This weekend we have 3 inches of snow blanketing the ground.
But last weekend, we had a gorgeous spring bubble of dry, warm weather which allowed me to work in some of the garden beds and get the party started out there. continued »
Last weekend, I got the year’s crop of onions started in flats. Now, just a week later, they are sprouted and reaching little green strings for the sky (which is really just a bunch of growlights strung on shelves in a sunny south-facing bay of windows). And not a moment too soon! continued »
Happy Spring! This year the first day of spring appears to be rather a mixed bag of seasonal messages. The temperature is not to reach 50 today, but the sun is out sporadically and the ground is more or less thawed. Returning sandhill cranes have been squawking overhead for about a week, Canadian geese have in the past few days taken up residence in our neighbor’s soggy field next door and spring peepers have started singing in Madison, though we are still waiting to hear them in our slough. Perhaps the most sure sign that we’ve turned the corner from winter is that our chickens, ducks and goose are finally starting to lay in earnest. Eggs are back! continued »
After a week of thaw and rain and flooding creeks, we’d just changed our down blankets for cotton comforters. Then this morning we woke up with the back porch thermometer between 0 and 10 degrees. We’d sort of gotten our minds around spring, but there is no doubt the weather will be up and down for quite a while still here in southwest Wisconsin. Nevertheless, much of our early garden is already going strong in the house, thanks to the warmth of the woodstove and the surrogate sun of multiple grow lights. continued »
The barn is one of my favorite places to be. The smell of the sheep and their hay, the quiet murmur of chickens, the gentle nudge of goats nibbling on my clothes, the rub of cats around my ankles. Here is a first look at the new lambs in their cozy pen at the back of the little barn. You’ll notice how silent the barn is – the only sounds you hear are the tapping beaks of the chickens stealing grain out of June’s feed dish. Lambs are very quiet when they are near their mother and not hungry – that’s how you know day-old lambs have successfully established a nursing relationship. If you walk into a barnyard and hear a lamb bawling, it’s either lost its mom or she’s not feeding it. June is doing a wonderful job with Barbie and Bambi, and here we see them at three days old beginning to explore their world – chickens, cats, food, buckets, walls and fences. continued »
“A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish…” I love these words from the Old Testament book of Isaiah. While I’m mindful that, in context, these words have to do with world-changing themes of justice, redemption and the nature of Jesus Christ, I can’t help but feel them directed toward myself today. Yesterday afternoon I found two just-born lambs in the corner of the little stone barn – healthy, beautiful and happily tagging along behind their attentive mama. What a relief after the sheep defeats we’ve had these past few weeks! Baby that I am, I don’t think I could have mentally taken another bad experience. continued »
