Not Quite Spring- Chickens, Decor and More, Setting Up An Indoor Greenhouse

Not Quite Spring- Chickens, Decor and More-
We have had one snowstorm after another. After another. We had 4" of snow early last week overnight. It rained the next morning, making for a sloppy commute. Rained the next two days. We finally had some SUN yesterday, with gorgeous deep blue skies and a few puffy clouds-

We ran errands, washed our cars, bought some stuff. With the dry weather I was finally able to clean my car windows really well. I can see! With a break in the weather we had planned on Dave cleaning out the coop (I can't clean it with my allergies/asthma). We use the deep litter method so we deep clean the coop once every 3 months. I clean the roosting areas about every day or so. We used to compost all the pine shavings from the deep litter, but our soil level has been raised up so much over the years that we now send it to the city's compost program. We had a coupon for a local feed store and bought two bales of pine shavings so we would have an extra one on hand, as well as a few other things.

First we let the chickens out and I let them free range in the backyard while I watched them. It was 45 degrees and nippy but at least the sun was out! They really had a blast getting out into the fresh, wet soil and found tons of worms-

Rosie

Annie

Ellie

 bottoms up!

 Sarah on the right

First Dave used a snow shovel to remove most of the litter and put into our large city compost tote on wheels. Then he went through with a shovel to get the rest, next used a shop vac to get all the shelves and the corners. He started from the top and went down-

Hole in the middle goes to the attached sun room

He did the floor last. He used our mini leaf blower to blast out all the rest. In the warmer weather I would usually put down Diatomaceous Earth at this point. Since it is still so cold it's not really needed. It was 22 this morning! I use that during warmer weather to keep the bugs down. Next he put in all the fresh pine shavings, I deep cleaned the water fount and put the chickens back into the chicken yard. It was a great day to do it! Next month we'll take down the sun room and that will open more space for them outside in the warmer weather.

All clean!

After I put away my Valentine's Day decor I wasn't quite ready to put out spring items with all the snow on the ground. I don't like to decorate too early. I kind of laugh when I see people who put their Christmas trees up after Halloween or the day after Thanksgiving. I did put our Christmas tree up years ago, the day after Thanksgiving, because I worked full time, had 3 kiddos and we had a four day weekend. Now I like to wait till things are closer. I did have to laugh when I went to Trader Joe's last week and saw Irish soda bread out for St. Patrick's Day. Now that it's March I kind of understand! I bought a loaf to try, delicious, with buttermilk, raisins, and caraway seeds. So here's some of my not quite spring decor that I have out right now-

Front entry with some blue

Fern plaques front entry

Homemade lemon topiary on a wood slice are my coffee table

 Top of my bookcase with some branches with moss

Small entertainment center top

My favorite chicken my daughter gave me!

Small live lavender for inside, will plant it outside when it warms up

My dining room shelf with my freshly chalk painted clock and lemons

Setting Up An Indoor Greenhouse-

"Spring" here can be tough. It can be unusually cold, warm, sleeting, snowing, or dry. We bought a little outdoor greenhouse to start seeds in a couple years ago. We tried it outdoors and it was just too unstable and cold. My plan was to start more from seeds and save money. You can also buy more of a variety of seed to start that you will typically see in nurseries. Boise doesn't have that many nurseries to choose from, so that doesn't help. This winter I thought we could just set it up inside a spare bedroom! I knew we'd need a grow light. We bought this yesterday with our coupon, $15.00-

Under counter grow light

We can attach it with tie wraps to the frame. We'll set it up this week and I'll start planting seeds. I have a nice collection of flowers, herbs, pumpkins and veggies. We're having some family over for a birthday today, so not enough time this weekend. I'll post photos when it's up! Are you ready for Spring? I am!!!