Is my She a He?

We have been increasingly wondering if Betsy is a rooster. We started noticing a week or so ago that we can hear her calling (for lack of a better word) when we pull the truck into the driveway. She has started to call, quite loudly at other times as well. It doesn't sound like a cock-a-doodle-do... nor any sound I can replicate. She doesn't have spurs.. but her facial stuff is getting sorta big.. but since we have never had chickens before have nothing to compare it to. We shall see how this turns out.

Visitors.

When we first bought our house our inspector told me it was an interesting location. He described my neighborhood as a mix of urban, suburbs and rural. It doesn't feel urban to me currently but there will be a light rail system that will pass near by in 2015 so maybe then. It is like the suburbs but I wasn't seeing the rural until all in one day we were visited by bees and a deer. The hubby is out the door before 6am and spotted a deer in the neighbors yard! My garden seemed fine so no need for a fence yet.
After work that same day I put my bike in the shed and went into the house. Just a minute later the husband was heading to the shed to grab a shovel when he runs back inside and said I must have disturbed something because the shed was a buzz. With some courage I went outside to see a swarm of bees take hold of our holly trees. They are pretty far off the ground and haven't bothered us yet... but I do hope that they find a home not in our shed or house soon.

3 Month old chickens.

The chickens continue to grow up to fast. They look more and more like adult chickens all the time. They are intensely curious and come out of their coop to greet new people or to scare away a stray bird that lands in the yard. Next month we will start supplementing their diet with oyster shells to get some calcium in them to prepare for egg production.

Herb Garden

I am loving having an herb garden. I grew some on pots outside of our last apartment but the production is no where near what the herbs have been doing at our new place. We have more than enough parsley, sage, and cilantro. Dill and fennel are really picking up as well. I can't believe the difference in sizes from when I planted them at the end of April. These have been my main harvests so far from the garden. Mint is going crazy. I cut ten stalks off from my mess of a container and you can't really tell.. I am attempting to dry them by hanging them upside down in a paperbag. It would be so nice to have my tea time everyday to be from the garden.

Yay for the second planting!

A little Lima beans still wearing his hat.

The Radishes Thriving

I am seeing much better progress with the garden after doing that second planting. Carrots germinated, lettuce and spinach and kale are growing. Beets are looking beet like. We even harvested enough radishes and greens for a salad this week. We are having a very very wet june. For example we got more rain last sunday than we usually do in the entire month. There is actually some sun in the forecast and I fully expect my garden to pick up the pace on production. The tomatoes I put into the ground seem to be doing great. I accidentally placed some of the potted tomatoes to close to a shed and they got a bit water logged. They are looking a little mangy but have started to flower. Hopefully they the sun will perk them up as well. I acquired a another 4 tomato plants from a neighbor with extra. Bringing my tomato total to 15 . Lima beans just started sprouting and I am dreaming of fresh lima bean puree already!