Shopping for Java Moss Online

Since my local fish store doesn't stock Java Moss in their live plants section, I resorted to ordering it online from eBay sellers.  I kind of cringed at the thought of ordering anything live online, but after checking feedback comments on two sellers, I decided to give them a try.

Seller 1 (I'm not going to give out the user name though.) was located in Montana.  He was selling a 'golf ball sized portion' for $4.99 with free shipping.  You saw what I got the other day.

Mostly brown/ olive green with strands of vibrant green.

I put some on the driftwood in my 29G tank.

This batch was bought on Feb. 15, shipped on the 17th, arrived on the 21st.  Arrived in a bubble mailer, carefully wrapped in a layer of newspaper, then aluminum foil, then some more newspaper.  When I got the Java Moss in a Ziploc bag out.  It frankly looked squished.  The outer layer was mostly brown/olive green.  I found the bright green bits mostly in the middle after carefully loosening them in a bucket of aquarium water.

And here's the second batch I just received from Seller #2 to the right of this 6-gallon baby Marimo tank.

To the left, of course, is the Java Moss from the first batch after being in this tank for 4 days or so.

To be fair, I'll show the close-ups.  It's not entirely dead-looking.  There are some strands of bright green in there.

You just have to look really closely. LOL

And here's the interesting part.  Seller #2 was offering 'grade A, baseball size clump of Java Moss' with free shipping for $12.99 (I know it's a lot, considering you can get them for free from fellow hobbyists ... if you know any in your area that is.  ^^; )  It arrived in a regular basic white business size envelope with "security" printing on the inside, packed simply in a Ziploc bag with no additional wrapping whatsoever.  The seller did put a slip of instruction explaining Java Moss and how to best take it out of the bag and place in your aquarium.

Both arrived flat and wet.  But the second batch was VIBRANT GREEN and HEALTHY looking.  I was amazed ... shocked almost to see it arrive in such an inconspicuous packaging and ended up looking so good!  The seller #2 was located in Pennsylvania.  The second batch was purchased on the 17th, shipped on the 20th, and arrived here in Colorado on the 26th.  I have to say, I was impressed with Seller #2's Java Moss.

I'm usually a patient type, but looking at the two clumps, I can't say I like the look of the moss from my first purchase.  So I pulled them out of my 29-gallon tank and placed small clumps from my new batch. :D

Yes, I think it looks much better now. XD  I'm waiting on a piece of Mopani wood I won on eBay from a seller in Texas to put in my Angelfish tank.  So I'm going to leave the good-looking moss in the baby Marimo tank for a little longer.  ^_^    Meanwhile, I'm leaving the not-so-good-looking clump in there to see if it greens up more if I give it enough time.   Well, it's been fun shopping online so far. Many hits with a few misses here and there.   

Having Fun with Fish

Since I mentioned that I'd post a pic of my 72-gallon tank in the previous post, here are some pictures.  I only have a point-and-shoot camera, and am finding photographing aquarium and fish to be kind of tricky.  I have yet to take a satisfactory photo let alone a great one.  The tanks and fishes are way prettier in person... T_T

This one is located downstairs in our basement over an old wooden 'buffet' piece.  The fit is pretty good and the furniture is definitely strong enough for the weight of this 72-gallon tank.  I've had community of small fish to goldfish (not at the same time, though) over the years, but right now, since two years ago, this has been a community tank of tetras.  The decor went through a fantasy "sunken city of Atlantis" to "mermaids with a sunken ship" to this rather bare-looking tank (work in progress).  I've just recently put two Marimos and an African root piece I bought on eBay.  I would like to change this tank over time to a more natural looking setup. (Well, my kid's older, and our tastes have changed, so...)

Another view of the same tank with the room lights off.  My camera cannot seem to capture the gravel color accurately...  I've tried so many shots and failed. XD  The tank is "bow front".  I took this one from the right side near the African root.  You can see some Serpae Tetras and Red & Blue Columbian Tetra swimming in front of the wood.  You can't really see them since they float in the front corners, but I also have some Amazon frog bits.  The other floating plant to the upper right of this pic is the common house plant, Pothos.  I had problems with my goldfish rearranging and eating all my live plants and they were the only thing left untouched.  ^^;

This is our Angelfish tank upstairs.  It's also a bow front.  I'm in the process of putting some live plants in the tank, but there's more artificial plants at the moment.  I also have my biggest Marimo in the family in this tank, which was purchased from an Etsy seller.  Just one year ago, these angelfish were tiny babies about 1/2 inch long (not counting the tail).  Today they are about 1 3/4 inches in body length.  Seem pretty happy.  The red plants look darker to my eyes though.  This pic is so bright, it's downright Christmasy.

I have also set up an old small Eclipse tank, which used to be in my child's room many years ago.  It's now being used as a Marimo nursery. :D    The tiny marimo balls I talked about in the previous post now live there.

This morning, I ended up spending an hour looking for a missing fish in my 29-gallon tank.  I had captured the Brilliant Rasboras from the tank and moved them downstairs for more room to swim yesterday.  Since I didn't see this small Black Neon guy (still alive after all his school mates have died over the years), I panicked and even looked at the nets I used yesterday and checked downstairs tank as well.  I thought maybe he was hiding because the Emperor Tetra boys have been acting territorial (= fighting among themselves), the poor guy got scared and was hiding somewhere.  After looking for almost an hour, I finally lifted the Malaysian driftwood ever so gently to see if he managed to get himself wedged somehow (I have had a goldfish get himself stuck in a small ornament before...).  Sure enough, there he was.  Looking sideways and pale.  He was probably stuck there since about 5 pm yesterday and missed out on this morning's feeding.  As I write this, he's looking much better.  There's a tiny tear in his tail, but other than that, the color is back and he's swimming like normal. ^^;  Glad I found him and he was OK. :D

Late Winter Post

It's been a warmer than usual winter for us on the Western Slope of Colorado.  This has been a nice break for us since we've previously experienced bitter cold inversions that lasted for weeks with grey sky, no snow, but arctic temperatures.  This winter though, especially for January and early part of February, we've been enjoying daily highs in the 60s and 70s.  Maybe too good to be true...

Nothing like warm sunny days to inspire us into gardening and spring cleaning around the house, is there?  I decided to start by cleaning my 3 fish tanks - 29G, 39G, and 72G.  Two of the smaller ones are on the ground floor, while the 72 gallon one sits downstairs in our basement (and I don't own those suction/vacuum device with a long hose...).  It's good workout carrying my 2 gallon bucket up and down the stairs for water change! :D  It's a pain in the rear when I have anything like foot injury. :(

Anyhow, the fish tanks needed serious cleaning on the inside glass as algae had obscured the view while I was too busy/too lazy to take care of them during the months leading up to the holidays.  I did regular water changes, and these tanks are almost 10 years (fully mature), so things are stable and no fish died or even came down with any sign of illness.  Just got unsightly. ^^;

It's kind of funny how I can be OK with green algae on the front glass for months, but once I got one tank cleaned, I just had to get the other two equally clean ... all in one day! :D  It just looks so nice when they're clean.  What really kicked me into action, though, was the busted pump downstairs.  It started making noises and it got louder and so annoying that I was ready to dish out $70 to 80 for a new one.  Once at the LFS (local fish store - in our case, an old friend of ours), the owner showed us I only needed to buy a replacement part for it for a fraction of the cost of a brand new unit. :D  For less than $15, I was able to get it fixed and running like brand new.

With the downstairs tank getting plenty of air (I used to keep goldfish, but I only keep small tropicals.), I decided to replace the old sorry pump upstairs with the same model I have downstairs the next day.  While getting a new pump, I had to go check out the fish tank area of the shop.  Saw some healthy Emperor Tetras, so I got four for my 29 G, since it had all but 3 little fish living in it after most of my Diamond Tetras had died over the last few years (From what I can find, their longevity is about 5 years, so mine lived a full life.).

My camera was set on auto-flash when I took the pic above. ^^;  But you can see the Emperor Tetras.  Although I now have a lot more in this tank. 

After adding the fish, I had to add some plants (I have both fake and live plants along with a marimo.).  This tank was looking pretty sorry after not seeing much action for so long.  I also picked up a nice Malaysian driftwood and put it in there as well.  It was fun when hubby walked into the kitchen one day while I was boiling the driftwood.  "What the heck are you cooking in here?" LOL

I've bought a marino last year on Etsy, and that one lives happily in my 39 G tank with 6 angel fish I bought from my LSF when they were 1/2 inch long.  After a little over a year, they are all about 2.5 inches in body length (not counting the tail).  Marimo was bought at about 2 and a 1/4 inch, and it's now about 2.5 inches across.  Decided to buy 3 2.3 inchers from a seller on eBay.  You can see one of them in the pic above.

I put the remaining two in the 72 G tank, but after looking at them for a while, it just seemed weird to have two green balls of the same size side by side.  I took one of them that looked rather oblong out, along with some aquarium water, and cut away about a 1/3.  Then trimmed the two large pieces to achieve a roundish shape, and gently rolled the trimmings into nano marino balls.  Now instead of 1 large marimo, I have 1 largish, 1 medium, and 15 little ones ranging from 5 mm to 1 cm. :D  I leave these guys under my desk lamp, and they start to photosynthesize, tiny pearls of bubbles appear on surface, and they float to the top of the water. :D  Cute little moss balls.  I might bring one of my unused tanks into action and use it as a marimo propagation tank.  ^_^

So I buy the stuff I can't find at my LFS online.  I like looking at stuff on eBay.  Live stuff, I tend to stay away, but I've been looking to add Java Moss, and since my LFS does not stock it, I decided to buy online. This is what I received from the seller in Montana.  I guess I should have looked more closely, especially about the location.  It's been warm here in Colorado this winter, but in many parts of the US, it's bitter cold.  It's winter after all.  So my guess is that the moss started the trip in the USPS system, looking green and healthy.  After 6 days in the mail, with no light, they just kind of lost their color.  I gently took them out of the bag in a bucket of conditioned water and gently untangled them.  Some bits of vibrant green are in there, but good 95% is dark green/almost brown. ^^;  I keep seeing everywhere that these suckers are almost impossible to kill, so I'll give them some time to bounce back and see what happens.  

Meanwhile, I've tucked some on the driftwood in the 29G tank.  This pic was taken without the flash (on the same day as the previous aquarium pic at the top of this post), so you can see the brownish Java Moss sitting on the wood.  You can also spot a little brownish spots on the marimo - I believe that is from getting blasted by direct sunlight the first morning after being put in the tank.  Owner error.  Not worried about it too much.  As I write this (Day 2 of Java Moss), it looks maybe, just slightly, greener, but it could be my wishful thinking. XD

On the other hand, my African root driftwood purchase on eBay was exactly as expected.  I'll take a pic of my 72 G tank in the coming weeks to show.  It's a beautiful piece of wood with LOTS of character, but now I feel I need to buy more! ^_^  I also bought a Mopani wood (for my 39 G) on eBay from a seller that had a WYSIWYG listing.  There are so many Mopani wood listings with stock photos where you don't get to pick nor get to see what you're getting.  I think I'd go to Petco before I'd buy blind (for the fear of getting a totally boring wood by chance).  Anyhow, the fish tank nerd is back in action! :D

The other news around the backyard.  All five chickens are now laying!! :D

Since the winter was milder this season, I didn't use the heat lamp in the coop at all.  Last year, though, we had it on once it got brutally cold - it's not fair to have temp lower than Alaska in Western Colorado! From what I've learned, chickens need 14 hours of daylight to produce eggs.  Warmer temperature also helps.  So no wonder our girls didn't lay much for the past 3 1/2 months or so!  They went through molting in fall, which is also the time they stop egg production because generating feathers requires so much protein.  Then the shorter days and colder temperature came, so no eggs!  Vanilla, our young Easter Egger, kept laying light pink eggs pretty much all winter.  I've noticed she's also the one that's up and out of the coop first - way before the rest of the ladies.

Now that all five are laying eggs, we know who lays what color of eggs. :D  We knew that Fiona laid olive green eggs and Dorito laid brown eggs.  And we also new Vanilla laid pink eggs.  I'd also seen small light brown eggs from Sage.  Imagine my excitement when I saw the blue green egg in the coop!  Mocha, whose feathers are very similar to Fiona, but with more black, lays this beautiful color of eggs.  That's got to be my favorite egg shell color. :D

We had to supplement by buying eggs at the grocery store during later fall and winter when girls weren't laying regularly.  It looks like we'll be able to start sharing with neighbors again soon!  Love spring~!!

Sage's First Egg

I had some nice break from the watering duty in the past several days as the monsoonal moisture paid the desert a visit with a generous amount of precipitation. :D  It's not fun for the kitties and chickens to be cooped up all day, and the amount of mud that gets tracked into the house is no joke.  Still, rain in the desert is much more than just the much-needed water.  It gives us relief at a much deeper, psychological ... probably spiritual level.

After an overnight rain and cloudy morning, I went to open the chicken coop doors for the girls a little later than usual after the rain had stopped yesterday.  Much to my surprise, there was a speckled brown egg inside the younger girls' coop!  I knew it was Sage's first egg since she's the only brown egg layer of the three (Vanilla and Mocha are Easter Eggers, and their eggs will be green to blue.).  For a first egg, it was not weird like "membrane without hard shell", "malformed", or "puny".  Sage's first egg was maybe a little on the 'slim' egg shape, but evenly shaped with a nice hard shell!  The pullets are roughly 14 & 1/2 weeks old right now, so it's rather early, but they get to free range all day, eating lots of greens and whatever bugs they catch.  They seem happy and definitely healthy, so it's not surprising that they would start laying early.

Pullets outside of their run, but staying close to their coop.

We started letting the girls free range with supervision at first.  Dorito was a little aggressive at first, followed by some challenges made by Fiona to Mocha (because Mocha is physically largest of the younguns).  The establishing of the pecking order is natural and nothing was excessive.  No aggressive pecking to cause any kind of injury.  So we kept lengthening the amount of time the pullets stayed outside.  In about 5 days, we were letting them out during daylight hours.  Aggressive behavior by  the two grownups have subsided.  Now, on a good day, we see all five of them foraging in the same area of the yard.  But for the most part, they are in two groups of two and three in different parts of the yard doing their own thing.

Pullets venturing out in the grassy area of the backyard.  Now they move around all over the backyard.

The other day, I saw Sage catch a grasshopper.  She immediately started running away from Vanilla and Mocha.  Before Sage could make a getaway, the others started off running after her.  There it was!  The chicken football.  LOL  So much excitement and commotion.  It's a delightful sight to watch these girls run as fast as they can.  In the end, Sage successfully outran the other two (She has always been the most athletic, most curious, and most brave of the three.), and munched on the grasshopper happily.

Now the pics from the garden. :D

The fruits of the Goliath tomato plant have started maturing nicely.  My first crop was used to make one of my favorite summer dishes of all time - tabbouleh.  The tomato from the garden adds so much flavor to this all fresh, simple dish, I always feel it's the best thing ever. ^^;

Ichiban is my favorite eggplant.  It's the skinny Japanese variety.  I think the flavor is sweeter and smoother than the big fat Italian types that are prone to grow lots of seeds inside.  This is one vegetable I grow year after year and never get tired of.

I've spotted dozen ore more LARGE fruits ripening on my German Queen tomato out back.  The plant is over 4 feet tall now. ^_^

The sunflower fence is producing lots of blooms now.  The tallest plants are probably somewhere between 9 1/2 to 10 feet tall now.  It is at least as tall as the garage's eaves.  The Mammoth Russian sunflowers are still growing and I finally see them forming buds, but no flowers yet.  They're still growing. :D

Took this close-up of one of the blooms.  Isn't it mesmerizing?  It's almost like staring into a mandala...

August's Super Moon.  I love full moon in the morning.  I love the crisp cool air, the gently hazy sky with pastel tones... just so peaceful.   ^_^

Sunflower

Fast growing plants are generally fun to watch (although the amount of water they require is not so fun...).  Luckily, Colorado's desert west is not under restrictions this year.  Even in official drought years, our city has never had to resort to any kind of watering restrictions.  Though there is water available, I live in the part of the city that does not have access to "irrigation" water, so the water comes from the tap.  I have noticed a lot of people's yards go completely neglected since the beginning of recession.  Our area was slow to feel the impact at the beginning, but likewise slow to feel the recovery the media keeps talking about. ^^;  Personally, I'm ready to switch to artificial grass for the front yard.  I've never been a big lawn enthusiast (Hate to sound sexist or to overgeneralize, but that seems like a guy thing.), so I would have no problem having more water to use on flowers and edibles by not having live lawn.

This photo was taken on July 20th.  Just about all of the sunflowers along the fence have reached the 4-foot-tall top railing of the fence.  Now that they're getting drip irrigation throughout the day, they're growing fast.

The first sunflower along the fence to bloom was a red one.  We planted a mixed row of 5 different packets of sunflower seeds at the end of May.  Felt so behind our neighbors when we started seeing sunflowers blooming in June.

A lemon yellow one beginning to unfurl on July 20th.

The same one, fully open on July 23rd.  8 inches across.  Bees seem to love sunflowers.

I measured the tallest sunflower this morning and it is now at 6 feet.  2 feet above the top railing of the fence.  And officially taller than I am. LOL   It looked kind of sparse when I thinned them out, but now they seem almost crowded again.  Some of the varieties (the red ones and the lemon yellows shown above) have lots of buds setting, so we will be seeing a lot more flowers.  The mammoth sunflowers still show no sign of buds.  The leaves keep getting bigger and stems are growing thicker every day. :D  I hope they get large this year.  I've only had moderate success with those mammoth ones as our soil below 6 inches or so is stubborn clay - extremely poor gardening soil.

German Queen tomato (heirloom variety) is doing well alone in the backyard far away from the garden boxes.  It is getting drip irrigation as an extended part of the sunflower fence.  This plant is now over 4 feet tall.  The protection of the chicken wire fence material is 4 feet tall here.

Looked closer at the plant and found these fruits growing. :D  I can't wait to get fresh tomatoes from the garden!!  I love making sandwiches with fresh, just-off-the-vine, sun-warmed tomatoes, lettuce, cukes, and mayo.  None of my family members understand why this is such a big deal for me, but they're simply missing out on something truly special.  Well, that's my humble opinion. :D

Meet my new fairy in the garden.  This is Fiona.  I didn't name her.  She came named by the manufacturer.  I found her on eBay and just had to have her.  Here, she's lying in front of the fever few clusters.  (I like moving her around...)

And this is Ilana.  She's sitting on the frame of the garden box.  She's surrounded by alyssum, pansies, and chocolate mint here.  I see her accidentally fallen off the edge in the morning a lot.  No doubt the works of the kitties... ^^;  Anyhow, there are several more in the series, and I hope to add more to the collection.

Just to the right of Ilana in the garden box is this pink monarda.  At first we saw purple blooms, but they're done blooming, and now we're seeing this light pink flowers from the same cluster of plants.  I'd like to divide them later in the season and plant them elsewhere in the garden, too.  These guys have really taken off this year and they're 4 feet tall...  I think it's taller than the label said they were going to be.

I think this tomato is called Goliath, and it was supposed to be a good container/patio tomato.  This one is in the summer veggies box with broccoli and eggplant.  The fruits are finally getting bigger.  Although with 100+ degrees heat now, I've noticed a sudden decrease in flowers.  Getting too hot, maybe?

Also small in stature is my Indigo Rose tomato.  My daughter asked me, "Are these grapes? What is up with this?"  LOL  Yes, the fruits on this tomato plant are about the color of the concord grapes!  Once ripe, they begin to get the tomato red color on the bottom of the fruits, but they look prettier with purple/green combo.  Fruits are cherry tomato size.

We've begun free ranging the three young pullets two days ago.  The little girls are almost 12 weeks old and fully feathered in, so we thought we'd supervise and see how things go. First day, we let them out about 30 minutes before dusk and they've successfully put themselves back in the coop.  Second day, we let them out about an hour before dusk.  We're gradually extending the amount of time.  The first day, we saw some hostility from the older ladies, as expected.  Fiona challenged Mocha (the largest of the three younguns), and they went into a brief chest-bumping match - nothing too excessive.  Fiona's neck feathers were all ruffled.  I didn't know she could do that. :D  She seemed to be satisfied with the results and didn't bother the younguns afterwards.  At least, they don't mingle closely enough (They are in two distinct groups out there, occupying different areas of the backyard.), so there's no pecking or constant harassing going on.  I think they're off to a good start.  At least, as good as we can reasonably expect from them.  ^_^

Late Update

I take pics and then intend to sit and write up a post so many times before it actually happens. T_T  Something, usually an e-mail from someone or a call, distracts me, and before I know it, days go by.  I have to get better at keeping my garden and chicken journal up to date.

We're now seeing triple digit daily highs.  Now, this is just plain uncomfortable at this point.  I can only stand to work outside early in the morning (or if I feel so inclined, after sunset).  Morning hours between 6 and 8 are very nice, especially before 7 when the temperature is still in the mid 60s.  Once the sun comes up though, the dry air of the desert west heats up fast and sun is scorching hot.  My skin hurts when I don't get myself into shade.  No fun, and I've got plenty of pigments in my skin and don't usually burn, but tan really easily...

I actually managed to get some nice pics of the 4th of July fireworks for the first time. :D  (I did get a lot of duds, too... ^^;  )

Pretty much all the spring veggies in the one SFG has gone to bolt.  Onion flowers are cool to look at... but they reek.  The pretty blue daisy flowers belong to some of the greens that were in the salad mix. :D  These plants are taller than I am now.  Ridiculous. LOL

Still getting visits from many different kinds of bees.  We see huge bumblebees out in the old part of the backyard where these wild larkspur plants are growing.  They love the purple flowers.

English lavender in the Bees and Butterflies box is doing well.  In fact, pretty much everything in that box is doing wonderfully. ^_^

Still demure in stature, the Indigo Rose tomato has a lot of fruits on the vine.  A few of the ones that set early in the season have started changing the bottom color from green to red.

This Fever few clump was transplanted from north of the house to a summer veggies/herbs box last year.  It was tiny and had a hard time getting going after transplant, but it's doing a lot better this year.  I love the scent of this plant.  This year, we have a much larger clump of it come back in the northern shaded area of the house where the soil is dry and poor.

Getting there slowly... :D

Chickens at 7 weeks.  Mostly feathered in and looking very much like pullets now.  Still chirps like chicks, but every now and then, they make 'chicken' sounds.  The sound vocabulary is expanding.  Still haven't learned to stay out of the water bowl, though. XD

"German Queen" heirloom tomato on June 24th.

Same plant on July 1st.  This tomato is growing fast and doing well in the barren lot that has not been used for many seasons.  The soil was amended with some organic garden soil and compost, with handful of bone meal and blood meal, and a doze of Sea Magic.  I don't use chemical fertilizer on our food stuff.

Forgot to insert this when I was talking about the Bees and Butterfly Garden Box!  This bee balm clump is in there.  Somehow got so tall this year ... like 4.5 feet.  Looking a little out of control, but I love the scent of the leaves.

Chickens at 8 weeks (Pic taken on July 1st).  Clockwise from top left: Vanilla, Mocha, and Sage.  Sage is still the smallest, but she's the head bird of these three.  The two older chickens come by often and take sand bath right next to their run.  I think they've gotten used to the idea of 'more chickens'... finally.  I'm still not taking chances and won't be releasing them out until they're fully 16 weeks old.  We're more than halfway there since they just turned 9 weeks old on the 6th of July.  Vanilla is a wheaton Easter Egger.  I don't know what Mocha's feathers are called, but she's black, gold, and brown.  Very pretty.  And Sage is a classic Barred Plymouth Rock with black & white wavy stripes appearance.  She is till the most curious and the sweetest!  These are special birds.

The sunflower fence on the south end of the backyard.  These guys got such a late start in the season, but they seem to be doing OK.  I'm using some tumble weeds for mulch.  This area has tumble weed infestation of gigantic magnitude on some properties - you'll see Christmas tree size tumble weeds on a regular basis.  :(
I'm actually allergic to the pollen of tumble weed flowers, so I pluck or cut them down whenever I see them.

Not a good comparison shot at all! LOL  *mega fail*  This was taken on July 1st.  The tallest sunflower measured 37 inches.  This is a mixed planting of at least 5 different varieties of sunflowers.  Some were Russian Mammoth seeds, so I'm hoping to see some giants... eventually.   ^_^

Backyard Update

Chicks have turned 6 weeks old on Father's Day (June 15, 2014).  Time flies.  I have not been able to keep up with the blog.  It's been almost 3 weeks since my last entry. ^^;  Chicks are not the only thing that have grown in that time...

Here's a pic of Sage at 5+ weeks.  They have outgrown the old watering bowl.  I have bought the larger waterer.  It is placed slightly raised above ground level, but it still gets dirty from the chicks bathing in the dirt, kicking it everywhere.

Mocha and Vanilla at 5+ weeks, with Chaba the cat photo bombing.  LOL  She and a couple of cats just can't get enough of the chicks.  ^^;

Swiss Chard in the Spring Veggies Box looking beautiful.  My salad greens have started bolting in the heat.  Various flowers are about to bloom.  I kind of have fun watching them grow flowers.  Adds to the color.

Because it has gotten so hot, the broccolis have no time but form a rather small head before buds start to open.  This is what you have to deal with when you have a rather short spring (and late start in the garden).  ^^;

Because it is consistently in the 90s for mid-day high these days, I have a record short pea plants.  At least they're producing.  ^^;

I have some chrysanthemums interplanted in the Summer Veggies Box and found these baby ladybugs.  They're good for eating aphids that are bothering the broccoli plants.

The "Indigo Rose" tomato plants have fruits forming. :D  Purple on top and green at the bottom.  More fruits are forming.  The plant is still rather small...

The "German Queen" heirloom tomato that was planted way back in the old garden plot with plenty of room.  We have the tomato support, and on the outside of it, chicken wire fencing to protect from our free-ranging chickens.    Last year, we had a tomato plant grow wide in the SFG box and it was touching the fence.  Chickens were pecking on the tomato fruits through the fence material.  They do like tomatoes.  At any rate, this tomato plant is doing well.  Currently about 18 inches tall.

The sunflowers along the back fence line are doing well.  Most are about 10 inches tall and have been thinned once.  When they reach a foot tall, I will thin them again for 1 per spot.  They are still so short, compared to the volunteer sunflowers that grew from last year's seeds.  I have neighbors with sunflowers that are already blooming, too.  ^^;

Hubby and I made an exciting addition to our baby coop - a chicken run! :D  It's 8 feet long and 2 feet wide.  Connects to the end access door of the coop we purchased.  This is painted to match the coop.  It's been a big hit with the babies.  Sage was the first to come out past the threshold and venture out into the new run.  I see the girls running back and forth.  They do some funny hop-step-jump kind of stunts, and do a lot of chest bump with running starts. XD   It seems Sage has established herself as the boss bird of the three.  Brave and inquisitive, despite her small size.   These last two photos were taken today.

Mocha is starting to develop a rather cool pattern.  She also seems to be growing crest-like feathers on the sides of her head.  After the run was set up and the babies were venturing out, Dorito, once again, acted all annoyed and upset, squawking like a rooster, trying to peck at the little ones through the wirecloth...  The babies were just so curious about the big ladies that roam freely around them.

At the end of June, they will be 8 weeks old and we will be switching their food from 'chick starter' to the 'grower' type.  Although they seem to have grown so much since they first arrived, they're still a fraction of the fully-mature chickens in size.  But these babies will most likely start laying eggs at about 5 months, which will be end of September. :D