I was so excited this morning to see how much my water kefir had progressed over night, and was disappointed and concerned when it appeared no different than last night. I emailed the seller, asking how long it would take to see things moving along and he reassured me that it could take several days for the crystals to acclimate and do their little kefir thing. I'm going to change the sugar water every 24 hours, as the seller also suggested I not let it go more than 48 hours in the same solution.

So I got that out of the way. Today was also tree pick up for the Phoenix Permaculture Guild, which was selling fruit trees a few months ago. Since The Man is working today, I went by myself to pick up the bare root trees. Keep in mind, I'm expecting the bare root trees like what one sees in nurseries. You know, the ones with roots packed in wood chips and packed in little plastic bags.

Nope, didn't happen that way. When my order was brought out (two cherry trees and a peach tree for my mother and two cherry trees for us) I was shocked at how BIG they were! The trees were bunched together and the roots wrapped in a burlap bag. The woman who pulled my order asked if I wanted them pruned and I said yes. Even if I hadn't WANTED them pruned (I did by the way) I wouldn't have been able to fit them in the car without them being trimmed. I had parked almost 1/4 mile up the street (there were scores of cars parked on both sides of the street for the pick up, and that was as close as I could get) and quickly realized there was no way I could carry the bulky package to the car. I was told to bring my car right in front of the drive to the pick up point and the people there would help me load the trees. The two folks who loaded the trees for me were able to get them in the front seat, which was great because I had a couple errands to run and was worried that I'd have to go home first to drop off the trees.

Here are the babies. I'm leaving them in the car until we're ready for them tomorrow, as they'll probably be comining out one at a time.


Ah, but my day didn't end there. We have pullets that have been kept in a large cage that could be moved around and into the utility room for protection from the cold. They're growning up so quickly, they've been able to stay outside all night without any problems so I built them a larger pen. I want to build a chicken tractor... one of those long, triangular run type things that can be moved about. We've kept chickens for many years, and I love how well they turn the fallow soil in the garden and clear out weeds in preparation for spring gardening. Up until now we've let chickens have free roam, but lately we've been experiencing a dramatic increase in stray cats in the yard, and I don't really feel comfortable with allowing the ladies to have 24/7 free roaming access any more.