Here are a few things that make me happy today, for spring.
1. Rain Barrels
We recently purchased several additional rain barrels in anticipation of the summer drought. We went from 1 55 gallon drum to 9. 6 off our greenhouse and 3 off our chicken coop. The 3 by the chicken coop are overfull right now. The 6 by our greenhouse are being filled with our steady spring rains. We hope these to be full by the first weekend in May.
2. Blooming fruit trees.
Our Burgundy Plum tree has fruit set! I am trying to keep my expectations low so we're not disappointed, but B is guessing 2-4 and I am guessiing 20-30 fruits this year.
3. We finally decided to bring in one more aspect to our half acre, Bees!
We have a wild bee population, but the last few years they have dwindled. It could just be the funky weather, habitat destroyed, or neighbors who use too many chemicals. So we made the decision (years in the making) to start with one hive and then see how it goes. This will be B's responsibility as I've already got thhe chickens and main garden. As the orchard grows, we want to be know that we have polliators ready to incorporate with our local bee population of Carpenter bees (they live in the chicken coop), mason, tiny wild bees, big honeybees, daubers, and yes my asshole friends the paper wasps. They all have a job to do around here and I will leave them to it.
4. No more doggy accidents in the house. Our youngest is now holding it all night without issue and gives us clear signals when he needs to go out to potty. As a reward, and since they love to eat grass, i planted a basket of grass just for them in my garden. You can see that Little Diesel Dog has claimed it as his. This is a mix of wheat, rye, oat and barley.
These are my 4 favorite things this Spring. We see growth in our gardens, return of the birds, long days are ahead as are more blue skies.
Wishing you and yours a good Spring Sunday filled with whatever makes you happy.
