We had some very spring-like weather this year. It was wonderful to walk outside with just a sweater on. Evan spent most of the day playing outside, in the snow and mud! Perfect boy weather. I spent the day procrastinating on indoor projects and often just found myself standing on the front stoop soaking in the warmth and sun, breathing in the fresh air and enjoying the change in light.
We've lost another ewe this past week. They are old girls. Twelve years old. At one time we had 8 sheep and one goat. Now we have 1 sheep and one goat. We sold Rama-a-lama a couple of weeks ago to a farm where he will be able to frolic with some young beauties. This is sort of a cross roads for us. Should we accept that this is the end of our ovine adventures or adapt our plans? I think we have settled on finding a couple more ewes. The sheep are an integral part of our homestead. They are important to our orchard management plan. They keep the grass cut for us. They feed the trees with their manure. They eat the windfall. Mark freshens up his shearing skills on our sheep before he starts shearing for other folks. We have arranged and barter with a local alpaca/hay farmer to help with haying in exchange for hay for next winter. This should defray the cost of keeping them.
Lots of other things are taking place on our homestead as well.
Plant: kale, motherwort, cabbage, stinging nettle
Harvest: maple sap
Preserves: It has been a slow sugaring season. I do not think we will get the volume of syrup that we got last year. Last year we got 4 gallons. We have only put up 1 quart and 1 pint. We will be boiling again this weekend.
Local food: Tristan has been helping a local farmer and has come home with some very yummy spinach from a greenhouse.
Eat the food: We have been eating lots of things with spinach. Green pie, salads ( SO GOOD!)
Want not: I shoveled off the snow from the cold frame. I hope to get some of my own spinach planted in it this week. I picked up some yellow clips for our solar electric fence. These are going up on the pasture fence this weekend. Mr. Leroy Brown Goat has been flaunting the weakness in our pasture fence. This is okay for now because the snow has been keeping him away from garden and orchard. But he needs to stay behind his fence.
Waste not: I have been purging and getting into spring cleaning mode.
1 comment:
I always want to do this challenge, but I always seriously fall short :-) Baby steps here! But, I am thinking of which seeds I can put in the ground, and glad to see the rest of the snow has melted away this past week!
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