Spring is Springing!

Hello All!

Ahhhh, spring is springing up here in our parts.  Though we've still snow on the ground, there is definitely signs of springs eminent arrival.  There is melting, the sun has tilted and days have become longer, the chickens are itching to get out of their coop in the earlier daylight, the garden beds are almost uncovered, seeds are ordered.  One of my very favorite harbingers of spring is definitely the return of the birds from their winter vacation.  We've had sitings of gold finches, robins, morning doves, sparrows, red winged black birds, many types of woodpeckers and several different hawks.

This was the lovely bare ground we had showing on Sunday when I started the post.  I went outside to take these pictures and the router for our internet decided to reset itself. It took 2 days for the tech support people to solve our problem, and in that interim, we are currently having 12+ inches of snow predicted to fall today.  We're at about 6 inches currently, and they are wanting snow until about midnight.  Sigh.  So. Very. Tired. Of. Winter. This year, ready for it to be gone and us onto green pastures.

 

Well, in order to cheer myself up, I'm gonna continue posting the pictures that showed us closer to spring. I need it for my mental health as we're all snowed in today.  The boys are home from school on a snow day and Music Man is taking the day to work from home.  It makes the stress level much better in that we don't have to worry about him driving in this or getting out of our very vertical driveway.  But, to be honest, it increases the stress level because the kids playroom is in the same space as his home office and so it's never quiet for him when they are home.  Ah...the challenges of living in a small home very close together with two loud boys.

 



When I went out to check on the chickens, I found two eggs.  We routinely get only two eggs each day, even with the increased sunlight.  This beauty is one of my layers, her name is Rosie.  She's Little Red's chicken, an Auracona. A real beauty, isn't she?  She's also the one who will chat the whole time she's out there with us, giving us the scoop on the soap opera in the coop.  She's very talkative and will make her little moaning chits over and over while she's emphatically conveying her world to you.  It's really quite endearing and I love her, she's the one who will let us pick her up without a fuss and pet her.  She's a sweetie chickie pie.

This is not Rosie's egg, hers are blue-green.  This is our Black Sexlink's egg, she is a black beauty names Irish.  She is the other consistent layer in the bunch.  I'm not sure what's to do about the other 5 girls that aren't currently laying, and haven't since they started to molt last September. It's costing me about $50 in organic feed each month for me to get about 50 eggs....hmmmmm...currently that's $1.00 per egg. Now, I don't care how good they are, no chicken egg is worth that investment.  Going to have to do something about that soon.  We may be culling a few.  I'll give them a little more time to get back on the spring laying schedule, but if they don't start to do more then eat all that feed and pick each other's feathers out, they will be on the fast track to the stew pot. Sorry, I know it's harsh, but honestly, I'm not keeping pets here.  They need to earn their keep around these parts.

The white lilac bush is budding already.  We had a bit of a stretch of warm weather for a few days and it seems to have jump started the process.  I know we're currently getting buried under 12+ inches of snow, but hopefully it will melt fast and we'll start to see some of the spring flowers peek through that snow. I'm needing the joy and cheer of crocus', tulips and purple hyacinths.

Look at all that bare ground!  This was the field in the back of our property a mere two days ago...just waiting for the loveliness of spring to continue and green up those fields.  Right now, outside of the lovely shade of blue of our skies, our surroundings are quite monochromatic.  And it's getting a bit depressing to say the least.

And here are two of the garden beds...almost uncovered!  The ones in back of me while I took this picture are actually under much deeper snow as it had drifted on that particular part of the field.  I can just taste the tomatoes that will be coming up soon!

The little goldfinch in the sage is just waiting for spring as well.  We're all ready, aren't we?  It's time for the grass to show it's green, the leaves to present their colors and some warmer sunshine!

I'll leave you with Snowball, our proud and handsome rooster.  Warm spring wishes and garden dreams to you all, ~Peacemom