Chickens in the Bathtub

Last year at this time, my bathtub was full of baby chicks. This year, although I really really really wanted chicks again, I opted to use the bathtub for seedlings instead.

The chickens will lay for three more years, whereas last year I never managed to get in a garden at all. This year, LB used the shower curtain rod to rig up a grow light, and yesterday our first seedlings spouted, cabbage.

I've been using Sprout Robot to help me schedule my planting, which seems just low key enough for my needs. I find seed catalogues overwhelming and confusing. I have well-founded fears of investing a lot of cash in seeds that I never end up planting. So far, I've invested less than $3 by making my own seed cups from egg shells (cute, eh?) and only buying seeds as I need them. Tomorrow, I will stop by the hardware store and pick up some chive seeds.

Knitting has been happening, but I've largely just been noodling around. For some reason, I've had dishcloth urges.

I don't question these urges. I just knit.

We've also recommitted to our resolution to entertain once a month. It took until yesterday, but we did fit in our first guests of 2013 for a vegan/wheat-free brunch with the following menu.

• parfaits layered with almond-milk yogurt (which didn't suck as badly as I feared), assorted berries, granola, and sorghum
• tofu scrambled with onion and bell pepper
• hash-browned potatoes
• roasted asparagus
• optional poached eggs (which our guests were willing to eat because our chickens are so happy)
• and mimosas, of course!

I didn't subject our guests to an obnoxious photo shoot, but perhaps with the next batch.