Gorgeous Day

I sometimes wonder if everyone gets the same intense feeling of joy that I do on beautiful, warm, sunshiny days. Its like my whole being is smiling. Today is one of those truly B-E-A-UTIFUL days. It is the first day this year that will reach nearly to 80 degrees. The sun is shining. The grass is starting to grow. The spring flowers are blooming.the birds are singing. Some bees are even buzzing around. Unfortunately, all of the things I am yearning to do outside are going to have to wait. We have a family get together later and I'm not capable of starting something and putting it down.... or not getting sidetracked and starting multiple other things. Ahh... I'm trying not to let that get me down. It is frustrating though. Not much could mar this beautiful day though.

Yesterday I managed to accomplish something. A couple of things even. I planted flower seeds. I am usually so limited by space that I have to choose the most important things to plant. Flowers always lose. Especially to tomatoes and peppers. This year I made it a point to get some flowers planted. I ordered the seeds along with my baker creek order. Purple Echinacea, english daisies, cape marigolds (actually daisies), and yellow mums. Some others will be direct seeded.  Maybe this will be the year for flowers.

I also got the garden electric fence back up and functional. It was in sad shape after the pig situation and general neglect from the newborn fog of last fall. The fence was basically unplugged and forgotten for the winter. The chickens took it over, scratching all of the mulch from the beds into the path rows, and digging big ruts in the beds for dust bathing. It is time to excommunicate the chickens and take the garden back. Weeds are starting to sprout and now is the time to get them under control and mulch, before they get out of hand. Of course, there is no point in even trying to mulch if the chickens can come back behind me. Their main goal in life seems to be to undo everything that I do. They actually follow me around and pounce on things as soon as I finish and walk away. Anyway, the fence is repaired, wire tightened, weeds removed from fence line, and posts driven deeper. I spaced the wires closer together and closer to the ground to make it more difficult for them to sneak through, and prepped it for another row of wire at the top for deer. Maybe I will get to that soon. Chickens are the main issue at the moment. While the fence was down Keegan and I went ahead and removed the hog ring that had been left in there. I left the pig sectioned off fence alone though. I know of someone that has baby piglets and am going to see if I can get my hands on a couple of them to raise this spring.

 My derelict garden needs much love. It will be beautiful and full of life soon! All of these picture were taken yesterday when it was still gloomy outside.

While I was waiting for these pics to load I went outside to look at the fireant hills I mixed up yesterday. I read that if you take a big shovel full and throw it on another hill they will kill each other. Not much else worked so I figured it was worth a try. Fireants in a garden bed isn't much fun. Well apparently they were still very angry and much more spread out than I thought, They got me... bad. I had the baby in my arms and couldn't get them off of my very quickly. Gonna make for a fun day. LOL

On a happier note: We have strawberry blooms! Need to clean up, fertilize, mulch, and figure out chicken containment for that bed soon.  Peach tree blooms too!

It doesn't sound like much work, does it? It really made me realize just how out of shape I am after months of pregnancy, winter, and caring for a little guy (lots of sitting around holding him and nursing a million times a day). I'm going to have to remedy that this spring. There are definitely lots things to do to help with that. I made some lists last night (inside and outside to-do) and have already thought of a bunch of things that need to be added. Keegan will get some of the chores to do to earn his game and internet privileges. Yesterday he cleaned the (very much needing it after the torrential downpours) chicken coop and added more fertilizer(used bedding) to the blueberry bushes and fruit trees. I'm excited for this new year!