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.