Well, there is not much to tell except we are having an early spring. I do feel bad for those on the East Coast … and if it were me in the same situation I think I would be at wits end by now trying to take care of the folks, farm and home. Winter is hard enough with everything with out adding harsh weather. I know I had a very rough December and I was expecting some customers to come by and I ended up calling them on the phone, bawling my eyes out because I was at witts end.
The writing job is going well and I like it. It takes a lot of discipline to write an article every day. Sometimes I just don’t have it in me and I am not writing when I am tired because it is counter productive. The article always gets sent back with lots of bonehead mistakes.
GARDEN:
I have spent a lot of time today making little paper pots to start my plants in. I am starting green and red chard, lots of parsley because it dries easily, is one of the herbs I am studying and also it is good rabbit food.
Other herbs I am starting: calendula, white sage, mother wort, st johns wort and more. Those are just the ones I’m planting right now.
There are peas, radishes and beets already planted in the garden. The mice are in the peas already so I am going to put out bait and I am going to put some tule? tull? you know that wedding veil stuff … on the beets and radish bed to keep the birds and bugs off of it.
I moved the ewes today into the upper pasture. They will start lambing really soon, perhaps even tomorrow. I have found that if I feed them their hay before 11 am then they will lamb either in the morning or in the day. It is a scientifically proven fact, but right now they care more about spring grasses then alfalfa hay.
For the first time in years I put them in the horse pasture. It is not a good idea to do that with lambs but with ewes it is okay. There is always a risk with coyotes, but ewes are less likely to be attacked. My girls are fine and it bought me some time.
This year I did not put the ram in until October 1 and it has turned out to be a really good idea. I was able to stretch out the winter pasture fairly well and I still have hay left over to get through until the grass really starts to grow. I was out checking one of the shorter fields and it is growing nicely.
I realized this morning that I will need to sell all but 10-15 of my girls this summer. It makes me really sad and I try not to think about it. I will keep my 6 yearling ewes, some pets, and then four or five lambs from this year. It is going to be hard hard hard. I am watching my step father fade in his activity and I will have to step up more on that end and will have less time for playing with my critters.
Chickens and rabbits are doing fine. I am getting lots of eggs and I have two new litters of baby rabbits that are doing very well. I had a problem with rats this winter… but now that they are gone things are better.
Oh, I forgot. The propane lantern has worked out very well after all. That leaves me more electricity for other things and now most nights I just use the lantern and leave the batteries topped off. I am hoping that I will be able to get Wi-Fi down to the bus. That will be optimal. I would love to be able to work from home, even if I had to walk over to the window and hold the laptop up while the pages loaded *LOL*
My cat, Shadow, is the queen of the bus. I decided that the other two cats could live outside 100% of the time after they started spraying everywhere. One starts and then the other … *sigh* I felt bad doing it but I’m telling you I was so tired of coming home at night from working all day to a very stinky home. The boys are still around and they have lots of places to live around here. THe solar shed is open and I have cat beds in there and there are several barns and other places. In the meantime Shadow has not left the bus in days and for the first time in years she is putting on weight, in a good way. If she never leaves again it will be fine with me. She is 9 this year and that is pretty old for a feral farm cat.
That means my Molly Dog has been gone for 9 years and if Buddy Dog was still with me he would be 9 this year.
Boom is doing great. She is starting to really work off leash. I think that Border Collies get better with age and she has started to really get it. It was hard because I am not a teacher and she came with sooo many bad habits. She now herds cattle like a dream AND sticks to the cattle and does not decide to take off and go to the neighbors or jump over the fence and go and herd the sheep. She is still far too fast for the sheep though. Jake is Jake and his love for me is amazing. He patrols all night long, and infact I have to tie him up if I want uninterrupted sleep. He is really good at learning how to do tricks and we are working on learning some fun ones.
Okay, I’m getting sleepy so I’ll close this.
Thanks for reading 🙂 ~Lindy
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