Sooooo..............another month closer to spring. It can't come soon enough for me. I have had more than enough of the cold. Quite a bit of the snow has melted in the last couple of days, but tomorrow and Friday's temps are only supposed to be in the teens. Yuck. All this makes me kind of glad that we don't have any of the neighbor's heifers here. I think the SU likes that the only "chores" he really has to amble to the barn and do is feed the 3 barn cats. And he even told me today "the food out there won't last over the weekend, so if you're going to town, you better get a bag."

Porkpal............what are you up to? You seem to be about the only other person that "farms". You have horses, we have cats.

Spring seems to be here already - all the plants seem to think so. I've been spraying weeds, when it hasn't been too windy as it was today. So today I spent trying to control the Huisache in the 25 acre cow pasture. It has to be killed by coating each lower trunk with a penetrating herbicide; it's called a basal treatment technique. Lots of walking. If you mow the Huisache it multiplies like the sorcerer's apprentice's broom. Fortunately it is only really a problem in that one pasture. The horse paddocks have an issue with buttercups which need to be sprayed before they bloom - if the wind ever pipes down - and all the cow pastures need to be sprayed to reduce the amount of clover. I'm sure all the non-farmers now think I am poisoning the planet, but farming without herbicides would be impossible for me with our long growing season.

Stupid question, but why are you wanting to kill down the clover?

After the drought of 2011, so much clover came up in the pastures the next spring - no grass to compete with - that we had a problem with bloat. We only lost one steer, but there were dead cows in pastures all over the county. I don't want that again so I try to keep the clover in check, and in the process reduce many other broadleaf weeds that compete with the grass and are of no value to the stock.

Ohhhhhhhh....................

I'm still around but don't have much stock left .14 does that should start dropping kids any day now. I went to the VA for some meds last Sunday. They kept me till yesterday so I'm glad that we don't have much live stock. that seems to be the way things are going these days. Either my wife or I have been ill. Porkpal have a great spring and AnnaZ hope the rest of winter is mild and you have an early spring

while not a farmer, per se, it seems I may be raising deer in my orchard. Sophie , my terrier went ballistic the other night and I thought maybe something was nosing around my henhouse....nope. She was having a standoff with a huge buck in the orchard -- he'd be pretty if he weren't munching my newer fruit trees....

we're hoping to move far south from the midwestern winters - waiting to hear about an offer we made on a short sale in far sw Louisiana. The wait is brutal - we're at one month already. I did sell (sob) my beautiful John Deere tractor, bucket and mower...like to kill me to sell it. But moving forward, yes? today's high temp 22 with w/c of 15....done. LOL

Catherine

Fruit trees? Hens? You sound like a farmer to me. - I don't know that you can count the deer...

Catherine..................are you moving? Did the sale go through?

Not much snow left here, but that does not mean we will not get more. In fact, we probably will get piled on at least once or twice. *sigh*..........However, it's supposed to be in the 50's by the weekend, so that will mean that "mud season" will be here.

It is currently pouring rain here, which is much needed after our past two weeks of 80 degree weather that got everything growing quite early. I hope we don't get another killing freeze to set us back. The pastures are all greening up, but the (fat) cows still think that I should bring them hay when they see me with the cart for the pensioner horses. I've ordered chicks to replenish my flock. They should be laying by July, but I hope the old girls step up their production again soon...

AnnaZ said:Catherine..................are you moving? Did the sale go through?

Sale hasn't gone through yet - we are waiting on the owner (bank) to get in gear, lol. Very frustrating. The fuel oil man was here yesterday and filled the tank again but it took less so that's my first sigh of spring in the midwest.....

Chickens are starting to up production - getting 9 eggs a day out of 17 hens. I think the icelandic hens are laying outside somewhere but I sure can't find the nest. Everything here seems to be hurry up and wait.

My hens kicked into gear, then had a bit of a massacre (2 down), and are noticeably less productive again. One of the casualties was the head hen, so perhaps they are just trying to figure out who's in charge. As am I.