Slip Sliding Away

I love snow.  Blizzards? Bring 'em on. I love to watch it fall, I love to see piles of it everywhere.  I have been known to throw a snow ball, build a fort or snowman, sled down a hill or go for a walk in the silence that snow brings.  However, I have to admit, I'm really a snow bunny.  I prefer the lodge or in my case the living room couch where I can cocoon in a blanket and sip hot cocoa.

One thing I don't like to do in the snow? Drive!  I'm native to Seattle.  The PNW city gets some snow but not a whole bunch.  I never really had to drive in it.  By the time I was driving my dad was retired and able to give me a ride if the roads looked bad.  Then he passed the honor on to my husband.  When we moved to Idaho we only had one car so I never drove in the snow there.  When we moved to Texas... ha.... it snowed once and was gone in a few hours.  But here in Michigan... it snows and this year it started early.  I have teens who have to go to the dentist and the doctor and church play practice and guitar lessons and any number of social events.  And since Dad is usually either at work or in bed for these lovely errands guess who gets to drive them.  Me!  It is so not good.

Tuesday I had to drop off and pick up my eldest at a babysitting gig.  Of course this family has a long, steep, curving driveway up to the house. (With tons of trees lining the drive.)  I generally choose to stop at the bottom and let my daughter walk up to the house and down also.  But Tuesday, oh Tuesday, I forgot my phone at home whilst going to pick her up.  I didn't want to walk up to get her so I drove to the top.  I am an adult after all. This backing down a long, curvy, steep, tree-lined drive shouldn't be a problem.  Never mind that it is covered in snow.

Half way down the drive and "thunk".  In avoiding a tree, I failed to see the utility pole and backed right into it.  No big deal.  I was going slow. No damage.  I just put the vehicle in 4 wheel drive and drove forward. Of course what I couldn't see because of snow was the slope away from the driveway towards the tree I had missed.  The car moved forward and promptly slid down the slope and met the tree most intimately.  Okay, I'll just back up and be on my way.  NOOOOO... I end up digging the wheels down, down, down.  Now I am stuck and parallel parked between the tree and the pole. (Apparently the only time I can successfully parallel park is when I'm not trying to.)

Long story short, it took the grandfather of the kids my daughter was sitting, and my husband about an hour to dig and pull the car out.  Sigh... why do these things always happen to me.  Now I have a nice little dent in the front passenger fender and a busted tail light. Perhaps a move to Key West might not be a bad idea.

Now for the praises!  No one was hurt, the damage is small, both my husband and the grandfather were available to help, it was still light out and there was a break in the weather, they got the car out.  Big picture time. Big picture. Thank you Heavenly Father.

Lessons learned: Remember the phone so I can text my arrival to my daughter and not have to drive up to the house and if the phone is forgotten, don't be lazy. Park the beast and walk up to the house!

Homeschooling through the sickness...

I find having to school with even one sick child challenging.  Today I got three children through all their subjects and one partially through and the sick kid... she spent a lot of time on the couch.  It was clear that the sicky would not be able to concentrate on bookwork.

I thought perhaps that I could turn on the TV and find a history or animal documentary but those things don't exist anymore.  It seems these days everything on channels that used to be somewhat educating are now swamped with "reality" shows that offer little besides a lot of bleeped out words or cheap entertainment.

So tomorrow the snow is supposed to let up some and I am heading to the library.  I am picking up arm loads of documentaries and non-text books to keep her busy on the couch and yet still learning at the same time.

Any other homeschoolers out there have any tips on how to have a "sickie" learning under the radar?  I'd love to hear some ideas on this!

Secret Egg Stash!

After moving our chicken tractor on Saturday and the ensuing pandemonium required to get them in the past couple of nights, Farmer John and I figured the chickens were a bit stressed and not laying eggs.

Of course last time we thought that we found a secret stash a couple of days later.

Deja Vu!

I just happened to see a chicken sitting in a very hidden place under some bushes.  When I went to go inspect it further thinking this was Divergent's hiding place I was surprised to find another secret stash filled with eggs.

Clearly the chickens were not stressed.  They just didn't want to lay their eggs in the chicken tractor.

The nest was so tiny and so far back in the bushes that I had to get my nine year-old daughter to crawl in to fetch the eggs.

Of course since so many eggs had been lain there a couple had been stepped on and cracked open. Reagan, though, was a trooper and retrieved all the good ones even though they were quite dirty.  The hens all looked on, quite curious as to what we might be doing there.

We pulled a dozen eggs from that spot.

 

I usually don't wash my eggs but these got washed.  I also floated them to make sure they were fresh. They were.  I candled them with a flashlight too, just to make sure that nothing was developing.

 

My four year-old watched each step with unwavering eyes.  She loves collecting eggs and wanted to learn more.

 

Today when we went out to collect eggs we checked the stash area but there was nothing there.  There were however eggs in the nesting boxes in the chicken tractor.  I can't figure out these birds for nothing.  I think they're messing with me.

 

Update on Divergent Hen:  I found her hiding place and it wasn't the above egg nest.  As I was putting in hens last night  (We only needed to help one beside Divergent in.) I watched her slowly saunter away around to the front of the house.  She had disappeared by the time( a couple of minutes later) I could go for her but I looked for her and I just happened to see her in one of our trees... but she wasn't on a thick branch near the trunk. She was up and out on a very tiny branch near the outside of the tree.  I know that was not were I had looked the nights before.

 

I was able to coax her down from the tree and then I caught her and carried her to the tractor.  She went calmly as if she was happy that I had found her.  I hope she goes to the tractor tonight. I would prefer her not to be divergent.

 

 

 

My Divergent Hen

So we moved the chicken tractor the other day  (Saturday) while the chickens were out and about.  I debated as to whether this was a good idea or not.  I thought perhaps we should move it after the hens and Snowball were in for the night but I took pity on Farmer John who wanted to move it in daylight.

The chickens could have cared less about it during the daytime but come dusk...

When I went out to shut them all up for the night, where were my chickens?  Standing in the exact spot that the tractor used to be in.  Talk about creatures of habit.  It was like they thought the chicken tractor would just appear over them.

So myself, Farmer John and two of our children had the ever so fun task of getting them to the chicken tractor.  We tried bribery with cracked corn, we tried herding and finally we had to result to catching them by surrounding them with chicken wire and then picking them up one by one and moving them to their new home. Can we say, "Roosters are feisty!"

Well, it took forever but finally all twelve were in for the night.

Sunday night, I went out with my daughter and Farmer John to shut  up the chickens again. It went fairly better.  Two hens were already inside and we managed to herd six more in with little difficulty.  That left four chickens... three hens and Snowball.

Andi and I managed to herd Snowball over but he would not go inside.  He flew to the top of the tractor and perched.  Then he jumped down and ran all over with us trying to cut him off.  Then we got him back over to the tractor where he proceeded to do it all over.  Finally we got him to go in... cracked corn was just too much temptation.

While all that was happening Farmer John was herding the other three hens.  When we finally thought we got them all in we did a "Chicken butt check".  We open the back side of the tractor and count. Hmmm... eleven.  We must have miscounted.  Nope after counting multiple times, pushing and prodding chickens so we could make sure one wasn't hidden, and me climbing into the tractor to count from the front (I sight to see.)  We still only came up with eleven.  Oh yeah!  We left one out and it was getting dark fast.

Enter my Divergent Hen!

We searched high.  We searched low.  In the barn, under everything, in every tree, in every bush.  Around and around the house we went.  It got dark.  We used flashlights.  All to no avail.  We finally had to call it quits and hope that where ever this hen had got herself to, she was safe.

Next morning I awoke to Snowball's usual crowing.  But then I heard a most joyous sound.  Clucking!  I never hear clucking.  My hen must have come out of hiding and is alive and well.

I got up and got dressed and went out.  She wasn't at the old chicken tractor spot.  She was however at the back of the house. All safe and sound. I approached her with some cracked corn but she wasn't too sure about me.  She didn't come up to me like the hens usually do.  I figured she was still upset over the fiasco herding efforts of the past two nights so I tossed some corn her way and left to let the other chickens out.

She was so happy when the other chickens came out .  She joined right in when they came over by her.  But she didn't join them at the tractor.

Now comes last night.    Seven hens in the tractor come dusk and two hens and snowball on the roof of the tractor.  The two hens went in right away.  Snowball took a couple minutes of herding but then he went in.  Two hens left to go.  We walked over to were they like to hang.  No chickens. Sigh.  We walked around the house. No chickens.  Great! Now my Divergent Hen has a friend.  Finally we heard a cluck and hastened toward it.  One chicken, sigh, not two.  We managed to herd her to a fence and catch her.  She got carried to the tractor.  But still no other chicken in sight.  We searched high.  We searched low.  Under everything, in every tree, in every bush. Around and around the house we went.  We did several chicken butt counts.  Only eleven and night was falling. Curse this blasted hen.

Farmer John had the gall to ask us... "Is it the same hen?"  They all look the same dear! But I would bet it is the same one.

I don't know where this chicken goes but she sure hides herself well. I hope I hear her cluck this morning and see her out. I don't want her to end up as anything else's food. Only me and my family have dibs on eating her when her egg laying time ends.

What the heck do I do about this Divergent Hen?  The nights are going to get colder and she will need to be with her flock.  And then when it gets really colder they will need to move into the barn for the winter.  That will be another story because then they'll need to share with my red hens.

Featherside Story: How two flocks became one.  Featuring the Red gang and the Rocks gang. Instead of clicking their fingers they cluck. I prefer an alternate ending to the Westside Story ending because I don't want any dead chickens.

Any one have any suggestions as to how to help little miss Divergent go back to the chicken tractor?

Update:  When I went out this morning.  I found that Divergent had lain an egg by the back porch.  It was nice of her to lay it where I would see it.  And I found her perched on top of the chicken tractor where she quickly joined the flock when I let them out.  She even entered the chicken yard and ate cracked corn with the others and then went into the tractor to eat and drink.  I think she was cold and lonely.  Maybe tonight she won't be Divergent any longer.  We can hope.

Fall must be on it's way!

Our first pumpkin (and probably our only).

 

We planted our corn, melons, winter squash and pumpkins in another area of our property then our other gardens.  It is amazing how the soil quality can be so different.  Since it was our first year planting we didn't amend the soil.  Most of our gardens did great but the corn, etc. did poorly.  I'm not surprised that the melons didn't do good as our summer was fairly cool and rainy but I'm very disappointed that I didn't get a lot of pie pumpkins. (My husband is sad not to get a lot of corn.)  We picked the beauty above before the chickens could get to it but I'm not seeing many more thriving.  Good thing for farmer's markets.  I will not partake in store canned pumpkin. Yuck!

 

One thing we were very surprised to get was Okra. I didn't think it would grow in Michigan.

 

 

 

 

We also got some broccoli (spelling?). We have never managed to get any before so small victories right?

 

 

Next year we will be laying on the manure and compost and making sure the soil is well amended so everything does well.

 

What victories and set backs did you all have this summer in your garden?

 

 

Bad Surprises!

Yesterday I had good surprises.  Today... not so much.

Bad surprises:

1. All those lovely tomatoes I thought I might harvest?  1/2 of them have blossom rot.

2. My smallest daughter got stung by bees... 4 times.

3. A predatory bird (hawk, falcon, etc.) tried to sweep down and steal one of laying chickens this evening as we were putting them away.


Praises:

1. At least the chickens get to eat well.  Lots of tomatoes went their way.

2. Taylor seems not to have had an allergic reaction any more serious than some nausea and slight swelling around the stings. We are keeping an eye on her.

3.  The bird did not get my hen.  She ran for cover as I ran at the bird.  The bird aborted and landed in a tree on the property line.

Lessons learned:

1. Blossom rot can be caused by lack of calcium in the soil.  High amounts of nitrogen can also cause it. I don't know about the calcium levels but we did have the chickens in that bed before we tilled it and planted.  It is possible that the chicken manure was too "hot" for the plants.

2. Keeping baking soda, topical benedryl and ibuprofen handy is a good thing.  Also learned that nausea is part of an allergic action.

3. Must keep an eye out for predatory birds.  If anyone is gonna eat chicken it's me! Also apparently I will run toward a predator to save a chicken.  Maybe I should start carrying a sling and a stone.

Wow! What will tomorrow bring?! Tomatoes with noses?

It Seemed Like A Good Idea At The Time...

Then

When we planted our tomatoes this spring we put them fairly close together.  My thought process was that this might crowd out the weeds and we'd have less weeding.  Well, we certainly don't have a lot of weeds in the tomato patch  and we have tons of tomatoes on the vine waiting to get ripe.  The problem?  They've grown into an impassable tomato forest.  Short of sending in the four year-old with one of those little flags you put on the back of bikes, I don't know how we are going to harvest our crop.  We can't get to it. I'm also paranoid of tomato horn worms which could travel (actually slink) from plant to plant very easily in our vege jungle. Next year I guess I will fight weeds and space out my plants properly.  Sigh. I hate weeds.

Now

Hiding Out With West Side Story and Tips!

It is nearing 90 degrees today.  The first hot hot day of the year and it is muggy to boot!  I am beating the heat by hiding out downstairs and watching West Side Story with my older girls.  Seven, my oldest daughter, just finished a week of "Show Camp".  It was five days of acting, singing and dance training culminating in a stage performance.  For the singing portion of the performance Seven's age group did Something's Coming and Tonight from West Side Story so when I found the movie at the library I checked it out.  She is quite excited to watch it.  I was going to skip it but the basement is so cool and comfortable. I'm considering this my afternoon siesta!

I had thought that perhaps I would have more time this week but you can tell from my lack of posts that I didn't.  We suspended school for the week for Seven to do her camp but between shuttling her back and forth and yard work and strawberries, I went to bed late and tired every night.

I canned two batches of jam.  Strawberry and strawberry-rhubarb!  I forgot how much work goes into jamming.  It certainly isn't hard but it is time consuming.  Hulling the strawberries, washing jars, boiling lids, cooking the fruit, waiting for the hot water bath to boil. One tip I learned... always have all your jars washed and ready to go before hand.  Don't start your batch while you have jars washing.  The timing just doesn't work out.  Luckily for me I wasn't too far apart with times and I managed to keep my remaining jam warm but not burnt until the last of the jars were ready.

Another tip... when your baker daughter has acting camp and you think you'll help her out by buying her a boxed brownie mix from the supermarket instead of having her do it from scratch as usual... don't!  Chocolate cardboard... that is what we ate.  We are certainly spoiled by yummy baked goods from scratch! 

Tip three... Know why real farmers wear boots not flip flops?  I do... chicken poo is not always solid and can be quite messy. Ask me how I know.  My foot and right flip flop have never been sanitized quite as much as after that fiasco.

Tip four... when one of your "free ranging" chickens is no where to be found check the furthest, darkest reaches of the barn underneath a pile of bikes.  That is where she will have gone to make herself comfortable and lay an egg!  That's right... my Mrs. Q has resumed laying.  Actually all my adult hens are laying again except for Mrs. P but Mrs. P is growing all her feathers back and she is looking quite nice.  She is even changed in rank.  Mrs. Q is under her now.  But they get along just fine.

Here's a question for my readers with more chicken experience then I.  Is it possible for the backside of a chicken to cluck when an egg is getting ready to come out? I could have sworn clucks were coming out of both ends when Mrs. Q was in her corner.

Finally, in making up for the days I didn't blog (Friday's read and write) I'm reading the latest issue of Mother Earth News and have two books I found at Costco to add to my list of books to read: Bootstrapper; A Memoir- From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm by Mardi Jo Link and Tasting and Touring Michigan's Homegrown Food by Jaye Beeler.  I hope I can find them at the library.

Have a great weekend.

Chicken Education

You know when you read books on chickens and the experts say not to buy them off craigslist or just any Joe Schmoe.  Yah... don't.

We went ahead and bought 8 chickens from an ad on craigslist.  At the time we thought we'd just work them and then stew pot them but now their work in the garden areas is done and my DH likes the 4 or 5 eggs we get a day from them (Or used to- more coming on that.) so we made a new home for them and won't butcher them until our chicks are laying.  But they are... well... they're not well behaved toward each other.

I believe they were cramped and bored and not managed well at their previous home.  They are very cannibalistic!  The 6 hens are missing massive amounts of feather everywhere  (they were like that when we picked them up) and the tiniest hen (lowest in the pecking order) is always trying to hide and get away from the others.  Today I went out to find her with her neck and most of her body through the fence barrier in the barn.  (A couple times she has made it through)  She was trying to hide but of course the others knew where she was and just kept pecking on her.  I pulled her out from the fence twice but she just would return to the same position and when I pulled her from the area and put her down on the other side of the pen (safe from the others) she immediately found something to hide behind.  Then when I pulled her from hiding I noticed a large puncture on her back under her wing.  Not a bloody peck but an actual puncture.  That's it!  She is now being housed alone in the brooder until we decide what to do.  Well, until we do what needs to be done.  She is going to have to be butchered.  I don't trust her with my chicks and I don't trust my chickens with her. 

I think it would be most compassionate to put her out of her misery.  I'd rather do the deed quickly then have her be pecked to death in the hen house. (This wound may heal but they'll just keep on her and she'll get another.) I'd be happy to keep her alone but I've read that chickens don't like to be alone so looks like we are butchering sooner than later. The rest of the flock seems fine with her gone. I'm watching the next one on the pecking order closely.  Hrummph!

Next issue:  Since we moved the chickens from the chicken tractor to the barn we have only gotten one egg for two days and finally today... a whopping TWO eggs.  I've started leaving the light on during the day to lighten the barn and keeping the big door wide open and have moved the nesting boxes around and filled them with nesting material (like in the tractor) instead of dry grass. I also threw a lot of cracked corn out in their yard to encourage them to hang out in the yard instead of in the barn. I'm hoping this gets us back to our 4 or 5 eggs daily.  If it doesn't I'll have to do more research or more butchering.

My baby chicks... the only problem with them is they haven't figured out to go inside the tractor house at night by themselves yet.   We have to pick them up and put them in.  I hope they figure it out on their own soon! My little one, Samantha, the one the bigs pecked on is doing fine even with her bald head. I do hope her feathers come back.

Ahhh.... the joys of continuing education in chicken raising!

Anyone got any input for me and my chickens?

Warning: Greenhorns Moving Chickens!

My family really should have its own reality TV show!  We spent Sunday prepping a home for our big chickens in the barn and then it came time to move them.  Two roosters and three hens got caught and moved individually and three more got moved in a box all at once.  The comical thing was the little peepers were out and about while we were doing the round up of the bigs.   It was so funny trying to catch them and keep them away from the peepers at the same time.

The best moment was when I was transporting a hen I had caught and I looked back at my son and husband who were trying to herd the big chickens into a corner.  The big chickens flew over the little piece of fence my hubby had set up as a corral, immediately started chasing the chicks and the chicks ran around the fencing and flowed out of the garden area into our yard.  It was one mass exodus of chickens and my husband and son standing flabbergasted.

Since I was already half-way to the barn I just shrugged and kept going.  By the time I got back, my daughters had been called over and the last of the chicks were being put back into the garden area.  Oh, to have had video of that.  Duck Dynasty doesn't have anything on us!

 Corner of the barn with makeshift roost of a 2 x4- they love it!

 Old "milk" crates being used as nesting boxes.  They don't really like those.

 Another 2 x 4 roost set up across the nesting boxes.  They don't really like that one either. I wonder if they smell remains of skunk odor from earlier this year?

 Their new yard!

 

Their grand doorway to and from the barn!  I was glad the previous owners had it already put in.

 

 

Now the peepers have the stylish chicken tractor all to themselves!

My Babies Are Growing Up!

 

My little chicks are heading into their teen years.  They love being out of their brooder as long as the big chickens are kept away from them.

The older chickens we acquired have pre-developed habits that are bad. In order to protect our little ones we keep them separate.  I tried to introduce them and it didn't go well.

We are in the process of creating a permanent home for the big chickens and the little ones will move into the chicken tractor.  Once the little ones have grown (11 ladies and 1 cockerel) and are laying then we will bid farewell to the older chickens.

 This is "Snowball" our cockerel.  Our four year-old named him before we knew it was a him.

 This is Samantha, "Sam".  She is the only other chick we can tell apart from the others at this stage.  The first day we tried the big and little chickens together she got attacked and all the feathers on the top of her head were pulled off and she was bloody.  She was clearly traumatized and I thought we might lose her.  But I pulled her out and cleansed her wound with witch hazel and lavender essential oil (1 Tbsp. of witch hazel and a couple drops of lavender eo) dabbed on her head lightly with cue tips.  Then I put her back in the brooder with food and water and pulled out another chick to be her companion .  Later that evening I collected the rest of the chicks and put them all back in the brooder because I wasn't going to risk putting the chicks in the tractor with the big guys.

I had nightmares that night.  I thought for sure I would go out and find her dead in the morning.  I felt so guilty and was ready to throw in the towel with the animals because I really felt it was my fault for forcing the chickens together and expecting harmony.  Next morning I went out and she was doing much better.  And now, a week later, she is totally back to normal except for her bald head.  Poor thing.

 Here are Sam and Snowball together.  They seem to have a strong bond.

Taylor enjoys the chicks while the big chickens look on from the locked chicken tractor.  We just haul out the chicks in a cardboard box and corral them up in the evening and take them back to the brooder.

Mosquitoes Part 2 (Friday Read & Write)

I am a little bit of a natural cosmetics freak and I had an entire long post written about natural mosquito repellants but wouldn't you know that my internet disconnected during the writing of it so nothing saved and when I went to add photos I lost most of the post. (I have a love/hate relationship with technology.)  So in keeping with Friday's theme of reading and writing.  Here are some of my go to books on the topic and tomorrow I will try again with the real post.

 

The Herbal Home Remedy Book by Joyce A. Wardwell

The Herbal Body Book by Stephanie Tourles

Organic Body Care Recipes by Stephanie Tourles

Making Aromatherapy creams and lotions by Donna Maria

Natural Beauty at Home by Janice Cox

Chicken tractors and cars stuck in gardens...

My wonderful husband, John, built me a wonderful chicken tractor.  It has a nesting/nighttime area and a fenced in run area but he couldn't figure out a way to put wheels on it and still have it be flush with the ground and it is heavy!  So we move it with either our regular tractor or (like last night- when our tractor was at the repair shop) we pull it with either of our SUV's.

Last night after my husband got home from work and the chickens were shut up for the night he decided to move them to a new area.  He wanted to put them in our newly tilled vege garden beds to scratch up the tilled sod and to eat grubs/weed seeds and to poo. It is our very reason for purchasing them.

I mentioned the rain and flooding of last week here and we have had more wet weather since then, just not as bad.  The ground in the area of the garden beds is soft and wet.  Do you see where this is headed.

Last night around 8:30 there is a knock on the living room window.  It's John and could I please get my shoes on and come outside.

I'm met with his car and the chicken tractor in the newly tilled garden area and my car and a rope a little further up in another garden area.

"Did you get stuck?"

"Yep."

So I get into my car and start to pull him out except my car is in a wet garden bed too.  A few seconds later we have two stuck cars.

Plan B: Get all the kids out and have a family push/pull/dig session- in the dark.

We did get the cars out, chickens situated and everyone back inside although everything was a bit muddy.  But ohhh... my poor garden.  First the flooding and then tires digging in my planting rows. Sigh.  I'm so glad that I still have options when it comes to purchasing food.  The way my growing season has started we'd be starving in October with out other farmers.  Growing your food can be difficult!

At least the chickens got something good out of it.  We fenced in our newly tilled area and let them out onto it this morning.  They love it.  Even Sawyer was out for a minute before Jack chased him back into the coop. (I'm sensing a "how to butcher a rooster" post coming soon.)

 The Hen House

Tractor bottom and nesting box side

Back of the nesting boxes

Tractor in finished state.

Tire tracks in my garden.

 Where the tire got stuck the worst.

Happy Chickens!

Earaches and Antibiotics

My son has gotten himself a monster of an ear infection. We are living on a Motrin/Tylenol mix and I wish antibiotics but it turns out the doc wrote a script for horsepills of the non-chewable nature. My son doesn't do pills. So tomorrow I get to call the doc back and ask for a new script of liquid antibiotics. I really wished I had made sure at the office that I was getting liquid but I never thought he'd give a nine-year old horsepills.

I certainly hope tonight and tomorrow are better then the previous night and today. Crazy! Okay, I have to go try and get some sleep.

Planting early is a crap shoot!

You know we aren't proponents of gambling so I don't know why we try and start plants before its really time in Michigan. It really is a gamble.

Lettuce doing great!

More lettuce doing great.

Spinach- not harmed by the freeze we had but not doing exceptionally well. We think the two year old seed is not good.

A different type of lettuce, not doing as good as the other two, but trying. This was new seed (at least we bought it this year).

My poor lemon balm. It was so pretty and then we had two nights of freezing weather. But all I have to do is trim off the blackened leaves and it will be just fine.

My lavender can't quite decide what to do. Most of it looks dead but there are some signs of green life.

Chives doing just great- They are about to blossom. I will cut off the blossoms and let them grow more. At the end of the growing season I let the blossoms go to seed and the chives replant themselves.

My beautiful tomatoes- all dead. The blueberries are fine though.

Corn- kaput!

Pumpkins and basil- kaput.

Cilantro barely hanging on.

Strawberries looking good.

New tomato plant being kept up on the deck for easy moving inside on any more cold nights.

Even the lilacs (My very favorite flower.) around the area bit it. They were flowering but not quite to full potential when the freeze happen. Lilac season abruptly ended.

Now most of the shrubs look like this.

I did find one still blooming quite nicely.

If you want to see some fine lilacs and get some ideas for using these edible flowers check out this. I don't have any lilacs in my yard but next year I will scavenge some from the sides of public roads to play with. (I see people doing this every year.) Unless of course I have land by then. If I do I'll plant plenty of bushes.