Pink Fox: its Raining...IN MY HOUSE! :/

[pinkfox]

well looks like ive got 2 of rowans girls on hold and a pre-sale for a buck from bluebells next litter (these folks want a trio for show/breeding) so yay there!
and i bred hazel to Thistle this morning
for a first timer on both of them they did VERY well! lol, no fights no "which end do i need" and no avoidance, so should have mini rex in the box may 26th there abouts. Will breed Holly to Thistle tomorrow or Monday too.
then plans to breed Rowan and Blackberry the second weekend of May.
then everyone gets a break untill mid August lol, figure hottest months are usually june and july and beginning of august...fertility tends to drop during the hottest months so would be a good break time.

got some stuff to get done this morning, and then im thinking ill do some plaing around in the dirt this afternoon, need to cut some poles to tie my tomatoes there getting tall and are starting to flower and i dont want any casualties on the fruit...
need to trim back the basil too its getting tall and i dont want it tall, so trim them back so theyll bush out some... the trimmings wont go to waste lol.

and got to mail my electric bill out today lol.

otherwise thats about all thats going on here on my sleepy little homestead.

 

[pinkfox]

well my sleepy little homestead has a bunch of new plants to go in the ground. 6 Red Knockout roses, about 12 little rose of sharons, 1 big rose of sharon, a large azelea and a lilac...
the knockout roses and the azelea look a little sorry for themselves, they have been allowed to get very leggy and so are mostly sticks with some leaves ontop, BUT thats easily fixable in both cases.
the lilac is a single spindly twig BUT theres plenty of tiny little suckers around the base that tells me the whole thing should fill out VERY nicely when given the right love and attention, again its been left to get tall and spindly.
the rose of sharon starts all look fairly healthy other than the fact there in small pots and had been left out on a black top drive in full sun for a few days.
the whole lot cost me some time and gas money and $20, the knockouts at walmart for this size (and in just as sorry looking condition...$18 a peice... ao $108 worth of knockouts, all ofwhich i should be able to take plenty of starts off in the fall after their final bloom and have plenty of baby knockout roses to plant (and mabe even sell come spring)
the azelea is a 5 gallon plant minimum, about $60 at lowes for this size, in this condition probably worth about $40, the lilac is a 2 gal size, about $15 worth of shrub and the rose of sharons the 12 little ones about $6 a peice at walmart and the ig one is a $30 plant, all in all about $265 worth of plants. not bad for my last few bucks available for the month (ialso picked up milk and a newspaper for the goosey brooder so i SHOULD be ok untill payday now (going to ask the neighbors if they have any newspaper too, its working better than the shavings and straw were so i think this will be my method of choice now...i just put a new layer down every few hours then pull it all out and start a new the next morning...if i can get my hands on free newspaper itll be set to go

got the 6 roses planted, taking a little while before heading out to get everything else planted and then ill give them a watering after the sun starts to set.

gotta figure out where all the rose of sharon are going too LOL.

th knockout roses needed full sun so i planted them on the front property line between me and neighbor infront. i need another 2 to fill in the last little gap there, but once it fills in it should look beautiful!.
ill buy some rugosa next month to plant down the property line between me and side neighbor as rugossa will grow quite happily in part shade or full sun...and then ill need some shade lovers to fill in the spots that get pretty much only very light dappled sun. next spring im hoping to get enough starts to continue the knockout roses along the other part of the front property line before it hits the privets. and ill plant all kinds of cutflowers and bulbs along infront of the roses to fill it in.
the climbing rose thats currently being consimed by long grass is going to get dug out...thats going to get moved into my back yard to grow up the side of the laundry room, ive got climbers on the other side of the deck too so it should balance out nicely (and im hopign eventualy that the back of my house can be sconsimed in climbing roses...how pretty would that be?!) the lilac is going over int hat area too, im eventually going to have a pond set up in that zone so the lilac will provide some shade in mid sun on the water where im plannint on planting it.

Whew...its hot out LOL.

missed the post office though, keep forgetting it only opens for 1 1/2 hours on saturdays 9-10:30 so electric bill will go out on monday instead, itll still get there ontime but still. grr, arg.

anywho, going t check my email then go do some more planting

 

[pinkfox]

well, i miscounted, i have 15 little rose of sharons, managed to get 11 planted, moved the random climber that was getting strangled by weeds managed to get a big chunk of its tap root but man that thing had gotten herslef a good tap lol, lilac is planted. just got the 1 big rose of sharon to go in and the 4 little ones...
will do those tomorrow though, im tired and my tummy is a little mad at me right now (havent drunk enough today and its protesting.

finally met the neighbor across the way, she was nice enough, thanked me for NOT letting my dogs run all over the place, and asked what i was planting so i told her and she seemed quite happy with the choices, said it would be nice to see some color and nicely maintained "garden" as opposed to the few realy sorry looking hostas over the past couple of years...
and then she was off on her way again.

the other neighbor stopped in, says his sister "collects" newspapers so hes going to try and bring me a pile
he also said i can cut any blooms i want off his peonies in front...

now this made me light up inside a litte..why?! because peony are my absolute most favorite flower EVER...
there just SOOOO expensive to buy (and more expensive than roses if you want cut!)
so YAY. he also said hes planning on planting more peonies along that line.
Im hoping eventually to plant a few peony infrtont of my new rose hedge too (i want raspberry sorbet peonies) and then all the gaps will be filled in with various brightly colored cutting flowers so i can bring in fresh flowers year round.
shoudl look nice, and add a little privicy screening

but yeah, NOW im tired, and a little achey. and ive no idea what im doing for dinner...im kinda thinking fish with rice.
and after dinner, lock the girls in...
and after that a nice HOT shower before settling infront of the tv for a few hours.

tommorow its some more planting but thats all ive got planned.

 

[snapshot]

That's a lot of flowers!!!! Are the newspapers for mulch?

 

[pinkfox]

nope the newspapers are for the gosling brooder, i had them on shavings but as having to dump it every day, waterfowl are VERY messy and geese grow so fast...
so i ran out of shavings and put them on straw...it was a little less messy on tp but not nearly absorbent enough, so i pulled that and put newspaper down...and suprisingly its done the trick, i put 1 layer down in the morning, another around lunh time, another before bed and then remove everything the next day. as long as i top up 3 times a day the smell is none existant...so it seems to be the best choice and i think il be raising all my waterfowl in the future on paper.

shoudl be able to get their "big goose" house built by the 5th so they can go outside full time (they wont be happy about being away from me but they will be happy to ahve more space...another week and theyll probbaly be able to climb right out of the big tote i have them in, they can already see over the top when they stand straight there SOOO cute though!

I cant wait untill things do start flowering, i knwo the knockots are all reds, the rose of sharons are pink purple and white, and the lilac is white. the climbing rose i moved is a red one...its not happy with the move right now but im REALY hoping it pulls through, its a beautiful deep red climber.
I might take some cuttings off it tomorrow and try and root them up just in case this one does give up the fight. it spent along time in its old spot and i had to hack its main taproot as i couldnt get it all, but i watered it well and will water twice a day for the next few weeks to get it going. will mulch with some rabbit poop tomorrow too. *fingers crossed*

Im kinda obsessed with flowers LOL.

 

[pinkfox]

well this monring i kicked the goslings out of the house for a while, the sun is shining, its plenty warm enough and they need to get used to ebing out there without me, so i put them out, sat with them for about 15 mins and then left them...they wernt too pleased with that part but there not screaming for me right now so im guessing thats a good thing lol.
Took some cuttings of the climbing rose i dug up yesterday have them in water for now and will pick up some rooting hormone next week. everything im reading says they will root in just plain water, but i dunno...when i get the hormone ill do 1/2 in that and place in pots and then the other half of the cuttings ill just leave to sit in the water and see what happens.
the knockouts and rose of sharon are looking quite happy this morning so thats a good sign at least, watered first thing and will water again tonight...its supposed to be one off showers tomorrow so i shouldnt have to worry then and im going to dump rabbit manure all round everything when i clean the litter boxes out.

got some more light planting to do today, and i noticed ive got some sunflower seeds i planted trying to come up
my squash starts are all sprouting too in my little green house, going to give them a few more days on the windowsil then try moving them outside during the day, my house doesnt get neer enough light and i think thats why the mater seedlings failed.
have to put some supports in for the tomatoes at some point today too. im going t have my first roma fruit soon as theres a little green bulb .

oh and i put holly in with thistle this morning, so both mini rex SHOULD be bred *fingers crossed* and i might have 3 of Rowans kits on a tentative hold. there all starting to run about and explore too.

not much really planned for today though otherwise, hard to belive its almost the end of April already.

 

[pinkfox]

well got all the remainding stuff planted *yay*

still need to go salvage some branches to make tomatoe canes...but will do that after lunch has settled
its a beautiful day out, too hot to be doing any kind of realy heavy lifting but the kind of day when you just wish you have a seating area or somehting out there to just sit back and watch the world go by.
cant wait untill dad gets the wireles sorted out so i can sit outside and do my online stuffs
i tried. aparently a monkey can set up a lynksys...im dumber than a monkey...
not realy, least i dont think, my computer, the carter cable internet and my computer just arnt realy "meshing" i think its a problem between the modem and router tather than my computer because my computer easily sees the wireless over at the postoffice and little grocery store.
dads tech genius so if it can be figured out...hes the one to do it.

*smiles* i brought in some peony last night fomr the neighbors bushes...and every time i look at them i just smile. how can anyone NOT love big pink poofball flowers?!
there pretty much the inspiration for 2 out of 5 rooms in my house LOL.

and my house smells like bananna bread YUM!

anywho.

 

[Denim Deb]

I wanted to make some chocolate chip banana bread the other day, but couldn't find any ripe bananas in the store. So, I didn't even bother to look for chocolate chips. I knew I'd just eat them.

 

[pinkfox]

ooo nomy, these are just little bananna muffinsforma box kit i had. i much prefer fresh NOM.

well today i got a pleasant little suprise, theres an egg in my linnies nest box.
im HOPING its fertile, i know lokie is female, i had her DNA'd, but Cricket came to me as a proven male who lost his mate...so we shall see, if this clutch is infertile ill send for a dna kit for cricket to be absolutly certain. but ive got crossed fingers. normal clutch is 2-4, generally with 1 day between and they generlaly dont sit untill egg 2-3, i can check for veining around day 4 and hope for the best, and if all goes right in about 3 weeks linnie babies! *hopes*
my mum wants one of the babies, and if they hatch when there due, and then mum and dad come to visit when there planning on it, the babies should eb old enough to pull for hand feeding around the time ther due to go home...and both my mum and dad are exerienced hand feeders!

otherwise, been a pretty lazy day, made apple crumble for desert tonight that was just delicious...

no real plans for tomorrow, just see what the day brings
other than the post office...NEED to go to the post office LOL.

 

[pinkfox]

well got too excited too soon...
at some point between 10pm and 9am the egg in the nest box was destoyed, looks like its been eaten too so today ill be making some boiled eggs for myself and some for the linnies (they will get egg and shell, hoping shes just lacking calcium and its not a case of bad mothering...
linnies can be difficult to breed which is why there still relitivly rare to the pet trade, will have to keep a check over the next few days to see if she lays more.

otherwise nothing realy going on today, gonna finnish breakfast then head over to the post office, then home and who knows what...
the goslings are back outside for the day, got to watch on the weather though, its only a 20% chance but there still all down and i dont want them getting chilled