Irony.....

I know everyone knows the definition of Irony but in case your ever asked and need to whip out the perfect example of the word I'm here to help.

You might recall that last year our garden was a lush jungle providing us with tons-o-yummy veggies. All winter my mind was in a fevered pitch as to how I could make it bigger better. I would have a whole salsa section and can dozens of jars of homemade salsa. I would have a herb section and learn to do all the things you do with herbs. Not to mention trying new veggies like soybeans and artichokes. (please picture my hands rubbing together with a glint in my eye for the above section)

In spring several weekends were spent enlarging the garden to fit all my new plans. We bought new fencing to cover the big new wonderful expansion. When you have chickens you need to fence your garden. Chickens are great to prepare the soil before and after the garden (a free little garden fact for you) but they like squash almost as much as I do so once all the good stuff starts growing they treat it like their personal salad bar. So Chickens = fenced garden.

I planted at least 100 seeds in the house weeks before they were ready to go in the ground. I lovingly placed them in front of our sliding glass door. I turned them everyday so each one got all the sunshine it needed. They grew fat and happy and I was giddy with anticipation to plant. However I heeded the "old timers" of the area. After Memorial weekend, check. No snow on the second peak on the mountains to the east, check. (these are real people) Dewey rototilled and added the mulch, the garden was as ready as can be for my little plants. One full day was spent planting, we ended up running out of room even with the expansion. But everything was in the ground just waiting to grow. Its at this point if we had set up a camera to go off a 5 minute intervals you could have watched every plant wither and die. It might have been the drought we are in causing the ground to be bone dry. It might have been the TWO freezes we had or the constant wind, its hard to say but every single stinkin one of the plants we planted died. Ever the optimistic I replanted seeds and plants Neighbor Don gave us.....didn't come up and or died. My last ditch effort was planting Winnie's extra plants from her greenhouse. So we do have a few squash plants and a cucumber plant that survived and have veggies on them.

Are you still with me?

We have had chickens for years which I really enjoy. They lay yummy eggs that I will eat (unlike those gag white ones at the store) and they play in the yard. Well not play but definitely do chicken stuff in the yard. We needed a new rooster and somewhere in the planning stage for a new rooster it was decided we would get all new chickens. So Dew and neighbor Don special ordered a BUNCH from a catalog. (don't you love that you can order anything through the mail) Don kept the chicks at his house getting up in the middle of the night (every night)  to check one them (I swear). Here's the thing with chickens you can't put new ones with old ones. We tried a few years ago and it didn't end well. Its easiest to think of the old chickens as a hardcore gang and a rival gang enters their territory...not good. So it was decided to give away all of our old chickens in preparation of the new little ones arrival. Off they went to what I am told is a happy green farm where they play all day. (Dew might sugarcoat things a bit for me) And the new chicks all 14 of them were ready to come to their new home. Things went swimmingly (don't you think that word should be used more) for all of one day. Normally Dew goes out to feed in the morning and I do afternoons but he had an early appointment so it was me that went out to find..... a chicken slaughter. Every single one of the chickens had been killed. It could have been a fox, coyote, skunk, badger,we live in the country with all manner of animals about so no way to know really.

So to recap...... enlarged garden that now holds a few skinny little plants, new fencing to keep out chickens that we gave away and or lost to a mass killing.

People if there is a better definition of Irony I dare you to find it.

Feel free to use above definition if ever needed. It might be a little long for say Jeopardy but maybe some trivia board game :)

P.S no photos for this post as dead gardens and chickens don't make for good pics.