Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Is it Spring Yet?

 Sorry about no pictures for this post.  Yet again we've exceeded our bandwidth limit and our service has been throttled back.  Shoot it took me longer to load this page than it did to write the post! Trying to load a picture is pure torture. 

Between the weather and tight finances this past month try as we might we are seemingly running behind with the garden. We got potatoes and a few onion sets planted. Every effort in the greenhouse failed and so I'll be trying again this week. Heck it's almost time to just start seedlings in the ground. It's all due to not having heat in there yet.  Honestly I just haven't felt worth a darn lately.  I won't go into it because really who wants to hear someone whining?

Anyway.... We need to order some parts for the watering system.  Splicers and stuff.  That's on the list for this month.  Most of it will have to be done before we can actually plant in some of the rows. I've been studying the gardening guide for our area again and realized that even if we miss some of the planting this spring we still have another shot at it for fall garden. Of course that is all depending on the weather.  It seems like its been a crap shoot with it. It seems like every year we've been here the weather has been nuts.

It's also time for the lawnmower to come out of the barn for some maintenance. Things are starting to green up.  And every year it seems like something needs to be worked on and parts ordered. I've got my fingers crossed it won't need a new battery.  Gas is needed for it and the tiller. Every year we go through this. It's to be expected and its a good thing that Mars is quite handy with that sort of thing. As a matter of fact he's really handy with a ton of things. Bless his heart, I hate that I can't help much. 

The little red hen went broody last week.  I caught her off the nest this morning and got to count nine eggs.  Not bad!  Last year I had two hens sitting on one nest.  It was kind of funny in a way because once the chicks hatched they kind of shared them.

One of the sweetest of my rabbits had seven baby bunnies last week. FINALLY!  Don't let anyone tell you all rabbits will breed like...well... rabbits.  What I ended up doing was pretty much start all over.  I gave Bucky another chance at breeding.  Nothing, nada, zilch. I figure he's sterile.  I'm getting him fattened up before we send him off to the freezer. The new buck is now proven.  I don't remember if I told you about The Rabbit Lady giving me back the doe I traded off.  So I've ended up now with four does.  I'll probably make some rabbit stew with at least one of them. There's really no need for having that many does at the moment.  It just not worth the feed bill.  We'll see how things work out though.

So that's about all of the news around here right now.  It's finally time to get up and out of the house. Now if the weather would just try and cooperate.

14 comments:

  1. After this winter, I'm actually looking forward to mowing the grass. lol. I'm glad you have bunnies. I'm gonna do the same as you. I'm starting new. Hopefully that will work.

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    1. SFG I'm looking forward to GREEN! I've been following your bunny adventures hoping you could show ME! At some point when you are feeding several rabbits daily it starts to dawn on us that just HAS to change. SO OFF WITH THEIR HEADS!!! LOL

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  2. Broody hens, rabbit babies, plantings? It DOES sound like spring :)
    I'm hoping to get some store bought tomato plants in big pots today (super sale at the corner store, couldn't pass 'em up at six for a buck!) and if I'm really ambitious I'll tackle cleaning out the strawberry bed.

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    1. I guess it IS Spring! When you put it like that.
      WoW now that is some sweet deal. I'd sure pick some of them up. We still don't have any sort of berries planted but it's definitely on the "list".

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  3. I would get to discouraged when I lived in Montana when trying to grow things. But I never gave up....If that be my advice today do not give up even if you only get a small amount out of your garden try try try again. One year I had the tiniest garden you ever did see but I had one nonetheless! Due to weather and conditions of the garden it was tiny squash, tiny carrots, tiny lettuce, tiny ripe tomatoes but dangit I had one! Prayer is always a great way to come thru our hardships as well. I may have had a small, tiny garden but the Man Upstairs still blessed us with fresh garden goods.
    Hang In My Friend it will get better!

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    1. M.E.I went over to your blog today. I'm ashamed of myself for not visiting sooner. You are so spot on.I'll remember it when I'm stressing on getting things in the ground. Any garden is much better than no garden at all. Thank you for your kind words, I will take them to heart. I'm going to add you to my blog roll if it's ok with you.
      From the pictures I see you have a beautiful slice of land. I'm going out there today and plant something. Anything, It's supposed to rain here tonight so it seems like the perfect time.
      Here's to all of us having survived this awful winter!
      Sci

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    2. We all gotta encourage each other to get thru this life! I welcome you to my blog my space in the world. Do look forward to your visits. You are a regular on my list of blogs I follow...even tho I may not comment all the time I do visit often. Take care do have a great day.

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    3. It truly is a pleasure to "get to know" folks on the interweb. Thanks for stopping by. I'm terrible with leaving comments but I slide in and check out so many of my friends I am trying to do better at that but when we are throttled back on bandwidth it makes it harder to load a page twice.
      Thanks for stopping in. There are cookies in the cookie jar and coffee on the stove. Kick off your shoes if you want. Make yourself at home
      Sci

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  4. Love this time of year. Spring is almost here and all the growing things that come with it.

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    1. Green is GOOD! I'm so glad that winter is behind us. I've got my fingers crossed that we have seen the last freeze. Last year we had a killing freeze in the second week of April though. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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  5. I wouldn't stress the garden really. I am not that far from ya and our last frost date is the middle of May. It seems to me that a lot of prepper/homesteader types these days start their garden way too early. I noticed here that the old guys don't really get em in until June sometimes. I normally like to give mine a good tilling in March before the rains hit but that didn't happen this year I have been too busy with other pressing projects.

    I do have 76 tomato seedlings growing though.

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    1. I'm trying not to stress, it just sorta messes with my head that we don't have things in the ground. Our last freeze date is the15th of April. I've been looking at my old faithful OU agg page that gives me all the planting dates around here and saw that the season sorta starts all over in May. That info sure makes me feel better.
      Now that's a bunch of tomatoes! It's so late for us to try again to raise some seedlings but haven't had much luck this year. Looks like I'm going to shell out some cash again this year for seedlings.
      Thanks for reminding me that I've got time. I need to just stop whining and put my big girl panties on.
      Molon Labe
      Sci

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  6. SCI,

    Oh I so hear you when having to repair tools or items to get things going for spring.
    Bulldog Man and I setup part of the water drip system for the straw bales. We still need to
    get more parts / pieces for the rest of the garden.
    I have asparagus spears sticking out of the ground, I can't wait to harvest asparagus. Remember when I was up there with Phelan, and we talked asparagus. You both told me to wait until this spring before harvesting anything. I'm waiting patiently, actually I can't wait to harvest......LOL

    I've planted rutabaga, lettuce, spinach, carrots, onions, beets, and swiss chard. I'm waiting to get my tomato's in, beans, peas, broccoli, and herbs in the ground.

    It's great to be able to get outside and start working. Later today were suppose to have severe weather/threat. I'm hoping this just provides us with rain and no tornadoes. Be careful, and safe.
    Sending hugs to you and Mars.
    Sandy

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    1. Wow girl. You have been busy. You are miles ahead of me on your planting. I'm going out today and get some stuff in the ground. Do you remember that flower bed on the side of the porch? Mars has taken it over and planted onion sets in there. I suppose I'll have to plant my flowers all over the garden in empty spaces. For the life of me I can't get a flower bed that he doesn't take over! Shoot, I've got garlic planted in in the other flower bed!
      I'm hoping for rain with NO tornados tonight too!
      Hugs to you and your's,
      Sci

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