In case anyone was wondering… I know my Dad likes to know what’s up here at the farm, if no one else! (gg) Thanks Dad!

We’re mostly just sort of laying low, working hard on company things, keeping up with chores and the cold and waiting for the sun to shine. It occurred to me today, that it’s nearing the end of February! March is right around the corner! March!!! The third month of the year! Only 9 more months till Christmas! Holy cow! Yeah and March means halfway decent weather in Ohio. Yeah, it could just as easily drop 8 inches of snow on the 28th of March… (Remember that year, Jill?) But, then, I remember that first spring in the Moby that we were making raised beds on the 10th and the world was beautiful and green! I figure another 30 days of iffy, up and down weather and then we’l be into a much better, tolerable and project ready time! Boy, I just can’t wait!

We just loaded up the incubator with a batch of Valentine’s eggs for delivery in 21 days! March 6th… we should start to see some lovely little chicks hatching. This time, I think we’ve done everything right. Gathered super-fresh, minutes-old eggs, sterilized and cleaned the incubator completely, used nice healthy looking good eggs, and got the temperature and humidity perfect before adding any of this group of eggs. And we have them all from one day’s gathering. Nothing staggered. I think this will greatly increase our hatching success! I hope so… I just adore the little babies hatching!

We’ll be ordering our meat chicks as well as some unusual laying hens for the flocks in a week or two… would like them to arrive about the middle of March. We have only 4 chickens in the freezer now, so we’ll be running out soon. We’ll be growing some for our friends as well, sort of babysitting their little chicks! They will be buying them and paying for feed and processing, we’ll just make sure they grow up good and happy little nuggets! The unusual chicks we are raising to sell and perhaps keep a few for our egg flock. Maggie has been selling about 8 to 10 dozen a week now to her customers! She loves it. It’s a good thing.

Maggie has been learning all about turkeys and we hope to get our turkey brooder built in a few weeks as well. Just really waiting for it to get a little bit warmer.

The sheep are just plain silly lately. They have been frolicking and sproinging all over the place, and playing humpy sheep, which is pretty funny to watch. My two boys are whethers, or fixed, but I guess they still have a little rush of spring hormones and have been chasing the girls a little bit and head butted each other in mock battles. Of course, the ewes are doing the same, just happy and playing as all good little sheepies should. I think they are very content. They love being let into the back pasture to graze and I often see them running back and forth in their little flock, just all jumping and playing like lambs, especially when the sun is shining brightly. In the afternoon, they all settle down to chew their cud and bask in the sunshine. They are sure happy that spring is in the air… they know it.

We are taking our first step towards bunny babies! Our little man Cornelius is a big boy now and he’s ready to be a daddy. We have considered all the pros and cons and have decided to go ahead and see what happens with a litter. There are many people asking for angora fiber pets in our area and we are prepared to keep any that give us the colors of wool that we want. Corny is pedigreed, and a very nice boy and Gwendolyn, his first girlfriend, is a beautiful French gray girl, just lovely in so many ways. She’s not pedigreed, but we have been trying to find a good pedigreed doe in our area and have had no luck. Since we only have two French, this first breeding will be a good learning lesson and we will keep any bunnies that we do not sell to increase our own herd. Their fiber is just adorable and fun to work with, and if we find that breeding is not our cup of tea, then we will have a lovely little herd of fiber pets for our sheep wool blends.

The biggest obstacle, however, is that Cornelius doesn’t quite seem to understand the whole process! Silly teenager! He is very eager and tries a good deal when they have their little visits, but unfortunately, with all that fluff, he doesn’t seem to know where the business end of his doefriend is! Gwen is very patient and tolerant, and we hope he’ll get it right sooner or later. Since bunnies cycle in and out of heat within 3 to 5 days, we are putting them together for a little while each day, for this whole week. After this week’s visit, we’ll just watch and wait. Bunnies are only 21 days gestation! So we should have baby bunnies, when we have baby chicks! Love is in the air at Windhaven!

We’re still saving up for the well, and it’s been a little tricky since this is the really slow time of our business. Thank goodness for the well up the road, it makes it very tolerable. No one seems to be really suffering, it’s just well, inconvenient at best. I think I am going to call out a few folks for estimates next week and see what they all seem to agree on. Perhaps, if they are slow I can work out a payment plan with one of them. We’ll see.

Been working hard on some websites that I need to get running better and have a couple clients that I’m working on new designs for. That’s good. Got almost all of my own sites onto my new server and that is saving us a good deal of cash! I have 6 to go, but so far, we’re saving about $250 a month with this. I hope to have those last 6 done by the end of the month. They are tedious to do with our rural internet… we’re on a measured service and because I have to download the whole sites and reload to the new location, it’s something that just takes a long time! But when I’m done, it will result in a $300+ savings for us EVERY MONTH!!! That’s huge! As soon as I am done with this, I’m taking on the cell phone bill and going to make it beg for mercy! My goal… $70 off my bill. With that, the websites and the storage unit done… We will save $400 a month. That’s almost five grand a year! That can buy a WHOLE lot of rehab here at the farm!!! It’s already helping, we can see it and it’s helping towards our well fund! Just been keeping our costs as low as we can, just not eating out much, and eating simply. Everyone was blessed with lovely gifts and toys and such for the holidays, so we are enjoying those new things in our lives and not needed very much else at the moment.

We did dip into the fund a bit to finish the studio and I’m glad we did. The space has been warm and welcoming and a great distractor from the yucky weather outside and our tight budget. Every time we walk in the front door, we all smile, we just do. I guess I didn’t realize how much of a power-zapper it was to walk into your home and the first thing you see is chaos and an unfinished space for now almost a year! Now, we walk in and we just feel lightened, and our friends and visitors notice as well, so that feels really nice. We’ve all been in there creating, painting, and even just hanging out. When you’re working on a little cabin fever, it’s such an uplifting feeling to have a place to play a little!

Hoping the next week or two I’ll be able to get all the straw bales I need to make my beds out in the garden area. We need to start filling them up with manure and compost. I want to be ready before the spring rains start and make the place mud. We were raking some, here and there, but now, it’s snowy and muddy, so we stopped. We have several good sized piles of chicken and pony poop, and even though it’s not perfectly composted, we can still put it on the bottom half of the raised beds to bulk them up a bit. Since the bales are a good 2 feet in height, a foot of hot compost mix will be fine with a foot of good stuff on the top. Our friends down the road have several piles of old horse compost and I’m thinking we will take them up on the offer of a few Blue loads of the golden dirt! But I’d like to fill them partially the way up first with good stuff!

Well, aside from the things up above, everything is going pretty well. We haven’t had any livestock losses for awhile now, and that is nice! It’s sad to go in and find a dead hen or loose a little guinea pig. I really miss Edward! He was my little pal, and I loved giving him little treats when I cut up veggies or fruits, he was always so happy to get treats. Guinea pigs are so sweet! Everyone seems to be healthy and ready for some good spring and green grass! I know I can’t wait for a super nice warm day to give Cody a bath! He’s a little on the rough and wild side for sure. He assures me that he is fine, and is a wild stallion of the outback. I brush him and then he trots off to roll in the gunky grass and dead leaves and mud. He has no good fashion sense for sure.

After his little visit with the Mennonite girl and her horse, we have all agreed that he needs a equine pal. Two ponies is pretty much like taking care of one pony, so we have been told. And Cody is a super easy keeper. We’re keeping our look out for a pony in need, someone that needs a good forever home. It has to be a gelding, we’re just not ready for a mare and all the issues that comes from having a pony stud and all that. There are plenty enough unwanted ponies in the world, we have NO desire to breed any more. And I’m not ready to geld Cody, just to get a mare. He’s too old and would probably still be bothered by her heat cycles and such. I’m sure there is a guy friend out there for him, just waiting and needing a good home and all. With the back pasture all available, we have plenty of grazing space for one more. Just one more. He can share his big barn with his friend. If need be, we can divide the pony barn into two big stalls, 10 x 20 foot in nature. We’ll just have to wait and see how and what and when and all that when the time comes. But if I’ve learned anything, I’ve learned that if you dream it, and visualize it and talk about it, things happen. Connections are made. Cody needs a friend and we’re willing to take him on. He’s out there somewhere. Maybe another little Shetland? Maybe a little Haflinger… maybe just a big mini! Who knows. I just know that we’ll be patient and see what is in store for our little pony man. Surely, his little buddy is somewhere out there…

Hope your week is progressing nicely! Best wishes to all…