A refined palate

Rocks, leaves, grass, dirt, sticks... all things that a one year old loves to eat.  Why do I try to share my food with her?  Or stress about her getting enough fruits and veggies?  All she wants to eat is bird poop from the yard!

She is loving being outside though.  We spent quite a bit of time wandering around, her sampling everything and me trying to convince her to stop doing that.  Finally, she was content to just carry some rocks around.

I have one more spinach sprout.  That's how desperate I am for spring, I'm giving you updates on each measly little spinach plant.  Just one more week, and I think it'll be time to plant some peas!  I'm used to getting things started really early in order to get any kind of harvest at all, so I'm antsy for things to get going.  I feel kind of silly though, since none of the neighbors have even started looking at their garden plots yet.  They probably think I'm crazy, lining up re-purposed 2-liter pop bottles against the fence, and peeking in through the spout everyday. 

Photo by Terry Sohl

I did do a little research on my "chickens".  Turns out they are called ringneck pheasants and they are not native to America.  They somehow got here from China and made themselves right at home.  The females only lay eggs in the spring, and they will lay up to 20, then sit until they hatch.  Their life expectancy is only 10-20 months, perhaps due to the fact that humans like to shoot them and eat them.  So, they might not be the best laying hens to have around.  I don't really want 200 fertilized eggs in April, and then none the rest of the year.  Besides, it sounds like they need all the baby chicks they can get!