Yesterday the warmth began to melt a little snow, then the water began to make a lot of mist then a lot of fog, then we lost the horizon. Gone. 
I thought that today I would have a little round up of what’s happening so we can get the next few months in order. Kind of. At least until another spanner is throw into the works. But you know how I feel about problems. The best thing about problems is when you know what the problem is. Then you can say That is MY problem so you can go about fixing it. Yesterday had no big problems. Nice.
Sheila’s midwife came to visit in her little van yesterday and Sheila has had her dose of the hormone that has the best chance of bringing her into heat. Now we wait with bated breath (how does one bait a breath? with a carrot? a wriggling worm?). Well, my breath is surely bated. My Shakespeare did a lot of that bating (holding back) our breaths. By the weekend we will know if Sheila’s fertility is going to come out to play.
The milking machine came yesterday evening. The man in a big truck parked at the end of our drive, then called on the telephone and said, Are you there? He could see nothing. Am I in the right place. Is there a place here?
We looked up the drive. We could see nothing too. Nothing at all. So John told me to watch the dinner then zoomed down on the tractor to see if in fact there was a big truck parked at the end of the drive with my new milking machine on the back.
There was. So he came back and took the red truck down there and collected my milking machine from the big truck. He said thank you very much to the delivery man and Drive carefully. All the melted snow was freezing solid again. Not a good night to be on the roads.
Yesterday I spent all my free time chipping away at slowly thawing barn floors. The milking parlour has been used as a dining hall for cows all winter and needs a thorough clean, scrub and whitewash. Yesterday’s warm weather gave me a good start.
It was so warm that Marcel came out to the barn with me. Look behind Mama; can you see that little pen, I popped him in there and he ran about making a lot of noise, chewing on stuff and attracted a lot of sniffing and snuffling attention from Mama. While Boo spend the entire time with his nose jammed between two boards making sure he did not get lost. Later I took Marcel back inside to his crate and he lay down and slept with great relief.
Bees: The Italian Bees are up to date with their food and the Russian bees are due May 12. Their new super has arrived and I have to clean base boards and lids and make two more supers full of frames for both hives to grow into.
Daisy is due March 14.
Queenie is due April 04. So I have to have one big pen entirely clean and ready for calving.
100 Lavender plants are due April 9. These are the first big flower crops to make the essential oils. Also I have a great many wild flower seeds (including milkweed seeds) to plant down by the creek that is really a ditch. We need a lot of flowers for bees and the monarchs.
If, with a good deal of luck, we are able to get Sheila pregnant there may be piglets sometime in June. I will shift her across to the pig pen today. They say that shifting a pig can sometimes help them come into heat too and it is time she was back on the east side. The sunroom pen must be cleaned and got ready for Daisy’s calf.
But for today we have very high winds, snow melting and then ice and freezing rain, snow flurries and another good day of work ahead. But still above freezing. Then the temperatures take a dive again.
But that’s OK.We can see what is ahead and I am making good inroads into getting the barn ready for spring. (Whenever it may show its face) So I am pleased.
I hope you have a lovely day. Today’s sunrise is 6.37. Days are getting longer.
Your friend on the farm,
celi
The Kitchen's Garden 
74 responses to “Fitting the Puzzle Together”
Good Morning. Here in the Northeast corner of Florida it looks like we are going to have a early spring. I counted 22 wildflower/weeds blooms yesterday when I took my dog out for his run. One one of them usually blooms at this time of year. Our Temps have been up in the 80’s already.
Drove a hour north and it looks like they are only about a week behind us—so hang in there Spring is moving North
Sandy
80’s.. oh that does sound delicious.. lets hope we are not too far behind, i really do not want to have calves born into this weather.. c
Always so many things on the go C! You are a super star with how you keep it all so organised and on the go. Kudos to you!
Have a lovely weekend.
🙂 Mandy xo
morning mandy.. i hope you have a lovely weekend too,.. c
My goodness you keep busy! I have a more leisurely day planned, doing some ironing, cooking ahead, and perhaps a little garden preparation. Beautiful weather will arrive for the weekend, and I’ll be working on the garden plot, the flower beds and garden space around the house (where I put herbs and a few vegetables, and possibly a new deer plot for Daisy in the canyon area. I’m so excited that some warmer weather has arrived. Now if we could just get some moisture! It’s such happy news that Marcel is doing well, and I have such high hope for Sheila to come into heat. I’m sending GOBS of positive energy your way!
She needs all that positive energy too, I was hoping for a few warm days but it is back to cold windy weather.. I desperately want this to work, but if not it is back to the calenders! c
It looks so cold!!! I’ll bet you can’t wait foe spring.
I can honestly say this has been the longest winter of my life.. and when it finally comes the growing season is going to hit us hard, so i am trying to get very well prepared.. are you back in Brizzy Debra, i must pop over and see.. c
Spring sounds like A LOT of work for you, but I know you love the challenge.
Did you know you can eat the milkweed pod? We did labels for a Food Network show and they had milk weed pods in a jar, can’t recall if they were pickled or not.
I have read that Eva, or did you tell me last year? anyway I am thinking about it this year if i get enough, as I will be seed saving this season too.. c
Foggy in CT. also this AM. But, it’s going to be warmer with rain today & maybe sun tomorrow. Is there nothing uglier than brown snow?
Brown snow. better that yellow snow but not much, the city snow always looks so brown and sad.. c
Good luck 😉
There is a kind of order there Mad, but I have a niggly feeling I forgot something.. OH I KNOW! I forgot the chickens in May.. I had better make a list for the wall!.. c
err hmm…. the KuneKune Piglet? sometime Mid-March? Laura
Well done Laura, i really am going to have to rewrite this list. Though I guess I had to start somewhere. I did not get a piglet from that batch, there is another litter due, so am hoping to get one then, so that one will be free to come here April? We will have to see. I am awaiting an email from Bob.
I was wishing you luck with Sheila 😉
I have told her, but she is still annoyed that i am making her stay home and try for a family instead of swanning off to london!!.. c
I think she would have had a good time foraging on Hampstead Heath and the odd trip to the New Forrest 🙂
as long as there is a beer on the way home, she is very partial to a beer she is.. c
Oh no that does not look warmer to me… but then I wouldn’t know… have a good weekend…
It was warmer for a day and now we are back in winter.. funny, when a little warm comes: it i harder to take the cold again.. c
It’s nice to have a list isn’t it? I am such a list person myself. Gives me some incentive to get things done just for the pleasure to tick them off. Plus as we were talking about earlier in the week, it is all part of the puzzle of life, and if you can see the pieces it is easier to put them together. Yes we may find extra bits as we go along (or even lose a few), but if we have an idea of the big picture we can make better progress. I think it is a case of being proactive rather than reactive that helps us keep things in prospective. So I am off to update my list!!
Hugs, Lyn
And I just said to Mad, I forgot the chickens, and have not even begun the garden, i will need to add to the list.. I don’t want to be caught unawares! c
lots of good things to look forward to! it is pouring rain and blowing hard here.
rain and wind! any sign of plants yet jaz? I shall pop over and see.. c
Maybe Sheila needs a big poster of George Clooney, or a young Ben Affleck, or…piped in Frank Sinatra. Maybe “The Summer Breeze” would help her. Or maybe she needs an Italian to kiss her in three stages, beginning with the trotter and working his way up. I’m sure that would do it. // I saw on the news that there were fog and tornadoes in Illinois!?! I take it — well, yes, obviously — you are all okay. I think of you all often…
All sounds delicious! Put me in the mood! LOL Oh Kevin?????? 😉
it has been wild but no tornadoes here.. it is going to be a wild wind up to spring i think.. c
I missed the naming of the lamb. Marcel is a great name I knew a cat of the same name a real sweetie black and white puss cat
Morning Claire, I am meaning to visit you this week and see if there is any movement down at the alottment.. c
love love spring and preparations for it. you are so organized!
Unpack the box, unpack the box … I want to see what’s inside 🙂 Mama, like any proud Granny, is wanting to be introduced to her Grandie! Don’t think I would have handled yesterdays weather with any grace – at all. Hope it’s clear today. Laura
We unpacked this morning, it is a little racing car of a pump.. pics tomorrow.. ! c
Celi,
I rush to read your news every morning – just after I check for e-mails from my children. I think we live not far from you as we seem to have the same weather. We are in north west Illinois. Wondering what kind of lavender you ordered – something that will grow here? I have tried lavender several times and always lost it to the cold. Well, except for that one that was really thriving when my husband decided to build a deck over it!
I grow Hidcote and Munstead here, but never on the south side of the house, that is where they all die, the trick for me is to keep them on the west and north (weirdly) and pile them up with mulch at the end of the year AND only prune in the spring.. however we will see if mine survive this winter.. maybe not.. c