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I love gardening. It's so relaxing (mentally) and rewarding. My papaya fruits are ripening and we already harvested several big and tasty papayas.

My husband wants to get a compost tumbler. His back is not young anymore and he doesn't want to mix and turn the heavy compost loads. I don't blame him. So, I'm in the market for a good large compost tumbler. They are expensive. Any recommendations?
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Pam, I have photos of my dad when he planted mortgage lifters. They’re huge. He only planted them one year. Still too early to plant anything here. Probably be a couple more weeks.
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We are planning our garden ( very small) and I love heirloom tomatoes. Looked up a few I wanted to try.. forgot to tell hubs,, not really sure I could find them anyway. Hubs went out today and got the plants.. he was telling me he got me some heirlooms. I mentioned
a Mortgage lifter... and he started to laugh.. he got one!! Also a Mister Stripey,, had great luck with that last year! I am excited!
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I’m hoping my lilac blooms next year, it’s only about 24 inches tall. I have ordered vincas and a peony. It’s fun and exciting starting from scratch in my garden areas here in Idaho.
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Asian beetles, don't remind me. Had them in Kansas, nasty bugs and are not lady bugs! Had been gone for a week. While gone the winds blew a door open. Got home to a ceiling covered with the darn things. It was extremely disgusting!

Honeysuckle blooming here too. Everything still looks very dry.
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Having fun spreading horse manure!

My forsythia did not bloom like normal, do you suppose that is because it bloomed again Dec 2017 when we had a warm spell?
I'm dreading the Japanese beetles again this year 😡 I was constantly spraying Neem oil last year on them but I could not keep up

Have found about 15 little morel mushrooms so far!  And a baby painted turtle on my driveway, it obviously went the wrong direction from the pond so I rescued it but only after I kept it in a little bowl of water and took many pictures 😊

 Spring makes me feel so alive and I wish it would stay morning all day!!!
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Honeysuckle blooming.
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Isthisrealyreal, I'm not sure if you have told us where you live but it is obviously a warmer climate zone, are you able to continue growing your veggies throughout the summer months or do you have to take a break when it gets really hot?
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I harvested more tomatoes then we can use, rabbits really enjoyed my kale, squash plants covered in blooms, sweet potatoes vining and cucumbers in about 10 days! I love this time of year.

Green thumbs!
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Becky that sounds like the title of an Outlander novel :)
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I have tulips in the snow.
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My lilacs and wisteria are in full bloom, as are all my trees.. and my allergies... But I love it!
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Hi Becky, sounds like you are doing something right with your beautiful clematis.

My lady’s blush rose has buds I’m excited to see the single roses on this shrub. The hydrangea is growing well after its first winter here. The hummingbird mint is on its way in the mail. I should have a few flowers this year. Anyone know if lavender blooms the first year
I also have basil, parsley and cilantro growing.
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I don’t know if I’m right or wrong but I cut my clematis to the ground in the fall. It comes back bigger and better every fall. Last year the blooms were big and lots of them. It’s about a foot high coming out of the snow.
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I took the advice I found online and cut my overgrown and knotted clematis down to about 1 meter, I sure hope I didn't kill it. (I'm pretty sure it is a jackmanii, but I've been wrong before). While researching I saw a good video about severely reducing my pink spirea as well but I'm not sure I have the courage to tackle that too.
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Spring is literally rampaging in as winter has already faded out. Winds have battered the area heavily this week, but the flowers are still popping up everywhere.

White and lilac violets have spread from the back yard around to the front, and even across to a neighbor's yard. The daylilies have shot up several inches and are over 7 - 8" high already. The first Lunaria (money plant) bloomed a few days ago.

Daffodils and one lovely red tulip brighten otherwise pure green areas. And there are more spots of color way at the end of the garden, but the winds are battering everything and gusting to probably up to 25 mph, making it unsafe to venture out.

That would take me through the realm of the Widowmakers being whipped to and fro. Several branches are already down; I don't want to be around when more of them come plunging to the ground.
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blackberries are in bloom,
CW I have similar memory of our kitchen on chicken killing day. :(
Sorry Garden, we didn't mean to talk so fowl. :)
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The temperature has really shot up, I took a walk along the river trails today and saw the first clumps of bloodroot, purple violets, dog tooth violets (trout lily), and another white flower that I don't know the name of. Spring has arrived!!
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This thread has taken a really interesting turn. I had no idea there were so many people her who raised chickens! I'm learning a lot, although I could never grow chickens in my area. I wouldn't mind having a rooster as an alarm clock, though, especially as an alternative to being awakened by the zoom of speeding cars.
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My grandmother killed two chickens every Saturday afternoon. She got them all ready to fry for Sunday dinner. On Sunday morning she poured buttermilk over the pieces and put in the refrigerator. After church she dredged in mixture of salt, pepper, flour. Fried in Lard with a touch of honey melted in it. I do mine the same except   I use solid Crisco. No lard.
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Being the youngest and a girl I was always spared from having to help on butchering days. I can remember coming home from school to find the kitchen filled with bodies as my mom prepped them for the freezer, the butchering, plucking and drawing was usually men's work.
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You all are making me feel like such a wimp! When we were children my dad often threatened to get a chicken to have us do the process he grew up with in the country. We were city kids and wanted no part of it, always telling him he wouldn’t eat a chicken we “knew” He was always a bit disappointed in his city kids! Still can’t stand the thought, I like my meat nice and impersonal on a styrofoam tray at the grocery store 🤗 I’ll stick to flowers, wimp that I am!
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I've been around a farm all my life. There are things I don't like to do, but I do the work anyway. We take a steer and a hog to the meat processor across the river. Probably will take the chickens too. I ordered 500 so minus roosters and what I keep for eggs - the rest of the girls will go across the river.
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The latest term used around here by our local chicken farms is not killing or butchering, but processing. It sounds less gruesome for the customers, but same difference for the chickens.

smeshque- I know how you feel about killing chickens. We keep chickens for eggs only. Whenever we have a sick chicken that has to be put down, my husband does the deed. I tell him to spare me the details. I don't want to know.

CM- How did you come to own ex-battery hens?

I love roosters. They are so beautiful. I raised a few before when the kids and I hatched eggs and ended up with some. We raise them until they start to crow then have to give them away. No roosters allowed in my city.
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Our kind neighbours gave us a beautiful rooster, bantam cross, after one of my chickens went (pointlessly) broody and was breaking her heart over it.

Ex-battery hens have never met a boy and don't know what they are. Poor little Hamish tried his best but Alice, head hen, wasn't having any of it. It's a lonely life for a cockerel when all the girls just laugh at you and beat you up.
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My baby chicks are thriving, the weather has been pleasant for a bit, so I take them outside to a pen, and then bring them back in at night. I have a rooster that needs to go on the chopping block. My poor hens need a break. I am going to have to get rid of him.
We stopped killing chickens around here. When I was a kid, we would have chicken picking day. UGH! I hated it. Oh how I hated it. When DH and I started farming, I declared I will not be a part of processing any meat. So when they would butcher something, I would take my dog Gracie and go to town until it was all over. But fortunately there has not been any butchering going on in a long time. I much like that better.
Potatoes are growing well and all the other veggies are thriving. Praise God! because this weather has been crazy.
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Coq au vin! I would love to perfect my own recipe with a supply of roosters, but someone else has to kill and pluck. :-/
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I ordered 500 hens, but you always get a few roosters in the lot. They're always the first to hit the chopping block. If you cook roosters in the pressure cooker they're good for chicken and dumplings.
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No PB she is going to sell them to the neighbors as alarm clocks, after about three days though they will hit the grill.
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cw- roosters for the fryer?
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