LIFE!!!

I LOVE signs that spring is here, such as....

And I'm very excited about this little find!  Purple Coral Bells... the very same ones that the ladies snacked on all last fall.  I was sure they had eaten them down to the roots, but after digging away some of the fall leaves, I still have 4 little plants.  Granted, I had 6 last summer, but still, 4 is better than none!

Projects. Oh, do we have projects....

We are VERY good at starting projects.  Finishing them seems to be harder.  Here are a few that we've started that we need to finish. 

These first two photos are all about the trees.  No, not the song by Rush.  I'm referring to the felled forest in our yard.  Felling trees is one of Dan's favorite things to do.  And who blames him?  It's quite a thrill to watch a giant tree fall exactly where you planned for it to fall.  The ear-numbing sound and power of the chainsaw is exilarating.  The trees in the photos below have been laying right where they are for about a month now.  Why you ask?  Because it has rained EVERY SINGLE WEEKEND for the past month.  I was hoping this weekend would be the weekend to cut them up into usable logs, but it's not looking very promising.  Although it's only Tuesday, the weather eight-ball is calling for rain, yet again.

This next project was all my idea.  The actual work, of course, was mostly done by Dan.  We don't have a proper entrance to the house.  It's really kind of an odd layout.  So we decided it would look nice if we gave the front of the house a proper entrance, with stone steps leading to a walkway that leads to the driveway. 

You can see in the below picture the small dent I made trying to shovel up the dirt by hand.  I didn't get very far.  Then Dan had the idea of using the tractor bucket to scoop up all of the dirt at once and deposit it where ever I choose.  Ingenious!  At that suggestion, I proceeded to put my shovel away.  But, again, rain appears to be in our weekend future, so it will likely have to wait another week to see completion.

Goin' broody...

One of the 'ladies' is going broody on us.  She's been sitting in the same spot in the coop for three days now.  Everything we read online says you just need to leave them alone and they'll get over it.  However, I so badly want to go out there, kick her out of the coop and tell her not to come back until she shapes up!

The lady in the upper nesting box is Coq Au Vin.  She is not broody.  She is in the coop simply to lay an egg.  I image she bawked at Blackie in chicken language that sounded something like this "Hey, LADY... can't I get some privacy around here!?!" 

The lady sitting on the floor is Blackie.  She is broody.  I imagine her response to Coq Au Vin went something like this, "Mind your own business LADY!  This is my coop too and I can lay here if I want to!!!". 

As you can see, both have valid points.

Doin' their thang...

Here are a few of the ladies out foraging for food in the woods.  And boy, do they LOVE foraging!

Tractor is running

After several weeks of working on the tractor, she's finally running.  I say 'she' because I for some reason associate all tractors as feminine.  Considering the masculine work they do, one would think they'd be more closely assoicated with 'he', but such is not the case.

Anyway, the tractor is running.  She ain't pretty, yet, and she needs a new clutch, but it will work for the current purposes we have.  1) lifting pigs for butchering 2) moving around smaller amounts of dirt and 3) moving cut down trees.  For this, she'll be just fine. 

Here's our beauty..... please, please, don't send offers to purchase this beast of a machine... she's all ours!

Egg count

29 eggs this week.  I think the ladies are enjoying the warm, wet weather so much, they're forgetting to head back to the coop to lay their eggs.  Can't really blame them, I guess.

Contract terminated

Unfortunatley, we had to terminate the contract on our farm property.  Long story short... the value of the land was equal to the house, which causes lending nightmares.  So, we're back to square one.