Springtime and all the fun it brings

Early Spring around Western NY has a remarkable effect on me. I start freaking with the amount of work coming at me. I have way too many project lined up by the time the snow melts and the ice breaks from the pond.

I've pulled out all the stones from an old walkway my Dad built and now I can't find the right limestone to use as a grout between the stones. I've called all over the area and I'm still looking for crushed limestone. I can get plenty of river rock but no limestone.

I count the days by the flowers that are out now. The wild daffodils come first, then the lilacs, then the tulips as I clean out my composter, clean out the hen house, arrange the started tomatoes and peppers in the upstairs windows. The days are counted by whatever cut wild and partially wild flowers arranged on the kitchen table.


My rooster, "Earl the Pearl" is as horny as a goat as the weather moderates. If one of the brahma hens comes up to me for a treat, Earl sneaks up from behind and jumps her. Its a show of power I guess. He annoys me but I love his crow in the morning.

I have bought 8 tiny chicks that are now smelling up my bathroom and shrieking every time I try and take a shower and trip over the brooding box while trying to get to the toilet. They watch me with averted heads as I brush my teeth. Hopefully by late this week the weather will warm up enough to put them in the barn loft. We will all be happier then.

I have attended seminars and workshops on chickens and I still have much to learn about getting the hens to lay eggs and to understand that roosters are not sentient beings.

I cleaned their hen house this week and spread the manure and straw at the back of the garden for next year. It had all turned to a fine powder over the winter that had a sour smell that permeated the air as I shoveled the stuff into the back of the gator. But it does look nice spread around the back of the garden. Hopefully it will make for some good soil next Spring. The hens love to "help" me dig out the manure from the entrance to the hen house. I find worms in the soil as I dig and the hens wait for the shovel to lift like they are watching a magic act. They dive for the worms and I have to wait until they are finished examining the area for more worms and return to watching me dig.

They have been "free-ranging" for a few weeks now as the grass greens up. Their egg production has been way down because they are far more interested in the grass and the worms than in the mundane job of laying eggs. But when they lay them, they are wonderful to taste and see. The eggs are now bright yellow like mustard and have a light creamy taste. I love to make an omelet with them and put them in pretty dishes. The dish in the picture was my grandmother's. She got it from a little boy when she was a school girl. He had a sandwich wrapped on it for lunch one day at school and my grandmother Irene was attracted to the little painted cupids frolicking naked in the center. She somehow convinced him to give her the plate. Its cracked and chipped but still its fun to remember her telling me about the little boy and the plate.