A Hint Of Spring

It's gorgeous out today. Temps in the 60's, sun, warm breeze. Feels like spring. We are going to pretend that it is spring and get on with the farming. Tomorrow is planting day. I'll get some lettuce transplanted in the greenhouse, some seed trays started and some more greens direct seeded into the greenhouse bed. If the weather holds for another week I'll get my first planting of peas in next week. (of course the deer are getting rather ravenous this time of year so I double many of the peas will survive. Might be time for the last venison of the year if we have a cold day.)

The chickens have done a marvelous job clearing off the garden plots from last years debris and any winter weeds. I'm going to have to move their fence a bit to protect the plots where the peas will be. They wouldn't last a minute with the chickens. I'll probably dig the beds on Monday is the ground has dried enough (its pretty squidgy now) and let the chickens kick through them and pick out any grubs or other crawlies, then fence them out and get ready to plant. I like having them in the garden in the winter time. They really clean things up and I don't have to haul any of the fertilizer they produce from somewhere else. I expect by the first part of April I will have them back on pasture rotation.

We got an incubator on loan from the county extension office the other day. We will be attempting to hatch out some chicks. Should be an interesting project. I expect we will also buy a couple dozen day old chicks from McMurray's in April as well.

Daisy still hasn't had her kids. She is due any minute and looks it. If nothing has happened by Monday I will start worrying (not that that will do any good, but I'll also get the vet to come out and take a look). Fingers crossed we don't have to do that.

I've been blathering philosophically on http://connect.bioneers.org/ and politically (which I should never do) as comments on http://selfsufficientsteward.com/. Both sites are full of great stuff and you should visit them.