Spring must be here! We have babies everywhere: chicks, piglets, kid goats, calves–even Jim has discovered the great out-of-doors. He heads out of doors if those doors are left open in his bid to keep up with his favorite playmates. One of the surest signs of spring is thaw, which results in rivers in our drive. What good is a river if it can’t be directed? So we ended up with a sizeable dam in the middle of the driveway, and a pond that’d thrill a beaver. The pond was quickly finding holes in the dam, so the kids created a sudden crisis…
“One chop of the giant’s spade, and the dam was destroyed, washed downstream by the raging water that poured through it.” And that’s fun, too.
Everyone’s enjoyed being in the sunshine. The milk goats have spent their days in the pasture instead of the barn. The Mangalitsa hogs have plowed their field fantastically. The mama Russian boer is now in a somewhat moveable pen in the garden playing the part of rototiller. (She hit the edge of the garden, her nose went to the soil and she resembled a one bottom plow. It was amazing to see her at work.) The broiler chickens are enjoying the run of the barnyard. Even the layer chickens are feeling their oats and flying over their fence to look for grubs in the Mangalitsa’s field. Mark caught one of the Aracaunas roosted on a sleeping pig in the barn. The pig got up, but the sleepy bird hung on. The pig eventually shook it off, but the chicken got quite a ride.
The downside is that the maple syrup run ended before it started. My parents make syrup and it was a bit of a disappointing season this year, though we still enjoyed our woodsy walks for the week the sap sort of ran. The other downside is that the apple (and other fruit) trees may be coaxed into budding too soon and the buds will freeze. That’d be a huge disappointment, too, as we thoroughly enjoy the fresh apples from still-a-bit-green till too-froze-to-eat.
Still, we won’t complain about sun and not needing coats (and shoes!). We feel our vitamin D levels have been replenished–hope you’ve gotten yours filled up, too!