Sunny – the spinach is actually growing well. If I had had more patience I would even have harvested some. I started out digging and transplanting some to space them out better, but will not be surprised it the disturbance causes them to go to seed. I realized I have LOTS of spinach plants, so changed the approach to the quicker cut/pull crowded ones so they are two to four inches apart. I could have carefully picked off the good leaves, but decided I wasn’t as desperate as the birds are for greens.
It was almost 60 degrees in the hoophouse in the early afternoon! You are welcome to come enjoy it on a sunny day. But come dressed in layers you can shed, and talk loudly as you approach in case I have shed more than you want to know.
The young hens had stayed in their converted camper since we still have lots of ducks that I have been putting in the solar shed for owl protection at night. We need to harvest a dozen or so young ducks. Just have to get the motivation since it isn’t one of our favorite activities. Anyway, the hens were showing a little frostbite on their combs, and about 3/4 of them were going into the solar shed during the day, so I closed them in early and carried the remaining ones in. Fortunately, we have a divider since the hens attach the ducks. So, after getting everyone in, I caught the ducks and put them in the smaller section, and shooed the hens into the larger section. It is more crowded than I like, but they will be outside in the daytime. I had three young roosters in the camper with them. Unfortunately, when I went out to check later to see how they were doing, the young roosters had beat up our wonderful old rooster, Strut, who had been in the solar shed with the Americauna hens. He is in with the ducks for the evening. We’ll have to deal with that tomorrow. Two of the young roosters are destined for the pot, so that will help matters.
One of my main seed sources offers free shipping through January 15, so I got down to business this evening on seed orders. I had figured out what I need for next summer, but we hope to take the Saranac Lake farmers market through the winter next year, and I hope this online ordering thing for the Plattsburgh area grows and we have a good distribution point next spring, so I set up worksheets in my crop planning spreadsheet for spring, next fall, and next winter. Went through seed catalogs to get ideas of things that will store well for winter markets, and looked for lots of quick greens for this spring. Then multiply the number of weeks by the amount I guess each customer would purchase, then pull a number of customers out of the air.
