Almost Spring?

After the wonderful sunny and warm weekend I began to get excited about an early start to spring gardening.

Adding to the excitement to begin were some books on bees and bee-keeping and our gift from HomeTown Seeds coming in the mail! The books are next on stack of books to read and please check out the link to HomeTown Seeds in the side-bar for their unique product.

But what is this? Snow on the hyacinths?

SNOW on the tables I put out for outside dining?

The ducks eat the pellets of snow and hail combined.

The turn-around in our driveway framed in snow. The temperature is in the 20's right now, spring is yet to come, maybe tomorrow.

Spot-On Weekend~

This was one wonderful weekend. We all need a few of these in our years don't we? A weekend of just doing things that are NORMAL, and accomplishing something good, and just plain nice. Here is my husband mowing the lawn with his John Deer ( Deer John?) after working to get it mowing again. He did it! The mower is running along doing what it is supposed to do, and because it is a special Deer John it has a cup holder to hold a bottle of root beer for my husband to satiate his thirst on a hot day in March in Washington. Yes, we reached a high temperature of 60 degrees! The little building behind my husband is his new honey house. Not yet completed inside, but almost. Finally, my husband's supplies and bee-keeping equipment will have a place of their own, not having to be searched for high and low in the furnace room, the garage, the closets, and another shed. A whole little building that will house our water pump and the bee-keeping stuff! Now I can clean out my pantry and store the shelves of honey jars in a proper place, the honey house ~ where my Honey will hum happily whilst working with his bees and what they produce. He will give you a little photo tour of his honey house on his blog* when he has finished it.( the honey house)

The ducks rejoiced in the warm weather too. Baths , and swimming, and courting, and then sunning themselves on the lawn for long happy naps.

Sassafras decided ( I am sure they can choose when to lamb and usually it is in the early a.m. when the weather is freezing and wet) this was a perfect day to have her lamb. She followed the sun and just soaked it up while the rest of the flock was eating. I just know when a healthy and very pregnant ewe refuses to eat and separates herself from the flock that her time to lamb is near. Sure enough, she had a beautiful little girl lamb shortly after I took this picture.I watched the lamb literally climb out of the birth opening by herself and then my husband and I watched the tiny and very wet lamb immediately stand and begin to search in the right place for her first milk. Is THAT not a miracle? And looky here, Ruth also decided to lamb and she too gave us a very tiny, but very perfect little girl lamb ( ewe) too!This little lamb just seemed to appear with her mother, it was that quick. I looked at my flock and there was a teensy, tiny lamb running with the flock as if she had been here for weeks . Isn't that amazing? Just born and running and nursing... All in all, this was the type of weekend anyone would and should love and appreciate. Time with each other at home, time to observe and marvel at our flocks,time with our daughter and her family (our family), and who doesn't love to cuddle their own grandchildren? Time with special friends ( thank-you David and Kathleen), time to enjoy all God has blessed us with and hopefully the ability to remember and appreciate His loving kindness.

We're But Strangers in A Foreign Land

"For our citizenship is in Heaven,.." Philippians 3:5 and " So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens , with the saints , and are of God's household." Ephesians 3 :19

"Home, in one form or another, is the great object in life."Josiah Holland

Spot On Grandsons & Cats

How I decorate the front porch.

How my cat, Miss Marple decorates the front porch.

Our oldest of 8 grandchildren, and oldest of two grandsons, came to help me, his Grandmother, clean out some chicken pens today. It was a lot of hard work. I helped a little and am sore, very sore, from the work. I am so thankful to God for a strong and hard-working grandson to help me. He pitched out and hauled away at least 12 wheelbarrows of chicken manure and build-up to a compost pile so I can prepare a new pen for my red and white frizzle bantam chicks. We had lunch together, a walk around the pond and then dinner and a root beer tasting at his home ( thank-you daughter ). Grandchildren truly are the crown of old men and their wives. Thank-you C.T. We love you so much! And then, there is Ralphie~ lovingly playing with one of my husband's pens , one of many he has stolen from the receptacle that holds pens and pencils. Ralphie is enjoying his stolen treasure on my newly finished saddle-pad, locker-hooked with the woolen fleece of my Jacob sheep. Ralphie looks pretty happy with himself and his "catch", don't you think?

Hush My Darlin' The Coyote Sleeps Tonight

I had two new lambs born today, and as I was outside tonight checking on them I heard a coyote barking . The coyote was so close that had there not been trees between myself and the coyote I would have easily seen it. I wondered what it would be like to be one of my sheep, hearing the coyote and knowing it lurked nearby, smelling my new lambs and knowing instinctively it will kill me given the chance. Then I wondered at the many centuries past and even in some places present where people also fear animal predators. I remembered the song "In The Jungle" and I hummed this song to myself substituting 'coyote' for 'lion' and 'lamb' for child. I don't think it helps the sheep though, they are helped by me being there to protect them. Unlike God, who never sleeps or slumbers in His watch and care of us, His sheep, I need sleep and sometimes the coyote gets a lamb, or my whole flock of ducks. " He who keeps you will not slumber." Psalm 121:3

Ralphie Speaks! ( meows)

Life around here is pretty good, but sometimes Kathy forgets it is all about ME! Meow.........

Like, just the other night I was napping in a comfortable bed of canvas and wool on the living room sofa and Kathy picks me up and plunks me down on the floor. Something about this being a rug she is working on, really...I was trying to sleep! DUH!!!! I was not happy. I decided to let her know just how I felt,because after all, it is about ME, ME, MEow!So I decide to take her locker-hook, the thing she needs to make her rugs, and hide it. It is kind of fun to do this you know. She keeps swatting me away and I just keep at it...purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Kathy hides the locker-hook in the wool when she gets up to pour herself a cup of coffee and I take this opportunity to snatch the locker-hook. She can't fool me, meow.

The locker-hook is easily snatched and I drag it away to hide it. But hey, I decide I kind of like this locker-hook and maybe it is way more interesting than Kathy and I like the sound it makes when I bat it around and the hook at the end makes it easy to catch and kick across the room. Maybe I will hang onto this intriguing (yes, cats have amazing vocabularies) toy.

Ahhhhhhhhhh, I am tuckered out. This toy was so much fun to bat around the entire house and Kathy did not stop me. Nap time.......

..and then I see, she has taken pictures of me for her blog, the other thing that takes up too much time, time she could be spending on ME, ME,MEow!

Ralphie has been unofficially adopted by my sister Joni and Ralphie is very happy to know someone of consequence appreciates him. Maybe SHE will give him his own locker-hook and basket of wool. A cat can hope and dream. MEOW~

Moles Beware, A Challenge Is Declared!

You might think this sign is a joke, but it is not! This sign is planted in what we around here call the "Mole Super-highway", and believe you me, the moles are a-coming and a-going at a fast pace.( Are there speed limit signs down under?) We have tried for YEARS to rid this section of our lawn and landscaping of moles, instead, the super diggers have increased and improved their underground highways , to encompass our whole 2 and 1/2 acres, and then some. They even have mole hills on our island which means they have been very industrious and tunneled UNDER our pond to get there.

Please note the structure in the background here. This is a picture taken at least 10 years ago, there are many of my first Jacob sheep in this picture. The structure is a roof over the sheep feeder. See how straight and level it is?

Here is the same structure now. The sheep are removed from this area in the late fall and winter. Last fall and early winter the structure began leaning, and the reason is , MOLES!!!! Note the bottom left portion of the sheep feeder . Here is a close-up. Guess what the legs have sunk into? Yup, a mole hole, or more correctly, a mole cavern!I told you, the moles have a plan. See this story*, and this story.* How can you not agree with me? The moles have also tunneled all around the foundation of our home, plus, our oldest son was helping out last winter and was under the house to do some wiring and he said there are mole hills everywhere under the house. SEE? We have resumed all- out war on moles, those pesky varmints! Here is our #4 capture for the year, and shortly after this mole was caught today, another trap was sprung, but found empty. So the mole highway is busy. My husband got 1 mole in January and 3 in February. I am issuing a formal challenge to Miss Vickie of Sand Flat Farm*. She is at war with the gophers in Texas, and claims to be mighty lethal with her gopher traps. My husband is determined to win the years and years of war with the moles around here, so let the battle resume with more determination and on the 31st of December this year let the winner be announced and a special award will be given. Miss Vickie, we are looking forward to a great challenge, and may we both be winners!