her able hands

What a glorious spring day. Wow. The whole neighborhood buzzed with busy outdoor projects. Roofing, chopping down dead trees, cleaning cars, washing windows, raking, burning brush (I even rode my bike in the morning for half an hour-oh, delicious endorphin rush). And in the evening all settled down to the quiet hum of traffic on the main drag a few blocks west and joyful bird song while we sat on the porch and stared at the moon and enjoyed the warm breeze. We didn’t get as much done this weekend as we’d planned due to the fact that Chris worked both days and we had a birthday party for his dad. But we did do a little brush clearing in the woods and got the chicken tractor moved to a new spot with the help of our burly wrestler neighbor and his friend (also a burly wrestler). It pays to know people with big muscles. We paid him back with eggs fresh from the chicken’s butt (so to speak).

Oh, my goodness, the girls were so thrilled. Silly me, I forgot to charge the camera battery, so I have no proof of this. You’ll just have to take my word that after the indignant, squawking, shrieking, wing-flapping fuss it was nothing but pure bug buffet contentment. Oh, the scratching and pecking and gobbling! Such happy noises, I swear I heard them chanting thank you as they scratched around in the humus for the rest of the afternoon.

We moved them over about ten feet onto a spot that had a big brush pile on top of it for five months. That pile got moved to one of the other (dozens) of piles in the woods in preparation for the day our friend brings his industrial chipper. Mulch! So after we raked up the area, the bug and worm activity was just incredible. Those girls were all over that protein like Chris on Prime Rib.

Speaking of Chris, that wonderful man decided to mechanize my light stand. (Heh. That sounds mildly p*rnographic.) He still has a little more work to do on it (several important pieces are still down at the old house—oops). But he made a crank system for raising and lowering the lights, a very fancy way of solving my leggy seedling problems. I haven’t seen it yet, it’s still at the shop, but I cannot wait to get it set up and dig into my seed starting mix from Fedco. Looks like not until next weekend, which may be too late for onions, but I’m going to do a tray anyway, because hey, maybe it’ll work just fine and then I’ll have incredible Italian sweet onions when it comes time to make roasted tomato sauce.

Again, from the Fedco Seed Catalog:

Borrettana Cipollini Onion (105 days) Open-pollinated. Italian heirloom makes the quintessential boiling and braising onion. Shaped like a button, up to 4″ wide (normally 3″) but less than 1″ thick. Flattened spheres with shiny golden skin slightly brighter than Copra’s. Fine-grained flesh has a very mild yet well-developed flavor. Appreciated in soups, stir-fries and shish kebab. Braids beautifully and keeps till late winter.

I’d say that’s worth the gamble, wouldn’t you?

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