Around the farm...

things are a bloomin'! A few weeks ago, the redbuds started flowering. This is my favorite tree.

And the figs too. I was a bit worried about them last night when it was supposed to be down to 32. But the wind blew, thankfully, and no frost.

The blueberry bushes are all pretty loaded with buds too! I hope to get some blueberries this year. Last year the chickens got them all. They are in chicken jail til fall, so no blueberries for them.

The sweet little violets are all over. As well as dandelions, hen bit and false nettle. The honey bees are in flower heaven!

And the elderberry bushes are almost all full of leaves. I love this bush. I still have several bags in the freezer of elderberries from fall. I might use them for some dye. I want to try gathering honeysuckle vines for baskets. They can take dyes and it stays dyed.  And I'd love to try dying some wool too.

These are my 2 lilac bushes. No lilacs yet, but some day. I think it takes several years to get lila blooms? Does anyone know?

And above, the plantain is starting to come up!! I sure need to make some plantain salve soon, for markets.

And, Olga finally had her kids this morning! More on that later. Have a great day, and happy spring y'all!!

Lots of cuteness...

Finished hat and gate.

I finished the Etta hat yesterday. I worked on it a little while at the restaurant with my mom and brother. Then in the car. Then finished it while watching The Middle last night. I want to start on another one right away!

My husband had gotten all the parts and concrete Tuesday to get the gate up. So he went ahead and set the big post in the ground that night so it would be ready to work on the next morning.

We got to it right after breakfast. It's not perfect. I have to lift up on it to get it to latch properly. But that's fine. It works! And it's dry right there! That's the main thing I wanted, to get out of the mud pit. The goats hated walking through that. I had boards laid out, but still had mud to get in. And we still need to get that tall post sawed off.

I was using a hack saw to saw the flat piece of metal that goes through the fence. My husband had just taken a drink of coffee and I looked up at him and said "really?" He laughed so hard, coffee went everywhere! it was so funny, I still laugh. The look on his face was hilarious! But it took forever to get that piece of metal sawed in half.

This is the old gate and the mud pit we had to go through every day. It was not fun at all.

The happy little goat family. Olga and Freya both got to go through the new gate to go to the milk room this morning. SO much nicer! And I cleaned the milk room this morning too! During the winter, when I'm not milking, that room gets piled up with junk, And bales of hay, so hay strings all over. Just a mess in there. So I got it all cleaned and organized and ready for milking now!

If only Olga would have some kids now. I am wondering if she's not pregnant, just really fat. Maybe a false pregnancy? When that happens, do they get really big udders? I don't know. She was bred, and I saw it happen, 5 days after Freya. So what is up with this goat????