Warm Spring Days.....
Very busy weekend. Chickens love this weather as much as we do, so they are laying lots now. We cleaned the old silver barn, the chicken coop, chicken pen and filled the 'duck swimming pool'. Happy birds let me tell you! Set potatoes to sprout, maintained seedlings in the greenhouses, shut down the furnaces and opened windows. Ahhhh, feels wonderful! Fields are drying a bit. Hard to say when Ben will plow. He's got the itch, so shortly, all depending on the 'rain' situation. That will enable some early spring field crops for market (such a spinach, radish, lettuce etc) we hope to cover to protect from frost. One of the big jobs around here come spring is grooming our horse. Holy Horse Hair!!! It's nice to have a windy day, use a good brush and go mad! She's itchy too, so she stands there falling asleep while you brush! My stepdaugher got her cranked this weekend. You get out the whip, crack it to get her attention and get her running. You basically 'chase her away' by cracking the whip. A nice workout for horse and rider beforehand! When Bug has had enough, my stepdaughter will drop the whip and ask Lady Bug to come to her. Bug will come. It's called 'joining up' and Bug will follow her everywhere without a lead line. Most horses, ESPECIALLY ours does not like to be pushed away! She wants to please, so when she is allowed to come close to you again after the exercise, she's a bit more obedient. She was ridden this weekend for the first time since fall. She did not want to take the bit. Just 'testing' to see what she can get away with. This turned out to be a total 'horse post', as she was just a dolly this weekend, so we took way too many pictures!! All these pics are from the past two days!! She's still a bit muddy, but is now a healthy weight (got a tad obese from too much pasture grass) and is just as friendly as she is beautiful. Man, we love this horse. We are looking into mixing our organic horse manure with our neighbours organic cow manure to create a really nice soil ammendment for your city gardens and flower beds! All our piles are 2+ years old, nicely composted and ready to go! Anyone from Dufferin market can contact me at jb.sosnickiorganics@sympatico.ca to put in an order. Ben can pick up your containers (like garbage pails) to custom fill!! We have plently and Lady Bug would be happy to oblige! Enjoy Spring 2008!!