It's A Mucky Monday

Snow was forecast for today, but the temperature put the kabosh on that.  We've been hovering around 40° and a steady misty/drizzle has been falling all day.

As the snow melts, the poultry yard is fast becoming a muddy mess . . . not that the ducks and geese seem to mind at all.  The chickens, however, are not that thrilled.

The raised beds are starting to emerge from their blanket of snow.  The beds to the right and farther away toward the top of the picture are still almost totally covered.  The ground is super-saturated and water is standing in some of the beds that are free of snow.

This is unusual weather for us in March.  But then the whole non-winter has been unusual.  We never had one heavy snowfall; only three or four that dropped a mere 4-5" on us.

We were going to do some outside wood work today, but it's turned out to be a better day for being inside. 

* * * * * * * * * *

If you can, check back here tomorrow.  I have a couple sets of spring time/garden themed potholders I'm going to give away.

Big, Fat Fail!

Last fall, I put forth a rather lofty goal for these past winter months.  But it was something I really, really wanted to do.

Starting in November, and perhaps deviating around the holidays, I set out to "work" one day and then take off one day, alternating days of the week.  I'd do my darndest to get everything that absolutely needed to be done to stay on top of things accomplished on the "work" days.  Then the next day would be mine to spend in my quilt room pursuing whatever my little heart desired.  (Let those creative juices flow!)

I managed to keep to this schedule for nearly a week the first part of November.  

Then . . . life presented itself (as we all know it regularly does) which made it impossible (or so it seemed to my bummed out, cranky self) for me to have my day "off" after a scheduled "work" day.  

Then . . . something happened again the next day which was okay because, after all, it was a "work" day so I just figured I had lost one of my "off" days.  

Then . . . yep, you guessed it, circumstances occurred on the next day which kept me out of my quilt room again.

And so it has gone for the whole blinkety-blank winter.

Here's a glimpse in my quilt room today.

Yes, I have something (unfinished) under the needle in my sewing machine.  Yes, there are at least three other projects spread out on the table I've been trying to work on.

By hook or by crook (actually mornings when I woke around 3:30 or 4 a.m. and couldn't get back to sleep), I manged to get three coordinating runners to this point.  They still want to be quilted and have the binding put on.  (Which, I hope, will make them look significantly better.)

See that "clothesline" over my cutting table?  All those notes are reminders of what I was going to create on my "off" days this winter.

The little basket by the window blinds contains a pair of socks I've been working on at odd moments for-EVER.  The rug on the left is nearly finished (more pre-dawn hours having gone into it) but it's been "nearly finished" for . . . what?  A month now? 

Oh, well.  Maybe my proposed winter schedule was totally unrealistic.  I know it sure was a big, fat fail.  (Still sounds like it would have been great though.  Sigh.)

Blogging Funk and A Goose Egg

I was grumping to a friend today that I've been in a bit of a blog post funk lately.  There's plenty going on here day after day, I suppose, but nothing to "write home about."  I feel I just don't have much to say.

I think I'm kinda out of sorts because of the very unusually warm weather we've been having for nearly all of the last couple of months, and now more of the same is forecast on into March.  Waaaah, I still want more winter time, darn it.  I've noted bloggers all over the country are talking about the mild winter and warmer than normal temps.  I can hardly believe we'll go right into spring without having more winter-like weather.  At least not here in northern Minnesota. 

One thing to report:  We got our first goose egg of the season today!  Papa Pea came in from afternoon chores with this one chicken egg and the goose egg.  The Muscovy ducks (the hens, anyway) have been laying for about three weeks and it seems that the geese may now be starting.  We have to keep collecting the eggs because it's too soon for any little fuzz balls to be hatching out.  If that were to happen, we'd have brooding areas set up in the heated garage for a couple of months and that's not something we want to deal with unless absolutely necessary.  We'd much prefer Mom and Pop Poultry to raise their young the natural way out in the fresh air.  Ducklings and goslings are cute as heck to observe when kept inside, but they can become very odoriferous (to put it mildly) in short order!

The Wind

The winds during last night and today until noon were unpleasant.  Thirty to thirty-five mph sustained, gusts up near 50 mph.

Always seems worse during the night listening to the bumps, thumps, and unidentifiable crashes.

Five ladders were stored "temporarily" leaning against the end of the building.  They toppled over and knocked a drain pipe cattywampus.

Cold frames in storage at the end of the garden (where they've always been safe) got torn apart.

No serious damage.  Tarps blown off lumber piles, snow shovels found skittering their way toward Canada, stuff like that.

Is this March coming in like a lion a bit early?

Chickens, Ducks, Geese, Mud and Yuck

We had a day of nearly solid rain yesterday.  Lost a lot of snow, found a lot of mud.  Still have ice underneath standing water.  One does not want to slip and fall in the poultry yard because of the mud and the fact that the goose and duck poop is no longer frozen.

The poultry thinks spring has definitely arrived (boy, are they in for a surprise) and certain birds of the male persuasion have become quite .  . . um, uh . . . amorous.

The Muskovy hens have started laying eggs, but we're collecting them because it's way too early for them to sit on a clutch and hatch out little fuzzy ducklings. 

Everyone was rarin' to get out and going this morning.

"Mmmm, fermented grain.  So good!"

The geese are getting a little bossy with the fine weather so we let the ducks and chickens out first to eat and drink their fill of the fresh water.

Then the big, ol' domineering geese are let out.  Don't these guys look like they're looking for trouble?  They are, you can be sure.  If it's not chasing ducks and chickens out of "their territory," they're busy destroying bungie cords.

The pond is far from being open but the rains have softened much of the top ice and snow.  It will undoubtedly be covered with snow and ice again yet this winter before open water appears.

The duck eggs we've been getting (on the top right) aren't that much bigger than the chicken eggs.  They're white but more of a dusky color.  Also, the shells are much tougher than chicken eggs.  I don't know how the little ducklings ever manage to break their way out of them.

Here's a side-by-side look at a hen egg on the left and a duck egg on the right.  The duck egg yolks are bigger while the whites are smaller in comparison to a chicken's egg.  I haven't baked with the duck eggs yet, but when eating them (scrambled, fried, poached) we can't tell the difference from a chicken egg.

Wonder when we'll get the first goose egg?

The First Seeds I Plant in My Garden Are . . .

In the comments section of one of my recent blog posts, one of my readers, Rain, asked me which seeds were the first I planted in the garden each season.  (By the way, Rain has just started her own blog which you should check out.  She's jumping into gardening with both feet this coming season, and I know her posts are going to be very interesting.  You can find her blog here.)

Between my raised beds and field garden, the raised beds are always ready for planting first.  After our long winter, Papa Pea and I are just about literally chomping at the bit for fresh greens from the garden so an assortment of salad greens is always what I plant first.

 Photo(s) from previous years.

It's almost as if I'm standing by a raised bed with the seed packets in my hand waiting for the day when I can plant.  I pop in several kinds of lettuce, mizuna mustard, arugula, spinach, Swiss chard, and any other greens I can fit in.

And, of course, radishes.  I love radishes.

This won't be my main planting of salad greens, but a sampling (and I'll have to put a cold frame over them) to get that first bowl of salad fixings into the kitchen as soon as possible.

Geez, it's still more than two and a half months before I can even get those seeds in the soil, and now I'm already envisioning how good the first home grown salad will taste.

What I'm curious about now is what are the first seeds each of you fellow gardeners plant?  Does it differ a lot if you're in a more tempered, southern location than I am?  Do you have greens ready early on because you can over-winter them?  I'm really interested in hearing about the first seeds you put in.