The weather man just said that we could reach a high of 60+ today, back in the 40s tomorrow. Mother Earth throwing a pleasant April Fools our way.


we came from here: The thread "March, can spring be far?" in Farming forum

Crazy weather for sure. But I hope the warmth comes and stays. Lots of spring bulbs starting to show here.

Cold here again today after a nice Monday; albeit windy yesterday and today. We're off to Madison after the SU gets the beasts fed. He has an acupuncture appointment, but we have to stop at Farm & Fleet in town for a couple things, then a stop at a shop to drop off a car alternator. And of course we will have lunch out after his appointment. While he is there I'm going across town to get some protein powder and then will stop off at the Mini dealership and see if they have time to wash "Orca". Gads, he is full of salt and dirt residue. And you get a free car wash anytime you want. Maybe we can catch a movie before we come home, as the neighbor and her SU got us a movie gift card for Marcus Theaters. We'll see if anything trips our trigger.

I suppose I will put Mindy cat back in the g'house today since it's kinda crummy out.

April 1st means small flowers are blooming.

Crocus in the new front yard daylily bed.

It's very April-ly today, chill and sprinkly right now, with more intense rain on the way. I've done my 15 minutes of raking the black walnuts out of the side yard for the day. It is quite apparent that I've been working over there now. I saved a small bucketful of husks for dyeing at a future time to be determined by the weather. I wish I knew someone close who wanted these. Stan said he'd take them back to the woods, maybe some would grow in spite of our heavy clay ground.

I have lost a bunch of crocus this year. I didn't think that was possible, but the yellow snow crocus that lined the middle path are down to only two or three clumps. We had days of sub-zero weather with open ground, so I guess I should consider myself lucky to have any come back. There is also a large clump of Dutch iris gone missing.

Stan was out yesterday in the fair weather rolling some barbed wire up at Melissa's. I remember the last day we saw Adam, he and Stan were talking about that, and Adam said he planned to get it done when he felt better. He died the next day, almost a year now. The human spirit is a remarkably resilient thing. When I look at Melissa and the kids and see how far they have come and how much a part of their everyday lives they have made Adam's memory, I thank God.

Kathleen, you don't eat any of the black walnuts? My son has one tree but it's really old so it doesn't produce much but my mother has lots so she sends them down to him because he loves black walnuts. I have never used them for dyeing but I know they make pretty bad staining!

I'm sure Stan was thinking about Adam as he rolled that wire too. I am glad Melissa and the kids are doing well.

We have a new arrival at the farm, a baby goat. A doe. First time momma is very protective.

Kathleen!

Arlene, the baby is so cute.

Had two of the same post here, so I deleted this one since the other one has the link with a picture of fermenting crocks.

Sun, clouds, rain and then hail, and now sun again. That's been our day so far. I have pea seed soaking and had planned to plant them later today. That little job might just have to wait as rain is in the forecast again for tomorrow. The clay soil will be just too sticky to manage. I might pour the pea seed into a large, flat pan, keep them moist and carefully plant them with sprouts coming out. My neighbor is planting potatoes today, or was. Another neighbor was discing a field. I see that the tractor is parked now, and I'm guessing that he won't do any more in that field until it has had a few days to dry.

New calves are everywhere! Most of the ranches around us have a lot of calves already. Our neighbor's cows are on a later schedule, and have had the first 3 calves. Four actually, but I am just counting the live ones. The 4th was DOA. Hopefully that will be his only loss. We didn't loose many lambs this year, less than usual I think, or at least no worse. One lamb was born with only one hind leg, but surprisingly he gets around as well as the others, although it did take him a while to learn how to pull himself along with his front legs and hop with the back one.

I just washed a 3 or 4 gallon crock that had been in our basement. It is cracked, so not good for food anymore, so I will use it for my supply of kindling. Until now we have used a box. The crock will look a lot better and not take up any more room. We have 2 other larger crocks in the basement that I will try to sell through a local antique store. I don't have a use for them if they won't hold water. I need to invest in a genuine fermenting crock. My neighbor has 2 of them, with lids, and has to add water to the air lock daily. Each has a trough around the top and the lid fits into it. When the pressure builds up in the crock, it releases a bubble which is a pleasant sound, sort of musical. The gasses from the fermenting process can be released without any air entering. I'll have to ask where he bought them, as somehow he got a good shipping rate. He ferments a lot of things. There are health benefits connected to eating fermented food. I'll look online for a picture and link it here if I find one.

Link
http://www.harvestessentials.c...

I have never done fermenting but I have been talking to some people who do and I think I will try it next year when I am no longer babysitting.

We have a milking/chore job.....started last Friday and going thru this coming Sat. night, the 12th. 110 cows. there are 3 of us in the barn most of the time, so it's not so bad. I help feed the bottle calves-18 right now. But this morning when I got up there after milking Chad had the bottles fed and cleaned up. I watered and fed the calf starter. The parents are gone, the 2 adult sons are there, plus a couple of other guys. So I'm just "help" and the SU is mixing the feed. We're only there about 2 1/2 hours each time. I don't much like the 5 am slogging out of bed, tho.

snow caught in the grass here this morning. The roads are just wet, but we've got an inch or so on the ground and the flat surfaces.

Neighbor that rents our cropland has started planting corn. I'd think it's a bit chilly, but he's got probably 2,000 acres each of corn and beans, so I suppose it's prudent that he get with it. LOL

The 9 day job is history; it went well, but it was helpful that we were just "fill-in's" and that someone in authority was there all the time. It makes it SO much easier if we don't have to "think". Just "do".

I have lots to get done in my gardens. I have plants already to set out of all sorts of tomatoes, eggplants and peppers. And I was able to find onion sets. Better late than never on the onion sets.

Maybe I can get a good crop of onions. I seem to have a very difficult time getting a decent crop of onions.

It's garlic weeding time. I lost a lot of it because I should have mulched it. We had sub zero temps for about a week with no snow cover. I had wondered when I was planting it where I was going to hang all of it to dry, and now I don't have to wonder because there will only be about half as much as I expected. The weeds came up before the garlic, so weeding has been a down on my knees job. Today I mowed the lawn for the first time, it was overdue. Now the flower beds look worse than before I mowed, something like washing half a window. The grass clippings were hauled down the hill to the asparagus rows. I water them with those black weepy hoses, and leave them in place over the winter. they will last longer if protected from the sun, so a thick layer of grass clippings does that, helps control weeds and when it breaks down, it feeds the plants.

Sounds good!

Mary, that's too bad about the garlic, live and learn I guess, still... I hope you get a decent crop from whats left.

Oh no, so sorry about losing your garlic! We mulched ours but I still had a ton of henbit. And most was not pulled before it set blossom so we'll probably have a repeat this fall.

We use our grass clippings as mulch too. Well, the part of the farm we mow. The other part gets mowed but not collected. I did get wheat straw last fall we are using.

New month, new thread here: The thread "May, dare we say SPRING?" in Farming forum