• 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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• We often have deer in our yard. This week I chose to take their pics hangin’ with the chickens.
• For quite awhile I have been wanting to make goat milk soap. Now that we have a goat in milk I gave it a whirl. I plan to do a separate post on the process I used and what I thought about it.

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• No new news in the aquaponics system. Same ol’ same ol’ goin’ on in there. Which, I’m perfectly fine with. The tomatoes continue to produce, the Mexican sour gherkins continue to grow like crazy and the tilapia are eating, swimming and pooping as they should be.
• The olive egger from early September’s hatch is growing well and making friends with his hatch mate, the cream legbar.
• The deer have no problem coming into the yard munching on leaves and apples we haven’t picked yet.
• We got a blue eyed buckling! My hope is that he will be our herdsire and we will begin a small Nigerian Dwarf Goat breeding program.

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Already well in to Augsut and here’s what going on:

• Tilapia feeding time
• An Easter Egger has decided to sit on eggs in the goat house.
• There is a cucumber growing in the herb barrel that I didn’t plant. Weird. It’s doing well, so I’m leaving it.
• Farmer John made me a hall table out of an old closet door. I love it! It holds cookbooks and cookie cutters.
• White leghorns are one of my favorite breeds for egg laying. They don’t eat a ton, and not too much disrupts their laying.
• A deer and our goat, Sven, ate dinner together one evening. Neither one seemed bothered by the other.
• For the first time I harvested mint to make mint extract. It’s sitting nicely in the cupboard for awhile. Hopefully it turns out as good as my friend’s did.
• I’m also making calendula oil for the first time. I love the calendula flower and I’m excited to turn it into a salve or soap.
• Farmer John picked peaches at a local orchard and canned them. He would have liked to have canned more, but he ran out of time.

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• Flowers are blooming.

• Tomatoes in the greenhouse are ripening.

• The lighting on our patio is up and it’s beautiful. We did sparklers already.

• Many snakes have been calling the greenhouse home. I’m assuming they enjoy the warm temperatures. Unfortunately, one didn’t make a good choice in his exploring. The pump on the aquaponics system wasn’t running, which is always a big concern for Farmer John. When he investigated, he found a snake had climbed through the pipes and got caught in the pump. The outcome was not good for the pump or the snake.

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• The grape vine has taken off

• I think the deer mama’s have gone off to have their babies. There are a couple yearlings walking around by themselves wondering what to do.

• Apples! We have struggled getting our fruit trees to actually grow and produce. I see quite a few apples on 2 of our trees. Woo hoo!

• Waiting impatiently for the raspberries to ripen.

• A flock of cedar waxwings have ventured our way. I love them.

• Foxgloves in bloom are my cue that summer is here!

• Sven mid chew.

• I let the cilantro flower. Oops.

• Our Littles are growing up.

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Spring is here and I’m loving it. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, and I’ve been busy checking items off my outside to-do list.

• Farmer John brought home 4 chicks – 2 Welsummers & 2 Delaware. We have one Welsummer, but the Delaware chicks are new to us. They are a breed John has been wanting, so when he saw them he had to bring them home.

• A few herbs got transplanted into the garden, but many are still in the greenhouse and garage.

• I planted flower seed in the meadow and around the front pond, as well as around the pond in the bird village.

• I love the deer, but dang it I’d wish they’d eat only the weeds and leave my flowerbeds alone. I am thankful, though, that they quit nibbling on my lilac. It’s taken it a few years, but it’s finally looking fabulous.

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• I think our seedlings are enjoying the warmer weather. They seem to really have taken off. #exciting!

• The ladies have started laying well again. Woop, woop!

• Our plum tree is blooming!

• The one good thing about being down to only one duck is that the fish in our ponds are out a lot more. They don’t have to stay in hiding anymore.

• We often have deer around. Lately, there have been 3 hanging around. They have nibbled on all the day lily leaves.

• The fodder. Oh, the fodder. I’m beginning to think the barley is just not good seed. 99.9% of it doesn’t sprout. This week’s experiment was putting rye grass on one side and barley on the other of the same container. This way I know they are getting the same exact attention. The rye grew great. The barley didn’t. I’m going to try the barley one more time before deeming the seed bad. My one change this time will be to initially soak it for less time. When I get home this evening I’ll set it in it’s tray and hope for the best.

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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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