It began unexpectedly with the paint I've been needing (we have some unexpected asbestos walls which need to remain painted and the current coat is peeling and we didn't get the renos done that I wanted so I told J it had to be done before summer ended, and I'm running out of summer). He was doing a Bunnings run for some stuff to repair leaky taps and asked if I needed anything, I told him to get Cottage or Federation Green paint and pretty much any white that looked like it would go with it (I don't much care as Cottage Green and white is not my favourite but I'd never gotten around to redoing it in Cottage Red and we're planning on repainting the inside in greens).
J was adamant that he would somehow get the "wrong one" (it's literally a shade, they all have one specific name, they vary very slightly between brands but not nearly enough for me to care about in this case) and much wheedling later I very grumpily agreed to accompany him.
I ended up picking up three swatches (two Cottage Greens and one Brunswick Green which under the fluoro lights looked closer to my recollection of the paint on the house, but I had been right the first time).
I sent the swatches to Middle as she and her boyfriend are planning to build a granny flat in the yard (only thing they have a prayer of affording anytime soon) as the buildings would have to match.
We didn't end up getting the paint after all that but seeing as he'd dragged me out there I made J buy me flowers.
There was a somewhat wild garden here when we moved in and now only the hardiest plants have survived as J steadfastly refused to deal with anything that wasn't edible from the time we moved in til now, and a previous too-large flock of chickens ate all the grass. We have however been here for nearly two decades with an ugly looking garden and I was really putting my foot down (plus despite my constant complaining making it sound otherwise, he does like keeping me happy).
While doing some extremely basic prep work on the garden beds (very long awaited and constantly put off redoing the stone edges using some accidental concrete bits that happened when a bag got rained on to replace a bunch of the stones J had taken for various things, stabbing with pitchfork to soften up soil which turned out to be already soft and trying to mix in leaf litter and levelling everything out a bit more), I covered over a hole and wondered why J kept taking soil from this particular area. When laying out the new plants the answer came.
I'm leaving off planting anything in there til I figure out what to do about this XD
New stuff went in
The original plan was to see how these plants went (a couple of them apparently like "brightly lit shaded areas" so they're in the bed that's almost always shaded, the rest which allegedly like full sun to part shade are divided between the "brightly lit almost always shaded" bed and the "brightly lit sometimes gets a whack of sun for a short period of time" bed under one of the shade trees) and to wait for any survivors to get bigger so I can see how my composition actually looks (I don't know how big these things get so everything was guesswork).
I am terrible at sticking to plans at the best of times and have already told J we're getting an Elkhorn fern or similar for the log that I forgot we had the next time we go back to Bunnings which is sooner than anticipated as he forgot to get replacement heat lamps on our last trek.
The catio garden decided to suddenly do better since I last took photos of it.
And we only got 4 chicklets out of the 24 fertile eggs J planted in the coop. The day J put them in the two broodies apparently decided they were over it, fortunately it was a hot enough day that it was probably fine, and then the broodies decided they did want to sit after all but apparently only half the eggs got sat on.
Useless fun fact: J accidentally said "seeds" when he meant "eggs" when he was telling me when he was going to go pick up the fertile eggs so we've decided that they're now "chicken seeds".
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Mint chocolate I think I'll have to get that plant too, I'm following your posts as they progress.
We have a custom here in our village that we always put an odd number of eggs under the hen. I don't even know the reason anymore, but I remembered it.
Little chickens are cute and the most beautiful now, and we need to get new hens.
He thought I might like it because it was chocolate, had to remind him yet again that I really don't like mint XD It's an experimental "ground cover" at the moment, he's not a fan of grass so he's madly scrambling for literally any excuse to get rid of the scraps that are spreading from the neighbour's yard and some that have been growing up from some sawdust we got put down years ago, I've told him flat out that I've been sick of the dirt blowing in for the last few years (there's nothing binding it right now) so the grass is staying as that binds it the best.
Is there anyone that you can ask that knows the reason? I'm really curious now XD I like odd numbers so I would just do it for literally that reason, however J gets the eggs by the carton so it's usually 12 or 24. I think he normally just gets 12 but we were trying to help some friends replenish their flocks as well, but with the abysmal hatch rate it looks like we will have to try again next year.
Chicks are super cute, especially when there's large clutches of them XD though unfortunately it does lead to problems like how we lost all our grass in the first place x_x lol XD
I'll try to find out.
It had something to do with the size of the chicken.
And maybe some superstition among our elders.
Chickens are great for destroying lawns, in addition to the fact that they dig up a lot of grass and pull it out at the very beginning. Their droppings, when fresh, are too strong and destroy plant growth.
Hahha chicken seeds! good one. Sometimes we call them 'sneggs' because when Jamie first got to Australia, he found some in the grasses out back and thought they were snake eggs 'sn..eggs' - I teased him for months. Bloody chickens, they just don't obey the rules most of the time do they? one of my pullets decided it's a rooster. Grrr.
Look husbands will always choose the wrong colour - tis essential to accompany them when they make colour choices.
Youv'e seen my kitchen, right, in beige and brown? Hubs thought bright orange would be great for the new cupboards in the same room, or maybe black? I hit him with a frying pan to remind him HE DOES NOT CHOOSE COLOURS.
LoL! I had to tell J about "sneggs", that's hilarious XD
Is it actually a rooster or a hen who thinks that seeing as there isn't a rooster around she'll do the rooster job? We've had both happen and the hen crowing was the second funniest sound related to that XD (the first being listening to roosters trying to learn how to crow, especially with the amount of effort some of them put in for the most pathetic sound XD)
So ummmmmmmm the bright orange might work depending on the specific shade of bright orange and beige and brown but also why would you do that x_x
Oh they're pathetic, aren't they - like teenage boys with croaking voices trying to pick up chics. I do hope she's a crowing hen, they do that, right?
And yes, orange, jesus h christ, wtf!
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