The Farm Chronicles - February

Oh dear. Things have been so busy, I nearly forgot about the monthly update!

February was a very busy month for us. Even though it was a short month, we managed to cram quite a bit into it. Most of our activity was preparing for our goats to arrive, and we expect them sometime today or tomorrow. Hooray! It's finally time! We've cleaned, moved, built, rebuilt, fenced, shopped, you name it. We still have some little things left to do, but luckily they can all be done after they get here. We have also arranged to board another goat for a friend while she tries to sell her house and move, so we'll have four goats for awhile instead of three. The more the merrier!

While we were working on the goat barn, we were blessed with excellent weather. It was sunny and dry all month, and unusually warm - in the seventies and low eighties. This made working much easier, but we discovered that the onset of warm weather means that spring is full on for the animals! One of our ducks decided it was time to bring some babies into the world, so she's presently sitting on about sixteen to eighteen eggs. This apparently put one of our hens in the mood and she decided she wanted to sit on the duck eggs too. After breaking up a few fights, we relocated her to private quarters with her own egg pile, which she's now happily sitting on as well. As if that were not enough, I also ordered 25 baby chicks to be delivered the second week of April - coincidentally, the same time that the resident chicks and ducklings should be hatching out. We will be awash in babies, and you can bet there will be pictures!

Speaking of babies, we managed to finally usher in our first successful litter of bunnies. They're about two and a half weeks old now, and are starting to leave the nest box. Well, at least this one is -

We've also learned that not only have our bees survived the winter, but they have thrived and are in need of larger accommodations NOW. We've got additional supers on the way, but since this is the busy season for beekeepers and suppliers, we might have to wait awhile.

In spite of all my good intentions for the garden, I haven't managed to plant anything except peas, radishes and potatoes. I've succumbed to the reality that my original garden plan was far too ambitious, and our soil is simply too poor, so I've revised the plan for this year. We'll put a couple of much smaller, raised beds on top of our existing plot and plant in those. That should allow us to still get some vegetables this year, and amend our soil in small sections, which will be much easier to manage.

Meanwhile, life has been carrying on as usual. The puppy is getting bigger, work is going along, we still manage to make a little time to socialize here and there. We're getting a bit of a rest this weekend, but I know it won't last long!