Late Winter Afternoon Walk

This morning, I heard and saw a red-winged blackbird. First one I've seen and heard since they left this past fall.

This afternoon, I also heard robins. The breeze was a mix of warm and cool, speaking of stormy weather to come. 

The earth and the sky seemed to be vibrating with impending spring. Won't be long and these landscapes will be vibrant green. 

Mimi

We always manage to have one special pet hen. For a while, that spot was occupied by Speckle, who we will never stop missing.

  Now we have Mimi. She just exudes sass. Mimi is splashy, well accessorized, and savvy. She knows how to duck out of the roosters' way, she knows that being held is cozy and warm, and that the goats drop food on the floor in the milk parlor. She is always trying to sneak in to clean up after them!

Mimi is the sole survivor of the group of Mottled Houdans that we ordered. I've always wanted some 'hairdo' hens, and was very happy to be able to order them. She is a white egg layer. Somewhere under that fluffy crown are white ear patches. Did you know if a hen's ear patch is a whitish color, they will lay white eggs? If their ear patch is reddish, then the eggs they lay will be brown. 

Note her right foot. It has always been turned under that way. It has never slowed her down. She has never known it to be any different. She scurries around just as well as any of our hens, with ten times the sass. Keeping the other hens in line is her pet pastime. Mimi is very loud and talkative. 

The day I was taking these photos, I was amused to find that our goat Lady has supermodel aspirations. When she figured out the lens was on her, she struck a pose.

 Then I moved on to some roosters, some other goats. Then back to Lady, who resumed her pose. 

I've said it before - never a dull moment around here. Characters like Lady and Mimi make sure of that!

I've heard quite a few women say, "Don't get me flowers for Valentine's Day, they just end up dying."

I am not one of those women. So beautiful!! Thanks and much love to my boyfriend, my best friend, my dear husband Andy.

This was the view from the barn this morning. I have more photos to post, stay tuned!

Study of egg colors

After a short break over the winter, as the daylight hours have increased, our hens have resumed production. Eggs have such soothing, comforting colors. Our hens produce mostly shades of pinky browns. The white egg was produced by one of our older hens, either a Brown Leghorn or a Silver-Spangled Hamburg, or our Mottled Houdan, Mimi. Our brown egg layers are Dominiques, Barred Rocks, or Partridge Rocks.

My favorite eggs come from our Silver-Laced Wyandottes. Brown with white speckles. I almost hate breaking these little works of art. But we let our chickens range around with the goats, and even in the winter time. Unless there is snow on the ground, they follow the goats around picking at grass, bugs and seeds, and whatever else they find. Their rich and varied diet, supplemented with a quality, very nutritious pellet food and scratch grains as a treat, makes for very rich and yellow-orange yolks. We have even discovered that our Dominiques are actually really great mousers. I'm not sure how that contributes to egg nutrition, but its a nice asset. 

What I've been up to

I have no idea where summer and autumn went. Well, I do, but those details are not for here. I was happy to finish this baby jacket and hat and booties for my new nephew. It was made with Swish Tonal worsted, named Kindling, a super soft merino yarn from Knitpicks. I have a few other things going, socks and mittens and such, a scarf and a blanket, but how to find the time to work on them? I always have such high hopes of providing my loved ones with high quality hand knit and crocheted keepsake garments and accessories, but its rare that any of them are done on time. This set, however, was. 


We opened the first jar of black raspberry jelly, since the ground is white with snow. Is so fun to taste summer when temps are in the single digits and the snow is cold and crunchy on the ground. Andy is out hunting, and the kids and I can't seem to drift away from the warmth of the wood stove. I am excited to start a project today that I hope is done in time for Christmas this year. I have high hopes. 

A shortcut to . . .

Virginia Bluebells? No, that's not what we were after. 

But what a show! Ringing in spring, honeybees happily hovering among the blue blossoms.

But not what we came for. 

Still don't see any, and these bluebells are very distracting. In a good way.

Yellow violets? Is this what we came for? How cool are they?! Violets are yellow, the ground is brown, but what we actually came for is yet to be found . . . (does spring bring out your inner poet?)

 

Oh! There they are! Do you see them? There are two, and I'm not talking about the purple violets, no matter how charming they are. 

There's another one! Oh joy!

Most of what we found were grays. What a treasure!

I think we have finally rid ourselves of winter. 

Storm clouds

From a couple of weeks ago.