Our yard was very aromatic this week. The apple trees are blossoming. The lilacs were open. Mark moved the compost pile. It rained. The neighbors are spreading liquid manure thickly.
I didn’t say all the aromas were good.
Babies are part of nature’s spring routine. Joe has some shiitake mushroom logs “planted”. A robin apparently thought they’d make a good nesting spot. She must have changed her mind because we haven’t seen her setting on the eggs. We had a nest with two babies in the cedar tree in the yard. The kids were in the tree one evening when one of the parents brought some worm back to feed them. That was an experience. Sadly, the next storm blew those babies out of their nest. That’s one of the hard parts about interacting with nature.
Our goat babies fared much better. We found them a day or two after they were born–a pleasant surprise. This particular doe was not a good mother when she came, but since I dislike babysitting and have thrust the job on her, she’s come around and took very good care of this pair. She picked a spot Bambi’s mother would’ve been happy with, under the canopy of a tipped over cedar tree. These kids are 1/2 dairy goat, 1/2 boer meat goat. I think that makes them hardier–the meat goats have always been tougher, and hybrid vigor helps that along. Even the rain last night didn’t faze them in their cedar house.
What could be better on a rainy afternoon than a snooze? These pigs were laid out like sausages in their house–except for a hungry few like the fellas on the right.
This weekend we plan to actually get the garden planted. I’ve discovered that you can plant early corn as late as June 20 and get a good harvest. I plan to be able to plant late corn this year, too. We visited Craig Schaaf’s farm one Saturday afternoon (he does a 2 hr. workshop every Saturday afternoon through the summer) and it was inspirational. We got some good ideas for things we’ve done that are good and some things we can do to improve our garden.
Happy spring!