Down on the Farm – Volume 1, Issue 5

Man oh man did we make progress this week! So much is happening down on the farm this week, and this past week. Spring has arrived, and there’s no hiding that fact here at Lowe Bridges Farm! I’m betting Jeremy Lowe wishes he had not taken time off work along about now! The honey-do list just grows.

But…he doesn’t complain. That’s my was my job last week.

On Monday, the wind was incredibly cold and vicious. It wasn’t quite as bad as Sunday, but it was still rough…but, my chicks were coming, and my chicks are bougie…as in BOUJEE…and they need a nice coop to live in.

So, my sweet Jeremy worked outside non-stop getting that bougie coop built, in that cold wind. He was able to finish the outside, but there was still a ways to go.

What was I doing…oh, I was oversleeping! By a LOT. I asked him why in the world he didn’t wake me up!! He said it was too cold out there for me to help anyway. Like I’m a princess who couldn’t have been doing a million other things that need doing. He was right though…way too cold for me.

But I still managed to get a lot of work done in the seedling room. So, so many plants to still up pot and transplant out into the garden. When I went downstairs, my sweet Daddy was obsessing over the pet door and the wind. The wind was blowing the pet door open, and the cold wind was coming in. Daddy has Alzheimers, and he just can’t remember what you tell him more than a minute or two…usually less.

We had shut the pet door to keep the wind out, and he had opened it to let one or more dogs out, then couldn’t figure out how to close it. So, he told me to…and I did. But it wasn’t long before a dog wanted in or out, and he couldn’t understand why we were keeping it shut! He acted like we were mistreating the critters! But, patience is key with an Alzheimers patient, so I patiently explained it to him again….and again…and again…and again. It was a very, very long day…even though I had slept through half of it.

We had homemade Pot Pies for supper, in an effort to thaw Jeremy out. I make and freeze these ahead…chicken pot pies for the guys…vegetable pot pie for me. I try to keep a lot of “convenience” foods in the freezer and on the shelves. That is what Canuary is all about…so you can have a busy or bad day in March and just pop something straight out of the freezer into the oven.

Jeremy tried so hard to have that coop finished before the chicks arrived. All he needed to finish was concrete around the edges inside and out, foam board insulation, that plastic covering to protect against mold, then the inner walls to keep the chickens from eating the plastic and foam board. For one guy doing it by himself, it was an all day thing. But, before he even got started, our Post Mistress called him to come pick up a package.

That’s right! The Boujee chicks had arrived! He brought them home, and there were NOT eight hens…there were nine, but one was tiny and dying. I held her until she had passed, and I had Jeremy bury her.

Then, I was finally able to take a look at my boujee chicks. Funny…they didn’t look at all like I had imagined. I mean…this is the picture I see in my head. The coop is boujee. The run will be at the highest level of boujee. I expected bougier chicks.

But what Jeremy came home with was what you see in the picture below….I mean, there’s nothing wrong with them, they are sweet and cute and they have no choice but to grow up to be the level of bougie that I imagine…being given the best of everything and knowing they deserve it. But I was not expecting….

THIS LEVEL OF FLUFFY CUTENESS!!

Look at those faces!! Those markings!! All that boujee potential!!

I’ve had chicks before. I’ve had Black Copper Marans before…but that was some time ago and I guess I had forgotten how stinkin’ cute they are! That third picture in the gallery was a “mean girls” discussion. I think there are cliques already! BOUJEE!

Anywho, I was privileged to be able to spend the majority of the day upstairs with the chicks happily ensconced in their fancy brooder, working out who is going to be Head Hen in Charge and the rest of the pecking order.

While up there, I got a lot more up potting done. I didn’t want to turn on the mini-split because I didn’t want the chicks to get cold. I did have the door open though because I’m hardening off plants, and while it was still windy outside, there wasn’t a breeze to be found inside while I was repotting, etc!

And, being the helicopter chick mama that I am, I decided the chicks can stay in their brooder up there in the seedling room/hobby room/den/barn for at least two weeks, then they can go live out in their finished coop.

Meanwhile, I did lots of repotting on Tuesday, and some of my plants were quite happy. I also moved plants out onto the almost finished deck for some sun and air. Those plants were very, very happy!

Wednesday came along, and that was the day the coop was finally finished, and he was able to move on to getting wood sawed and painted for the Herb Deck railing…yes, I will be calling it the Herb Deck…like a title.

My day on Wednesday was another day up in the seedling room, with the chicks happily chirping, with the occasional squabble while they continue to work out the “I’m gonna be head hen around here” drama. There are definite cliques now.

But, I don’t interfere in Chicken Business.

If Wednesday was beautiful, Thursday was awe inspiring! The first day of Spring, 2026 and it was a stunningly beautiful day! Jeremy set up the solar thing for the coop to have electricity for their heat plate…and eventually their fancy electric door. But even though the coop was ready for the Bougie girls…the chicken mama wasn’t ready to let them go yet. Two weeks…maybe then.

Besides, the work still to be done out there might disturb the girls. He still has to cut the hole for the chicken door, put the run together and predator proof the entirety of the thing.

Those finishing touches are not, and never were part of the “vacation plan” because we’ve got 8 to 12 weeks before the chicks come out of the brooder. What’s left to do can be done one weekend when he’s home…after he goes back to work. He just has one more week of vacation left 🙁

More work was done on the pieces of the railing…sanding, painting, etc. He painted the floor of the deck with that stuff that protects it from weather, and it needed 24 hours to dry…so the plants had to stay inside with me and the chicks.

Luckily, that evening, Jeremy and I got out in the big garden and got all of our pepper plants transplanted! Oh, I can’t wait until the first little pepper shows up! I get my hands dirty most days upstairs dealing with my seedlings and herb plants…but there is NOTHING like putting your hands into the sun-warmed soil to plant that first transplant or seedling outside. It just felt great!

Friday Jeremy decided the painted pieces of the railing needed a second coat…and with the spindles, there are well over 100 pieces! So, we didn’t get the railing up, but I was able to again continue hardening off plants on the un-railed Herb Deck.

I was in the seedling room again…this time potting up some tomato seedlings for my cousin. I don’t really know what possessed me to plant so many tomatoes, but I wayyy over planted! I gave 3 of those 1020 flats of tomatoes to her! Beef Steaks, Romas and San Marzanos. But I’m glad they have a good home. I still have over 100 plants to find room for in my garden when they get a little bigger.

I was over the moon when Saturday morning rolled around. It was planting day! Jeremy and I got out there about 8am to beat the heat of the day. We planted several different varieties of pole beans and bush beans, southern peas, yellow squash and zucchini, winter squash, watermelon, pumpkins, pickling cucumbers and slicing cucumbers. The only things left to plant are the tomatoes

I mostly finished in the seedling room on Saturday. All that’s left to do is wash up all of my pots and trays, get everything put away or stored…and start Chamomile, Cushaw and Luffa. There are so, so many full pots out there ready to go live on the Herb Deck until winter shows up…at which time, the seedling room, which is about to be transformed into a den, after it’s done being a barn, will become a hothouse for those perennials.

Saturday, we went to bed tired…knowing that we had made a ton of progress here on the farm.

Sunday, I usually like to take things easy…but not this Sunday. This Sunday, I got through my usual morning routine, tended to the baby chicks, watered seedlings and Jeremy helped me move plants outside for more sunshine and fresh air.

After that, it was time to either muck the place out, or burn it down. So, we decided we had far too many things to do, and there simply wasn’t time to rebuild the house, and the easier, less expensive in terms of costs and time option was to just clean it. So, I started upstairs, and he started downstairs, and within a few hours, I felt that maybe…just MAYBE…we won’t have to burn the place down.

Jeremy worked on those railings all day long after he helped me muck the place out. Hopefully, we can get them installed when he gets back from the dentist in Tyler tomorrow afternoon. Later in the afternoon, he fired up his grill and barbqued chicken and sausage for supper. I know…RIGHT???? How can you look at my bougie chicks then go have…chicken…for dinner! I can’t win them all.

But I don’t complain.

On Deck for This Week: To the dentist again, finishing touches on the Herb Deck, Jury Duty, and hopefully Garden Gate Arches with flower beds…we will see!

Till next week,