Alpaca Shearing Day

Isn't Alpaca Shearing Day some kind of national holiday???  Well, it feels like it should be to us.  Yes, we were just a little bit excited that the day had finally arrived to shear our thick-coated alpaca yesterday.   It's been almost 8 months since the alpaca came to live on Whispering Oaks Farm and we've been talking about "the day we shear them" since before they were even delivered here.   After all, the whole point of having alpaca is to obtain their lofty fleece yearly and turn it into wearable articles of clothing.    Hopefully, I'll be able to show you the entire process of how that comes to be over the next few months.  

But, I digress.   This morning Joel and I are walking a little bit slower and are nursing some newly acquired aches and pains.   Alpaca shearing is hard work!   Up and down, on our knees, wrestle an unruly alpaca.  Holy cow.....we started at 8:30 Friday morning and finished up around 6:30pm.   My TN friend, Barb, the all-wise-alpaca-lady who gave me my first spinning lesson is also the one who shears for several surrounding counties locally.   As soon as she pulled up to the barn in her car we three hopped into action, setting up for the day's work.

Thank goodness Barb is an old pro at shearing.   She assessed our barn setup in no time at all and we worked out where to attach the rope system used to restrain the animal's legs while the shearing takes place.   So we set up her rubber mats on the gravel floor of the open area of the barn and she showed me how to put a halter on the animals, something I've never done before.   Take a deep breath, Debbie, and let's get started.  

Joel and I went into the girls' side of the barn where we had the alpaca penned in their stall to make it easier to catch them.   The last thing we wanted to do was to have to chase alpaca all over the pasture to try and halter them, one at a time, and lead them over to the shearing area.    Ok, how hard could it be?   Giggle......all I can say is that now we are old pros at haltering our critters.  

Here's my favorite boy, Diablo, in all his fluffy glory.   Just look at those puffy cheeks!  And wait till you see him once he is sheared.   I was a bit shocked at how small the bodies of these very strong animals appear once all that fleece is sheared off their body.  

And before I go any further, let's clear up one thing right now.  Recently I read on the internet that someone said,"I'd love to wear something knit from alpaca, but I just couldn't bring myself to do that knowing the animal had to die in order for me to have a sweater or scarf or hat made from their fleece."  What????    Seriously, this person thought that animals had to die in order to harvest their fleece.   Think about it folks, you take your dog to the groomer to have it's fur cut, right?    Your dog is still alive, right?    Sheep get sheared, alpaca get sheared, goats get sheared, all to obtain their fleecy coats.   And they are all still alive afterwards.   If these animals didn't get sheared they would die in the heat of summer because of the heavy coats they wear!   Shearing is a good and necessary thing.

I guess she was thinking about hides.....the way leather comes from cow hides, etc.   And yes, then the animal dies because that is their skin.   This is hair we're talking about......a big, fat, fluffy haircut of alpaca.   Trust me, no one died on our farm yesterday.   Hmmmm, I wonder if the writer of that falsehood wears leather shoes or carries a leather purse?   Just sayin'.  

Here's one last look at the boys at their fluffiest.   Pretty soon they'll be bald and kinda weird looking.

Ok, so Joel and I went into the girls stall and Joel caught one around the neck(that's how you're supposed to do it), I haltered her and we proceeded to try and walk her out to the padded shearing area.   Um, nothing doing.   She wanted to remain with her sisters.   Well, it took a wee bit of coaxing, prodding and pulling to get her onto the pad.   Then the really fun part started.   Somehow you're supposed to take a standing animal and get it to lie down flat so Barb could shear her.  Easy-peasy, right?

Joel and I had no idea what Barb needed us to do to assist her.   You can't believe how strong these animals are!   Seriously.   The idea is to keep calm, speak in low tones so as not to excite the animal, and be firm.   Wow, Barb is incredible.  She would take the halter and hold onto it close by the alpaca's head, all the while speaking to her in a low, soothing voice.    Then, Barb would kneel down beside the standing alpaca, pick up one of the front legs and slowly start swaying back and forth, back and forth.   Eventually the animal would bend its free front leg and both back legs and cush or kneel.   Then Joel and I would grab the back legs and attach the straps above the ankles while Barb did the front legs.

Sounds simple enough, right?   Ha!   Several of the alpaca would lull us into thinking they were being submissive and then suddenly jump up and begin flailing around, jumping or kicking.   Um, yes, it was quite exciting several times yesterday as we three wrested a 150-200lb. jumping jack animal.  Thankfully, no one got hurt and all the animals finally behaved.   I believe struggling with the animals is how we acquired our newest aches and pains.  Ha ha, no pain, no gain.  Or something like that.

 It was Joel's job to hold the neck and head of each alpaca while Barb worked her magic with her electric shears.   After shearing off the belly fleece(which is called "thirds") she began taking long strides across the abdomen of the alpaca.   When she did that, the beautiful, luscious, thick and incredibly soft fleece came off the animal in large sheets.  I wish you could feel how gorgeous this fleece feels.

 And she kept shearing and shearing until she reached the backbone.   Then I rolled this prime fleece up in the red fabric and took it over to a garbage can lined with clear plastic and dumped it in.

 Meanwhile, Joel continued holding onto the alpaca's neck as Barb sheared down the legs and up the neck of each alpaca.    The fleece from the main part of the body is called firsts and is the most valuable, and longest part, of the fleece. (By longest, I am referring to each individual hair length)   The fleece that comes off the hips and neck are called seconds and are not quite as long as the body fleece, which makes it more difficult to use on a spinning wheel.  Instead, seconds are used to make felted clothing or can be sent away to a mill to be turned into quilt batting for quilters.   Woo-hoo!   Lucky me, not only will I get to use my firsts to spin, but now I can use our seconds to have batting made for the quilts I create.    Be.  Still.  My.  Heart.  

After turning the animal over to do the other side, the whole process is repeated.   After approximately half an hours work, the alpaca has a nice cool summertime haircut and is free to join the other animals in her pen.   One alpaca fleece almost fills a garbage can.    I made a file card for each animal, noting the day, the animal's name, the quality of the fleece and any other comments Barb made about this particular alpaca.   The card then gets dropped into the clear bag with the fleece, ready for me to clean it on another day.  And now I have more information to use when it's time to breed which male with which female to create even more luxurious fleece.

 It was my turn to hold the neck of one of the girls and she was nice and calm as I scratched her head between her ears.   She even seemed to enjoy having me speak to her in a low voice.    It was a joy for me to get to spend one on one time with each animal as we went thru the day.    And most of the animals were quite relaxed while getting sheared once they realized they felt much cooler without their heavy coat on their body.

 The boys watched us as we sheared the girls, one by one.   Pretty soon it would be their turn.

 You've heard of the horse whisperer, right?   Well, I deem Barb as the alpaca whisperer.    She truly has a magical touch with this breed.    She can read their body language so well and knows when to be firm with them.   It was amazing to see how they responded to her commands and actions.

As she sheared the necks and heads, Barb would pause and talk to the animal, gentling her into submission.   We took this opportunity to check the color of each animal's conjunctiva (inner eyelid), their hooves(which Barb trimmed), their teeth(which Barb also filed down) and their general body condition.   Now we feel we have a better idea of the overall health of our herd.   What a great lesson!

Here Barb is coaxing one of our big guys to come further onto the pad.  

 Can you tell how happy I was that shearing day had finally arrived?    I loved spending time with each and every animal and  I made sure to scratch them all between their ears.....something they all seemed to enjoy.  

 And look at this glorious fleece.    Seeing and feeling the fleece I will soon start to work with made all the months of feeding animals and mucking stalls worth the effort it took to get this far.   What a blessing to be able to make my longtime dream of alpaca ownership come true!    I still have to pinch myself to know that these animals are ours to work with and take care of.

 We finished up with the girls and took a much needed break for lunch.   Then it was time to shear the boys.    Joel rounded them up and chased them into their stall.    Take a long last look at how fluffy they are because soon you'll see what they look like sheared.

 Here are some of the bagged fleeces, all ready to be worked by my ready and willing hands.

And then just before the last light of day gave out, we were finished with the final alpaca.   Whew!    And look how skinny they look!    All except for their fluffy tails, that is.   This morning all the animals were out in their pastures, grazing on grass and enjoying the cool early breezes of the day.    They sure do seem happy to have shed their warm, heavy coats of winter.

And now I get to play with fleece!
Debbie

The Really Scary Part

So, I had agreed to marry this guy I only knew for 3 days......and he put a ring on my finger.....and then he said he'd like me to meet his parents.   Now reality started to set in.   This was going to be the shortest engagement in history.    Joel called his mom and dad and they arranged to come to my house.....not knowing who they were about to meet or what was going on.

I just knew this was going to be a disaster.  You see, I'm five years older than Joel.....not a big deal when you're middle aged or older, but I was 32 and he was 27.   And I was divorced.   With two teenaged kids.    And Joel was an only child.   Did I already mention his parents had been missionaries?    What business did I have marrying their son........I hardly knew how to pray!   I certainly wouldn't be up to their standards as a Christian.   I just knew they were going to find me unworthy of their only child.    And on and on my mind reeled for the next 24 hours.

Well, Wednesday morning dawned, my kids went off to school and I began preparations for meeting Joel's parents.   And running to the bathroom every five minutes.    Kinda nauseated.   And kinda nervous as I set out danish and made coffee.   Joel had told me his dad loved doughnuts and danish and I think I must have had 4 different kinds of goodies to choose from.    Me?  Nervous?   What are you talking about?    Yikes!  Ok, so I was a little anxious.

Soon enough, Madalen and Fred arrived, Joel introduced us, and we sat down at my kitchen table.    While we all stirred our coffee, Joel began explaining how we had met the previous Friday, and how we had talked and gotten to know each other.   And then he jumped right in and told them he had asked me to marry him.   Gulp.   I held my breath as I waited for a verbal assault from one of his sweet parents.    Without hardly skipping a beat, Joel's dad reached across the table, put his hand on mine, looked me in the eyes and said he had been praying for me to come into his son's life and he was so happy I was going to be his daughter.   I think my jaw may have dropped open.

I couldn't believe it.   Did he just say what I think he said?  It's hard, even to to this day, to be able to explain the feeling that washed over me in that instant.    It was a feeling of total and unreserved acceptance.    From a  complete stranger.    No doubts.   No recriminations.   Just loving acceptance.  I had never experienced that kind of acceptance before, from anyone, let alone a stranger.  And Joel's dad, soon to be my new dad, was offering it to me.

And then the other shoe dropped.  Joel's mom, Madalen, got up from her chair.  She began pacing back and forth behind us and wringing her hands.   Uh-oh.  Here it comes, I thought.    This mother bear is going to protect her baby cub.   And then she began to speak.    "Joel, you're going to have to put these children first.   No more doing what you want.   Your hobbies have to come last."    Oh, my!   She was worried about my kids!   She wasn't mad at me!    Seriously?   How are these people so calm about our news?

All these years later I understand that Joel's parents knew he wasn't someone to do anything rash.   And that if he said he had prayed about this decision, they trusted him.    And believed in him.   And so we set about making plans for a wedding.........six weeks later!  Yes, you see, Joel didn't believe in long distance relationships.  He wanted to jump right in and be married.   We could date once we were married, he said.    And so we have.....for the last 30 years.

That all took place 30 years ago this last weekend.    I am still amazed whenever I think about the events of that week.   And I'm so grateful for the man who became my husband.   He sure has put up with a lot!    I'm not certain if he really knew what he was getting into the day he asked me to marry him.    But I am so glad he did.    Now I can't imagine my life without him.   Oh, don't get me wrong, we've had our trials.    And then some!    But I am eternally grateful for the guy who came and sat on my lounge chair......trying to get to know me.

We were married almost 20 years when Joel finally confessed to me how he had such confidence in asking me to marry him after such a brief time together.    He said that for years as an older teen and through his twenties he had a recurring dream.    In his dream was a girl with blonde hair, blue eyes and a bubbly personality.   He said that as soon as he met me, he knew I was the girl in his dreams.   Now that's romantic.

One Lucky Wife,
Debbie

An Anniversary of Sorts

As I checked the calendar earlier this weekend, I realized it was Friday, April 15th.   Thirty years to the day that Joel and I met one another at a medical conference at the Sheraton on Sand Key Beach, Florida.  Wow!  How in the world did those thirty years go by so fast?

After I reminded Joel about the date, we spent this past weekend reminiscing about all the events of that fateful weekend so long ago.   The year we met was 1986 and Joel was living in Kansas City, Missouri while he worked at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.   The Army had put him through medical school and he was doing his four years of payback time working in a family practice clinic and ER on the Army base.   He already had one year behind him with three more to go.  

I had just finished nursing school in Florida the year before and was working at a local hospital....by chance the very same hospital where Joel and his first wife, Elaine, had done their one year internship.  I never met Joel or Elaine that year, but I remember seeing Elaine walking the halls of the hospital as she made rounds.  Sadly, Elaine died from complications of the flu mere months after they had moved to Kansas City.   I had heard about the young doctor whose physician wife had passed away suddenly and would occasionally find myself praying for him and all the trials he must have gone through.

Well, the spring after Elaine passed away, the ER department at my hospital was hosting a medical conference and many docs from previous internship classes and residency programs at the hospital were planning on attending.   One of the nurses I worked with insisted I join her that Friday and hang around the pool at the Sheraton so she could chat with some of the docs who were old friends of hers.   I finally relented and showed up, bathing suit on, and beach towel in hand.  

Before I knew it, we were sitting on beach chairs, chatting with some of the interns and sipping pina` coladas.   This guy came over and plopped down on the end of my lounge chair and struck up a conversation.   He said his name was Joel and we hung out the rest of the afternoon, laughing and enjoying the sunshine and balmy breezes coming off the Gulf of Mexico.   Someone brought out a camera and snapped several pictures...including pics of Joel and I sitting on my lounge chair.   Huh.

I didn't think anything of it....this nice guy was just making conversation, right?   We had all decided to go to dinner at a local restaurant and I met everyone there a few hours later.   There were 15 of us, quite a rowdy group.....and guess who sat directly in front of me?    Yup, that same guy, Joel.   He later confided in me that when he had gone home from the beach to change his clothes at his cousin's house, he had told him he met a girl and wanted to cut her out of the "herd" of people there that afternoon.    Um, not exactly sweet, romantic words, right?   giggle....

After dinner, we all agreed to meet up back at the Sheraton to dance at their lounge on the top floor of the hotel.   Wouldn't you know, Joel and I were the only ones that showed up?    Weird, where did the other 13 people go?  We each got a glass of wine and settled in to chat over the noisy music.   Joel began explaining what had happened to Elaine and the impact her death had on him.   In order to better hear his earnest recollections, we moved outside under the swaying palm trees where it was much quieter.    It felt to me that the story of his experience needed telling......like the final stage of grief from a great loss.

Suddenly I realized it was almost midnight and explained that I needed to get home.   Joel was confused at first, wondering why an adult had to be home before midnight.    I laughed as I explained that I had two teenaged children at home waiting for me and I didn't like to stay out too late.   He asked if there wasn't any way we could chat some more, and after discussing it with him, I decided he could follow me home in his car and we could continue our conversation there.

Lest you think I was a foolish young woman, please realize I knew Joel's cousin, who was a well respected doctor at my hospital.  I basically( and shamelessly) told Joel that if he wasn't a complete gentleman, I would be sure to let the entire hospital know it and embarrass his cousin.  So, having laid down my terms, Joel followed me home.    The kids went to bed and Joel lit a fire in the fireplace while I made a pot of coffee.  

Before we knew it, it was 7:00am and the sun was coming out.   Oh, my!   We had talked the entire night.....sharing parts of our past with each other and, in my mind, simply getting to know a new friend.   I had no idea Joel was interested in me romantically.    You see, after 11 years of being a single mom, I had finally given up on my dream of being happily married.   I figured out that God had other plans for me and so I had resigned myself to the fact that I had two wonderful kids and my health and that would be good enough for me.

Hahaha.....anyway, I finally went to bed and slept several hours that Saturday.    Then later that day I had to work from 3-11pm at the hospital.   When I went to clock out after my shift, I was surprised to see Joel standing by the time clock!    I asked him if he was looking for one of the interns....duh!   See?   I wasn't thinking of anything remotely romantic.   No, he wasn't looking for an intern.  He was wondering if I would go out and have a drink with him.

"Um, no, I'm sorry, but I can't."  He asked why and I said that I didn't want to go out two nights in a row and leave my kids late at night.   "Well," he said,"I'd be happy to sit and chat at your house and have some more coffee."   Huh, I thought.   "Ok," I said.  And so, once again he followed me back to my house, started another fire in the fireplace while I made another pot of coffee.   That night we each asked the other if we ever thought we would get married again, have kids, etc.   And I even remember telling him that maybe someday I would even get to fly to Kansas City to visit him as we had become fast friends.   And I invited him to contact me whenever he was back in Florida visiting him relatives and we could go out and have some dinner, one of Joel's favorite pastimes.   Little did I know how soon I would be in Kansas City!

You're not going to believe this, but we actually talked until 7:30am Sunday morning!    I know!    Time just went by so fast and we seemed to have so much to say to each other.  I remember thinking, how nice that I made a new friend this weekend.   I'm so glad my girlfriend pushed me to go to the conference.    Joel said he was going to spend the remaining part of the week visiting his parents in nearby Land O' Lakes before he had to report back to the Army base in Leavenworth on Friday.   I figured that was the last time I'd see him for a year or so.

Not so fast!    He asked if he could take the kids and I to our church that morning.   "Um, sure, I don't see why not." I replied.   Off he went to his cousin's house to change clothes.   I'm sure you can imagine the ribbing he received from them when he walked into their house for the second morning in a row after not sleeping in his bed.   Anyway, he showed up in time to take the three of us to church.   While we were sitting in the service, Joel reached over and took my hand and whispered,"Don't be scared but I'm falling in love with you."    Whaaaaaaaat????   For once in my life I was completely shocked.   I seriously had no idea he felt that way.    To say that I was flustered was an understatement.  

After church, we stopped at Burger King and picked up lunch.   At my house the kids were outside setting up the food on our picnic table when Joel asked me to come over to him in my kitchen.   He slipped him arms around my waist and pulled me in close.    To be honest, I had no clue what was coming next.    And then he asked me two questions.    "I want to know if you will marry me?    Will you be my wife?"  

Things got kinda hazy after that for me......I mean, really......here was this really nice guy.   We were new friends, I thought.    And I had given up on finding a great guy.    And now he was asking me to marry him?   I didn't even have time to think about how I felt about it all.    And then, I'm not kidding you, from out of nowhere came my voice saying,"If you'll help me lead people to the Lord, I'll marry you."   And then I clamped my mouth shut, stunned at what had just come out of it!  

Let me backtrack here.    I had only become a Christian the year before Joel and I met.   And my Christian walk was in it's infancy.   Here was Joel, a wonderful guy raised by two devoted Christian parents.   And they had been missionaries, no less!   I guess because we had talked about spiritual things those two nights, that had influenced my strange reply to his marriage proposal.  But how could I marry a guy I just met that weekend?    I nervously giggled, called in sick to work, and we went outside to eat our burgers with the kids.

Joel took me out to a lovely restaurant for dinner that Sunday evening and we began making plans for our future together.   Together!   How wonderful.   How scary.   How crazy!   We spent Monday apart, praying for God's guidance.   This was, after all, a huge commitment for both of us, and we had very little to base our decision on.   And yet, somehow, I had this feeling of complete and utter peace.    I can't explain it to this day, except to say, it's the peace that passes all understanding that the Bible talks about.   And I had it.   Wow!

Tuesday morning, Joel came to the house and asked me how I felt.   I confessed that I had no reason to agree to marry someone I had only met 3 days earlier, but somehow it was the right thing to do and that everything would be ok.   He hugged me and we went to a jewelry store where he bought me a diamond band for a wedding ring, and  matching ring without a center diamond in it.   Since we were both recent graduates with looming school loans, we had to be frugal.   And I agreed we could use the diamond from Elaine's ring to put into the engagement ring for me.   And just like that, we were getting married!

More tomorrow,
Deb  

Two Mistakes

Uh-huh.   That's what Joel said to me this afternoon.   "You know, we made two mistakes this week." I was looking at the current one, but had already forgotten about the first one from earlier in the week when he reminded me what it was.   To explain, I need to backtrack a few days.

Remember when I told you about the Agri-Fab leaf sucker/upper/mulcher we recently bought?   Well, it works awesome.  But we still have areas on the farm where the leaves are piled up over a foot thick.   My mower deck will only rise up to 3" above the ground, so, trying to mow over the foot high pile-O-leaves in an effort to let the Agri-Fab do it's work ......well, let's just say it doesn't work because the leaves are too high.  

So Joel and I decided to burn off some of the leaves like we did in the Fall.   I raked most of the leaves away from the fence line where they tend to accumulate and Joel used the leaf blower to create a more organized pile.   We obtained the required local burn permit (by internet) and proceeded to light the very large pile of extremely dry leaves on fire.  Wow.  Did they ever burn fast!

See how nice the very tall pile of leaves burned off?    There are hardly any leaves left to clean up.  Um, yea.  That's very nice, except for one thing.   

Do you see it now?    The problem?   The mistake we made?   Yup!   We totally burned the lower half of a pressure treated 4"x4" completely off.   That used to be a really sturdy part of our fencing.   Now it's an hour's worth of work awaiting us this next week as we do some repairs.   Oops!   We were laughing out butts off when we saw this.   Talk about feeling stupid......I believe there is nothing more to say here.

Moving on......oh, yes.   There's more.  Now, I'll bring you up to the present.   Earlier today we went outside and jumped in our trusty Polaris, opened the gate to the boy's pasture and drove inside.   We dropped off some much needed hay in their feeder and drove over to the side of the pasture under the trees.   After about 20 minutes of picking up downed twigs and branches we moved further into the pasture.   As I was driving past the fence, I gasped and immediately stopped the Polaris.

Can you see it?   What in the world could have caused our sturdy wire fencing to be "eaten thru" like that?   Here's a close up of the damage.

As Joel and I scratched our heads trying to figure out what kind of animal could reach 3 feet off the ground and then paw it's way through a heavy duty fence like that, I was getting a wee bit concerned. What kind of critter did we have stalking our farm?   And what was it after?   Should we set up a field camera to try and capture an image of the culprit?   Gulp.

We slowly drove the remaining perimeter of the boy's pasture, checking to see if "the critter" had tried to get into the pasture any where else.   And wouldn't you know it, just opposite where we had discovered the first wire damage was another smaller area damaged in the same way.   Now we were getting kinda creeped out.   We continued to drive up the hill and exited the pasture while we discussed what we needed to do next. 

As we pulled up near the house, it suddenly hit us.   Don't you dare laugh at us.   Stop it.   I can tell you're already grinning.   Um, uh, we....sorta....kinda did the damage ourselves.    How?  You ask?    Ummm....this is how....

This is the unused grape arbor.....upon which Joel handily screwed some leftover 1" foam insulation.   And where he posts our sticky-backed targets for us to use as......wait for it......gun practice. 

Yup, see all the holes?   Of course the bullets go right through the targets, the insulation and penetrate whatever is beyond.   But it made total sense when he erected this simple fix for our target practice.   The woods below the target belong to us, and we feel secure that there are no people, homes, or animals that will be injured by the trajectory of the bullets.   Who knew we'd hit the danged fence so many times we destroyed it?   

So, I guess we're going to have to find another "safe" place to do our target practicing.   Looks like we'll be removing the foam board from the arbor and repairing fence this week as well as replacing the 4"x4" from our burned leaves.    Lessons learned.

Now you know how foolish we felt this afternoon.....but I hope you joined us in laughter as we relived our mistakes of the last week.   And you can start your work week feeling infinitely smarter than we, your friends, 

Debbie & Joel

A Schizophrenic Spring

Yes, I do believe it's official that spring is finally here.  I mean, winter was officially declared "done" last weekend.   And we have had temps in the 70's....but they were followed by a few mornings of frost.   Yikes!  And then we had 45+mph winds the other night accompanied by rain.   And now today it's gorgeous out again.....the sun is shining, the winds have finally died down.   But it's 45 degrees!   Oh, well.   That's spring for 'ya.

 Our granddaddy pear tree is happily blooming away.    I just hope the frost warnings we have for tomorrow morning don't drop all the blooms or we won't have any pears this year.   But the tree sure looks pretty against all the bare tree limbs of our hardwood trees.

 Our bees have come alive once again and are actively buzzing around the blossoms on the pear tree.    Joel is especially grateful that the bees survived their first winter here on the farm.   Hopefully we will be getting our first harvest from them late this summer.

 This is the tangled mess of grape vines that need pruning late every winter.    I really enjoy getting outside working on the trees and bushes, preparing them for buds that will hopefully bring us a good harvest later on this summer.

 See, all cleaned up!    Now the buds can develop on the second years' branches, producing at least 2 bunches of grapes on each branch.

 Buds like these.......they are so ready to "pop" out.

And here's my trusty green trailer that I use to haul all the cut off portions of the branches from the grape vines and blackberry bushes.   The burn pile always seems to have an ever growing assortment of branches and twigs from somewhere on the farm. 

All of the other trees in the orchard are blooming as well as the pear tree.   Even though we lost quite a few fruit trees last winter due to the ice storm of the century, the trees that remain seem to be doing pretty well.    This is our sour cherry tree.   The crabapple, peach and other varieties of apple trees are all in bloom, too.  I have to tell you, it's a welcome sight to see pretty flowers again on the farm.

One area of the farm I've been working on lately is the wooded area next to the roadside of our land.   It just seemed to cry out to me to be "pretty".   Um, yea, Joel just rolls his eyes when I talk about it.   But seriously, in my mind's eye I picture a smattering of early blooming flowers dotting the slope under the trees going up the hill.

I have finally depleted the stack of stone that was delivered almost 2 years ago.   By creating a low lying wall, I've eliminated an eyesore area of the farm where grass wouldn't grow and weeds took over.   Not very pretty.    Now, we can mow up to the wall and I get to play with some flowers in a bed where we can enjoy the view every time we drive up to and leave the farm.   

Our first fall living here, I planted a few daffodil bulbs so they would start to multiply year by year.   Last summer I planted some more perennials, plants that come back all by themselves each growing season.    Pink astilbe was planted in a mass planting, reminding me of the frothy pink astilbe that my grandmother used to grow along her house's foundation.   

Today I plan on thinning out the hostas that have been in a flower bed at the front of the farmhouse for over 25 years.    There are so many of them that I could start a nursery of hostas!  Hostas love shade and will also come back each year without any coaxing, so they are perfect for the woodland planting as it is way too far from the house to get water out there.   Anything I plant in this bed has to make it on it's own!    No fussy plants that require constant care or watering.  Nope.  It's survival of the fittest.    I still need to get out there and clear out about 15 feet of the woods behind the flower bed so I can bring in understory trees like redbud.   Yeah, there's always another project in the works.

Speaking of projects in the works......this bare wall of the barn that faces the back of the farmhouse has been crying out to me for 2 years.    Last year I planted 2 pussy willow bushes as foundation plants.    A couple of weeks ago I brought the stones from the never-ending-pile-of-stones to make a low wall and create a bed for greater impact.    

Then it was time to make a little vignette.   Oh, come on, you knew that was coming now, right?   Out came the old red chair with the blown out cane seat, perfect for plopping a round planter into it's middle.   The birdie sculpture was next....rocking and spinning with every breeze.   Then, I brought out the old washtub.    For now it only has creeping Jenny dripping over the sides.   Um, yea, I had to lay some chicken wire over the tub until it is full of flowers (after the frosts are done).  Otherwise, the cats think it's a great place to use for a bathroom.   I never had to contend with that before......this barn cat thing is a whole new experience when it comes to gardening.    Those furry suckers go everywhere!   Anyway, as summer advances this side of the barn will become a riot of blooming flowers.    Stay tuned.

So what is this monster, you ask?    Ha!    It's Joel's newest toy....er, um, machine.   It's an Agri-Fab.   And it's basically a leaf sucker-upper-mulcher machine.    It tows behind my mower and has it's own motor to run the mulcher blade inside it.   This thing is fabulous!   We have needed one ever since we moved here, but the cost of one prevented us from taking the plunge.   Until last week.   

Joel found one for sale second hand......in perfect condition.    Woo-hoo!    Now the piles of leaves we accumulate from the thousands of trees on our land will become mulch for our compost piles.    Just mix the ground up leaves into the piles of poop from the alpaca, wait, turn occasionally with the tractor, and in a few months we'll have fabulous compost for our gardens.   Win-win.

And so, today I plan on working outside since it's sunny out once again, even if it is a bit chilly.    But I'll have to cover all the plants by days end because we are supposed to have frost tomorrow morning.  Seriously?    Enough already with the freezing temps.   OH, and we will also need to disconnect the hoses for the alpaca waterers.    Um, yea, not gonna make that mistake again!   And that, folks, is how we deal with a schizophrenic spring.    

Dreaming of flowers,

Debbie