Pearl and Sadie have huge udders. We thought for sure we’d have baby sheep by now, but all we have are big-bosomed sheep. It’s good the sheep didn’t pop when we expected them to because, as usual, we procrasinated and needed the extra time to put together a lambing kit. I really, really hope I don’t have to use those shoulder-length gloves.

Kc came for a visit this weekend. There are no pictures of her because she is in the witness protection program. She helped us take some kitties to the vet for their checkups and shots, and while there she got to use her nursely knowledge to participate in the vet’s Jeopardy-like questioning of the vet techs. Kc is very smart. She also made us a yummy pot pie and showed me a really good snickerdoodle recipie. I am now a snickerdoodle addict. Helpful hint for cooking pot pie: don’t do it while making snickerdoodles unless you have two ovens. Kc also took me shopping and got us a car seat. (Thank you Kc and Ken!!) We weren’t sure it was going to fit in the truck, so after we left the store we took the seat out of the box and tried to figure out if it’d work. We got so involved in the creepy illustrations and in locating the doodad on the bottom of the “restraint” that it was about ten minutes before we realized all we had to do was see if the thing would fit…not make sure it was at that point properly installed. It fits! It also holds groceries and keeps them from rolling around. Maybe we should get another one just for grapes and tomatoes.

We dropped Kc off at the airport this morning. Andy and I decided today would be a good day to get the plants out of the under-house room where they spent the winter and to fill and hang the bird feeders. We got the feeders filled and cleaned up the plants, and then Andy checked the weather. So, we took all the feeders down and moved all the plants under the porch so they won’t blow away and/or freeze to death. Oops.

My belly button is disappearing. In another week I will have no proof I’m not a clone grown in a tank.

In honor of the Bunny Holiday, today’s post is all about bunnies.

Yesterday evening we went to check the baby bunnies. We checked them a few days ago, but I didn’t have my camera. They were very big and fluffy and about to bubble out of their hole. I didn’t know if they would still be there, but I wanted to see. I pulled back the grass on top of the hole and four very big bunnies stared at me. Then.. WOOOOOSH! Two of the bunnies FLEW out of the hole and ran into the sheep area. One ran right into the barn, and the other one sat next to the barn frozen in a bit of snow (yes, snow). Andy went to try and encourage it to get out of the snow, and it ran around the barn and in the other side. Back at the bunny nest, I sat and watched the other two bunnies watch me. I got one picture before the batteries on the camera died.

We tried to figure out why two stayed behind and wondered if the two runners would come back. In two weeks these little bunnies went from being hairless and about the size of my thumb to being fully furred and about the size of a softball. That mommy bunny milk must be some powerful stuff.

Before the snow came, I picked some dandelion greens for my own bunnies. It was Hop’s and Wibble’s day to be out, so I tossed their greens on the floor. Bob (our vegetarian cat) and Spam (our crazy cat) decided to join in at the salad bar.

Gimpy Chicken died last night. She hadn’t been doing so well the last few days, and we had begun debating again if we should end things for her. Andy put her in the back corner of our property by the trees where carnivorous things lurk, so that they can return her molecules to the world.

We don’t have a picture of Gimpy Chicken grown up, but here she is as a chick with the rest of the chicks. I think she’s the black and white one on the lower right.

We aren’t so good with chickens.

The baby bunnies are getting very big and soon won’t fit in the little hole we dug for them. What will happen then? They are getting furry, too. I replaced the shovel I had put over them because it was starting to rust. Andy helped me make a little roof out of a board we pulled out of the garden last weekend. I think it will work okay. How long until baby bunnies run off and becoming big bunnies?

Here are two bird pictures since I know my mom likes to see the ducks especially. The ducks’ feathers are getting sort of raggity and pale and we keep saying, “I bet they’ll molt soon!” I also took a picture of one of our chickens (not gimpy chicken) being all broody and sitting on her eggs. I don’t think the eggs are gonna hatch, but she seems pretty happy to sit on them anyhow.

We sold three dozen eggs today, and I’ve got another sale for a dozen lined up for tomorrow. This is a very good thing. Our refrigerator was becoming overrun with eggs. So, so many eggs. How can seven little ducks lay so very many eggs? It wouldn’t be such a big deal if eggs didn’t make me hurl these last few months, but right now we only use three or four a week for baking. The ducks are laying about 6 eggs a day. You can see how things have gotten out of hand.

It’s time to get the garden ready so we’ll have a place to put all those plants we are growing in the office. I spent eight years getting the gardens at the old house to almost perfect condition, and it’s hard to have to start all over again. The dirt here is pretty crappy. We don’t have any beds built. I get tired just thinking about it.

The folks who lived here before did have a garden, so there was a sort of garden-shaped space with an overrun asparagus bed. Last spring my mom and I put fencing up around that area, and Andy planted some tomatoes there, but we didn’t get much. Partially because of the sad dirt. Partially because of the very dry summer. Towards the end of the summer, Andy put in an irrigation system.

This year we decided to pretty much start all over. Here’s how the area looked when we got started.

We pulled up the fence and posts and irrigation system, and while Andy started tilling I dug up the asparagus (and found the bunnies). Andy tilled and tilled and tilled and tilled some more. At one point, Andy yelled, “MOVE!” I think I almost got tilled. That thing is huge and powerful, and it has a mind of its own. Yaieieie.

I decided to seek a safer locale, so I ran off and mowed between Christmas trees. (Mowing is fun. Mowing on a steep slope around a bunch of Christmas trees is less fun.) After an hour or two of backbreaking (and scary) work, the garden area looked like this.

Off in the distance you can see Andy unloading the compost we picked up this weekend from a local farm / organic gardening supply place, Seven Springs Farm. It sure seemed like a big lot of compost until we dumped it onto the garden area. I think we’ll go back next week for another batch.

Two things have happened lately that have made me realize that we’re not real farmers. (Other than the whole not growing tons of stuff to sell for our livelihood.)

Thing One: Gimpy Chicken
Andy was moving the chicken tractors last weekend, and I was watching to make sure he didn’t squish any chickens. White-spotty Jap got very close to the edge of the cage, so I hollered to Andy to stop and he did. I didn’t think she got her foot caught, but she sort of flopped on her side and wiggled her foot in the air. Andy said that white-spotty Jap had about a week ago gotten wedged in behind the perch and maybe she hurt herself then. She seemed mostly okay. The next day when we drove by on our way home from work, white-spotty Jap looked dead. We hopped out of the truck and I was sure we had another dead chicken. She was on her back with her feet straight up in the air. Andy went over and poked at her and she squawked, but she didn’t roll over. We decided we should kill her. A real farmer would probably have just snapped her neck then and there, but not us. Andy went up to the workshop and got a bucket and a rag and some turpentine (or paint thinner or something of that ilk), and headed back down to “put the chicken to sleep.” I went inside and hid. He came back pretty quickly and said he couldn’t do it. White-spotty Jap was up on her feet wobbling around and he couldn’t kill her. She’s made it through the week — though Andy has gone out a few times to flip her over when she seems to get stuck on her back.

Thing Two: Baby Bunnies
We worked on the garden today. Even though I know it’s probably a bad, bad time to do so, I dug up a bunch of the asparagus patch because it was sloppy and annoyed me. While I was digging, I saw what looked like dryer lint and was wondering how it got there. I scooped up a shovel full of dirt / dead plant stuff and pitched it and heard “WEEEP WEEEP WEEP WEEEEP!!!!!” I shrieked and looked down and saw a pile of baby bunnies. Oh no. Andy came over and we scooped the bunnies and their nesting material up and dug a new hole and put them in and put the nesting on and put some rocks around it so we wouldn’t step on it. Hopefully when night comes, mommy bunny will find her moved babies and feed them. Hopefully no one else finds them. Real farmers would probably have smashed them with a shovel.