It's getting away from me

At last, a photo of the chicks, Aug 2019

Well, in the spirit of Telling It Like It Is, I guess I might as well mention the garden, allotment and poultry are all too much right now.  I'm not keeping up.  We had houseguests for two weeks, I've not been well, and though my hayfever is gone now, it drove me indoors for more than a month.  All this combined means that my personal food growing operation is only just limping along. 

The allotment is more weeds than vegetables and the slugs are nipping off most of the seedlings that are just coming up in the sheet mulched areas.  I've only been there about three or four times in the last two weeks--the husband has been up once, I think.

And then in my kitchen garden nearly every brassica has cabbage caterpillars, the Misc bed (the furthest from the house) is mainly weeds, and though they're flowering, the runner beans aren't forming pods (maybe this last one isn't my fault).  I haven't been picking chard regularly.  I haven't been watering the containers regularly, though only one has actually died.

And the poultry.  The son is in charge of feeding and watering;  he's off school for the rest of this month so luckily they won't starve.  But I've not been putting the chickens into their tractor daily--they've mostly been stuck in their yard.  The new chicks are so cute--now just over a week old--but I've not been out socializing with them to get them used to me.  And the ducks are just getting on my nerves.  We know they're still laying eggs, but we can't find their secret nests!  And both the son and I have had to give some stern discipline to one of the young males who thinks he's allowed to jump on people's shoes--luckily ducks are much less agile (and sharp) than roosters.  He might be duck soup if he keeps it up though.

So there's my whole sorry story.  It's all gone to pot.  I'm still not 100%, and I can't see the situation improving until then--plus we're having more houseguests this weekend...