Seeing Green

Spring is finally springing at the farm. I saw the first of the leaves on the trees this week and I swear I could smell lilac, although that is impossible so early. After so many months with the windows closed I'm loving having them open all day long. And so is Spike the sparrow, he's parked on top of his cage watching the goings on in the back yard. The chickens have a special call if they see a hawk and I was surprised to see that Spike knows it as well. They call, he hides. It's very cool.

I spent a day with the little horses grooming off their winter coats. Ben and Skylar adored it. Sky couldn't resist lipping me when I rubbed her belly. It's the horse version on a dog waving his back leg when you scratch him just right.

Candy let me brush out her mane and all down her neck and back, I even got to rub her chest. It's such an improvement from when we first got her and she'd spook every time you walked toward her. Dex won't let me touch him period, so I just stood next to him for about half and hour and didn't even try to touch him. Eventually he reached out and nuzzled my leg. Just a matter of time and he'll let me brush him too.

The hens are laying like mad, close to 20 eggs a day. I have nearly 20 dozen in the fridge and am trying to give them away! My neighbor wants to buy 2 dozen eggs for his daughters biology class. They want to incubate them. I'm not going to sell to him. If they had a plan for the chicks after they hatch them, maybe, but I don't want them to be thrown out or given away to kids who have no clue how to care for them. Chickens are not disposable.

Beauty and Lily are broody, and since I take away all the eggs they've decided to hatch each other. I'll go to collect eggs and Lily will be on top of Beauty trying to keep her warm. Silly girls! Beauty is more into it than Lily anyway. Lily will spend a lot more time outside, so she's not 100% broody. If I did give her eggs to hatch they probably wouldn't, because she's not committed.

All of the vegetables are started indoors and growing well. I transplanted the eggplant into bigger containers this week and they look amazing. I'll transplant tomatoes and peppers next, I just need it to be warm enough for them to go out in the greenhouse first. I've run out of room under the grow lights. Hopefully we will be able to start planting outside this week. Potatoes, beets, lettuce, peas, and greens will go in first. I'm so excited for summer and fresh vegetables!

In other news the bee guy will be setting up his hives this weekend, the bees will be coming May 6. Also super excited for that, I hope I'll have some honey from our place for my book club girls this fall.

Now I'm going to go out and enjoy the rest of this gorgeous day, looks like we're in for some rain tomorrow.

Heated

I just had a heated argument with my sister in law as to whether or not it is ok to force medical treatment on the elderly/dementia patients. This argument continued for a good 15 minutes despite the fact that we were essentially arguing the same side.

I am unquestionably against forced treatment for any condition, dementia or not. The right to decide is a basic human right, death and/or suffering cannot deny. NO ONE can make decisions for ANYONE regarding anyone ELSE'S healthcare. Is this hard to understand?

I still think she is secretly for it (she used 'the what if they were children?' argument.) That does not fly with me, even as a child I denied that and as an adult the idea utterly sickens me. NO ONE can take that right away from me.

Google

I love google.

It has the answers, or at least a close approximation of them, for every question. For instance, tonight I googled 'does a kiln get hot enough to cremate a human body'. The answer is yes by the way. Even a low quality kiln reaches high enough temps to cremate a body quite quickly. One hour per 100 pounds body weight.

Also searched by me: is bone cancer hereditary? How much does it cost to set up a bee hive? Will you die if you inject soy sauce into your vein? Is the stone of scone real? Are there new (futurama/pushing daisies/firefly (I love firefly!) episodes?)? However the most searched question is "WHO IS THAT? What have they been in???

I have to say all of my google questions have to do with tv or movies I'm watching at the moment. Also, most involve alchohol.

However Google, or the human race perhaps, has failed on this one question: How much does it cost to start a crematorium?

The question has been asked at least once before, but with no answer. Google...you disappointed me.

Girls Weekend!

My friend Sophia & I took off on a girl's weekend last month. The plan: Eat, drink, hike. Mission accomplished!

Snow shoeing Carlton Peak

We saw approx. 1,000,000,000 deer. This one almost came up to the window of the car.

Best burger EVER! Rustic Inn & Cafe's bleu burger. Unbelievable. I would drive the five hours, just for this burger.

Snow shoes are fun! Rented for the day for $15 a pair.

Hiking without snowshoes was a bit dangerous. It wasn't just soft fluffy snow, it was ice.

The view from our room Cliff Dweller Hotel. It was a bargain to boot! Only $80 a night.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory in Canal Park in Duluth provided the caramel apple with chocolate and pecans. Mmmmmm.

Nothing like a flight of beer at noon, yeah baby!

Fitgers Brewery in Duluth had an excellent lunch + booze! Does it get any better?

This is our second girls trip. Last year we went to Palm Springs for a week, amazing hiking there as well. Hoping it will be a yearly thing. Our dream trip would be Scotland...

Spring Things

With my access to facebook cut off, (thank you very much glitchy computer) I have so much more time to be here which is good... I think.

It's been a busy spring, mostly because it's been compacted into a shorter time period by the weather. It's hard to do stuff around the farm when it's 10* F and there's 4' of snow on the ground. There still is a bit of snow in places but it's mostly gone now and I have been working like a madman.

The new fencing for the chicken yards is almost all up. SO excited about it. It looks so nice, and best of all is mobile so we can move it around to give them access to fresh grass when they've trampled their current supply. My hands took a beating getting it up though, I'm going to have a few new scars from this. I actually cut every single finger on my left hand while putting the fence panels together. Quite impressive.

The chickies are doing wonderfully. They are just loving being outside all day long. The boys have even been getting along (so far). And we have eggs GALORE! They laid 27 eggs yesterday, incredible! Tim has been selling them at his new job, which is fabulous. Dad has been taking them to work and selling them as well, and mom brings them to coffee with her friends and unloads a bunch.

I checked egg prices at Rainbow and it was $3. for a dozen organic brown eggs, what a rip off! First off the organic label is a total load. It doesn't mean the feed is a better quality, the USDA inspects all animal feed. And it certainly doesn't mean the hens are treated any better. They're still crammed into tiny spaces or crates, that's just how they raise layers in this country.

My girls eggs are just better because they are FRESH and they have access to the great outdoors and grass. No guilt with these eggs, the girls get tucked in at night and snuggled during the day. Ahh, I love my feathered ladies .

On the other hand the little horses are a filthy mess. Spring is always muddy and actually it's been an okay year mudwise. Other years have been much worse. All the same, any mud at all and they will find it and roll in it daily, it's a horse thing. My obsessive need to clean just has to be put on hold until it dries up, it's pointless to brush them right now.

We did get their hooves done by a pro. Nice guy, lives right down the road. He did an excellent job and the horses even behaved themselves.