My best girlfriend

My very best girlfriend is having a birthday today.














Roxy Lou, my farm pup extraordinaire, is turning 9 years old. 
It's hard to believe that this little bundle of light, joy, and enthusiasm is almost a decade old.

She and I always celebrate this day together doing our farm chores and just hanging out together.  She loves the morning routine and very clearly knows her place here on the farm.



These goats are her goats.  Clearly, she is very proud of them.































Pete and Reggie look to Roxy for which way to run and where to get the best treats.  She never lets them down.

The trip to the barn is second nature to Roxy now - as is keeping a safe distance from the big animals' feet.  She has learned so much since her transition from city girl to country dog. 

There is no doubt in her mind how important her role is here on Critter Farm. And not a soul who knows her has any doubt either. 

 Happy birthday, pup. You simultaneously impress me and make me giggle every day.

Pretty close to an obsession

My thoughts are consumed with my garden this year.  I haven't planted one in two years and this has weighed heavily on my heart. 

 

One of the two main garden plots that I have lovingly tended over the years currently appears forlorn and forgotten. It has ripped and sagging deer netting - destroyed by a persistent barrage of deer-bullies last year who devoured the entire strawberry patch. The ground itself is so overgrown with grass and weeds, it is almost impossible to recall a vegetable garden ever being here.
 
But this will change.  The deer netting will be restrung and the earth will be turned.  Seeds will be planted and my hands and heart will remember the healing this soil brings me. 

 

I've always considered gardening my own personal form of therapy, so to have gone for so long without touching the earth, well, it doesn't speak highly of my current mental state. Heh. 

All joking aside, though, every morning I look for signs that the ground beneath my feet is warming.

 

I'm skimming less and less ice off the stock tank in the mornings.

 

Though the persistent frost still coats everything through late morning, the beautiful red rhubarb tips pushing through the earth are more visible each day.

 

I have garden thoughts saved on my phone, pieces of paper, scrawled with seed and plant names, scattered on surfaces throughout the house, and piles of gardening catalogs with corners of pages turned down.  I have seed orders planned (Wintersown.org, Territorial Seed) and am investigating new raspberry canes and blueberry bushes. I want to plant asparagus.

I am ready. I am anxious to try again.

A couple days ago, a sweet friend bought me a few seed packets from a local market, knowing how happy this would make me. With the exception of the Titan sunflower, the seeds are all early season plants that should go into the ground in the next four to six weeks.  I'd plant them tomorrow, if I could.

Beau says he doesn't care which variety of garden pea I plant this year, he's just excited that I'm going to be spending time outside again.  Me, too, Beau.

So I said to the boys....

"Hey, Boys!  Come here a second and see what we're going to do!"

Reggie: "What? What?! Are we going for a walk?  Did you bring us goat cookies? Are we off to the pasture with Kai llama?  Do you have carrot coins??"

"...or maybe banana peels and peanuts? Mmmmmm. We love banana peels and peanuts...

Wait.  What's that?"

 

 Me: "I've brought the clippers. It's time for your hooves to be trimmed."

Pete: "Mommmm! You used your excited voice for....this?"

 

Reggie: "Worst. surprise. everrrrrrrr."

It was so much easier when they were tiny.  They would fall asleep in my lap while I trimmed their feet.  Now, at almost four years old, it's quite the wrestling match to do their toes.  There is a great deal of kicking and fussing and attempts at running away.

But don't worry.  I prevailed and there were plenty of peanuts and at least one banana peel presented at the conclusion of the mayhem pedicure.  Pretty feet reign again at the goat house.

It's still winter, but I can smell spring

Beneath the mulch, the garlic has sprouted!

Hi.

I'm Danni, the blogger who hasn't blogged since May 31st, 2012 - give or take about 607 days ago.  It feels like it has been a lifetime and, in many ways, it has been.
But I'd like to not focus on all that for the moment.
Instead, if I may, I'd like to think of this as a "Spring is Coming" post and insert a few current pictures from Critter Farm....not just because re-introductions can be hard, but also because picture taking (and picture sharing) makes me happy.

So - for today - there's this:



Chester and Beau

Pretty Kai: Boss of the Donkeys and Protector of Goats

 

Pete and Reggie

 

Honey Chicken, who divorced her flock in 2011, and has since wandered the farm freely, putting herself to bed each night in a dog crate on my kitchen porch



And Roxy, the perfect farm pup

 

I've missed blogging and I've missed sharing my critters.  See you tomorrow.

Critter Farm is alive and well...

 

What a difference 1,463 miles make

Yesterday, I was saying goodbye to the 7MSN herd (and Carson) in brilliant sunshine and 80ish degrees...
Today, I'm back home...in torrential rain (blustery wind and a bit of hail, too) with a high of... ((shiver)) merely 53 degrees:
As sad as this sounds, I woke to an amazing sight this morning.  You see, when I left Critter Farm six days ago...

these tulips were not blooming:

these buds were not on my blueberries:
the rhubarb leaves were a third of the size they are now:

I hadn't even realized the ornamental pear had blooms on it:

and these leaves on this Japanese Maple hadn't even considered opening:

Apparently, while I was briefly away in New Mexico, Oregon agreed to finally let spring commence:

This sadly didn't change Chester's overall attitude at all:

But that's ok.  I had an amazing trip visiting my sweet friends (human and animal) in New Mexico *and* I came home to a garden in full bloom. 

Honestly, there are times when I can be a glass-is-half-empty kind of girl, but today my watering can is more than overflowing:

:-)