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Egads! It's been over a month since my last post. Since then, I must sadly report that Henrietta died, here's the last pic of her, helping to dig out some new veggie beds last month. Poor Henrietta, blind in one eye, survived a vicious pecking by the other hens and Sam, and seemed to be doing fine, laying an egg a day and digging around quite happily. Then one morning, she didn't come out of the coop. I still don't know what killed her, she wasn't pecked, and I don't think any possums or racoons got in the coop-Sam usually raises a ruckus if any nocturnal critters come around.

So now we're down to Sam and Monique- who has stopped laying. Her only interest seems to be eating, avoiding Sam's amorous advances and digging holes in the garden so she can take dust baths.

The area that Henrietta is pecking in the photo is now part of my new little veggie garden. It was so overgrown with weeds and honeysuckle vines that digging it out was a real chore-- so much of a chore that the garden fork couldn't take any more and had to be replaced. I use a modidified version of Square Foot Gardening, and it is now planted with tomatoes, cabbages, squash, carrots, bush beans, leeks, herbs, marigolds and okra. The squash has little baby squash and the tomatoes and beans are blooming, so if I can just keep the nasty bugs at bay, we should have some nice fresh veggies in a few weeks.

I put together some bamboo bean tepees in another part of the back yard for pole beans. I had Mr. G till that area (I'd used up all my energy digging the other bed), so now we have a nice long bed with pole beans, more tomatoes and some cucumbers. The beans are beginning to wind their way up the poles.

I haven't been on another jelly roll, but did make some strawberry jam with some of the most delicious strawberries from a local farm. The jam wasn't a complete success, it's a little too runny, but should make a nice topping for ice cream, and it still tastes good on toast- albeit a little messy. I froze about a gallon of the berries, so may make some more jam later.