A Glimpse of Spring!

I was outside waiting for my Mom to pick me up so we could go into town and meet a friend for lunch and I got to looking around at my flower beds and realized that some of my flowers are sending up little shoots and I have little violets blooming. It seems that when you feel you can't stand the dreariness of winter one more day you are given a glimpse of renewed life through nature. When I saw those pretty little violets today it was as if God was smiling at me and it eased my spirit and gave me the hope of Spring.

Here is a picture of our barn. As you can see things look pretty dreary from all the rain. The barn has moss all over the side from being so water logged!

Well, I've been busy working on some new soaps and finally got my foot balm done. It's a hit so far and it smells good enough to eat. I had to do my first soap rebatch the other day. I tried a recipe that I found on line that is basically unscented and came out smelling kind of different because of the combination of oils and the cocoa butter. So, I grated it and put it in a roasting pan in the oven for about an hour and mashed it down every 15-20 minutes. When it was melted, I added sweet orange oil and then smooshed it back in the mold and covered it with plastic wrap. The texture came out fine and it smells wonderful. It ended up with kind of a marbled look. It's kind of cool looking. I'll post a picture of it later.

The rains have been terrible here this year. It has rained @ 35 of the last 40 days and we have lots of tributary rivers that are flooding and small landslides. If you have ever lived where it rains like this, you know what it means to CRAVE the sun. We sometimes don't realize how important the sun really is to our overall sense of well being until we don't have it for long periods of time. The lack of bright light kind of drains the life energy out of you and I have heard from so many people that they have a case of the "blues" right now. I suppose the upside is that all of this rain is what provides us with our beautiful green landscape and wonderful gardens. I have been planning my herb garden and a butterfly garden and making seed wish lists. We will hopedfully be working on the green house at the end of the month and I will definately be posting pictures of the progress. We have three walls framed right now.

I know my poor chickens and goats must be feeling water logged right now. I try to keep straw down for them, but with in a couple of days it turns to mush. My eggs always have splotches of mud on them because the girls walk on them when they climb in the nest. The ducks are in their glory though. It will be pooring down rain and all the animals will be inside except my little George and Anna running around chattering about their excitement to one another.

It's almost chick time again and my husband and I are thinking about getting an incubator. If not, we will just get a small batch from the feed store. We are thinking of getting a few more of the barred rock. They are so pretty and they really have nice personalities.

I was in the chicken coop the other day and one of the reds were in a nesting box and a buff was on the ground hollering at her because she wanted in. Finally she decided to climb in anyway and actuallly wedged her way underneath the other one from behind and went between her legs and out the front so that on hen was litterally sitting on top of the other. It was several minutes before one of them finally gave in and hopped down. I wish I would have had my camera. My 7yr old and I got quiet a chuckle out of their antics. They both just sat there stacked on top of each other and looked at us as if to say, "what, you got a problem with that?!"

The goats are doing well and all fattened up from the extra feed and the winter fur. I call the nubian "Fattty Patty" because she has gotten so round. We are hoping to breed her this fall, but only if we are able to get an appropriate milking area set up for her. We may have to wait until next fall. All in time I guess!!

Well I'm off to start on some Valentine's today. I have some new paper and stickers that I'm anxious to play around with.

Have a blessed day!!!