We have chickens. Honestly, I never thought chickens would be this entertaining, but they truly are, all dozen-and-a-half of them. They are all Rhode Island Reds, about a month old, and have a true passion for grasshoppers. As summer break begins in earnest, we can be found watching The Chicken Channel, laughing merrily. It will be another few months before they begin to lay, and I'm looking forward to watching them grow up. We have at least two confirmed roosters, and watching them get their colors will be fun, at least until they start to crow. Ethan told the boy we bought the chicks from that I make "killer roast chicken." That goes for the noisemakers, too.
The garden is progressing nicely, with potatoes getting tall enough that we scooped earth up their stalks. A couple tomatoe plants have green fruit already. The corn is showing, and the beans are as well. Even weeding was fun last week, which just goes to show that I think I'm spending too much time in the sun.
The real victory for me was the emergence of a row of seedlings. I'm not certain if they are tomoatoes (likely) or hot peppers, but I'll know soon enough. We were told and read that tomatoes and peppers couldn't be started from directly sown seed, but apparently that is not the case, and I went skipping up the porch last night to tell David, feeling as though I had earned a gold medal.