I Got the Itch

Which itch is that?  Actually, it is two itches.  First, I am getting that overwhelming desire to get eggs to hatch in my two incubators.  The sad thing is, I am not set for raising chicks for a couple of months when the weather starts to change again, or until I get my brooder house finished.  I have been thinking about the breeds I have and what I want to keep and raise and breed, and which ones are out here that I need to get rid of.  I hate to get rid of laying hens, but then I hate to keep odd birds around.  I wish I had the place and money to keep them all.  Yes, that is what makes me crazy.
The other thing I am itching about is garden planning.  I love to start looking through the seed catalogs and double checking my seed stock and planning and plotting out the gardens.  Yes, I said gar-denS.  We never do anything on small scale, it always has to be big.  I don't know why, but maybe it has something to do with growing up in a family with 11 kids.  Yes, 11.  When there are that many in the family, you have to make large sizes of food dishes and have lots of milk in the frig and a big car.  That is one thing that I have a hard time with still, after being away from my family for last 24-years.  So, our first year gardening here was 2 gardens, each 25-feet by 50-feet.  Every year they have grown longer and wider, and then they joined together, then we started new gardens too.  We have tried to grow all sorts of things, but we also don't seem to be able to just confine ourselves to one or two varieties of things.  For instance, we usually grow somewhere around 10-15 varieties of peppers.  As for tomatoes, there are so many good ones out there and the different types and uses, we grow about 12 varieties of those too.  Then there are potatoes, cabbages, carrots, beans- oh, don't get me started about all the different beans, I will sound like Bubba on Forrest Gump.
We like to start our own seeds for stuff and one year we decided to build a grow stand.  It is 2-feet deep by 4-feet wide and has 2 shelves and we could add a third on the top.  It started out the first 5-years or so in our dining room.  It worked great in here but was awful big to have in here for year around and it always ended up with piles of magazines and paperwork on it, so it was not a good thing.  Now it is in the heated garage and is in a good spot, but collects 'stuff' on it out there until it is time to use it again.  I will be starting the seeds in March, so there is time : \

It is really cold now outside.  I hate to have to go out at all, but my birdies sure appreciate that corn.  I never did bathe the Silkies, they preened and cleaned themselves off pretty good without it now that they are in a pen on their own.  I must build them a new pen more suitable for chickens this upcoming week.  First, we have to make it through the weekend.  Tomorrow is cleaning day, then Sunday is a trip to see my mother-in-law.  We haven't been down in a while and it will be nice to see her again.

Well, it is that time to retire again.
I am thinking warm thoughts.
CC