Images courtesy of Gail Catheryn, who is currently wwoofing with us.
a red hen:
Sacred Fire & Sunflower River banners for Beltane and future campouts, painted by Gail & Sarah
Clem, caught in the act of auditorally asserting his dominance:
a pecked hen, dustbathing,
Clem again, from his own level
a visit from Baxter
sleepy Tattersall
the recent, violent winds of spring knocked over the wood pile. Happily, it’s lovely like that:
The gates are installed. They’re imposing and beautiful, in that austere modern way. it has me feeling ready to start the wall project that will go with them, even though we have so much to do to get ready for the wall! the wall is scheduled to begin June 1st. we are doing the getting-ready things — Ian is buying lime today and will slake it this weekend so that it is ready to go when it is time. We have a guy coming this saturday to evaluate our field for lowering it. I am going to order the earthbags themselves in the next day or so. in fact, i think i just got a screaming deal on misprint bags from Fulton Denver corporation. i’ll confirm that in the morning. we need to move the compost (and build new bins for it while we’re at it) and move the front greywater drain (again, yay), and clear the north fenceline, but we have a lot of help here, and i think we can get the fenceline cleared in a matter of days if we ask our new interns to apply themselves to it. the greywater will take a little longer, but that, too, is within reach. things are charging along.
and of course the garden continues to charge along in that undeniably May way; tomatoes & peppers, corn, beans & squash, okra & bush beans all go in next week, with their attendant drip irrigation. we’re expanding the turkey coop to accomodate the baby turkeys who are growing by the day, and fencing the goat pen preparatory to getting goats in just a few weeks. We have a source for goats lined up, too. two nubian milking does are what we’re getting–as well as a chest freezer so that we can freeze the milk right away to batch it for cheesemaking.
spring is much of a muchness, and this spring more so, it feels, than ever. but wow is it all good. and moving forward all the time. thank heavens for our interns through the wwoof program! we would not be able to make it without their help!