Spring is near!

Ahhh! I LOVE the beginning of Spring! Hearing all the frogs, you can practically sit and watch the pastures turn greener each day.  The smell in the air, the daffodils, tulips, iris, and peonies peeking through the ground! We have been busy doing lots of spring cleaning outside. We have been raking leaves out of the flower beds, burning off the pastures, picking up lots of sticks that have fallen through the winter, and getting ready to get our garden started. I always think about my dad and my grandpa the most around this time of the year. They loved to garden too and I learned everything I know about gardening from them. And while I didn't always like working out in the garden when I was a kid, I am so thankful for what they taught me in my life, about the rewards of growing something and giving it away to people that love it or cooking a beautiful home grown meal for your family and friends. When I smell the freshly tilled dirt and hear those frogs singing, it takes me back when things were simpler. This weekend, the weather isn't cooperating very well for tilling my garden. I had hoped to get a few things planted. I was already a little late. Grandpa always would say to plant your taters around St. Patrick's Day! Cold temperatures are back and it was sleeting this evening! Snow is in the forecast also. I have our seed potatoes and peas to plant when the weather gets drier.

We have soooo many eggs right now! My girls have really stepped up their laying since they have been out of their chicken house more, scratching all around the place, searching for any kind of bug morsel they can find under the leaves! Our geese have also started laying. They have layed about 10 eggs in the last 2 weeks. I was hoping that they would sit on them and hatch some baby geese, since they are making nests all over the place! But, I'm not sure yet if they are both females or if I have one of each? They will be 1 year old in April. 

I have been taking care of a kitten this winter that was abandoned by her mother around the first of the year.  She was only about 2 weeks old and I had to bottle feed her. Needless to say, I got very attached to her. I'm her mommy and she follows me around a lot. But, she is starting to get very ornery! She is black and white and very cute!

The MOPACA Invitational Alpaca Show is this weekend, March 25-27th, at Hale Arena in Kansas City. We will be there. Sarah has entered a few of her needle felted items she made in the Fiber Arts Competition. Hope she does well. 

All our alpacas are doing good. I just got our hay tested with very good results. It will be time to shear them soon. We didn't shear them last year, so we will have a lot of fiber to harvest from them.

That's about all for now. Just when I was really getting things done outside, the weather has to get bad. Hope it doesn't hang around long! 

Lara