Spring Weather

It’s just been absolutely gorgeous. 60°s and sunny—windy yesterday, which did a lot to dry out the surface of the soil. I’ve been cleaning up flower beds, moving the chickens from the greenhouse to the chicken tractor, cleaning out the greenhouse, hauling manure, preparing beds in the greenhouse and in front of it, getting sunburned, achy and blistered—and loving every minute of it!

I’ve received some of my seeds, ordered ducks and some of my potatoes, and yesterday made an order of flower seeds. Here are the seeds I’ve received so far:

  • Madras Scarlet Cockscomb
  • Blue Boy Bachelor’s Button
  • Early Jersey Wakefield cabbage
  • Genovese Basil
  • Arugula
  • Ice Bred Arugula
  • Touchstone Gold Beet
  • Perpetual Spinach
  • Caribe Cilantro
  • Zeppelin Delicata Winter Squash
  • Sweet Meat Winter Squash
  • Costata Romanesco Zucchini
  • Early Summer Yellow Crookneck
  • Tendergreen Broccoli
  • Arcadia Broccoli
  • Green King Broccoli
  • Chard, Joy Larkham’s Midnight F3
  • Chard, Bietola a Costa Fine
  • Cucumber, Mideast Peace
  • Poppy, Purple Frilly English
  • Poppy, Papaver Somniferum
  • Corn, Mandan Parching Lavender
  • Radish, Blauer Herbst Und Winter
  • Oregon Homestead Sweet Meat Squash
  • Crapaudine Beet
  • Mammoth Red Rock Cabbage
  • Golden Sweet Snow Pea
  • Oregon Sugar Pod II Snow Pea
  • Helios Radish
  • Jaune D’Or Ovale Radish
  • Purple Plum Radish
  • Saxa2 Radish
  • Arugula

I know it will get cold again (though not in the foreseeable future), but I’m enjoying this so much, and I’m actually getting a great head start on my spring chores!

Barbie Cabbages (aka baby Autumn Joy Sedum)

Round Pig

Dixie is pregnant, but we have no idea when she’s due. Tomorrow we will replenish her hay nest, by giving her two rolls of hay to use as she will. She eats some, but mostly she makes very cozy nests with them.

A Poem

The Gift
Time wants to show you a different country. It’s the one
that your life conceals, the one waiting outside
when curtains are drawn, the one Grandmother hinted at
in her crochet design, the one almost found
over at the edge of the music, after the sermon.

It’s the way life is, and you have it, a few years given.
You get killed now and then, violated
in various ways. (And sometimes it’s turn about.)
You get tired of that. Long-suffering, you wait
and pray, and maybe good things come – maybe
the hurt slackens and you hardly feel it any more.
You have a breath without pain. It is called happiness.

It’s a balance, the taking and passing along,
the composting of where you’ve been and how people
and weather treated you. It’s a country where
you already are, bringing where you have been.
Time offers this gift in its millions of ways,
turning the world, moving the air, calling,
every morning, “Here, take it, it’s yours.”
- William Stafford

Newborn Spring

The long month has ended and my favorite (coincidentally short) month is well underway. What’s not to love about February? I mean, besides the still cold temps, possible heavy snows, and the knowledge that awful March is coming up! In February, at least here in the southern Appalachians, there’s always the possibility of a few mild and lovely days (like this past 60°+ weekend); the email telling you your seeds have arrived; the noticeably longer days; and Candlemas, the end of winter.

I’m ready to move the chickens out of the greenhouse and back into their chicken tractor, so I can clean up and get some flats of spinach, chard, arugula, lettuce and cilantro going. Chickens are disgusting creatures, by the way, but they have thoroughly de-weeded the greenhouse, so except for the crazy amount of dust and chicken poop, the greenhouse is looking pretty good for starting the season. We’re getting a couple of eggs a day now, and I expect to be getting more soon.

Maeby is ready to be bred this month, so I’ll be contacting our friend with the Dexter bull to arrange a playdate before her next heat. She’s a pretty little thing and sweet, too. We’re looking forward to her horns starting to curve—those pointy spikes are a little unnerving!

Everybody else is doing fine. DH and Bernard are up in Boone with DH’s grandsons this week, and ED and I have enjoyed some breathing room. We’ve had a fairly boring week (in the best way).