Is there anything as wonderful as those first few spring days?
To feel a warm breeze as it blows across your skin
and not feel the need to cover up... is heavenly.
With the change of seasons, comes a change in the structure of each day.
Days are longer... allowing for more time outside.
We still awaken before dawn, and spend a little time reading before getting up to start the day.
As the sun rises, we make our way out to the barn and get started
on morning chores.
Everyone gets fed and watered.
The equines are turned out for some pasture time and the night's deposits of manure
is scooped.
The chickens, turkeys and ducks houses are all opened up
and the birds emerge for a day of free-ranging.
Nightly bird droppings are scooped.
By the time the sun is in the sky, the farm has been tidied up and
all of the animals cared for.
Farm chores in the spring are my favorite.
Shedding the bulky layers of winter and working in just jeans and a shirt
is a much-anticipated pleasure.
We end up feeling 40 pounds lighter and so much freer!
The rest of the day's chores are pushed back a few hours
with the lengthening days.
More time is available for doing the extras like gardening and yard work.
It isn't until almost bedtime that our nightly close-up chores are complete...
making evenings much shorter.
We pace ourselves... farm chores are a marathon, not a sprint!
I've been working in the garden daily...staying ahead of the emerging weeds,
and getting early seeds and seedlings into the rich, cool soil.
There's extra time for visiting with the animals.
I can't help but think they are so much happier now that the ice and snow are gone.
Jack and our neighbor, Jim, spent much of yesterday on their tractors...
spreading manure and pulling downed trees out of the woods to use for firewood.
It seriously was too wet all of last year to drive the tractor and manure spreader
near the manure piles.
You would think that two years worth of manure would be a huge amount of manure,
but, by composting it, it shrinks considerably over time and turns into a pile
of rich, dark brown dirt.
I do spend a little time each morning in my sewing room...
until such time as the equines need to be brought back in from the pasture.
I'm working on a cardigan sweater now.
I had thought that I would quit knitting when spring arrived,
but I find that I cannot sit in the evening without something to occupy my hands.
(This might be some sort of illness!)
Yes, spring is here in all it's glory,
and although we still don't have a lot of color in the landscape,
the air is warm and full of promise.
It's like falling in love all over again...
in love with the land...
in love with life!
I am a little worried about our female turkey, Ethel.
She has not been leaving her yard lately to pal around with her boys.
There is just something "off" about her... time will tell.
PS.... Colleen, you asked about the bee cushion and pillow in my sewing room on yesterday's blog.
They were gifts.
I covered the footstool with the (gifted) embroidered bee fabric.
And the bee pillow is done in bead work.
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Mick