March 8, 2007

pring must be in the air.  We got into my seed duffle bag last night. I just weighed it and I am down to 8 pounds of seed in 300-some heirloom varieties. Some of the varieties are up to 300 years old. A couple people were coming over to sort seeds with me. I have been holding off as long as possible in order to avoid planting too early. But we all think we may have an early spring this year.

My seed bag is one of the first things I would save if we ever had a disaster with the house, pictures are right up there. All the yellow envelopes are seeds I am sharing with the person who was here. It is like not putting all my eggs in one basket. The deal for growing the seeds out is I get some of the new generation of seeds back to restock.

I am trying to figure out how I am going to get my indoor greenhouse out of the outdoor greenhouse. It still has about 3 feet of snow blocking the door. I am just itching to start planting something. But I never plant before the 17th of this month up here.

(Pictured below: Our steer calf and "Crystal" the milk goat)

The calf keeps getting out, now that I have "Crystal" our milk goat out where all the loose hay is down so she can clean it up. He decided he liked her company and squeezes through the fence to be with her. So far he has not tangled with her tie out. We are on our last bale of hay. It is 1,200 pounds and we hope it lasts to the middle of April, but the cows are eating so much now, as they are in the last stage of gestation. We may have to get one more.

This morning we got the chicken house all nice and clean again. It was not that bad, but it was sorta wet. I wanted to get the barns done after they were thawed and not frozen like concrete and before they dry out and again are like concrete. For cleaning a barn, they were the best condition they could have been. It was not that the barns were that gross, but I wanted it drier as it keeps the eggs clean. 7 eggs today. Not bad for agitating all the girls.

(Pictured above: One one of my Dark Brahma Roosters)

Still really windy here. I am sure it is helping melt all this snow off. I am late getting a few magazines out, but I WILL get them done this weekend. and sent out Monday if not tomorrow.

(Pictured above: Part of our flock. It consists of Plymouth Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and Dark Brahma. We will be getting some Buff Cochins this spring from Amy to make sure her proverbial eggs are not all on one basket. (A dog killed all of hers last year)