May

Her arrival is anticipated all year. We look forward to her charm, her warmth, her liveliness.

When she finally is here, we get all of what we yearned for. But like most longed for guests, we forget the less fun character traits-- the mood swings, self-centerness, messiness, general unreliability.

But that is what you can only expect from Spring.

Our spring started our slowly.

We finally got our garden plot plowed--a month later than I had hoped. Then the rains came back and we had to wait two more weeks for the ground to be tilled and finally plantable.

We did finally get most of it planted. Then something nibbled away at the corn shoots so we've temporarily set-up the electronet fence and Hilda volunteered to stand guard.




Notice the chain in her left hand? She means business!

In the meantime waiting for the garden, we did get our three rabbit does and picked up five guinea keets.

Hiding from the dreaded lawnmower monster.

And we started building a small goat barn. Or should I say, goat and sheep barn. Looking at almost two acres of grass, we decided we needed help keeping it under control. We now have two ewe lambs we'll pick up in June and a ram lamb that will be weaned and ours in July. These are Katahdin hair sheep so we don't have to worry about shearing (we also planted Katahdin potatoes, got kind of a Maine theme going here).

The barn is our first attempt at a pole building. Tom and Cindy manhandling a posthole digger was a sight to see.




Posed shot--it took both of us to work this sucker.



But we did it, got fence panels put up, and pushed this past week to finish the roof before more storms came our way.

We hope to get the sides up this week because it's almost time to get those lambs! I am beside myself at the thought of all that cuteness.

I also discovered I am truly acclimating to southern Indiana; I developed spring allergies. Sneezing and snuffling while planting and building add that extra special dimension to the homestead life. At least it's a change from complaining about my bad knees.

Pass the tissues, will ya?