Anyone need a rooster or two? Because roosters only crow at dawn is a MYTH!

Yes, I already knew that. We've had a rooster for about 3 years now. Our first batch of chicks were cheaper if we didn't have them sexed before buying them...we ended up with MORE than half of them roosters (and drake ducks, too). Usually it's about 50/50. We butchered some, gave some away, and we were down to one. Last summer a broody hen (or three) hatched two chicks. One drowned and the other was a rooster...we're now up to two roosters. The batch of chicks we raised last fall/winter had ONE rooster in it (much better odds in our favor this time) but he's higher pitched, so rather more annoying. We tried to board a rooster for a friend of ours, that just started a crowing war between all four of them...and we haven't had peace & quiet since, although it has toned down a bit, once our friend's rooster went back home. She is hoping no one in the city reports her for her noisy boy.

I kind of like the higher pitched rooster's looks, he's an Americana and I think he's pretty. Jason hates him. The chick that is now a rooster from last summer NEEDS to go, he's just big and noisy, and not pretty, either...his tail is crooked. Probably from three hens trying to sit on him as a baby. The rooster we always have around is big, dumb, mellow, gentle, all the words to describe a perfect rooster, if you have to have a rooster! Since we free-range, it's pretty much a necessity.

All joking aside, not getting enough rest is a detriment to health, especially now that I'm working outside the home. To say we are busy is a BIG understatement.

I've put in two more raised beds (thanks to my good friend who gave them to me when she found out she was moving), one for lettuces, endive, arugula, fennel, and the other will host celery, celeriac, and probably leeks. When I get two more in, they will all have to be devoted to carrots & onions. I need to get my spring peas going, too. So much to do, so little time!!!

Work is crazy busy, too, as spring has sprung here in the Ozarks (although there are a few more frosts to contend with before we can rest easy), and the Garden center is crowded with plants and people. Seeing folks come in buying tomato & pepper seeds worries me, though...for one reason. When they realize that they're not getting any production out of those seeds that they tended and labored over (because they started them far too late) they will be disappointed, and possibly even never start seeds for a garden, or try to garden again. Knowledge is Power...and gardening takes both! You never stop learning, no matter how old you are.

Here is a pic of my new raised bed with a duck very unhappy to not be able to get in there and nibble away at my greens! (Thank God!) She's probably the one who destroyed three of my tomato plants that I tried to set out to harden off this morning. :( THAT was disappointing, and a lesson learned...ducks like tomato plants, not just tomatoes. Sigh...

Not much more time for posting today. Have laundry to do, and hoping for a nap & shower before work this afternoon. I have tomorrow off! Yay! Here's a quick pic of my tomatoes & pepper plants (and everything else) I've been growing in the greenhouse!