Of Morels and Manure

With a beautiful Spring backdrop,

I squeezed as much out of a sunny yesterday as I could.

With several days of rain on the horizon,

I felt a certain urgency to get a lot of items checked off my Spring chore list.

Fasten your seatbelt,

here goes....

5:30 AM  up with puppy, dressed, breakfast.

6:00 AM out for morning chores (i.e. feed, water animals and clean their houses)

8:00 Chimney sweep came

Baked a batch of double chocolate/walnut cookies

Took many weeks worth of recycling to recycling center

Ran to the bank and grocery store

Afternoon chores

Loaded 2 big piles of compost in the manure spreader for Jim to spread.

Made dinner

Planted 2 flats of cabbages

planted 1 flat of broccoli

watered seedlings in greenhouse

Did bedtime feeding and tucked animals in for the night

(With several puppy play times interspersed throughout the day)

As for spreading manure...

as I dug each load of compost,

this group of hens that had been relaxing under this small pine tree

came running over to eat the abundant worms that had been unearthed by the tractor.

Worm after worm they gulped in one quick swallow.

This is one of the things that makes farm fresh free range eggs so good...

and full of healthy omega three fatty acid...

much healthier than the grocery store variety!

Naturally, whenever anything interesting is happening around the farm,

the turkeys are there to supervise.

Sam, on the other hand, took the opportunity to catch up on his naps.

Many thanks to Jim, my #1 farmhand, for helping me spread manure!

Don't you just love that old tractor?

It's our 1953  Ford  Jubilee tractor... restored by Jim to its original paint colors.

She's a beauty!

(You might not know this about me...but old tractors make me swoon!)

I made a discovery yesterday on my many trips back and forth through the orchard.

Our old (magical) craggy apple tree (that no longer bears fruit)...

is once again home to a Spring crop of morel mushrooms.

The first one has just emerged...

I am betting after this week's rains there will be several more.

Once they have all matured, they will become part of our annual spring omelet...

served at Sunday Farm Breakfast.

Fresh asparagus, morels, chives and homemade cheese will go into this

once-a-year omelet.