It's spring. All the projects we should have been doing over winter, are still not complete. AH... we are getting older and more tired. So it's time to pare things down. I am mostly putting together this list to convince myself that we have accomplished some things this spring.
We finished enough of the fencing projects to be able to get the sheep back out to pasture. So the orchard is complete. The turkey run is complete. The greenhouse fence section that was torn down, is now back up. But two other sides need to be replaced. And the greenhouse plastic needs some desperate patches. We won't be using it this year, me thinks, until it's time to put turkeys in it! Getting the orchard fence complete meant we could get the baby meat chicks outside! This is Beaky, our little cross-beaked friend. She's super friendly.
We put chicken wire across the front fence to keep the ducks in. We also strung it around the backyard coop to keep the new baby chicks in until they are big enough to fly over.
I made a weird new brooder pen for the new ducklings, but I just keep selling them!
We planted a bunch of new trees in the orchard and backyard, and a few in the turkey run. Most have fencing rings around them to protect them from inadvertent sheep exposure, but a few more need protection. Since the fences are in good shape, the trees are OK. Most seem to be doing well, there are a few we may have to replace next year. Getting fences done and trees protected have meant that the sheep get supervised grazing in the orchard and backyard - to help mow for us!
We took a close look at property lines and realized some of the land to the east of our barn actually belongs to us, and another section is part of the road easement, so belongs to the county. It grows nice grass, so we strung the electric fence and let the sheep get at some fresh salad, there, too.
The chicken truck SHOULD be out to pasture by now - it was too wet to move it for a while, but now it has a flat tire. So we need to replace a tire before we can move it. The chickens are safe and happy where they are, so we will just leave it for now. We moved the first of the new chicks out there with them, so that's a smoother transition for them, too.
The turkey shed doors got wrecked in a wind storm, so we need to rebuild them soon, so the baby turkeys can get outside soon and have their permanent home ready to go.
Loki is on the mend, still not 100% sure where the hypercalcemia came from, or why it's gone, but he's now battling some serious joint pains. That dog is on some serious meds now, but he's handling it well. I was struck by how much bigger he is over Hercules and took a picture.
Which then immediately made me think of this picture - when Hercules and Loki first met!
Loki was teeny once! (Well, so were all the dogs, believe it or not!)
So it's spring, and the brooders are filled with birds. We already have our first batch of chickens and ducklings outside and ready to go. Our meat birds are almost ready to head to freezer camp, and we are raising a bunch of ram lambs for Eid this summer.
We had a few lambs born this spring, and plenty of pregnant mamas out there. Freyja had a set of twin girls, Violet and Lilac, and Mara had her first ever lamb, little Willow.
Happy Spring!
