Hi, its so nice out there at the moment, come on in.. I know its so mild.. and plus 6 today and not so much wind.. that wind has been crazy for the last bit. I know they are calling for snow tonight but so far they have not changed their mind that we are to get plus 11 and plus 13 on the weekend.

I sure hope they are right because if so, I am planning a on doing on farm work, both in the garden area, the barns but mainly in regards to getting some butchering done..  the weather and cold only held me off for a full month on that plan. But you have to be able to feel your fingers while working lol

Coffee? Tea? A hot bowl of soup? I have a big old pot on the stove, it will be even better at supper time but its ready now.. Can slice up some bread to go with?

Got my onions sets in.. I don’t have a enough green bunching onions there yet but can pick up a couple more bags easy enough at the store and put them in the cool/dark pantry to hold them till I want to use them.

Hubby and I walked over the deck area from where you can and had a chat and agreed that I could turn it into a kitchen garden. I am quite excited about it. I will have to grow up a number of wild plants in that area so I can transfer them to a different spot, as I want to save them.. its been one of my area’s that I tend have a lot of wild violets and plantain for harvest and I want to save those genetics here on the farm.

Still it will be such a nice thing to be able to walk off the deck and gather things for the garden, I did worry a touch about the fact that it will not be “pretty” when you walk up the sidewalk but I can throw in some flowers and really if you are coming to the farm, surely you understand that I going to have a working garden lol. Right?

Sweetie the new milking sheep ewe is just wonderful.. she is increasing her milk flow daily plus feeding her lamb full time yet.  I am getting a 3 pints a day at this point.. she will come up to her average top late next week or early the week after. I expect she will be come at a liter a milking plus the lamb.

While I know that in her line, she can reach a gallon a day but as a first time girl and given she is young yet, I want her to reach her point naturally and I do not intend to pull the lamb from her till its 30 days and then we will do a share milking for another 30 days..

I am limiting what I will bring in the house doing this but I am good with it.. I certainly do not feel like I am short of milk in the house now as those beautiful jars fill up twice a day and are chilled in the fridge.

I do miss being able to use my rapid chill feature. I love it and normally do so when I am chilling out my milk but its not a good idea at the moment as I am also storing my mason bee’s in the same fridge and so I have to find a balance. I put the milk at the back in the coldest part of the fridge and I use pint jars to help drop the temp faster, and I keep the bee cooler more towards the front of the fridge. So far so good.

There is spots of green and spots of soil starting to show here and there.. the rings around the tree’s are growing.. the water is moving under that snow pack and there are so many more birds in the yard.. they are eating me out of house and home (kidding)  at the bird feeders.

The spring moving birds are thrilled with it and instead of being filled once a week, its barely lasting three days between fills. The geese have gone over a bit but yesterday.. they arrived! Hundreds of them came last night to bed down and feed in the back fields behind the farm. Most of that is flooded so they have water to swim, bath and the rest is slowly melting out so they can also look for bits of feed at the same time.

When I went out to do morning chores, they were talking.. they are so loud.. I have had my own geese out and enjoying them in the yard at least until I was attacked twice.. they are feeling spring as well.. so they are moved into their own pen off the pasture to keep them out and enjoying the fine weather.

Got my chicks, and turkey pullets ordered, they arrive first week of may, 12 big dual purpose dark brown egg layers, 50 meat birds.. I had planned on 30, then decided that I would go with 40 and then the gentleman at the store said. I can sell you 50 instead of 40 chicks and save you four dollars..  The price drop is that huge once you hit 50.. crazy but so be it.. and 10 Big white Meat turkey pullets.

They will be six weeks old for when we head out on our Holiday and so they will be past the trying stage for our farm sitter.. however if everything works out we will be butchering the meat chicks in the first two weeks of July before the real hard heat hits the farm.

I don’t plan on doing the turkey’s till fall but we will see how big they get and that might change..  I am still sad that I lost my big brown layers in the last weasel attack.. I didn’t need as many as I ordered but if there is one thing that will sell.. its nice big brown eggs at the farm gate 🙂

I look forward to setting and hatching ducklings.. and then seeing what the mother hens produce on their own nests. I have done my research and plan to use the ducks to help “seal” the pond. I expect they are going to be so excited to have a pond to swim on and in this year.

I am waiting for notice that the rolls of sheep fencing I have ordered have arrived at the store and waiting to be picked up.. I got a great one day sale at a hundred off per role.. as I needed four of them. That is a big chunk of savings for sure! I can use that 400 in a different way on the farm.. like a new big water tank to help increase our water saving ability.

Well, I am late getting this finished up and must run as I need to get ready for my online training class in regards to my training on becoming a Master Rain Garden Designer. Have a great day!