Spring Has Sprung At The Barnyard
Tim and I are all over the place with our projects right now. We start one and say, “oh no! we have to do this too!”
We decided the first year after we bought our house, we would take it all in, determine what is already growing, how the sun moves throughout the year, etc. We did projects, such as cutting back brush along the driveway and the basketball hoop, weeding gardens, etc. But this year, this is the year for the big homesteading projects and the late melting snow didn’t help move things along quickly.
You may ask, what exactly do we have going on?
-We planted seeds. We started off with two different types of tomatoes, sweet peppers, and asparagus. Yes, I am fully aware asparagus takes a couple years before being ready to harvest, but I figure we need to start sometime. Kion (our cat) decided he liked digging in the dirt and knocking leaves off the tomato plants, so they have been moved into our room with the door shut. It is so fun watching the plants start popping up out of the dirt.
-Tim started building a chicken coop. He has so far built the foundation (with the help of my uncle), built and installed all four walls, and built and installed the nesting boxes. Why hasn’t he built the roof yet? Because…
-We started building a garden. I realized I needed a place to put our plants once the seeds started growing. Therefore, we need to start getting a garden ready. We designed a garden area and planned out fencing, etc. I started transplanting flowers from the bed where the vegetable garden will be going, to a different bed. Then Tim started digging up the grass and old bed with the tractor. We laid out the perimeter and started making holes for the garden fence posts.
-Planning the garden made me realize I should plant more seeds, so I added lettuce, marigolds, and sunflowers to the bedroom “greenhouse.”
-An orchard sounds like a good idea, right? While Tim was digging up the garden area, I started clearing brush near where we will be putting 10 fruit trees in the coming weeks. No comment on the poison ivy I got on my forehead from that job.
-Chicks are hatching tomorrow and arriving via mail this week. Tim built a cover today for the brooder and we are getting the brooder ready for their arrival.
So much going on, jumping from one project to another, but it feels like there’s a method to our madness, or maybe we’re just mad! Baby steps? Nah! We’re jumping in feet first and loving every minute of it…. except for maybe the poison ivy.
