Yeah! It is officially Spring!
There's lot of cleanup to do after a messy, rainy winter. On Sunday, I cleaned out the chicken coop and put in fresh litter. I also pruned back the (very overgrown) orange and lemon trees. This yielded quite a bit of fresh fruit that I took to work for all the girls to take home. It was gone that same day!
The fireplace is full of ash that needs to be cleaned out... I've been told not to add wood ash to my compost pile so I'm not sure what to do with it. I don't like the idea of putting it in the trash. It can wait a couple more weeks till I figure it out.
Weeds Weeds Weeds! I am determined to be organic, so spraying the weeds is out of the question. That leaves it to me and my two hands!Weeding is not hard work really, just boring!
We have aquired a male English Angora rabbit (for the wool don't you know!) He's adorable and fluffy and semi-affectionate. We call him Seamus Fuzzworth and he's a dream.
This year, I'm trying a couple of new veggies in the garden. Brussel sprouts, broccoli, Japanese cucumber, edamame (soy beans), and crook neck squash. The patty pan squash last year was delicious and I'm going to plant that again. Last years strawberries are going strong and already setting fruit so we should get lots of those this summer!!
The jam I made last summer has lasted us all winter and there's still more! This year I will make more strawberry, though. It is the girls favorite. The peach jam is the favorite of the rest of the family, hopefully, the peach tree will give as much this year as it did last year.
Egg production is picking back up. We are holding steady at 3 hens. I will be looking for either 3 more this summer, or possibly ducks. We visited Harly Farm (a goat farm in Pescadero) and they were selling duck eggs. They were gigantic and beautiful and selling for $3 EACH!!! That may be something to try! On our next visit we'll pick the duck egg rather than the fudge. Ducks and chickens apparantly get along well, but need to be provided a small pool. I understand some breeds will be happy with a childs plastic pool. How exciting!!
