Melting

I can not express how lovely it is to get out of this house after so many weeks trapped inside because of the bitter cold and snow. The sun is shining, the snow is all but melted and we are getting ready for a super nice week of weather. It sure lifts my spirits. Unfortunately poor Wesley is under the weather. I thought he was over it this morning but I just got back from a shopping trip out to find him red cheeked and lying on the couch with a 103.5 temp. We're on day three of this. Luckily Tylenol gets the fever down and four hours later it's back up again. I sure hope it doesn't spread to the rest of us (especially Greta). I'm thankful he's out of school tomorrow for President's Day (he would have been kept home anyways).

I've been keeping busy cleaning out animals pens. Snow and ice kept the horses, goats and chickens in their houses for the last two weeks. The chickens, literally, didn't leave their coop since the first snow. They are the most prissy animals. The goats also won't set foot on snow and hunkered down in their shed. I just kept layering straw on top of straw to keep them clean. Therefore there was two feet of nasty straw bedding that needed to be cleaned out. That's quite a job. Luckily I have a massive pile of mulch started for the garden.....already full of natures fertilizer.

On that note, I got my garden seeds ordered last week. Several things need to be started soon so I went ahead and got everything ordered. I tried a new website this year. It's called SeedsNow.com. They have a great selection, only sell non-GMO, non-hybrid, heirloom seeds. They also offer a ton of seeds in .99 cent sample packs. Their sample packs have about the perfect amount of seeds for me. The basil sample pack has 120 seeds, the squash sampler has 15 seeds. It's enough to grow a nice row but not be overrun (remember last year when I grew 400 zucchini plants? Yeah, I'm not doing that again). There is just something that compels me to plant every seed in that packet, otherwise they are just going to waste. So this will help prevent that. This is a good thing. My new exciting crop I'm trying this year? Wheat! I'm planting a nice plot of Hard Red Wheat. This will be a first but I'm excited to try it out. Also this year I am rototilling up a few new plots for the kids. They get to plant whatever they'd like but it's up to them to keep it weeded and watered. They are looking forward to it and I think it will be a good learning experience.

That's all that is happening around here.