There's a disc in your field

Yesterday the neighbor finally showed up to disc our side yard/field. It wasn't easy. He had a tough time getting the ground to break.

And after it was all said and done, it was only 3 inches deep. We are looking at renting something to get it deeper.

We are a week late, but it is finished. My potatoes are in the ground! And as soon as I can get this side yard/field prepped, all my cool weather stuff can go in and I can have a small break before the summer stuff goes in. No, I will not discuss weeding at this time. I want to forget that for a moment, and feel some sense of accomplishment.

If my toes were fingers, they would be giving me the bird.

After a few months of static movement, my legs are not responding well to all this ground work. Working a potato bed is tiring. I would like to laze about today, maybe sleep a bit, whine at my husband. . . but no! I still have 8 more rows of potatoes to lay out.

I year ago February, I wrote on the potato, everything you ever need to know about the tuber can be found here. OK, maybe not everything.

Here is a post about how much /many we took in, in 06. It also has a french onion soup recipe.

and yes, I am being lazy.

Better get it done.

My onions are now in. If you don't know when you should plant, I have the USDA's updated Zone map here.

I went looking through my blog to see what I have posted on onions. I have storing and harvesting, but nothing on growing. Now why is that? I wonder. First, no one has asked, and second they are rather simple. You push them into the ground when all the other root vegetable go in. The only thing you really want to avoid with onions is planting them in a row, as the maggot likes to go from onion to onion.

We broke our tiller, twice. So we bought another one as we are behind because of this breakage. We will fix it when we have time, and use it for breaking up the soil between rows. Our new tiller is cheaper, yet my husband likes it much more than the other. It can get into the soil deeper then the more expensive one.

I have half my potatoes in. This has caused a panic here at the homestead. We are far behind when we shouldn't be. But sometimes, ok lots of times, things just don't go as planned. Thank goodness for neighbors! My neighbors from across the way have borrowed a tractor and disc. He came over last night and asked if we had anything we needed disced up. OH YES! So today he will be discing my new garden spot, discing the good neighbors field, and digging out our other neighbors horse barn to level it.

This morning after milking I will be heading across the way to help my neighbor decide what kind of chickens she wants. It's funny, I have seemed to have started a homesteading trend in my neighborhood. Aw, but do they really want me to be their teacher?

You know it is Spring. . .

When the chicks arrive in the mail.

If your remember, my friends over on livejournal sent me a gift certificate to the McMurray Hatchery. My order arrived yesterday morning.

I drove into town an hour before the post office opened. I told my mail carrier that last time I went in this early no one answered, she told me to come around back.

Once there, the package was opened and everyone seemed fine. Until an hour after getting home.

This little one wasn't doing to well, and another had managed to drowned in the waterer. My guess is that it was stood on by the other's. I scooped this little one up and attempted to warm it with my body heat. It took about 2 hours, but it did snap out of it, and was able to open its eyes and chirp as well as stand on its own.

We put the goslings and the turkeys out last week. We will catch who ever is stealing from us.

Speaking of geese, last night I went out to milk. As I was there minding my own business, tugging on some teats, the barn yard erupted in excitement. Foghorn Leghorn jumped down from his perch above my head, crowing in panic. The adult geese where honking, goats and sheep running confused and a 6 year old boy screaming and spinning in circles. I stood up to get a better view of the commotion. Gander had a hold of my son's arm, luckily he had on his coat. The two of them were screaming at each other and spinning. KICK HIM! I yelled. I couldn't help immediately as there was too many gates and passage ways between us. The continued to scream and spin. Gander's wings spread as he tried to claw through the boys jeans. KICK HIM! Mama, who I was milking, looked up, snorted and went back to eating her grain. I ran out of the stanchion, out of the barn, through 3 gates to get to my child. Gander still had hold of him. With a tap of the foot to his bottom, gander let go and ran off with his goose. My son went screaming back to the house. He has bruises and scratches, but nothing was broken, thankfully. And after all of that noise, Mama was done giving me milk.

Easter

Saturday afternoon we found ourselves at my sister-in-law's, for an Easter Egg hunt. The boys had a wonderful time, finding eggs in strange places. Then it was off to my Mother's for my step father's birthday.

Easter morning the boys woke up to eggs in the house. We thought it was going to rain, so the eggs were hidden throughout the house. They found them just about everywhere. Once again my oldest complained that the bunny never hid them good enough, that was until I had to help him find the remaining 2 eggs. He complained about this 2 years ago, so last year the Easter bunny brought camouflage eggs and hid them in the yard. He was not happy about that one.

We killed some eggs, but in the right way this time. No breaking in the bathtub. For so many years I have been picking up those egg dying kits that I didn't even think twice about anything else. A pity since Stephanie from Stop the ride fame has a great article on one of the zines I write for, Dying Easter Eggs Naturally. (great interview Stephanie)

The boys got new gloves, pails, tin cups and lariats. This should be interesting.

I also made butter!

And we had meant to marble some eggs for dinner. It is something I have done for years to add a little flare to dinner parties. Some how we managed to make them looked tie died instead. Still tasted the same. (To marble eggs, crack the shells before dying them. Most people do this on accident. The dye is not going to hurt you if you eat it. And once the shell has been peeled off, you get and interesting pattern, most the time it will be a marble effect.)

Easter dinner isn't the traditional ham. We had Butterflied pork chops that were flame kissed. From scratch (not a box) stuffing, brussel sprouts and apple/butternut squash and walnut crumble pie.

After it was all said and done, it was time to pass out, while eating eggs.

And if you are anything like me, you have a ton of eggs to eat. I have a few tricks with deviled eggs that I plan on doing over this next week.

Hope you all had a great Easter Weekend!