summer. It lives on the garden fence, and it’s just getting started. The first snow pea blossom Zinnias, bought in a flat at a nursery Baby spinach Cabbage Experimental celery that we started from seed. It’s growing slowly, but it’s holding on.

The garden path

Ken finished a project yesterday that had been needed for a long time. He made a garden path from the side porch to the garden gate, using stones from a local quarry and granite sand as the base. Ken kept an eye on the baby chickens while he worked. Not that they had any interest […]

Going all organic

Ken spreads soybean meal. Originally, my plan for Acorn Abbey was to have an all-organic garden but to use chemical fertilizers for the lawn. I have changed my mind. All organic is the way to go. Reading more books about organic gardening, and Googling for more information on earthworms, is what convinced me to go […]

Cabbage report

The weather for the past week has been perfect cabbage-growing weather — frequent rain, sunny days in the 70s, and warm nights. The cabbages are going crazy. This, I believe, is not a cabbage but one of its brethren — broccoli, brussels sprouts, or cauliflower. I have quite a few of each. I’m disappointed at […]

Update on the chicken children

The baby chickens have been with us for six days now. They’re thriving. They live in the warmest spot in the house — inside the south-facing bay window in Ken’s room. Keeping them in cardboard boxes just doesn’t work very well. It’s hard to keep things clean, and the babies can’t see out. So I […]

Baby chickens

Yesterday was baby chicken day, a day we’d been waiting for since the note appeared on the bulletin board at the roller mill giving the date — April 4 — when this year’s spring chickens would arrive from the hatchery. We had talked a great deal about how to encourage one of the hens to […]

Why I'll never have a B&B license

Not that I’d ever want Acorn Abbey to be a bed and breakfast, but even if I did, the health department would never give me a license. Cats are not allowed in B&B kitchens. Lily is almost as nosy as Ruth, one of the chickens. I easily convinced her that she doesn’t like spinach, but […]