It Must Be Spring -- New Chicks Have Arrived!

Way back mid-winter when we placed our order for some new chicks to revitalize our laying stock, who would have guessed it would still be this cold at the end of April?

Regardless, we got a call from our local post office shortly after 7 this morning asking us to come pick up the little peepers.

Upon getting them home, they all looked good except for one little fuzz ball the hatchery had thrown in as a "mystery" chick.  It was splayed out on its side, and I really didn't think it had a chance of making it.  But now, seven hours later, it's up eating and drinking with the rest of the flock.  Tough little bugger.

Our "brooder" is a small garden cart in the garage with a frame on top covered with hardware cloth.  This arrangement is easy to roll outside for cleaning and works well for us.

Here you can see the hardware cloth on which we set the warming lights.  This way there's no danger of the chicks getting too close to them.

The chicks are a mix of Black Australorps, Red Stars and Cuckoo Marans.  All hens except for one Cuckoo Maran rooster.

New chick time should be spring time, but looks as though we've got a week coming up with nothing but very non-spring like weather.  Highs barely reaching the 40s, dampness, grayness, no sunshine and the threat of rain/snow/sleet.  ARRRGH!

It Won't Last

We have 6-8" of new snow on the ground this morning, and it's still coming down.

But, seriously (you think I've finally lost it, don't you?), it really won't last long.  I think we've had more than the 6-8", but it's sinking into the ground even as it piles up.

Our temp has stayed at 32° for about the last 24 hours, and we keep expecting the white flakes to turn into rain drops.

Can you see the garden beds still peeking through on the right hand side of the above picture?  They're fighting, not wanting to go down for the count again.

Shot of the pond and curve of the driveway above as it goes into the woods.  Papa Pea doesn't want to plow because the road bed underneath would get too torn up, but a 4-wheel drive vehicle will be able to get out if we have to before this all melts.

Needless to say, it's a winter wonderland (or perhaps I should say "spring wonderland?") out there, so we're working on sorting, cleaning and rearranging in the storage loft and basement 'cause we sure can't get anything done outside yet!

Dreary Pictures, But Hope for Spring

We've had a beautiful day today that almost, nearly, just about got up to 50°.  Tomorrow is supposed to be another day of the same.  Then . . . dum-da-dum-dum . . . snow/rain/sleet/wintery mix starting Thursday into the weekend.  (Does anybody wonder why our area is so sparsely populated?)

But lots and lots of snow has been melting rather gradually because our temperatures haven't been very warm yet.  And that's a good thing considering all the snow we had to melt.

Still, I've never seen our wood working area in the back so wet.  Our land goes up rather steeply for a long ways right behind this area so with the huge amount of melting snow sliding down the hill, I guess we can't expect anything else this year.

My raised garden beds are (for the moment) totally free of snow.  Yayyy!

The pumpkin patch is ready for planting.  (In another month.  Or six weeks.)

All but the very southern most end of the field garden is free of snow.

The pond's ice around the edges has been melting each day, but then freezes over again at night.

This snow pile on the north side of the house has gone down significantly.  Still a ways to go though.

The blueberries (in the foreground) and raspberries (behind) are emerging from their cozy, winter blanket of snow cover.  

A sure sign that I still have faith in spring arriving to the north woods is that I started my first seeds inside today.  I'm sure that seems very late to most of you, but you have to remember I won't be able to set seedlings out in the garden until the middle of July.  I'm kidding!  I hope.

Happy Easter Sunday

We'll be having a quiet Easter here.  Just the three of us . . . hubby, daughter and me.  Dinner about 5 p.m. and then Family Reading Night afterwards.

Dying eggs was a little task I never really enjoyed, so I'm very happy to not have to do that anymore.  But we still exchange Easter Baskets.  Papa Pea and I make up one for Chicken Mama and she makes up one for each of us.  Over the years we've gotten away from the traditional candy-filled baskets and instead pack them with small items we know the other person will enjoy and use.  As usual, our daughter does the very best job of finding just the perfect little trinkets.  It's a knack she has, and I can't do nearly as well.

For dinner there will be baked ham which was always the Easter meal at both Papa Pea's and my house when growing up.  But because we were vegetarians for the first fifteen years of our daughter's life, she doesn't care much for any kind of meat and can't tolerate ham.  (Because of the texture, she says.)  So I'll also be making a batch of Burgundy Meatballs which aren't really meatballs since they're made with a meatless mixture of ground nuts, cream cheese, etc.

Both hubby and I commented after coming inside early this morning that it feels so warm (ha!) and spring-like out there.  Our temp is in the low 30s but we have sunshine.  They are saying we will reach 50° today (ha!) so maybe we'll have some significant snow melting (ha!).  (Do you think I'm getting just a teensy bit jaded?)

Yesterday we got a couple more inches of snow, then freezing rain, then just rain.  The temp wasn't warm enough for much melting though.  Still, just by the feel of the air, we can tell spring is coming.  It's having a hard time breaking out in full glory, but it's coming!

P.S.  The above picture makes me think of getting back into raising rabbits again (for food) which my dear husband has been talking about for a while now.  I'm dragging my feet on the project, because I don't think we need the extra meat source.  I still have a freezer full of chicken from our previous culling session last fall, and we should do some more culling this spring because we have a batch of new chicks due to arrive end of this month.  I'll keep you posted on whether we'll be adding "build rabbit hutches" to our already way too long summer list!  

Hahahahaheeheehohohoho!

What can we do but laugh?  And enjoy a bit more time inside before the spring/summer busy season is upon us.

We've spent the last two days working in our basement coating the walls with a good sealer before building permanent shelves for storage.  The floor got painted, too, and now we're waiting for it to dry.

Last night, I decreed we were going to start working on next year's wood supply today because the wood pile was almost totally free of snow and the ground area was dried up enough. 

But then . . .

This is what our driveway through the woods looked like this morning when I headed out to town around 9 a.m.  Snow was still coming down lightly.

You know how when you're driving on the highway in a heavy snowfall and you kinda lose the sense of just where you are on the road because you can't see the center line or shoulders?  I had the same feeling this morning trying to make sure I stayed smack-dab in the center of the driveway and avoided getting too close to either side.  But no fear, my trusty, little 1985, 4-wheel drive, Toyota Tercel and I made it with no problem.

However, my poor raised garden beds are covered with snow once again, and we won't be doing any wood working today.  

Oh, well.  Ha-ha.  Hee-hee.  Ho-ho.

Down with Winter, Up with Spring

Even though it still looked suspiciously like winter outside, a week ago I finally packed away my winter decorations and swapped them for something more spring-like . . . and Easter-ish since Easter is fast approaching.

I even put up the quilted spring wall hanging (it's called "Garden Trellis) I finished a bit ago.  This is a shot from across the kitchen showing the "bare" wall space between the two windows where I keep a seasonal wall hanging.

I think I've taken about twenty shots at different times of the day to show this piece, but I simply cannot get the true colors to come through in a photo.  The grayish check you see next to the pink is actually a pretty spring green and white check.

I found the pattern for this piece in a quilting book, but could not get the first two squares to go together after piecing them.  I finally figured out the cutting measurements for two of the pieces in the square were incorrectly stated in the pattern.  Arrrrgh.  I re-cut them making them 1/4" smaller, and they fit.

When my daughter saw this wall hanging in progress, she said something to the effect of, "That doesn't look like something you'd usually make.  And you NEVER use pink!"

Working "outside the box" occasionally is supposed to be good for us, right?  Well, I did.  And I'm not sure I like this piece very much at all.

* * * * * * * *

This is what my raised garden beds look like this afternoon.  I'm so excited (doesn't take much, huh?) to actually see them (mostly) free of snow.  And, yes, there's still a bit of snow down on the bottom part of the garden.  (Like about a foot.)  BUT guess what our forecast is for tonight into tomorrow night?  Sigh.  Right.  Down to 8° tonight, a high of 26° tomorrow and a 70% chance of snow.  Southwest of us is forecast to get 10-15" (eeep!), but we're to expect no more than 3-5".  (Keeping my fingers crossed we don't get more than that.)

Just for fun (so who's laughing?), take a look at this picture of what we woke up to on this date last year.

See?  We could be farther behind on spring weather than we are this year!