Dare I Say the "S" Word?

I'm beginning to have hope that winter is finally loosening it's death grip on us here at LazyDanes. I also hope that typing "spring" won't hex the whole event. We've had several gorgeous days this past week and have thoroughly enjoyed them. It's been great being outside with the animals and seeing all that we've been able to accomplish in just 1 year!

In farm progress news, the front of the milking shed is painted. I still have some green touch up and the trim to go on the sides but we're getting there. We now have some counters in- thanks to Doug and Kat! They're old kitchen cabinets that have been re-homed very nicely. Now there's just the sink and the milking stand to go!




We've added to the plantings, also. The strawberries, onions, garlic and leaf lettuce are all in the ground. I'm watching the beds very carefully to see if anything sprouts. So far- nothing. This warm weather should speed things along, though.

All the animals are doing very well. The goats are enjoying their new area, not to mention all the honeysuckle that is starting to reappear with the change in weather. The does are looking more pregnant every day. Scarlet seems to be about a month further along than Merry. This fall we are going to plan the whole thing a little better, but at least we'll have milk this year.



The baby chicks are 5 weeks old. They are still in the brooder since it has still been below freezing at night. I'm hoping to be able to tell the girls from the boys soon and separate them. It'll be another 5 weeks until time to process them and another 10-15 before the girls start to lay, but they're filling out nicely. There is one little runt that I'm concerned about. It's legs are thinner and weaker than the other chicks and it lays down a lot. We'll see. All the chicks have been able to come out into their "play pen" and peck around the yard. Madison and Willow go in with them to hold them or hand feed them cereal. The older chickens poke around the outside watching them very carefully.



Rascal the duck is still doing very well. She gets to come out and hang with us whenever we're around. She stays very close, only going a little ways in to the woods to root around in the leaves, but she checks in frequently. If I'm moving around the farm a lot she waddles along close behind. Today I turned over a board and found her some delicious slugs. They're her favorite, right up there with Cheerios. She has also been laying us an egg a day, about twice the size of our chicken eggs and they taste the same to me.

Coming up in the next couple of weeks we'll be planting more, and hopefully having goat kids around the end of the month.

Think sprouting thoughts!