Spring is really here!!

First, my apologies again to my faithful readers, a few of whom were kindly chiding me to bring the blog up to date. I was complaining that I didn't feel like I had anything new to say, but was reminded that even an update of the simple things is enough. So here are some simple things!

Now I used to think that Fall was always my favorite season, but living on a little farmette is making me appreciate spring very much as well.


We do not have any tulips or daffodils on our property, but we do have one other plant that often is the first to show some life in spring. Here is our rhubarb coming up for the second year now. This poor rhubarb has had a rough life. The first year we planted it, Frank kept running over it with the mower. I finally drove a stake by it so he could see where it was and that solved the problem for that year. The next year I noticed the rhubarb really struggling to get strong and the leaves looked really tattered and I couldn't figure it out. Then one day I noticed that chickens like rhubarb too!! (When the chickens are bad, we refer to them as The Peckers. Bad Peckers!) So this spring I have it protected so hopefully it'll be the near-weed that it's supposed to be!


I know this is not a good picture, but it is showing another sign of spring here at Red Pony Ranch: the blueberry bushes are budding. We planted these lovely bushes just last year, so seeing that they made it through a fairly harsh winter for these parts is a relief. We planted 5 and 6 year old plants, so we should have a decent crop this year. That is if we can keep the peckers out of there! Darn Peckers!


Last year we also planted two hazelnut/filbert trees. These trees need two to polinate each other. These little hangy things are made in late fall and hang on the trees all winter and these are what spread the pollen back and forth. We haven't gone a full season with them, so I am interested in which part actually becomes the nut. Hopefully this crop will be pecker-proof!


One thing I love to see growing and Frank isn't too crazy about is the GRASS!! That means that my leased pasture is getting ready to for the boys to move over for the rest of spring, all of summer and fall until about mid-October. It feeds them completely, except for their vitamins/supplements during that time. That is a relief to the feed bill, let me tell you! The winter pasture here at home will be fertilized then left to rest and will recuperate in a month or so while the donkeys are sequestered up by the barn. We are very blessed to be able to grow good grass here. The downside is that we have to mow our lawns very frequently, but to me it's worth it.


The other day I was cleaning the barn and my hair kept falling in my face, so I did what most farm girls do and reached for the baling twine and tied it back out of my way. Then I forgot about it. When Frank came in he noticed and got a kick out of my ingenuity and resourcefulness, so he snapped a couple of pictures.


There are many things on our farm that are held together with baling twine, and I'm sure if you have some, you're using it in creative and useful ways as well! We use it quite a bit in our garden to string things that climb and to mark rows while we're planting seeds and waiting for them to germinate. I heard you can even jury-rig a fan belt in an emergency! Hopefully I won't have to test that one!