Hurrah for Spring!

Spring has finally, really sprung here at Calamity Acres. 

It's been a wet one, 

as evidenced when I cut the pasture this week. 

I have never had this much standing water in the pasture before, at least, that I remember, and I was always the one who mowed it. 

I would not normally mow when it is this wet, but we have had so few dry days, 

and now we are being told that there will be five days of storms next week. 

I left a patch in the middle high, for the bees (clover) but also for the ducks. 

I just looked out my office window, and that's where they are laying right now. 

As my hay was delivered last night, I pointed out to my friend T.J. to look 

down there and he laughed...One stuck his head up to check us out. 

I leave grape jelly out for the Baltimore Orioles, and several of the chickens have 

checked it out. 

My remaining seedlings are coming along well, and I hope to get them in 

the ground tomorrow morning, before the storms start. 

Sometimes it's hard to get in and out. 

I have to tell you, I am SICK of poop on my porch and deck. 

I put up a $4000.00 fence in March (yes, 4000.00). 

It worked for about ten minutes. 

I know where the gap is, but if I plug it.... the ducks will not have access to the pasture. 

I have one other option... to enclose the back of the old henyard again.... the sheep have torn the fence there and go in and out, and so do the chickens.  If I plug the gaps, they will all be banished to the south side of the two acre yard. 

Yes, I like my chickens. 

No, I do not like poop everywhere. 

I have had so many goldfinches this year, male and female, and lots of house finches. 

I have two Baltimore Orioles visiting daily. 

There's another visitor I have been seeing regularly. 

One hot day last week, I found all four sheep in the barn, out of the sun.  

Just so you know, there are numerous shade trees in the pasture.... but they prefer the barn. 

Of course, they all four had to follow me back outside to see what I was doing. 

As you can see, Cookie is almost as big as his mama, Flicka, at four months!

Niblet is a big girl, too, but still Fluffy's baby.  See the lambs' dirty knees? 

They have to kneel down on the ground to nurse now, but they still do. 

I was so lucky to have two very good mamas. 

My perennial garden is woefully overgrown at the moment, the worst ever.  I am still coping with my orthopedic boot, and will be, it now appears, until close to the end of June. 

I would show you pictures of the garden from my phone,  but I can't get them to load, so... we will look back at this date last year: 

One thing I hope to do this year is dig up those long beds and replant them. 

If you were to ask me why I am still blogging after ten years, I would have to tell you that 

it brings me such great pleasure to look back on the changes we made to this place, which was a lonely little house with some lonely little outbuildings in 2005 when we bought it, 

and is now a lovely home.  I could not have done it without Keith... and his heart and soul lives on here still.  It makes me so happy to look back at all the great times we had here with 

family and our animals.  It gives me pleasure to still live here and remember it all.