Friday, April 11, 2014

I've been a very bad blogger

I could blame it on the weird weather of this past year. In fact, I think everyone can blame many of our woes on the winter of 2013-2014.  I could blame it on the ever increasing requirements of my "day job".  I could blame it on my chickens full-on egg-production strike.  I could even blame it on the balanced calendar with this current school year starting at the end of last July.  I could probably find a few other very seemingly valid reasons as to why I haven't been a very good blogger.

Whatever the reason, the result is the same.  I've been a bad blogger.  But, never one to give up easily, here I go again.

In some ways last year flew by at lightening speed.  I know we had a successful garden.  I canned gallons of tomato sauce.  But when I look back on the season, it seems like we planted, blinked, and then everything was gone.  Before we could take a breath, school was back in session and then winter started.  Literally.  Winter started at the beginning of November and ended 5 months later.  This winter was the coldest, snowiest and longest since moving back to Indiana.  Propane was rationed and we relied on our fireplace to help keep our home toasty as the winter winds blew outside. 

April is finally here again.  The birds are singing, there are buds on the trees, the grass is turning green and there's another chance of snow coming next week.  Sigh.  Huge SIGH.

The one good thing that has come out of this miserable winter is eggs.  For some reason, the chickens have decided to start laying eggs again.  The girls had all but completely stopped laying for the entire winter.  I had to buy eggs several times during the peak of holiday baking season.  As we headed into the half-way point for March, out of nowhere, the girls started laying again.  We are getting eggs almost everyday and generally at least 2-3.  One day we gathered 8 eggs!  That's one from each girl.  They must be as excited as we are that Spring is finally at our doorstep.  Or they got the memo.  We had decided that these chickens were going to be donated to the local soup kitchen.  They would be replaced by the new baby chicks scheduled to arrive sometime in May.  

We also ordered baby ducks that should be arriving sometime next week, but that's an entirely different story.

More to come as Windy Acres finally emerges from its winter hibernation.