Hard Times on the Farm

 Into every life a little rain must fall. So said my mother. She also said "This, too, shall pass." Okay, I'm ready for the rain to pass, also the sadness and sickness. Friends have died. Goats have died. Johnny and I both got some nasty virus that had me down for 3 weeks. Johnny had to do the goat milking for much of that time. I am now functional again but not up to par. And the weather has been lousy.

So Easter passed with no giant eggs this year, the lawn llama was retired to the garden shed, and few photos were taken. Johnny, however, dyed eggs his traditional way and sent this email and photo to family:

"Made Easter eggs using MY Grandmother Fink's method.  Boiled them in pan with dry onion skins.  They get the prettiest brown color.  My grandpa would hide them outside around the yard just as we returned from the early morning church service.  Minutes after arriving Grandpa would rush into the room reporting he had just seen the Easter bunny outside.  We'd rush outside and find eggs hidden all over.  We believed him year after year about seeing the bunny because the eggs were still warm!   The fact that some were almost hot never fazed us.  True believers never question or doubt their Grandpa!"

...Grandpa Johnny

In good news on the farm, the first doe to kid had a lovely doeling. She also had a dead buckling. And so it has gone... But the doe kid is cute and healthy.

After several weeks of illness, I was able to drive the EZ Go down to the newly mowed (by Johnny) Qi Gong meadow, which I hope to turn into a wildflower meadow, and check on the trail camera I put up in the woods there a month earlier. I was hoping to see wild things since no domestics can get there (allegedly).

Well, there was one deer. The Black Angus calf had come through the fence from a neighbor, our dog and horse seem to be able to go anywhere, although we have tried and are trying to keep them contained.

A week or so later, the weather and my health were finally good enough for me to hike into the woods looking for birds and wildflowers... and finding both.

These Ruby-crowned Kinglets were feeding in the bushes across the creek (which is river-sized now from all the rain). I took photos as I could see them and then blew the photos way up to find the bird. Not the best photos, but I did get a little of the ruby crown on this first one!

That sunny afternoon was a gift. The next day we awoke to snow. Here is the view out the kitchen window.

And from the milkroom window in the barn...

But after snow flurries and light rain, the sky cleared and we had some sun again.

Here's to a sunnier, warmer, healthier spring from here on out.