Springtime Business

Our beautiful buff orpington, Lady.  She was stalking the seeding process.

 We have been so busy over the past month.  Even though the weather doesn't reflect spring, we are convinced it will still come.  So there have been lots of garden planning and prepping as well as just lots of silly fun around here.  Feels good to be outside.  We also had a visit from some of our favorite people who used to live down the street from us.  They moved to Chicago last year.  Lucy and Yuuma have been pen pals since.  We were so excited to hang out with them. 

Daddy building another fence to protect seeds from the chickens and the dog.  This is Lucy and Edie's flower bed.  All from recycled lumber from our stash.

The craft table is being used as a seedling bed as well so when Daddy joined in on the morning drawing time, he had to use the kitchen counter.  Lucy is learning to use speech and thought bubbles with her drawings so Daddy was demonstrating.  Although Lucy's picture is more inspired by our yard on this day.  That is our apple tree!

Oh Yuuma!  How we have missed you!!  These three played like they have been together over the past year.  There was a moment when three cameras were snapping at the same time, hence this picture of Lucy.  I don't think I was able to catch a picture of all three together.  Very busy, they were!

A warm day calls for a picnic.  One of our favorite things to do after picking Lucy up from school.  Although...you have to be very careful that at least one person stays on the blanket while you are shuttling food in and out of the yard.  See Murphy in the background?  He may look uninterested but that's just his strategy.  Even Edie can handle him.  "NO Murty!"  As she is pulling his fur.

Lucy and I started digging in this little plot only to find a gravel pit.  I wasn't sure anything was going to grow in there.  She and I dug up the dirt and sifted it.

This was one of our favorite parts of the project.  Plenty of swiping and running hands through dirt.  PLUS, the bonus of all those worms that get caught in the process.  There was a lot of discussion about how many worms to give as treats to the chickens and how many needed to go back in the soil to keep it healthy.  She is very fair.

The chickens joined in on the digging after we added coffee grounds to the dirt. They were just happy to have upturned soil with plenty of bugs to find. 

Any ideas about what we're doing with this?

Rodney utilized his building skills for yet another garden project involving all salvaged materials.  We had this barrel set aside for a rain barrel project but hadn't gotten to it.  And now without funds for finishing that project, we utilized it for a compost tumbler.  I don't have a picture of the final piece but I'll post it later.

The huge pile of fill dirt delivered last week for our raised beds.  Again, FREE!  We happened to be taking care of a friend's kids so they played with Lucy on the pile while Edie napped.  They were all so happy to dig and climb the "volcano with hot lava".  I actually got to sit down on the steps in the sun for a whole 1/2 hour!!!