After

The garden exploded while we were gone.  Almost everything bolted which sucks, but nothing died.  Thank you to my awesome house sitter, Alex!  Your the best.
It's a little nerve wracking leaving your house for 11 days, when your always in the middle of growing or fermenting something.     She managed to keep all the plants, animals and fermenting cultures alive and well.  After we got back her comment to us was, "everything is so alive in your house." All the more reason to need a good house sitter. 

 Strawberries are over running their bed and blooming like crazy,

and the blueberries are covered in fruit.

 My spinach bolted like crazy.  It's snaking over into the cabbage.

 The baby chicks are not babies anymore,

but that doesn't stop my girls from loving on them.

Even I missed the girls.

Aloha!

We are home from our insanely long trip.  It was awesome.  Lots of pictures to come, only right now we have a serious jet lag issue that involves two kids and one over sized child needing mom right now.  Will post soon!  Mahalo.

Before

 Herbs toward the front are coming back strong.  The rest is lettuce coming in.

 Garlic/Parsley/Chives/Chard/Lavender

 Blueberries/Strawberries

 Cabbage/Broccoli/Spinach/Kale

 Peas/Onion

The Tomato plants, doing well despite the cold.

Chicken Barbie

 If Peta, found out what goes on in our backyard they might start picketing our front lawn.  The girls have discovered that Barbie accessories fit on the baby chicks!  Hours of fun were had by elaborately decorating the chicks. 

To the point of exhaustion.

The girls are set

 So this is the new set up for the chickens.  The big girls were less than pleased to loose space in their run, but once Texas has his grass set in, they'll be back to running the whole yard.   The baby chicks are a little young to be outside, but we pen them up in the house at night and turn on the heat lamp for them.  I'm just not up for them living in my house any more. 

 Annie is in charge of putting them up at night and opening the door for them in the morning.   I love that she's taking the responsibility seriously.   Her morning chore list is pretty long, but it motivates her to get out of bed in the morning.

Still the best dog ever

It's late and I'm so tired, but I had to post about Banjo.

We moved the chicks outside yesterday.  They have their own little mini house and mini chicken run to play in.  I'm glad to have them out of the house.  They do smell, and the constant chirping was getting to Texas.  But lets get back to Banjo...

 Elsie helped carry the chicks to their new house.

And then she thought Banjo might like to help.

He is a little irritated at first.

 

 But quickly grows fond of his new little friend.

To the point that he carefully holds his head up to keep Gertrude comfortable.

I love this dog.   Now I'm going to bed.
Goodnight.

quick before the kids realize I'm sitting down:

Update:

 Happy Birthday Greta, I love you. Sorry this is a little late.  

You're an awesome sister and I'm so proud of how hard your working.

The garden:

 Tomatoes are ready to be put outside.  This is earlier than I normally would plant them, but I need to make sure they are well established before we leave for vacation (8 days and counting!).

 So I Prep one of the Tomato frames (each will hold 12 plants).

 And they're in.  

The section full of weeds just to the right in the back is the other tomato frame.  

I'm not transplanting into the second frame till we get back.

The kids:

  Are enjoying the weather and spending loads of time outside. 

 Elsie wondered into the street which the girls were pretending was a lake.
(I was right there the whole time)

 So Annie paddled out on her boat to rescue Elsie.

And brought her to shore.