Being sick sucks! #GardeningAnyway #StraightHairOrCurly?

...OK...So I was wrong...this being sick stuff sucks...I laid around all day yesterday and tried to get well...It seemed like I slept all day...that didn't seem to help much, but it was enough to get me on my feet...so today I took some vitamins and powered through...

We got another load of manure delivered...and this one is bigger than the last, but never fear...none of it will go to waste...

Strawberry/Rhubarb Jam is a big hit at market and for the past couple of years Mom has had to buy most of her rhubarb...This year we are trying to change that and grow some of our own...She has been very successful in the past and I have faith that these will turn into lovely plants as well...today we got three rhubarb plants started... we put down black garden fabric to help reduce the weeds that will come up around them...surrounded the beds with two layers of bricks...cut a small hole to plant each tubular root and then covered the area in hay and manure for extra nutrients...

I am a "mean" Mommy right now...the kids couldn't listen and read books while their Grandma and I put the birds to bed for the night on Monday...so I told them they were grounded until they put new mulch in the orchard...

...they have made it to tree three of six...they are almost halfway done...I figure they will be done by the end of the week...I hope they are anyways...I'd like to mark that project off the list...LoL...

...the chicks are enjoying their outdoor domain and I had a time and a half getting them to go to bed by myself tonight...I sent everyone else off to church while I stayed home and kept my germs to myself...So far my temp has been hovering right around 99.9 so nothing to be too concerned about, but it has slowed me down a lot coupled with this nasty congested cough that I have...

...Em really wanted her hair straightened again...Aiden insisted in being in the pics...too bad the ones with rabbit ears didn't turn out good...Everyone wants Em's curls back so badly every time we straighten them away...but she really loves it and I think she looks so cute both ways so I don't mind appeasing her occasionally.  For tonight...my head is starting to hurt again, but I will rest easy having shared my story...goodnight all! 

Progress on the raised bed garden and we moved the chicks outside!

All last week my husband was complaining of a runny nose and cough and low and behold...spend one weekend with the guy and he shared...Thanks hun!...lol...It's all good though, cause I try not to let the little things slow me down...I started my morning with 1 1/2 hours of cleaning a bathroom from top to bottom (except mopping the floor) and taking an inventory of things to be taken care of to fix up the apartment I have been working on.  

Then Mom and I made another trip to my brother's house to pick up 15 more cement blocks for the garden.   This load finished up the bottom row of cement blocks for the garden bed all the way to the left and 16 more will finish up the second row....Decisions..decisions...decisions... 2 more loads so it goes high enough around the straw bales? or 4 more loads so that we can go 3 high all the way around... Those blocks are getting really heavy, but I would love to make this garden bed 3 blocks high...hmmm... I will have to marinate on that one...

My other big project for the day was to make an outdoor area for our youngest chicks...Usually chicks wouldn't go outside until they were 8 weeks old, but since our weather has taken a turn towards summer...so we went ahead and set-up an outdoor pen for them with access to a small area of the hen house to lock them up at night.  The warmth from the big birds plus it not going below 52 degrees Fahrenheit for the next week will keep the babies warm enough at night and they have a nice big area to run around and play in, plus better food and water dispensers.

The chicks really like the small space between the buildings and one even went to visit Silver and her nest.

Big Boy's hens usually lay their eggs in a nesting can beside Silver and her nest...and I hoped they wouldn't mind me changing that up on them today, but instead they hopped my little fence and came right over to visit.  They were nice to the chicks and did not bother them, which was our main concern...but we are still going to leave the fence in place for a little while to protect them from Big Boy, the rooster.  That and the main fence won't hold babies without adding chicken wire and I haven't done that yet. 

We are going to try to duplicate our schedule from yesterday tomorrow, except for running to town.  Hopefully tomorrow we can start filling the last bed with dirt and get a few more plants in!