Sunny Windy Day

Here is Daisy resting in the window enjoying the spring warm up in the Ozarks. The wind is blowing very hard and the sun is so bright, great for cat napping.

Learning to Be a Chicken

Here is our single yellow chick getting eating lessons from his mom. She digs up the sprouted oats and the chick gets fed. Soon he will learn to do all this by himself or herself.

Horse Holding

We took our herd out to run the pasture and eat grass. We do not have a fence yet so we hold onto the lead mare, Dolly. The weanling Bean and Maple got to run free for a little while. They are still muddy from all the rains we have been getting this spring.

March Hay Day

Our horses ate though a round bale and we ran out of spares. So I went to Peace Valley, MO to get square bales. We were able to get 14 in my friends truck, tied and stable. Got home and unloaded before the rains came.

New March Chick

Today our 2nd broody hen surprised us with a single chick after 3 weeks on a pile of eggs. I spent the afternoon candling the remainder eggs. Three had chicks and the rest were not good. But our hen was no longer setting on her nest so the eggs were tossed. Might have to get an incubator for the next group if this happens again. She was off her nest to run after her only chick and the nest got cold. The other hens will peck at cold eggs if left without a hen to protect them. Life on the farm is hard sometimes.

Cathedral Windows Quilt

I have always loved the simple beauty of the cathedral windows quilts. It is a great way to use up scraps and you don't have to quilt it! You piece and add as you go with muslin as the background. The tedium is in the making of the muslin squares and sewing by hand. It takes time to sew by hand. Tiny stitches make for a sturdier quilt but do consume a lot of time. But I am happy with the results I am getting using tiny stitches to sew the "windows" inside the muslin.

I chose natural muslin as it already looks old and dirt won't show up as easily. This style of quilting also makes a heavy quilt. Mine will be a king size quilt and will take a lot of time to make. But this type of project you can pick up and put down throughout the year. I will post more photos as I begin to join the groups of windows.

Luna learns the Woods

Alan rode Luna around our forest and pond to get her used to trail riding. She has a problem with staying at a stop upon whoa and will need work on that. But when she gets going she covers a lot of ground quickly in her gait.

Our Garden Plot

Here is my husband with the tractor and the scraper. He is clearing last years plants and enlarging this years plot. We will be adding manure and dirt as well a chicken fence. He was able to get it scraped before the storm on Sunday. Looking forward to a larger veggie garden without my chickens eating all my tomatoes.

Sour Luna

My trainer rode my mare, Luna, out to my pasture to see how herd sour she is, oh my! She is quite the sour horse. She will have to spend time tied out after this ride to get away from the "rush home to herd" mentality. But Luna seems to be "more horse" than I am used to according to my trainer. Riding Luna is what she needs and that is what we are going to do. Ride often and pony the weanlings with Luna. All need time to learn to be good horses under the saddle.

With the weather turning warmer out here, riding will be a pleasure out here.

Coop Cleaning

It has been a long winter and my chickens have made a mess of the coop. They overnight in the coop but they can still make a mess of it. I made 20+ trips to the manure pile dumping straw and pooh. Then I put down diatomaceous earth and cedar shavings along with new straw. The earth and cedar keep bugs away and keep the coop smelling nice. The straw holds the stuff together in the manure pile. All of it makes great compost in a year or so.

Cats of Mirikitani

I watched this DVD last night. Wow, what an amazing true story about a Japanese American artist. I had seen photos of Jimmy's work in a book long ago. He has had a terrible journey through life as an American citizen during WW2. This story is wonderful and theDVD extras are a nice closing to the end of this story.

March Hare

The weather warms up and the indoor bunnies begin to shed. Here is Igor getting plucked of his knots outside. Otherwise there would be hair or "hare" all over the house.

Trophy Tree

We are getting ready to enlarge our veggie garden for spring. In the way of this expansion is an evergreen shrub. Alan chained it and pulled out of the ground, upsetting several moles. And finally he posed with his trophy shrubbery.