Sprouting test...

I have had garden seeds stored in my refrigerator for several years (for some) and only a year for the others. I thought this year instead of planting a lot of seeds and getting nothing to grow and having it to late to start over, I have decided to sprout test my seeds.


I first found an old (probably as old as some of my seeds) cookie baking sheet (in the garage), I put a double layer of paper towels (for moisture) the length of the pan then I poured water in to wet the towels. I then started to carefully place the seeds (3 each) in a line down the pan and writing on a separate sheet of paper in the same order, the name and the source of the seeds (if I knew). For now I will just wait until germination, if this happens, if not then I will toss the rest of the seeds and start with new this year. This may not be the best way to do this but I am going to give it a shot, and maybe instead of putting the seeds that don't grow in the trash I will pour them into the compost heap and see if there is one or two or 20,000 that still grow, that way I can still get the harvest.




I will re post in 7-14 days to show the progress or the failing of this test.

Update:

The sprouting is going great, I have several that have sprouted and a few left to go. I will give them a few more days but frankly getting tired of looking at the tray... :)

Hen house...

It has been a long time coming, but here is the hen house. I used a 40x48 pallet for the base. The framing is some 1x3's that I got from my brother-in-law.

I was able to scrounge enough plywood to cover the entire shell including the floor.













I purchased some quality barn paint for the exterior from the local Big R store. The interior pant was from my in-laws same for the composite roofing. (I will have to post a follow up with these photos of the paint).

As promised photos of the paint.

This will be the final resting place for the hen house once I have the last post placed on the pier block. I will then build a frame around the top of the posts and then we will set the house on top of that. I still need to build the run which will be between the pink bucket and the green fence post. (these photos were taken on the 5th of January 2012...no snow)