Peas Planted early, but at the best time!

Hey everyone we planted Sugar Snap peas today! Here in central North Carolina it gets very hot by May and unless you plant your peas early the heat slows them down and wilts them. So we plant them early. Meg planted these thick as she always does.  This way makes a great crop so you can loose a few to birds or slugs, you still get a good crop. We used 1/2 pound peas for 4 10 foot rows. BTW you can order peas online or by catalog as the stores don't have them until mid March... Ours came from Johnny's Select Seeds.

Also we covered them with a light covering of straw and then a protective fabric called remay. That will keep the birds out of them as they get started.

This shows you how thick we plant our peas!

A word about our chickens, we have 6 hens. On January 29th they laid 6 eggs, today February 01 they laid 6 eggs AGAIN!

Paradise Gets Adopted By A Chicken

The last few days we've had a new visitor to the yard, this chicken in the photo below. She has been pecking around in the back yard where we just planted grass seed last week. It has been raining since she arrived and I know she is from out neighbor's 'farm' lot.

Last spring these neighbors cleared out 2.75 acres of forest to make a pasture and since then they have added these animals to their collection, 3 Mules (think they traded 2 horses for the mules), 4-5 goats now with several kids, 6-7 ducks, peacocks, turkeys and lots of chickens and roosters.
Last night I watched this hen go into the old shed we are going to tear down. So once it got dark I checked to see if she was in the shed. Yes she was and offered me this egg below for her rent for the night. This morning I went out in the rain and she was still there, not on the straw I brought in for her last night, behind it.

A little while ago I was outside in the rain sowing some white clover seeds onto the lawn or soon to be lawn. I checked the shed and she was either hiding real good on went back home. You might ask why would you sow white clover seeds onto the lawn? Well this place is a butterfly haven and clover is a host plant for several butterflies like Orange Sulphur, Clouded Sulphur and possibly Eastern Tailed-Blue. Clover is very drought tolerant and does not mind not getting mowed so much and the flowers do attract a lot of butterflies.