Safe

Not a pretty day out there.  Cold with quite the blustery wind going.  Glad I got my red wool in last night.  Also glad this hen who decided to hatch her chicks in a box of wool that I put out for the kitties to keep warm is safely enclosed in a rabbit cage.  The kitties who the warm box was intended for would love to make a snack out of these tasty morsels.  The chicks are just so tiny and so fragile, and chill so easily.  Every once in a while a hen finds a place to go broody and hatch some babies.  I don't encourage this as some of them will be roosters, and the hens grow up to be more free rangers who hide their eggs, etc.  Every night I walk around the barn, and it is a big barn at 240 feet long and 40 feet wide, checking certain spots where I might find eggs.  I use them for cat and dog food.  Occasionally I find a mother load of eggs, like I did last night, in the upper mow, in an old kitty litter box.  The kitties had a good meal, and the chickens feasted on the egg shells. The ducks are loose in the barn now.  I felt bad about keeping them in the pen,with all the earth worms wiggling around out on the hill.  Apparently the ducks are not that eager to leave the safety and smorgasbord that is the barn.  I thought I would look out the window to see them marching up the hill in single file, but not yet.  They even came back into their pen to give me some of their fabulous duck eggs.  I am still throwing out corn for them, when the sheep leave the barn.   We opened up the kindergarten pen and let Vicky/Valentine and TJ/Robin out to roam.  It's quite the tender scene to see a little lamb, afraid of the outside world and sticking close to his mother.  Soon he'll be a big bully who pushed her away from the grain.  That's what happens when little ram lambs grow up.  For now I'm enjoying my last lamb of the year and his cute little baby baaas.  I'll continue his bottle with water and some molasses, since mom has no milk, until I'm sure he is drinking from the water bins.  Haven't seen that yet.  Easter Sunday was another day on the farm, with chores and keeping busy.   I got a batch of Spruce Cedarleaf soap done which left the house smelling like a forest.  The cold I'd been fighting has taken hold with fever and chills.  Ibuprofen, Sudafed, herb tea with raw honey keeps me going.  Farmers are not allowed to be sick.  I had a nice chat with Mia yesterday as she came on duty at the hospital.  She had nine very sick patients to care for.  Not an easy Easter holiday for her.  Father Aaron called after his services.  He was out with another priest taking it easy after the rigors of Holy Week.  AJ is really liking the Army these days, and is hoping to be deployed again.  He wants his Combat Infantry badge that says he serviced in a combat area.   A year at Gitmo was not considered a combat deployment.  It would suit me just fine if he stayed in the states.  On deck for me today, more soaping.  I have to figure out where to put all this soap to cure.  My big rack is filled with fabric and sewing "stuff."   The soap needs to cure in a temperature controlled area, free from dampness and critters.  I have two more runs of wool to get out to the carding mill.  Won't it be a treat to see how it turns out.