March is just about back in my good graces. 70′s, and not a freezing temperature in sight. The back yard is solid violets, both the regular dark purple, and the paler, stripey ones like you see in my banner.

My hundred gorgeous little tomato plants have spent the last several days on a table in the front yard, and I’ve finished potting up up everything else, at least for now.

It has been such a lovely treat to see what’s been planted here. Forsythia, redbud (just starting to think about blooming), Japanese quince, jonquils, a white-flowering shrub that’s everywhere, and beautiful, but I don’t know what it is. There are so many dogwoods, and they’re all covered with fat, round buds, and the peaches are just on the verge of blooming.

I’m working on making raised beds out of the tilled garden. Last night I spent an hour untangling the string that I wanted to use to mark off the beds, and I remembered that I kind of like untangling string. When I quit being in such a hurry, it was very meditative.

I’m so glad spring’s here I could cry.

Last night we had dinner at my dad’s house to celebrate DH’s birthday (which is tomorrow). Dad cooked ribs on the grill, and we had collards and butterbeans and bread and chocolate cake and ice cream. As usual, we were in some amount of pain on the way home.

Dad bought a new camera and gave me his old one—I’m so excited to start taking pictures and posting them! Thanks, Dad!

The weather this week has been atrocious—snowy and sleety and rainy and really, really dark, and cold and just generally miserable. March is without a doubt my least favorite month of the year. Can’t we just skip it?

The Parelli clinic last weekend was inspiring. ED and I really enjoyed ourselves, though we were flat-out exhausted by the end of the weekend. I really liked where they’re coming from with this program, which is that being with your horse should be fun—for both you and the horse! What a novel idea! ED and I played with the horses for about half an hour Sunday night when we got home, and in that half hour of messing around with them, using some of the techniques we learned, there was a huge, noticeable improvement in both their attitudes—especially Blossom’s. I’m finding it so much more pleasant to be around them.

I baked and delivered a sample wedding cake this morning: chocolate velvet cake with raspberry filling and white chocolate buttercream frosting, decorated with blue and yellow pansies. I’m pretty resistant to the whole idea of baking a sample cake, but I’ve finally hit on the way to do it: I just add the number of pieces in the sample to the total cake when I bill the couple after the wedding. It’s actually not very cost effective to bake a small cake living out here—it requires (usually) a trip to Asheville, which is, for all practical purposes, an hour away. And heaven help me if I forget something! So, although my cakes are expensive, it sure isn’t all profit!

ED and I are excited about our Parelli clinic this weekend. DH and Bernard are going to stay here, so it’ll be a nice two-day outing for ED and I, and just the kind of outing she likes, too. She’s not all that into shopping, unless it’s for books.

DH and I tilled the garden this past weekend, when temperatures were in the delicious 80′s. We also got a start on cleaning out the barn, getting about halfway through the sheep stall, and putting the manure-y bedding on the garden. Now a cold front has swept through, leaving much cooler and windier weather in its wake. Now it feels like March.

The little bull we’ve been borrowing since Christmas is going home this weekend. I think Rosemary may finally be bred! As far as we could tell, she did not go into heat this last time. So, hopefully, a calf at Thanksgiving, which means homegrown eggnog for Christmas!

Through a series of serendipitous events, ED and I have free tickets to the Parelli Natural Horsemanship Clinic this weekend south of Asheville; the timing couldn’t be more perfect. Look out, Blossom.

Yesterday I decided to burn off all the dry weeds in the garden; I haven’t been able to make any headway clearing it. I enjoy burning, though there were a couple of times yesterday when a gust of wind would kick up, and I would scramble a little to keep the fire comfortably in my control, and I would be reminded of the power and wildness of fire. All went well, though, and the garden is looking like a garden. Today I’m going to bring a couple of truckloads of manure down from the barn, and DH is going to till it in.

Also yesterday, our old house—the one we lived in before we bought this place—burned to the ground. I feel very unsettled, and a little superstitious, as if my burning here somehow caused the burning there.

…looking all cute and innocent and typey in a fuzzy photo.

Bernard and I have had the flu—it’s been awful! I don’t think I’ve ever actually had it before, at least not in my adult life. I’ve had bad colds that I called the flu, but this was a whole nother thing. I’m sure we got it from the crowded courtroom where the land use meeting was held Monday.

ED has kept the farm together while I’ve been in bed. I’m lucky that I don’t have to worry, though I’ve had maybe a tiny bit of anxiety, just because I haven’t laid eyes on anybody in the barn for two days. But I know that ED can handle whatever needs to be dealt with. Good thing, too, since DH isn’t much into the whole animal thing. I hope ED isn’t going to get sick, but if she does, I hope she waits until I’m a little stronger!

DH made a pot of chicken soup last night and is bringing me a bowl right now. I’ll post again when I have something more interesting than illness to write about.

How do you all do it? Keep up with your blogs, presumably keep up with your lives, and still find time to read other blogs and leave thoughtful and considerate comments? It has been brought to my attention (thanks, Dad) that I’ve been a derelict blogger; unfortunately I can’t argue.

It’s spring—the weather is even cooperating (for now). Jonquils are blooming, quince is just beginning to open, forsythia is getting close. There is the faintest haze of green on the fields, and the maples are flowering.

The lambs are big and fat and fluffy, and Molly and Marvin’s tails have fallen off (they’re so cute with their little grown-up tails); they’re adorable bouncing around in the sunshine. We have to tie the horses at the barn when we put the sheep out, because Blossom wants the lambs, and even tries to get between them and their mothers. A* and her little one, E* came for a visit last week, and Blossom wanted E*, too. She really likes babies—I think we’ll breed her in May or June.

Speaking of Blossom, she is currently being shunned by us two-legged herd members. ED got on her a couple of days ago, and Blossom ran away with her, and then bucked her off, leaving ED with an extremely sore, and possibly broken, tailbone. I then got on her, and she reared and bucked, and fell down a steep bank. I managed, barely, to stay on, but was left shaken and angry. I really need to get a round pen for working with both her and Ginger.

I built two cold frames with old hay bales; I haven’t put the plastic on them yet—it’s been too warm! One is planted with salad mix, and the other will be brassica starts, as soon as I’ve finished de-sodding it.

The kitchen window over the wood cookstove is filled with dixie cups and in them are planted four hundred thousand varieties of tomato seeds, somewhat fewer varieties of peppers and eggplants, and a ton of herbs and flowers. Today I have to set up a growlight, as things are starting to germinate like crazy.

Bernard has taken on the task of leveling the path from the house to the barn, which involves a whole lot of shovel work, and a good deal of my muscle and attention. It’s going very well; after two days of work, we only have 3/4 of it left to do.

I spent a good deal of yesterday afternoon and this morning on the telephone trying to find out what it’s going to take to get a certified cheese kitchen. First steps are: a big septic system; a well; and some money. Not necessarily in that order. After talking to the main man down in the piedmont, I feel a little overwhelmed, but I also feel that it’s do-able.

In addition to all that’s going on here on the farm, we’ve also felt just a bit besieged by outside forces. Madison County is being overrun by developers, and, while most of us are not averse to growth, we’d all like to see it be controlled growth. Well, all of us but the developers, and the Madison County land use board. And then there’s the several hundred acres of Madison County National Forest that’s for sale to the highest bidder. And, of course, NAIS. These things all need to be dealt with, but I would much rather use my time and energy for farming!

So that’s just a bit of what’s been going on arond here. This evening I’m going to read what all of y’all have been up to; in my online community, just as in the physical world, I’m blessed with better friends than I deserve!