Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

[Mini Horses]

I grow common vetch through the pastures. This variety comes up early and is good thru mid/late summer but excellent with nitrogen fixing and proteins for animal forage. Takes a lot of abuse from grazing, too. In fact, some is coming up now. Good early graze.

Just a "cousin" to what you are discussing. No beans to gather. It's for the animals. The Australian peas could produce but, again graze...another legume type. I'm told the young growth of this is good quickly braised in a skillet.

I am so loaded with seeds that I hate to even look at the seed books because I do NOT need to buy more. They are so tempting.

 

[hqueen13]

Hope yall are doing well!

 

[Britesea]

Spring is gradually making its presence felt here. We still get snow, but it melts off before nightfall. The saffron crocuses survived the winter in the greenhouse, and I've since discovered that they are hardy down to something like -15F, so I guess I don't need to worry about them. DH got worried when the green topgrowth started dying back, but I think it's just the way these grow; they don't send up new growth until later in the summer, because they bloom in the fall.
We decided to get rid of the ducks, since DS is allergic to duck eggs, and are converting their old coop into a nursery for broody hens and their chicks. 25 baby Speckled Sussex chicks are due to arrive the first week of May. We are also building a new, bigger coop (a mini-barn, actually) so I can store their feed out of the weather.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

I love Sussex! I have light Sussex, and Coronation Sussex but I haven't had the Speckled. They are beautiful though. Hope you enjoy them!

 

[Britesea]

We have one week until the chicks come, but I'm feeling better about the Waldorf Eggstoria. We have finished the floor and most of the framing for the walls. Tomorrow (in between the rain showers) we hope to get at least a couple of walls up. DS has promised to come over this weekend to help also, so I am reasonably confident that we will have some sort of shelter for the chicks. We also cleaned out the old duck coop (Fort Quacksop) for the broodhouse and nursery later. For now, it may end up holding the 5 older chicks that I was gifted with at the beginning of the month. I am soooo ready to get them out of my bathtub!
I managed to trip over some sod that we had dug out to make the floor level, and fell to the ground. My knee is bruised and my hand is all abraded on the palm, but I managed to just miss landing on a concrete pier.

In other news, my diet and exercise plans are going very well. I have lost 25 pounds so far- enough that some of my clothes are becoming loose. My doctor was ecstatic with the lab results as well- My A1C went from 8 to 7.2 in 3 months, and my cholesterol is in the desirable range now, not just acceptable. She knows about the Tai Chi, but I have not told her that I'm doing a Ketogenic diet (high fat, very low carbs) because she would probably freak; she's very old school and still believes that fat is evil. But I'm losing weight, my lab numbers are all excellent, and I'm NOT HUNGRY. I do occasionally find myself wishing I could have real pasta instead of zoodles or shirataki noodles, but it's really more because I remember them as comfort foods rather than because I really miss them. Most of what I liked about pasta was the sauces and cheeses I put ON them, really; and I can do that with the pasta substitutes just as easily.

 

[sumi]

Sorry to hear about the fall and congrats on the weight loss!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Great on the weight loss and labs! So glad you weren't injured severely with your fall - even though it does sound painful.

 

[MoonShadows]

Sorry to hear about the fall. Good thing you didn't get hurt badly.

 

[lcertuche]

Great job on your weight loss and your yardbird adventure. I love my chickens although I'm constantly tripping over them or stepping on them. Someone came to our house yesterday and she said "Your chickens think they're dogs. They came running when I got out of the car."

Chickens need a secure place at night from predators (Everyone loves a chicken dinner!) and they should fare well.

 

[hqueen13]

WAHOO! Sounds like lots of good stuff for you! Congrats on the weight loss, and I totally agree on the diet. Low fat is not healthy at all!