spring greening

I took this a few days ago, before the two rains we've since had. The amount of greening that has happened just since the rain is mind-boggling! The herd is keeping busy and I'm doing daily scraping of horse hair off bodies, checking for ticks (Keil Bay sported the first one of the season and I've pulled another one off him plus one off Cody), and trying my best to keep water troughs clean of pollen.

The front porch construction of the cat-proof screens and cat tunnel to the back yard begins on Tuesday and is projected to take two days to complete. I can't wait to see them explore this new area and regain the use of our front porch. Hopefully the pollen will have wrapped up by then.

I've harrowed the arena once and need to do it again tomorrow to get the footing back in shape. Garden is in process, I'm working on using saplings we thinned out to make a wooden fence around the garden and hopefully learn how to do it so I can tackle some larger projects with larger saplings. 

As usual I have a few too many projects underway. I seem to have launched into springtime projects instead of spring cleaning this year!

Tell me what's going on in your backyard right now. 

listening to what they say

Today when I fed Keil Bay his mid-day tub I put hay out for the herd and came back to his stall to see if he was finished. He was, but instead of going to his back door to be turned out with his pals he came and stood with me, curving his neck to my hands, standing quietly while I rubbed his neck.

When I stepped toward the back door he walked to his front stall door and touched it with his nose. He was asking for some time to himself in the barnyard, and some time with me as well.

I opened the front stall door and out he went. We made a pile of hay for him in the shade and I got the shedding blade and a brush and watched as c-shaped packets of Keil Bay fur floated off the blade and into the breeze with every pass.

The first tick of 2016 made its appearance, which required me to empty last year's tick jar and prepare it for this new year. A little Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and water and in went the brown dog tick.

I checked Keil all over but there were no more to be found. Checked his ears and face and then sprayed him with the mix of fly spray I made up a few weeks ago. He was happy to have his time in the barnyard and chose to remain there when I came inside. 

The donkeys are not happy about that and are braying off and on to let me know one of their herd members is "missing."

In a little while I'll go serve the next round of hay and see if Keil is ready to rejoin his buddies. 

It's a sweet day on November Hill. 

Moominvalley and Flame Trees of Thika

A couple of old favorites this week.

Moominvalley in November is one of my favorite Tove Jannson Moomintroll novels. When my children were young we discovered the Moomintrolls and I still enjoy reading them. In this one Fillyjonk (one of my favorite characters in these books) hears something in a wardrobe and thinks there are bugs, freaks out, and goes into a frenzy of cleaning. I definitely relate!

Another old favorite: The British TV series The Flame Trees of Thika, based on Elspeth Huxley's books about living as a young girl in Africa. We had the series on videocassette and I foolishly donated it to the thrift store years back, then realized it wasn't to be found online. Fortunately it came out on DVD in the past year or so and I ordered it. There's nothing like it and we're enjoying it again this week.

The books are wonderful too!

Otherwise, the weekend has been productive. The vegetable garden is about 1/3 in, I have a good number of saplings cut to prep and begin my fencing project (something akin to a wattle fence), and I've seeded some bare areas in the barnyard and front field.

That's 3 out of about 267 things but I celebrate their doing nonetheless!

Happy Easter! Spring is definitely here.

crazy first week of spring

One of those weeks that feels a little bit like a roller coaster. The death of an old friend brought sadness and many good memories over the weekend, then Monday morning Keil Bay had his beloved chiro as did Redford (not his favorite thing but he was brave).

More than the usual number of medical/dental appointments this week (usual = zero) and another old friend's retirement party.

Waiting on the final university decision (out of 3 she applied to, 2 acceptances thus far) with my daughter and helping son plan travel for his summer REU in physics at UCLA. (still reeling over both these things - how did 18 and 21 years pass so quickly?)

Four cats with spring fever and the cat haven front porch enclosure plus tunnel from porch up and around the side of the house to connect to the back yard cannot come soon enough. (construction scheduled in about 10 days)

Busy with writing projects even as I wait for several others to bloom where they've been planted.

It's that time of year.

TGIF! with donka boys and the little man.