The dogwoods blossomed this week. They are beautiful!
Awhile ago I found several of these hard little nests in the brambles by the barn and then this one on the garden fence. I thought I should look it up before I decided whether I needed to do something about them. Turns out that they are praying mantis egg cases! Wonderful for the farm and garden.
I had brought one egg case in on a twig and the kids and I decided to keep that one in the house so that we could watch it hatch. It hatched! We watched them briefly and then took the whole thing out to the garden. I am always so amazed by Mother Nature. And so grateful that there are a bunch of these in and around my garden -- each one contains 100-200 voracious predators who will eat aphids and other bad bugs.
We now have a second broody muscovy duck. She found a good hiding place in the back corner of the big rabbit house.
The strawberries are blossoming. I am looking forward to eating them when they are ripe -- so much better than the ones from the store.
This is my rogue bunny. She should be named Houdini. She escapes from her cage and I find her running around the farm. Today we found her in the big rabbit house on the other side of the yard from where her cage is. She probably got out some time during the night.
Remember Pirate -- the rabbit kit whose foot we had to amputate? He was eating out of the feeder when I put my camera in to take this picture. He seems to be getting around pretty well. I think he is going to be fine.
Hubby worked several evenings this week sawing up the big logs and using the tractor to bring them close to the woodsheds for further cutting/splitting.
We have had a lot of problems feeding the cats over the years. Cat food is the most expensive feed that we buy, but all the other creatures on the farm love cat food too. We tried keeping it on the deck with the gate shut, but that attracted chickens and opossums on the deck. We tried keeping it in the barn with the doors of the barn closed, but the dogs figured out how to slide the barn door open (for themselves and everyone else). We tried keeping the food up high at the back of the tool storage bench, but the muscovy ducks fly up and eat it. We have 5 barn cats, so they need at least 5 cups of food a night, but it seems like ALL the creatures living on this farm would much rather have cat food than their own feed. Here is my latest brainstorm --hide it in the tractor wagon. The dogs can't get in there and the ducks cannot figure out where it went. Haha. The cats are finally getting all their feed to themselves. They have to take turns eating it though. We shall see how long it lasts.
There is a gravel pad on one side off the barn and when it rains the water pours off the roof there (no gutters) -- very bad for the wood along the sides of the barn. It is on our list of projects to address soon. But in the meantime, last year I shoveled out some of the gravel and tried to plant some flowers and things there. Only my hardiest plants came back this spring - 4 kinds of mint and feverfew. I am glad they survived. The kids and I love mint tea.
Peas are sprouting along the fence with some tomato cages for extra support
The sage overwintered nicely as did the oregano.
The elecampane is looking hardy with new St. Johns wort bushes along the front.
The marshmallow is the lower left corner of this picture. A couple of those are coming back too. We should be able to harvest some of the roots this year for herbal medicine.
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