…is that I love February. I do. Even though yesterday was windy and cold and miserable, spitting snow against the back of my neck and under my clothes, even though it was dark and gray and dreary, today is bright and sunny and warming fast. And tomorrow is going to be 60°. And Candlemas/Imbolc—the best festival day of the year—is past, so tiny little newborn spring is here, and daffodils are up out of the ground, and the quince is covered with pink buds. Today we have 10 hours, 52 minutes of daylight, and Monday it will be 11 hours (we’re having a family celebration in honor of that momentous occasion).

Kidding starts this month with Maggie, who is due on the 24th. The girls and I are so looking forward to babies this year. DH is building a temporary-ish greenhouse for me in hopes that seed starting won’t completely take over the house this year, and the garden is fairly clean and ready for the growing season, which is very unusual for us! Seed orders are going out, though I saved a number of my own seeds last fall. DH and ED are putting together a fruit tree/bush order from Raintree and One Green World; poor ED, who is a fruit freak, just walks around drooling, thinking about all the fruit she plans to be eating!

The piggies are growing, we’re closing in on having the goats’ footrot cleared up, the sheep are ready to be shorn, and two are being fattened, and the big sweet pet of a cow is doing very well and giving around 2 1/2 gallons of milk a day.

And that’s the news for today.