A Busy Spring

Tomato Seedlings - in February

Busy days are here again. Maybe I should say busier days, as I rarely have a day that doesn't qualify as busy. :)

This is one of my favorite times of year, my garden suddenly gets the spotlight, and all other work is pushed aside in favor of digging in the dirt, so long as the dirt is at all close to being dry enough to be dug in. That's one of the downsides of being married to a true-blue farmer, he KNOWS good and well when it's too wet to till, and will not be talked into doing anything foolish like 'just trying a little to see what happens'. Actually that's a good thing. But I have trouble remembering that sometimes, like when I'm itching to get out there, and there's a rain in the forecast for the next day . . .

But right now, most of my garden is planted, and I am so glad! It's thrilling (for Benji and I at any rate!) to see little sprouts coming up and watching them shoot for the sky.

Green Bean sprouts, Onions, Potatoes - 2009

My cucumbers are blooming, and my EarliGirl Tomato already has one little green globe on it, and several blooms. I'll be watching it closely! Nothing beats the taste of that first fresh tomato sandwich!

A 'Gold Medal' tomato from 2008Benji is thrilled with his little lettuce/radish patch in his teepee, and he even snagged a volunteer tomato to plant in there. He thoroughly enjoyed helping plant some soup beans to climb the poles and make 'his garden' a shady retreat! He's getting a lot more pleasure out of his teepee this year than he did last year, so I'm glad I left it up! I really need to plant some carrots and Zinnias in there too. He keeps talking about carrots, and I'd hate to disapoint him!

Katri loves to 'help' out there too, tho what she does best is walking right in the rows of newly planted seeds . . . thankfully she soon gets distracted with chasing the ducks and throwing rocks or playing in the gravel box!

My chicken tractor, and the two ducks.

I had two of my bantie hens go broody a while back. I decided to do a search on Craigslist for 'hatching eggs' as I really didn't want more banties, I wanted more layers! Sure enough I found Americana hatching eggs, only 15 minutes away, and only $4 a dozen! My little hens accepted them and 3 weeks later I was tickled pink to get nine multi-colored baby fowl! It was fun hearing the eggs pip as they worked hard to get out of the shell. Even David was coming out to check their progress as they hatched! :) The children were wildly excited, of course, and Katri really wanted to hug the little bits of fluff to death!

They're two weeks old now, and doing well. Their two mamas (they share the job!) are taking their job quite seriously, and I keep my distance, as they act pretty fierce! Getting pictures has been hard, what with 9 active babies and two aggressive mamas. At this point, I'm delighted to report that it appears that I somehow got 9 pullets . . . I keep waiting for at least one bright red comb to appear (a sure sign of a developing cockerel) but they're all staying quite light. I'm amazed! At 45 cents each, and with two competent hens doing all the work for me, I feel like I got quite the bargain! :) I'm also enjoying the color range of this breed, I have a few that will be tan, a couple grey, and some dark brown. They'll all be patterned, not solid colored, and very pretty. I've had this breed before, and really liked them, so I'm happy to have some again! (Did I mention that I've always ADORED chickens??? I guess I qualify as a stereotypical farmwife in at least one way; the poultry are my pride and joy!)

Just a few days old.

One day whilst browsing the Farm section of Craigslist, I saw an ad for puppies. They were 1/4 each Pyrenees, Collie, Red Heeler and Blue Heeler. They were also listed as free. So we went and got one. Benji was thrilled to finally get to use the name for a puppy that he had picked out right after our other dog died of old age.

Lassie

It's picnic season again! One evening we packed our supper and went to the local park. The children loved it! (Of course!) They delighted in sliding, climbing, running, shouting, swinging and all the fun things that parks are made for. Eventually they remembered to come back and get a cookie! (We made them eat supper before they could go and play!) It was nice that apparently nobody else thought of having picnics that night, as we were the only ones there! David and I lounged on a blanket with magazines, until it started getting late.

I was pleased with our unusual picnic meal. I made a very hearty lettuce salad, putting in some diced, leftover grilled chicken, cheddar cheese chunks, and pretty much every vegetable I had in the frig. Topped with homemade french dressing, it was very filling and satisfying! I also made some whole wheat soft pretzels, and cookies. Different, but very good and portable! One of my favorite ideas yet for a picnic tho, is to bring along an insulated zippered bag, and put ice packs in it. Then all the 'cold' leftovers went in there, and I could relax and enjoy the rest of our time there, without worrying about food spoiling! I usually don't think that far ahead when I'm getting ready to go!

I guess that's all for now, hopefully I'll be able to get back into posting on a more regular basis again! I have lots of ideas, but getting them into writing is another story entirely!