Well, another week has come and gone and with it, close to the end of another month. It pleases me to no end to have the nice weather and be working outside as much as I've been. I came in from working all day in the garden yesterday to inform my DW that I had my first sunburn of the year! She just laughed!

Today was interesting for us! I think I posted earlier that we had worked outside all week, but today was the only exception. My wife and I had planned to go to a particular auction, so we left pretty early this morning. The only instructions to my mom I could think of at 6:00am were what to have the girls do today and a phone number where she could reach us in the event of an emergency. We went on our merry way and had a pretty good day.

We didn't get anything at the auction (they were paying near-new prices - too rich for my blood), but we had a good time. When we got home, my mom was beaming with pride in that she had sold ALL our bunny rabbits! I asked, "You sold ALL the rabbits?" "Yep," she said, "all but the breeding stock and the newborn ones!" I replied, "Cool!" and let it go at that.

I didn't mention that I'd forgotten to tell her that we were saving three does for someone here on the forum or that we wanted a couple of the fryers to dress out for our table. Didn't want to spoil her good time over MY mistake, so I set my tastebuds for a while later down the road (I do love my rabbit liver!) and emailed the person here on the forum to explain and apologize. So it was kind of an interesting, mixed-up day! But the sun was shining and the birds were singing and there were many smiles and much love and that's what life is all about! On that note I will get this posted and get my tired old bones ready for bed! I hope to post more on here this next week and work some on the website, too. I've just been so busy with all the "spring stuff" that I haven't had much time to sit here and mess with the computer.

For now I'll simply bid you all g'nite!

-- Phil in KS (mac0328@plantekc.com), March 30, 2002

Answers

I havn't been outside lately, but that's OK. I've been doing family stuff. Briana's birthday treat was to take friends to the moviento see Ice Age, spent time (with DH help) getting the house into shape after I was ill several days with some sort of digestive complaint. The kids and I did up Easter eggs last night after I got back from an after-dinner trip to the grocery store. The eggs have been found by now and the baskets have been sampled. I intent to enjoy the rest of the day and I am looking forward to going outside tomorrow.

Last frost date out here is April 15, so it is a busy time in the garden. For my birthday in January I ordered materials for 100' of drip irrigation system I would like to set up and try, I have kind of a neat drill to use in grafting to try out (run the budstock through a pencil sharpener and the match should be exact), and the potatos are sprouting nicely and waiting to be planted.

-- Terri (hooperterri@prodigy.net), March 31, 2002.

We had a very productive week at our farm. Fixed the fence the cows were in- replaced post and wire where needed and can easily replace the remained of the fence as needed and money and time allow! Cleaned out 80 years of trash metal, brush, and torn down an old building! It looks great... I have said thank-you for all the blessing-for having the strenght and drive to do it and the will to get it done!!

Still too wet in the clay to start the garden. But it's not quite time,yet.

Purchased two more beehives (have four total). All are doing very well. I opened the oldest one and they have honey in two hive bodies. So, I put a "queen excluder" on top and a medium super. Does any one else use a queen excluder?

I have been cooking for our Easter dinner. And wanted to take a break -to wish you all a great day!

-- Debbie T in N.C. (rdtyner@mindspring.com), March 31, 2002.

Oh my aching feet!! Came home from work Saturday morning and took a short nap; then got up and started cleaning house and cooking for dinner today. Got up this morning at 5:30 and started in again. It's now just after 6 pm and all my family has headed home - Hubs has made me a pot of coffee and I am sitting at the computer with my feet propped up! We had 34 people sitting down for dinner at 12:30 today, plus two more showed up at 1pm. Lots and lots of good food and lots and lots of good company to enjoy it with - age 2 to 81; 4 generations.

It was nice enough outside that some of us put on jackets and took our plates out to the porch - a little breezy, but we moved the table out of the wind and into the sunshine and enjoyed lunch alfresco! After dinner, the kiddies went down basement to watch a video while the eggs got hidden, then we all enjoyed watching the kids hunt - with a little help from the dogs! I thought Shelties were supposed to be herding dogs - not retrievers!! After the hunt, we had to clean the mud off of everyone's shoes - it's still pretty squishy.

I found a litter of 4 baby kittens under Bunny's hutch on Wednesday morning, so spring has officially sprung here. I'm still planning to get some chicks this year, but may wait until after the 15th, as Hubs and I plan to make an overnight trip to MO then - I don't want to have to ask Pop to babysit them AND the garden plants. Don't know when I'll be able to plant anything else in the garden - even though I have raised beds, the ground is still too wet to mess with. I thought about having Pop toss the 'tater peelings from lunch out on the edge of the garden and covering them up with straw; but we were just too busy today to mess with it. Everything that I had planted earlier got frozen in the poor weather we have had over the past couple of weeks, so I will be starting over from scratch. (Can you hear Pop saying "I told you it was too darn early to be planting anything...")

Well, I'm about ready to head for my jammies and a good book to relax the rest of the evening with. I've got a ton of laundry to do tomorrow, then in to work Mon, Tues and Wed nights - at least I won't have to worry about cooking anything for the fellows; we have plenty of leftovers to get them through my work days! Hope you folks all have a pleasant and productive week...

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), March 31, 2002.

We had our big Easter gathering Saturday. 35 people showed up for Ham, smoked turkey, bbq'd ribs, shrimp with new potatoes, corn on the cob and smoked sausage. Made Hashbrown caserole from the Cooking and Craft forum. Everyone loved it! Cole slaw, a pot of baked beans, homemade breads, and too many deserts to mention. SO I spent Easter Sunday flat on my back, pooped! I was too tired to enjoy the beautiful weather. I did kind of prop myself up beside a window to watch the chickens, puppys and sheep roam around the yard. Someone did come by about noon and bought 2 of my border collie pups. I have some marans, barnevelder and wellsummer chicks under a heat lamp in the basement. Found a litter of kittens on the hay stack in the sheep barn, I guess spring is here! Now I need to get the garden ready, repair and paint some fence, finish my to do list from last spring. Best wishes everyone!

-- cowgirlone in OK (cowgirlone47@hotmail.com), April 01, 2002.

Hi, was going to post to this thread a while back but got really side tracked by things happening in other places that I won't mention here. We have had quite a couple of weeks. Things started going bad two weeks ago at bed time when we had that dialog "Honey, did you leave some water running in the bathroom?". Hot water heater had died and need replacing, as well as the partially rotted floor under it where it had been slow leaking obviously for a while. Got that in finally, the new hot water heater, on Thursday last, got the fancy Easter dress done for the granddaughter that she talked me in to doing and had a wonderful Easter with the grand children here for an egg hunt and dinner.

This morning I went to the barn and found two surprise goat kids and my season of kidding has begun (very late this year, but it has worked out well in the long run)!!! I will have 4 more does freshening in the next 8 days, so I will be busy and not probably around the forums much. Got a couple of flats of stuff started and many more to go, and the list goes on and on. All winter we dream about it and talk about it and now..........IT'S DOING TIME!!! (Oh, and I have my first new baby kittys in 25 years......so cute and cuddly)

Take care all and have a wonderful rest of the week. Oh Phil, I WILL get a check in the mail for the CD. Just been totally distracted!!!

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), April 02, 2002.

Mornin everyone! Sittin here sipping my coffee and trying to get woke up.

The weather has been beautiful for the last couple of days and I finally got my asparagus bed moved. What a job! It was a large bed that I made 3 other beds out of. Since the poke weeds had choked out and killed the asparagus, I'm starting with a clean slate of what to put in the new beds. I'm seriously thinking of being frivalous and putting nothing but flowers in the new beds! Food for the soul. I put the new beds by a cedar arbor walkway we had built, so I'm looking for some neat climbers to plant there. Any unusual suggestions?

After getting that done yesterday, I had to weed the garden and mow the yard! yuck. It sure seems too soon, but I guess it is April now and hopefully the weather and temps will finally even out to normal. It's been crazy this year! My tomatoes are ready to be put outside and I was planning for April 19th (good moon date), but this weird weather is making me leary! 80 degrees yesterday and in the 50's today!

We had a nice Easter, with Dave's mom coming up for supper. I think she really enjoyed herself. My mom was in Lexington for my cousins 50th birthday bash, so we didn't have much of a crowd. Like 1 more would have made a difference, huh? :)

Got my coffee down, so I better get moving and get some stuff done around here.

(Diane, congrats on the kids)!

Annie

-- Annie (mistletoe6@earthlink.net), April 03, 2002.

Everyone seems to be working on so much more than I. Hopefully, that will change here in the next few days. My Cleo finally got serious and had 3 bucks about 1:45AM on 4/2. She pretty well had me out in the barn for 3 days and nights. My next round of kids aren't due for another 3 weeks, so should be able to concentrate on getting other things done.

My daughter gave me a scare Easter afternoon. She was climbing over the gate and jumped off. Lost her balance and landed wrong. Thought she had dislocated her left leg. Looked horrible. After closer inspection realized she had knocked her kneecap up and over from where it should be. Chuck was able to (as gently as he could) manipulate it back into place. So thankfully it wasn't as bad as it first appeared. She was a trooper thru it all and is doing fine.

I am suppose to get my freezer back tomorrow afternoon. Keeping my fingers crossed that this was a fluke.

It is still too wet for me to get in my garden, have cabbage and broccoli plants, that I started, ready to go out. Keep trying to start my tomatoe plants; but so far they are not cooperating very well for me.

Need to get busy and spend some time cleaning house. Don't know how it can get so junked up when everyone has been staying outside doing things for most of the day:).

-- Lacey (cddllt@webtv.net), April 03, 2002.