High 47  Low 41   It is a bright and beautiful sunny day!

The Spring issue of the newsletter is out. Subscribe, renew, gift… http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-self-sufficiency-newsletter/

We have a new calendar page!  See our upcoming events! http://songcroft.com/index.php/calendar/

Spring is here and I am feeling the pull to be outdoors. Actually, I am aching to be outdoors. It has been over a week now and I have been on bed rest. I will be up and moving by next week but wont be able to lift for another six weeks. How on earth can that be when I have all of these farm chores to do?

I had went in for a schedule procedure which was suppose to be very simple and only take 45 minutes but I ended up staying in the hospital. Apparently, I am one of the people that don’ respond well to anesthesia or pain meds.  Anyway, it’s nothing serious but I spent the week with complications and should be up again by next Monday. If not, you’ll probably hear me ranting, even if you are reading this from the other side of the country!

I am ever so grateful for my wonderful community of friends and my dear mother who rushed me in for emergency care.  Friends have been bringing meals over for our family and helping out with errands. The kids even had rides to and from their activities. I can’t express enough what a blessing our community is!

Oh, I just have to mention Lotsa Helping Hands! It is a free service that you can use to arrange care (even across state) for someone in need. I have used it several times for friends with cancer and other health challenges. It allows you to add “needs” to a calendar (say like meals, rides for the kids etc…) and others to click on them and sign up. You invite friends and family to join your support group and help out. I could not have organized things without their help. Although their service is free, they really on donations and they will definitely get one from us!

With this “extra” time I have had, I have been trying to get the things done that I can. Mind you, I have been doing these things while very dizzy and groggy I might look back at it all later and think, “What in the world was I doing?”

Among the tasks I accomplished was a new garden plan. We will add some raised beds and arbors to the garden. The raised beds will also allow for seating for garden classes or parties and the arbor will make it feel more like a room. Other benefits of raised beds is that they will be tall enough to deter dogs and with the slightest bit of fencing, our chickens! Look later in the season for picture because as soon as I am able, I’m on it!

In Community,

Marilene

High 55 Low 31

Overcast Morning with blue skies in the afternoon but it’s pouring now!

Wow, what a busy day. It has rained and even hailed here most of the week so when I woke up this morning to mild weather, I put my working clothes on and got busy!

After getting the kids breakfast and the house semi-settled, I got busy collecting eggs and checking on all of the chicks and ducklings. Our eggs are such beautiful colors that they are really the best naturally “dyed” easter eggs!

In the goat shed. I mucked the kidding stall and the main loafing area. After putting down fresh straw, I cleaned out the water feeders and feeder racks. Then I brushed the herd down and fed them. They were very happy.

I checked Aggie, our three year-old black Nubian doe, to see how close she is to kidding. Sure enough, I could feel all the way around her tail so the time is very near.  I offered her some herbal tea with raspberry leaf and she sucked it down in one long draw. I have been keeping my eye on her all day. She should have at least one kid by late tonight.

Next, I ran a hose through conduit across some paths to the goat shed. This will be buried when we bring in some fill dirt to level out the area a bit. Yeah, no more tripping on the hose!

I then mucked out the chicken yard and laid out fresh straw for them. They were hilarious as they ran around snatching up all of the worms that were hiding under the old straw. When I muck, it is really funny because the chickens are watching me and darting around, trying to get worms and trying to keep out of my way. I call it the chicken dance.

I used most of the old straw mixed with manure to lie down on the uneven paths and surrounding ground. I am using it to level out the terrain, which is really difficult to walk on when it’s slick. It is slowly becoming more even. My goal is to be able to wheel a hand-truck with hay bales across this area without wrestling it at a 60-degree angle.

The ducklings and young pullets were out in the chicken tractor today. They got a breath of fresh air, grass to eat as well as some nice bugs. We put them back inside for the night because the temperature is dropping and because we don’t want them to be anyone’s snack.

One of our ducks is on a nest of 12 eggs. She just sat on it today so the clock has just begun ticking. We’re on day one of 26 to 28 days. I’ll post photos when they hatch.

We also have a hen on a dozen or so eggs. They are not all hers but she didn’t care. She just wasn’t getting off the nest. We will show them to you soon too. They will be a mix so it will be fun to see what kinds they all are.

The bunnies were all given “green chop” and alfalfa to munch on. They are all such nice bunnies that we haven’t been able to come up with names for the does. Our buck’s name is Mr. Clementine T. Bunny The T. stands for Trustworthy. He was named by the kids. The three does were all going to be called Easter Bunny but that was just too confusing!

Now it’s time to feed the kids dinner before I run-off to play doula and mid-wife to our goat. We will be having homemade chicken rice soup and rosemary flax baguettes, all fresh from our kitchen.

This is a typical “stay-at-home” Spring day on our croft.

If these sort of topics and activities interest you, you’ll love the Spring issue of the Newsletter!

http://songcroft.com/index.php/the-songcroft-self-sufficiency-newsletter/

High 56             Low 45                 Warm afternoon breeze

Spring ahead? Not us, we’re taking giant leaps! There’s been a ton of stuff happening at SongCroft this week. Where can I begin…?

Over the course of the week we brought in a bit more hay to get us through until it is haying time here in the area. With a couple extra goats this past Winter, we went through more hay than usual so our estimate in August was a bit off. But no worries, I hauled the bails across our land. It is rugged terrain as we haven’t filled that side of the property yet and it is very uneven. It is hard to keep a bale on a hand-truck since they all want to fall downhill. Then I had to stack them under cover. At eighty pounds a bale, this job takes that take all by 5’4” frame has to offer. To keep the goats from leaning from their stall over in to the hay storage area, I installed a wooden barrier. Now they can only look at it longingly instead of gorging themselves until they look like someone ought to tie a line to a hoof so they don’t float away as giant goat balloons.

We also got almost all of the fencing around the vegetable and forest garden done. We just need to install a few gates. This means even if the goats do get out, they wont be eating my cabbages and strawberries!

The Winter rabbitry was converted in to a brooding house for the 17 pullets and 6 ducklings we are raising. We also have a hen on a nest in there. It is a good use of a small space. I will post photos and a video later.

All but the vegetable garden beds got compost on them. I will make another go at it over the coming week. The goats ate part of the garden in front of the house, that’s what happens when the kids leave the gate unlocked, so I put the compost down there first hoping it would help the poor plants survive. Even our big horse trough full of bamboo looks like Giant Panda’s attacked it!

Rhubarb and asparagus were planted. Only a few more years until we get our first harvest. (That was sarcasm incase you didn’t notice)

We cleared out an area so that we can bring in soil to level the land on the side of our house. This will make getting to the hay a lot easier. This is going to be major work.

We taught both our first year and second year courses from Saturday through Monday. We covered soils science, composting, fertilization and pruning. It was really busy and a lot of fun. Folks learned to do soil samples, test for ph and how to make compost. We mixed bedding and goat poo with a beautiful combination of scrap vegetables and juice bar compost. The colors were amazing and the results will be powerful. We also made a worm bin and were able to send it one with one of the student’s family. I truly love being with all of the course participants and am blessed to live such an amazing life.

Sometimes the songs here are the chirpings of birds and others times they are the grunts made while heaving bales of hay but it all makes for a beautiful rhythm that we love to live in.