Daffodils! At the Grace Note

And so, spring rolls in.  As the old homestead has thawed, so many beautiful daffodils are popping up everywhere!  It's been amazing to see them peeking up from all corners (even in one of my compost piles!)

The path down to the basement of the barn is lined with them.  I think it's interesting how a little used area would be so attended to with flowers, but it sure is.  I know they will multiply on their own, so maybe it's nicely fertile for them there or something.  In any case, they are a spring show we've truly enjoyed here.  Also seeing some other flowers popping up, crocuses and hyacinths...

and these crazy beauties.  I'm not sure what they are, but my friend Diane told me she has them, too and they turn into beautiful yellow flowers on tall stalks.  Can't wait to find out what they look like!

I've unearthed the 4 garden beds that were existing here previously.  They are small, but will do nicely for my potatoes and peas for now.  I was cleaning the last one and found it to be overgrown with a very tough root system. So, I hacked and hacked at it, tearing it out so that I could plant in the bed.  Then on the last bit of chopping I was doing, I noticed a slight white root...and I discovered it was an asparagus bed that had not yet started to bud!!!  Ohhh, I was so mad at myself, I have always wanted an asparagus bed and just dug up one that was already here, and quite old gauging by the stalk that was making it's appearance.  So mad at myself!  I have never actually planted it, though always wanted to and didn't know what the root stock looked like.  This is why you should always live in a place for a while before you do something like chop the heck out of the beds.  Now, I know this to be sage advice, but in my eagerness to get this place productive, I didn't follow such advice.  I did manage to rescue some of the root balls and stuck them back in the ground, but it will be years before they are productive again.  Living and learning the hardest way possible.

New meat chicks are doing well.  Going on 3 weeks tomorrow.  We lost a total of 4 birds, not really sure why, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with them in particular.  The heat lamp was a little higher then prudent at one point while we were first working out the lighting situation, and one of them did pass right after that, so not sure if that was the cause or not.  At week 2, Music Man threw together a new enclosure for them as they had badly outgrown the one we thought would be good for a while.  They have about tripled in size since they got here, so it was necessary.  They are happily dust bathing constantly and my house is full of dust, so I'm anxious to get them outside now.  We think another week or so and they can go in the little coop with the lights on, at least that's the goal.  We just need the nights to be warmer and their big bird feathers to come in more.  Right now they are looking like gangly pre-teens.   Ahhh...to be dust free again!  It's coming, I know it!

Alright so that's the update on our little homestead here.  We've officially named it Grace Note Farm, so, it's on the local agricultural society's map as such. Must be official then, right?  I've got lots of seeds peeking up from their little cells in the dining room, great slider there for that action.  Still working on the hoop house so we can get those outside, too, hoping to get that completed finally this weekend.

As a parting shot, one more of our lovely daffodils, harbingers of spring...



 

Bienvenue le pretemps!  ~Peacemom