Forsythia and chickens

It was sort of a crappy day here in Montana … weather looming, dogs digging up the weed-barrier-cloth I laid around the soon-to-be-raised-beds and shredding it all over the yard, and I was just off all day. So I did what all good Americans do when feeling out of sorts, I got in the car, drove to Bozeman, and went shopping.

But what I love about living here is that shopping includes stops like the Big R Ranch & Home Supply where you can buy everything from clothes to dog food to garden supplies to Bantam Chickens. I want chickens so badly, but I think I have to wait until next year. I don’t have a chicken coop yet, and I think it’s probably unfair to the baby bird dog to torment him with chickens at this point. But looking in the bin at the Polish Crested, Golden Laced Wyandottes, and Blue Cochin chicks, I really really wanted to buy a handful of each and bring them home to peck in my yard all summer. Next year …

So the next stop was Cashman Nusery where I bought some more seed flats, some sweet pea seed and innoculant, and a forsythia bush. Well, it’s a bare-root plant, so it’s hardly a bush at this point. It’s more like a forsythia twig. A forsythia twig with roots. But give it a couple of years, and where that messy wild clemantis used to be in the corner of the yard, there will be a big open forsythia, heralding spring each year with sprays of yellow blossoms.