• Still enjoying all the birds. These pictured are golden-crowned sparrow and spotted towhee

• Willow.

• One of my favorite things about the snow is seeing what critters have been lurking about. I expect both the deer & coyote tracks. Raccoon, though, is a first. We have never seen a raccoon at our house. The tracks went right up to our porch, as well as to my pond and chicken tractor.

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Happy Spring! We officially made it through another winter. Our winter wasn’t too cold, but it was rainy. Very rainy.

• Spring has sprung and our Leonard Messel Magnolia is blooming. The tree itself hasn’t grown much in the 7 years we’ve had it, but the blooms are gorgeous.

• The Marans are laying again after their winter hiatus. I love their dark brown egg. Notice the stink eye I’m getting from her majesty. Truth be told, I feel the same way about her.

• The fodder we started last week isn’t doing much. Not sure what our problem is, but this isn’t as easy as I thought it was supposed to be.

• Seeds and seedlings are gathered in the house, garage, and greenhouse. I’m hoping for a good tomato crop this year.

• While we were away camping this weekend a chicken got nabbed in the backyard. The game camera shows a coyote and bobcat wandering nearby. Ugh. However, mostly the camera snaps pics of the neighborhood deer.

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• Well, the fodder experiment was a flop.

• Buckwheat Seed: Only a handful of seeds sprouted

• Barley Seed: Virtually none germinated.

• Rye Grass Seed: It sprouted ok. It seemed like much of the seed didn’t sprout, though. And, it took longer than I was expecting to grow.

• I fed it all to the chickens. They loved it.

• We began Fodder Experiment #2

• Many of the flower, herb, veggie and fruit seeds I started are doing well. The ones moved into an aquaponics grow bed seem especially happy.

• The deer are back at munchin’ on the day lilies.

• It’s been a wet, dreary winter. But, finally we have some flowers showing spring color.

• Just like that, in the matter of one week, we are down to one duck. We believe a coyote (and maybe his buddies) are to blame. We saw a coyote one morning, have heard them a couple times, and caught one on the game camera. There hasn’t been evidence of anything else lurking about. It is amazing to me how quickly 11 ducks disappeared. Occasionally a random duck or chicken becomes coyote or bobcat dinner. But, never have we had so many in such a short span of time. The one lone duck to survive is the welsh harlequin who has been hiding and sitting on unfertile eggs. We moved her to a chicken coop and she doesn’t seem to thrilled with her new home.

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