Where The Grass Is Greenest

(It's wherever you are!)

Take time to refill your tank. You deserve nourishment—and a nap. Maybe both at the same time? You give so much care to others, don’t forget to care for yourself, too. — Peaseblossom

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Here’s What’s Happening at Good Spirits Farm

• Something must be in the water, because all of our hens have gone “broody.” A broody hen is a hen that wants to raise a clutch of eggs. She’ll sit persistantly in the nest box, trying to coax life out of a ceramic egg or even just a pile of shavings. We have’t had any broody gals for a while, and then a switch flipped and 4-5 claimed spots in nest boxes. Since don’t need any chicks, I’m just taking them off the nests at night and hoping they snap out of it. However, the way they coo and cluck at the “eggs” they’re sitting on is so cute it touches my heart every time! [Also, one broody hen invariably sits on a nest that is so well hidden I never even notice until she shows up with a dozen chicks in tow, so stay tuned!]

• Slowly I’m getting this year’s garden put in. The corn is coming along, and last week I got about half of my sweet potato starts in the ground. I’ve started our summer and winter squashes, and the tomatoes are showing promise with a few yellow blossoms peeping out each day. With my workload, I have simply had to give up on the idea of my garden being tidy and well-tended. Fortunately, even truly messy veggie patches with weeds and voles and bugs will still produce some food. Life persists, even when it’s ragged around the edges.

• Speaking of ragged around the edges, given my current level of bandwidth, I’ve decided I’m going to move from spring to fall calving next year. That means I don’t need to stress about breeding Julia and Gimlet until January (instead of getting them bred right now). That will give Julia’s body a bit of a break and will also give Gimlet more time to grow up. Like her mom, Gimlet carries the gene for dwarfism, so while she is definitely old enough to breed, she is still quite small. It feels good to basically say to myself: I can’t do everything all the time and that is okay. We can do this later. If the farm is slightly less productive over the next two years because I space my calving out and make choices that are better for me and my animals? That is okay.

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Here’s What I Loved This Week

The fresh strawberries rolling in from our strawberry patch! Just look at these beauties!