The first harvest

We had our first garden-based salad last night! The lettuce is now ready for harvesting, so I picked a mix of the mesclun lettuce/mustards and arugula for dinner last night, and they were delicious! I also brought a bunch over to my parents, because this farmer is all about sharing. It's kind of amazing to me that this food is something that I grew myself from seed - that's really cool. Also, it's delicious.
I also had an embarassing farming incident earlier this week, when I lost a chicken on Tuesday. I went out to put the girls to bed for the evening (which involves shutting their trapdoor to the yard and telling them goodnight, but not kissing each one as Taperman instructed me to do), and my headcount revealed that I had 19, not 20, girls. I was very worried. I took my flashlight out and searched the chicken yard, nearby trees, the run-in, and the barn, and couldn't find her anywhere. I nervously called Taperman to let him know that I had lost a chicken, and to ask him which one was missing - I'm not quite familiar enough with the flock to tell.

By Wednesday morning, I still had 19 girls and was feeling like a chicken farmer failure. I opened their trapdoor to the yard, and looked around again for the missing girl, with no luck. I also admonished the remaining chickens for not being concerned that they'd lost a sister.

At 3:00, I went out to look for her again, and when I did a headcount in the coop, I had 20 chickens again! I have no idea how she got out, where she went, or how she got back in, but I'm glad my naughty wandering chicken came home. This weekend, Mike and I will be beefing up our fence/chicken yard security to prevent any further chicken breakouts.