Will last years seeds grow?

Walmart is having a sale on seeds. Nothing makes me happier than saving money, and when it's on gardening...that's all the better! Now, there is a chance that your Walmart isn't having a sale on seeds, but chances are your local hardware store, big box store or home store is. 

Be forewarned that these bargain seeds come with a down side. They may be 'expired'. This brings us to the question: are expired seeds still good? Are they viable? Will they still grow? What will the plants be like? Is it a good idea to plant expired seeds or will it be one of my big Seed Starting Mistakes?

All the seeds packaged for last years growing season have a 'sell by' date of the end of last year on them. The questions is "How much does it really matter?" Well sometimes it matters a lot, and other times not at all. The quick answer though, is that last years seeds will be just fine! 

If you're trying to plant seeds from 5 years ago though, there might be a slight germination problem.

Caring for ornamental zebra grass

Every year I post this statement on Facebook: "My zebra is dead!" Every year someone replies something like "OMG, I'm so sorry!" I always wonder 'what the heck do they think I'm raising out here?' lol Truth is, my Zebra grass lives a long and wonderful life every year. It's one of the main focus points in my large yard and is estimated to be about 20 years old.

Zebra grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Zebrinus') is a species of flowering plant in the grass family. It is an herbaceous perennial grass that grows up to 8 feet in height! It starts as a single stalk but spreads through underground rhizomes and grows into a dense clump. 

I have a few different varieties in my clump of grasses, but to simplify reading (and writing) this, I'm just going to refer to the whole thing as zebra grass for this post. The care is the same for most varieties anyway!

Horsehair bird nest

I decided to prune my white Weeping Cherry tree this weekend. I'm probably a little late, however the ground is still frozen solid and it's still snowing here. *sigh* What a conundrum! Do I prune the tree and the grapes now, or do I let them go for the year? They seem to be starting to 'wake up' but everything is still frozen solid. Decisions, decisions.....

So, I went ahead and did the pruning. Now that the tree is bare of leaves and trimmed a bit I could get to all the debris near the trunk. I found several nests. The larger ones were mostly made with long, curly Sebastopol goose feathers. There was one tiny little nest that could only be a small birds nest. 

I pulled it out in one piece and looked at it close. there were lots of hairs in there. Mostly fine and blond....probably mine. There were also some really thick black hairs and some thick blond hairs. I can only assume they came from Jack and Moose. Jack has a beautiful black mane and lives next door....his pen is probably about 2 acre lengths away from  the tree. (I judge distance by football field lengths, sorry! lol) 

I had almost forgot about Moose who had come to stay with Jack for a few months last spring. He was a beautiful tan color with a blonde mane and tail and white blaze. He was only there for a short while, but apparently it was during nest building season!

I can't get over how tiny and perfect the nest is! I love seeing the birds and put out feeders every spring through early fall. We have so many varieties of flowers in the yard that they can always find one to drink from.  

We get a few different varieties of Hummingbirds, but not really knowing the difference I can't tell you what types....just that they look different. They move too darn fast to tell more then that! I can't wait to see them again this year!

~L


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What does 'spring ahead' mean to you?

To me the changing of the clocks means that I will be miserable for about a week. No joke. My mom says that since I was little the time change has thrown me off for a week solid. Ok, so I've grown up and it's more like 3 days now! My internal clock is pretty reliable. It gets me up at 6:50am every day whether I set an alarm or not. This comes in very handy if I forget to set an alarm. It gets confused this time of year though. I force it to reset which means I feel all out of sorts for a few days.

On the plus side, I get more daylight. I get more done after the kids get home and more playtime with the kids and critters! It means we should be just about done with the white fluffy stuff and hubby can till gardens with his John Deere instead of plowing the driveway with it. It means flowers and baby chicks and......oh crap, I forgot to plant those bulbs! Now where the heck did I put them?.

It means I can get back to what I really love to do....with my camera, and my chickens and people. Oh the people! People at swaps and at shows and at weddings. It means that Buddy the Silkie rooster better amp up his training if he's going to debut his leash walking talents at the next show. Lol YouTube here we come! It means less baking and more grilling. Windows open and heaters off. Sunshine, t-shirts, daffodils and quad rides through the mud. I am so ready to 'spring ahead'! Are you?

~L

Chicken blog posts

I'm having a bit of a conundrum here. I started this blog so I could post about everything I'm interested in, however I also have 2 other blogs. My photo blog isn't a problem since I don't want to post client images outside of there. Other photos just seem to work them selves in. It's my chicken blog that's the problem. I really hate to double post things, and I don't want to bore the non-chicken people with my poultry ramblings. So I think I have a solution. Every once in awhile I'll make a post of the most popular posts on the Chicken Farm Blog and those interested can click. Sound good?

So here we go: 

Bathing a chicken Very important with rain, mud and show season coming up!

Growing Fodder for feed Cheaply How to save on your feed bill by growing sprouts for chicken feed, and doing it cheaply!

Keeping the floor dry under the waterer We solved our problem of wet floors under the poultry drinker.

Insulating the coop Permanent fix to insulate a large (or small) chicken coop.

Blocking winter drafts Temporary fix for winter drafts during a cold snap.

That's it for now....I'll post more in a month or so.

~L

Best skunk spray remover EVER!

If you live anywhere near the woods and have a dog, then more than likely you've smelled the stench of skunk spray on your poor dogs fur! There is nothing as hard to remove as that stinky, oily residue! Luckily, it is possible to get skunk spray out of animal fur (or your clothes) with just a few simple household ingredients!

The first few times my dog got sprayed I tried soaps, shampoos, tomato juice....you name it and I tried it. They didn't work though. I finally found the perfect skunk spray remover and it was in my kitchen the whole time! 

It wasn't easy, it took till about the third try to get this recipe just right. Let me tell you how it went.....