Pruning

After a quick tutorial by arborist and friend Robb Grace, www.gracetreeco.com,
I purchased a pruning saw and went to town. Hopefully I didn't kill them!

After (Left), and Before (Right)

Fruit Tree Massacre

Snowdrops in Snow

Bok Bok

I orderd our chicks today! The second week of April we will be owners of 4 day old baby girl chicks. Nori wants to name one Bok Bok and Pete wants to name one KFC. hmmmmmmmmmmm, not sure about that. It has been fun learning and researching the different breeds. This breed, I am most excited about: Brabanter. I mean, she is so ugly it's adorable.

     I attended a "How to Own Backyard Chickens" class, and realized that yes, I am going to be a farmer. There were several chicken owner responsibilities that made me feel this way. If a chicken gets her eggs stuck on the way out, guess who is the midwife? And some chicken's maternal instincts are so strong that they are convinced a chick will come out of its eggs, even though there are no roosters to be seen, so she sits and sits. Then I will have to counsel her "off the nest." But most daunting is what happens when our girls reach chicken menopause, and don't lay eggs anymore? I know I won't be taking her to our table, farmer or not. But I am farmer enough to not want to keep them around once they aren't filling the basket on my kitchen counter. That's right, I also learned that fresh eggs don't have to be kept in the fridge! They are fine at room temperature for a MONTH! And last in the fridge for 7 months. I don't think we'll have any lasting longer than a week. We average 18-24 eggs a week around here. We are expecting to get about 21 eggs a week from these ladies. But they don't start laying until 4 months old, about September. We also hope that they make it thru their infancy with us, as the first several weeks seem the most difficult. We are building a cardboard box brooder and have to keep them nice and warm until they are about 6-8 weeks old. Then, there's the neighborhood fox. I saw him TAKING A NAP on our porch the other day. Although, our chickens won't be free ranging it, according to local experts I still need to be worried. Now I need to learn how to trap.

Soon, we will begin

Today, I am sitting between.
Between winter, I am watching the snow fall in big gorgeous flakes, hopefully for the last time this season. And Spring, despite the snow, morning bird song greeted me today. "Thank you birds, " Miriam repeated yesterday, for reminding us that spring is just around the corner. Winter was a welcomed deep rest for us. After the stress of moving, then the holidays, we were grateful to settle into the dark days. Especially with the newness of our home and lots of new toys that the holidays brought. We played, created endless art projects, baked and read. Although we didn't spend a lot of time on our farm yard, we relished it's winter beauty. Almost to the day of the winter solistice the trees were laid bare, revealing a beauty hidden by leaves. The apple and pear trees braches are particularly wild, with shoots everywhere, reminding us that we will need to learn about their pruning soon. We learned which plants die back to the ground, while others kept a stalk of green or brown. A few bushes, evergreen, were clipped and brought indoors for Christmas. Before the blanket of snow came (which has been present since January,) I was thrilled to see the grass I planted sprouting. I was late getting it in, and happy it took root. We cleared a section of plantings and filled a rain garden hole last fall with the hopes of having a small area that is NOT farmed that we can all play in. One of my hopes was room to build a snow man, and as you can see from the photos, this magic came true.