Spring Chatter

 Meet Daisy.  

Our new (to us) Jersey.  She has a moo more like a dinosaur than a cow, and has high-tailed it off to the neighbors' houses on more than one occasion and can be downright ornery sometimes but she gives us good milk when we didn't have any before so we don't complain.  (Too much.)

I didn't take any pictures of the lilacs in bloom and I barely made it to admire the fruit tree blossoms up close and personal before they too had vanished.  I feel like the year 2020 dragged on and on at a snails' pace and 2021 is going warp speed.

Let's not make up for lost time, shall we?  

I'd like to linger a bit longer.

Judah was making grilled cheese sandwiches and as head chef, he felt he needed a chef's hat.

I suppose a dixie paper bowl would have to do in lieu of a real one.

Vases of daffodils are cheery, vases of forsythia brighten any mood and waking up to a vase of lilacs by my bed is quite possibly the most luxurious thing ever...but when I begin to have enough flowers to make multifloral vases, well, that is when I have the most fun!

The first multifloral vase of the year:

Grape hyacinths, apple blossoms, a few sprigs of pulmonaria and white lilacs... and it smelled lovely!  

Moses drinking from a big boy cup....oh the tricks he can do!

Let's talk seeds for a moment, shall we?

I try and overbuy seeds (which I was thankful for after last years' seed shortage fiasco!) so I have quite a few seeds to use from previous years.  As I have been busy putting in the garden, I realized I was out of yellow wax beans so I headed to the store to get some (I love me some three bean salad!) and discovered the large packages of seed corn and beans at Tractor Supply were $10.99!!!!!  

I thought that was a pretty crazy price but when I came home and checked the package price of the ones I had from last year (same size, same veggie) I realized how crazy it was.

Guess how much they were from last year?

$3.99

Unbelievable.

Inflation is on the rise and I don't see an end to it any time soon.  When the media finally TELLS you that inflation is a problem as they have most recently been doing, you know it has been a problem for a lot longer than they let on and that it will get a lot worse.  I am trying to stock up as much as possible, I hope you are too.

In other seed news, am I the only one who hates tediously putting a single seed or two in each little pot to start seeds?  Ugh- I hate it.  

I also dislike murdering little baby seedlings when two come up at a time- it seems counterintuitive to gardening.  

(Does anyone else feel like a plant murderer when thinning plants or is this just me?)

AND, as I said, I have older seed that may be less reliable than new seeds.  Taking all these things into consideration, I decided to experiment with a new way of seed starting this spring.

I scattered a bunch of seed in larger pots and then, when they were big enough, I separated them each into its' own little cell pot.

Let me tell you friends, it worked like a charm!  

I found separating the seedlings much more enjoyable than tediously planting (and watering) two seeds at a time.

And the best part- every seedling that came up got to LIVE!

Happy little seedlings!

I guess the hard part may be starting a particular number of plants... but I think that this problem can be planned for.  Over scatter and then give away (or sell) the extras!

Now that we have Daisy, I am making daffodil colored butter and homemade cheeses once again.

I have also been on a canning bone broth kick.  It warms the house up on colder spring mornings and is very handy to have on the shelves.

I always kinda thought making bone broth was a waste of good vegetables (that are boiled and then tossed out) but then I read this book and discovered how much I had been missing before.

A good bone broth can taste like an entire meal.

When I made my first batch Matt said it was like he could drink it with a fork.  I loved that.  

It has been wedding and graduation year- four weddings and four graduation parties planned for this summer!

Here is one wedding in which I snapped a quick pic of the family per my mother-in-laws request.

Why is it that when I finally go to plant a strawberry bed that it suddenly becomes a three ring circus?  

Daisy, bellowing for her original home...

(Yes, we DO need a new fence... why do you ask?)

And look who else joins us on the farm?

Some of the cutest piggly wigglys there ever were.

It's Friday night!  I wonder what we will do....

Anyone have any good movie recommendations?  

We do not have TV so we are relegated to movies when we want to watch something.  Lately, we feel like we are scraping the bottom of the barrel and could use some good recommends!  

Happy weekend, all!