Spring is in the air and we are getting things done! For starters, we’ve got a new batch of baby chicks growing in a brooder in the mudroom! We picked up 8 pullets (females) at Atwoods in Tyler. Out of that bunch, we *should* have 2 leghorns, 2 gold sex links, and 4 black sex links. I’m awaiting 4 ameracaunas to hatch from a local gal. They lay blue/green colored eggs and the artist in me just couldn’t resist multicolored eggs on my counter. The 8 I currently have are about 2-4 weeks old already; so brooding everyone to together may be a challenge when I add the new 4, but I’m going to have to wait and see. When everyone has lost their fuzz and feathered out, they’ll move out to the new coop! In the meantime, having little peepers down the hall has been entertaining. Even Fluffy has seen appeal to coexisting! However, we often have to remove him from the top because he tends to block all of the light!

We have decided to ignore the dumb groundhog and move forward like Spring is here to stay. As a result, we have planted 2 varieties of asparagus, 2 varieties of strawberries, brussel sprouts, jalapeños, red bell pepper, tomato, zucchini by seed and edamame. The edamame was an impulse decision. We bought one plant and I have no idea how it will do. We also planted corn and broccoli by seed. 2 more crops that I’m not certain about the outcome. Broccoli should really be sown as plants in the spring and seeds in the fall, but I was having a hard time finding healthy plants. And apparently corn needs to be in multiple side by side rows for pollination annnndddd we did just one long row. I’m going to have to talk extra nice to the bees on those plants I guess. The kids sure did love planting it though! We have cantaloupe, watermelon and pole bean seeds left to sown along with some pollinator attractant flowers and we have our spring garden set!

We also have blooms on one of our orchard trees now! Which makes one of nine identified as crabapple! This really gets my hopes up that maybe the tree I thought was pear may actually be an already established apple tree. Crabapples, in addition to being ornate and edible, are widely used as a pollinator to other varieties of larger apple. But we will just have to wait and see as more blooms show. Isn’t the crabapple pretty?

And last but not least! Saving the best update for last…..we now have a functioning bathtub and shower in the mudroom!!! Nathan really pulled out the big guns this past weekend and tied all the loose ends together into a masterpiece of a finished product! The kids were so excited and enjoyed their first bath in the new house tonight. We have a fun, rustic idea to finish it out cosmetically, but I am so happy to have this plumbing project behind us now.

I can’t wait for this month’s guests to come share the fun with us!

-Lindsay