Days off

My days off started with a little snow. (see previous post)

Hubby and I sent the girls off to school and did a small tour of Denver area garden stores.

I picked up some more seeds at the first. Some local Cherry cider at the second. The 3rd was closed. Most surprising was the variety (and high cost) of rain barrels available. One shop said they are like "water pipes" - legal to sell, but not to use. However, one of the local Master Gardeners said a single barrel per household was okay. Both also commented on the lack of enforcement.

Then we found Tagawa Gardens on the Parker/Centennial border. It was beautiful, but what I enjoyed most was that is a working greenhouse and employees were planting starts in baskets that in a couple months will be sold under their own label. (I always wondered how many fushias were in a basket - answer? 4). I purchased a yellow Christmas Cactus for 75% off and another packet of seeds before rushing home to beat the school bus.

Today we learned about bees. Nothing official, but a friend of ours showed us the basics of a have box - and suggested we take a local intro class.

We also took an egg-eating hen home with us to process.

It has been a number of years since I have been involved with killing an animal to eat. (like 25) Hubby found me a well done video on YouTube and I reread this blog post for courage. I was not sure that for all my talk I would be able to do it.

We set up on side yard with a folding table with a vinyl tablecloth and a pot of hot water. It took about 20 minutes from live hen to chicken marinating in lemon and garlic.

I am okay with it. It is not fun, but she lived a good life and had a respectful and humane death. What more can any of us ask?

We may add a few meat birds to our farm this year.