Starting to feel like spring!

Yesterday and today were the kind of days that make you start thinking it's getting pretty darn close to spring! The kind of day where you feel like digging in the dirt and cutting back all the ugly dead stuff on your plants from last year. It was sunny and crisp and in the mid 40's. Wonderful!


So Frank and I decided to tackle the two raised beds we have. We filled them with manure (thanks horses!) and it turned into wonderful 'black gold', but it also cooked down to where they are not full enough any more. Here is the herb garden, with supervisor Katie of course, with the herbs removed so that Frank can move more dirt from our vegetable garden.


Of course our veggie garden is still in its winter phase. You can see where we have dumped some manure (and will continue to dump more) to add more organic material to the soil. Right in front of Frank you can also see the few leeks that are left from last year's crop; and they're still good too! I've been using them all along. Anyway, Frank is mining some good soil to move over to the herb garden. Our neighbor and friend, Eric, will come over with his BIG rototiller (works off the PTO on his tractor) and work it over really well for us in early May.


Of course there is no project on this farm that goes unsupervised. We have discovered that the donkeys are much more adventurous eaters than the horses, so when I trimmed the lavender, I threw it out to them and Lily just munched it down, woody stalk and everything. They also have done an amazing job keeping the blackberries down in their fields. Good donkeys!


We also had digging help as you can see by the dirt on Sandy's nose. Actually, she was digging and sticking her nose into the mole hills. It'd be nice if she'd actually catch one or several, as they are really making a mess of our lawn and pasture. Someone said to try dropping cat turds down their holes. Now that doesn't sound like a fun time to me on many levels, but I'm desperate and just about to try it!


So here's the herb garden put back together. Across the back of the bed we have two kinds of rosemary (my favorite) on each end, and then oregano and thyme between them. We use the front of the bed for early crops like lettuce and peas because they can be planted quite early here, and well before the big garden is even tilled for this season.


These last two pictures show another sign of spring: horse feed and supply quantities that have shrunk over the winter! You might remember (or look back) to my blog entry that shows the hay packed to the rafters. There were 264 bales to be exact, but now there are about 60 of the regular horse hay near the back, and the lighter stuff toward the front is Maddie's teff hay. Those bales are 125 pounds a piece, so I'm not that excited about moving them back even though there is room for them now!

The picture below shows the corner of the barn that holds the pelleted bedding and my extra beet pulp. I bought 8 bags of beet pulp and I'm halfway through the 5th one, so I think I might have over bought as it worked out to using just over one bag a month. Better to have too much than too little! I will not need it past about April 1st when the grass is in. As far as the pelleted bedding goes, I am really happy how my supply has lasted. I started with 120 bags and have 41 left, meaning I've used 2/3's of my supply with only about 6 weeks left before the 4 biggies go outside full time. I should have plenty to get me through the summer with only the mini's coming in at night (so they don't get eaten by cougars!).


One thing I wanted to point out was my new leaf blower! Boy am I having fun with that. Beats the heck out of sweeping the barn and does a much better job! I just start at one end and blow down the aisle to the other end in a corner where I can pick it up! I want to tackle the cobwebs soon, but am afraid of sending big honkin' spiders flying around, so maybe I'll use the vacuum feature instead!

I know that many of my blog readers don't live in as temperate a climate as ours and will be waiting for spring for a couple of months yet. You poor things! Maybe you should come visit! Regardless, I hope you are enjoying your pre-spring weather and dreaming of green things to come.