Spring at the Farmhouse

Springtime at my farmhouse.....

Earlier today:


My experiments:  I kept these 2 pots of flowers alive over the winter:

hydrangea

geranium

                       
                           

In the flower bed by the house, I pulled out the wicked ground cover and said "hello" to the flowers that are coming up:

                     

red-orange lilies

pink hyacinth

grape hyacinth

No manicures for me!

daffodils

white iris

               






Out by the far barn where the chickens live:

budding maple

                     

happy hens

Tonight:

It's the end of another stellar day...I love the evening routine.  At dark, I let the dogs out for the last time and walked to the "far barn" where my chickens live.  Hens are usually on their roosts nestled together.  Tonight there was a hold-out .... she was still out in the yard.  I gently coaxed her inside and closed their little access door/escape hatch.  I walked around to the side and closed the top halves of the stable doors.  Then I pulled down the overhead door while the hens made their low, contented noises.

Our "far barn"--it's the farthest west of all the barns-- began life as a pig farrowing barn.  Years ago we built 3 horse stalls inside and turned it into a horse barn.  When we sold most of our horses, we turned the barn into a storage barn to park the semi and trailer...now 1/4 of it is a chicken condo but it still looks like a horse barn from the outside.  

The walk back to the house was especially lovely.  It's hard to believe that it's mid-March and not June!!  The tree frogs' lullaby hung on the warm breeze; a few bright stars were visible in the dark purple sky.  (At the Western Edge, the tree frog lullaby is more like a deafening lollapalooza; but here at home, it's gentle and soothing).

Back inside, the only sounds are the breathing of the sleeping dogs and the ticking of the kitchen clock.  One of my favorite night-time noises is tucked away in the sound archives of my memory -->  at the serene end of the day at my grandparents' farm, after a stand-up Dove soap bath, getting dressed in grandpa's sweetly scented, line-dried tee shirts,  the cousins and I would step out the back door and sit on the steps to visit.  Pigs in the feedlot would quietly walk out to the feeders and with their snouts, open the feeder lids to get a bite to eat.  When the pigs would finish their snack, they would pull their heads out of the feeder and the feeder lids would   *bumm bumm bumm*   ever so softly.      Very peaceful.

I will drift off to sleep tonight with the feeder lid melody in my head.  Good night.