Two more hatchlings arrived tonight...well, one is still struggling with a thick shell. I am waiting close by.
The first of these two is boldly making friends with the older chicks. Do I detect a moment of hesitation in that backward glance? I am impressed by how quickly guinea chicks accept new arrivals. The chickens were not as tolerant.

Aoi would love a guinea snack...we try to keep him amused and distracted...and away from the room with the brooder.

The hard work of hatching is over for this baby guinea.
I was tired out just watching the struggle. Those shells are very hard and thick compared to chicken eggs.

Here are 2 guinea chicks which are five days old and 1 two day old chick at rest.

The little bird made tiny cheeping noises now and then over about 3 hours before hatching. I could barely hear him/her. Yet the breaking out of the shell only took about 1/2 hour. Birth is so miraculous!

Pecans sprouted and we planted them yesterday. Actually, about a month ago I soaked a bunch of pecans we'd found on the ground after winter. Just soaked in a bowl of water for 24 hours. Then I planted them all into 6 pots - very crowded together - and kept them continually moist until they sprouted. Most of them sprouted at the same time and sent a taproot down faster than they sent a shoot upwards. Some roots were already outside the pots and air-pruned as soon as they met dry air.

Larry and I planted many seedlings into irrigated spots yesterday, weeding as we went along.

The research station grows seedling pecans in "pecan pots" which are taller and narrower than other pots. These get placed on cement blocks with a hole under each pot. The pecan root is air-pruned as it comes out. But there is enough tap root for the tree to live for a year before being grafted and planted in the ground.

Eggs hatching 4 days early! It's day 24 of their incubation. Two guineas have arrived today and look exhausted after breaking out of extremely hard shells. (I have to give a very hard rap to open a guinea egg compared to chicken eggs.) It would have been easy to prepare the brooder tomorrow, picking up the chick feed and bedding shavings when we go to town. Ah well! They are on their own schedule.

After spending the next 3 hours preparing a horse trough to be the brooder, I moved these 2 bedraggled babies in and gave each a drink. Instinctively they began to peck at food within a minute or two. At this stage they aren't afraid of my handling them. If I keep doing over the next few weeks, they'll be calmer around me. Keeping up with 30 babies hatching at differing times over 4 days is going to keep me tied up!

Blueberry harvest has begun today! While they are still small the bushes are looking well established this year and most are loaded with berries. Berries will ripen a few at a time over the next few weeks, so we'll be out there daily.

Bob and Blackie

My brother Bob has trained the wild turtles to eat out of his hand. This one turtle in particular ('Blackie' whose head is black and he is missing one eye) is very trusting of him. 

 Akebia vines and fruit at Calloway Gardens, Pine Mountain, GA. With 6 full time gardeners and many volunteers there weren't any signs of invasiveness by these Akebias. Each of four swings were flanked by a pair of vines - yet there were only 3 small clusters of edible fruits on all the vines. Larry is enjoying their shade!

Baby mockingbirds waiting for mother and food. Not very hidden in the vines!

Very well established Actinidia chinensis. Fuzzy kiwis forming on the vine below: The vine trunk was 6-7 inches diameter at the base! More proof that fuzzy kiwis should do well for Snug Hill Farm after we can get them established.

 A woods full of wild blueberries at Kathy and Larry's place. There seem to be a number of different heights, leaf sizes and berry coloration (some black and seeded like huckleberries and some blue without detectable seeds). We had a good time looking for differences. Identifying any particular strain would take a lot of expertise which I don't have!

Incubating guinea eggs

With six days to go before hatching begins I am really excited. These guinea eggs have been kept at 100 F for 3 weeks now. In 3 days I'll remove the egg turner and add water to keep humidity high. I'll also get a brooder set up. A livestock trough with hardwood shavings and a lamp for warmth will work well. 

Kudzu has a bad rep...it's invasiveness is all that is seen by many folks in the south.
And it is true that it is nearly impossible to eradicate it without nasty chemicals....and even then it may re-appear from seed having germinated years later!

So what's new you may ask?

It is being used medicinally to treat migraines, allergies, alcoholism and diarrhea. The plant has edible and nutritional value to people, not just for livestock. Young shoots and leaves are edible while still tender, and cooked in the same way as spinach. The flowers are edible raw. See Wikipedia for more - and yes, there are more uses for kudzu.

The plant grows incredibly fast because it is a nitrogen fixer and nutrient accumulator - both very beneficial for soil fertility and other plants - until of course, the other plants get shaded out of existence by the kudzu!
So while I wouldn't plant any myself, I would try eating kudzu shoots and flowers if I can find any far away from chemical spraying or road traffic.

Why the interest? There is a small stand of kudzu on our neighbor's farm field bordering our property. It has enlarged and is on our fence now. I may ask permission to pull it out by hand....soon!

Research at the Coastal Plains Research Station in Tifton, GA and in Mexico City indicates that many vegetables do better overall when grown in high light shade of pine trees - when grown in the heat of south-central Georgia. And we are concurring that our hoop house vegetables would be less stressed with a shade cloth overhead.

So we plan to get that shade cloth onto the hoop house as soon as we get a few more folks here to help.

Larry is wanting to expand into another vegetable garden. Avoiding bermuda grass, so that we can succeed at excluding it from the garden is as important as being able to shade the veggies. So I think we have agreed to put in a new garden under the tall pines to the east of the house. There is a lot of pine straw and thus very little grass under those pines. It means digging another irrigation trench, installing fencing (to exclude the foxes, opossum and raccoons) and bringing in enough soil and mulch to build raised beds. Both kale and collards will be healthier grown outdoors - and we love these greens!

Pecan grafts and pear grafts are all (except 1 out of 15) working! New growth evident already. And Larry got to learn how to do the banana graft on pecans.

We are thankful for the big tractor. With a heavy chain Larry pulled out 4 large holly bushes (4-5 foot diameter) which then got transplanted around the trailer for some much needed landscaping. Of course they got a big pruning haircut to minimize shock. This cleared out space on the south of the house - where all the propagation work takes place. One of the (short season banana) Veinte Cohol bananas will be planted here when the cleanup is complete.