Spring has sprung

Spring is finally knocking on the door here. As I scan the mountains, the meadows are showing the slightest tinge of green as the grass peaks out from its winter sleep. Groundcover with small purple flowers cover the front yard, reminding me of the wonderful abundance of wildflowers to come. We sat on the porch Saturday morning taking in the beauty and basking in the warmth. Between sips of coffee, Steve makes reference to the flower of the month, as it seems a new type of flower comes into bloom every few weeks. My favorite is the daisy-like bush that flowers all summer long and grows to about 2-3 feet in diameter, covered with hundreds of quarter-sized bright yellow daisies.

The garden is still in process. Seems when the kids are old enough to really work, they go off and work for someone else. For some reason, money in the hand has a lot more draw than “I provide food and a roof over your head” does. The kids were on spring break this past week, but due to frequent snows, working for money and hanging out with friends, not much outside work was accomplished. Rachael was here for the week too. We had a great time, but she kept me pretty busy wanting to see the hens and chicks. I tried to get her to play with Emily for a while, but after a few minutes she was back. “Well, Aunt Neice, she is just a little boring, I don’t appreciate her style of playing” rolled out of her four-year-old mouth. What’s an aunt to do? Also in the past two weeks, I’ve put some things up on EBay. That took some effort since I haven’t sold on there in ages. So far so good, my plan is to spend the year selling off things as I de-clutter.

Style is everything when it comes to teens. Josh loves to wear holey pants, you know, the kind that look like they could disintegrate at any moment for any reason. He came home from youth last Sunday night and I noticed oddly enough that his pants were missing the back side of one leg. Seems they were playing tag and someone grabbed his pant leg from behind and the pictures tell the rest of the story. I laughed till I cried. Good thing he wears short underneath.

Both sad and beautiful emotions ran through me as I watched an eagle swoop down not more than 50 feet from me and grab one of my newest little hens….while I was outside, the nerve of some eagles. Its massive dark-brown wings stretched a good 6-10 feet across as it gracefully yet swiftly neared the ground and grabbed my chick in its clutches. It was there and gone in just a split second. Instinctively I hollered and ran after it. She was a beautiful Auracona mix that I was looking forward to raising. Steve shrugs it off, “Someone has to feed the eagles around here” he says. I figure I lose about half to the wildlife. I’ll hopefully have more since I’m providing 6 dozen eggs to 2 schools for their “little peeps” project…thanks Craigslist. They will go in the incubator this Wednesday. Fingers crossed that they will have a good hatch rate and I’ll have more little ones running around. The hens are now laying a dozen eggs a day, so I’ve started selling eggs as well. Hopefully I’ll make enough to cover the cost of feed.