March 22, 2025

One finds the hens are not as hungry these days. There is a distinct lack of sincere appreciation for their usual breakfast of ground shelled corn and oats. There is a polite half-hearted pecking at it, then we become distracted and scatter in all directions to scratch furiously at the earth and dine on bugs and worms. They find the farmer's wife's garden plot just the ticket as new-turned earth is so.... intriguing. As farmer's wife wants to be rid of any grubs that might be hibernating in the ground, she allows it. Later she will forbid it, but to no avail, as hens desperate to visit a bit of bare earth will visit it, come what may: danger in the form of angry farmer's wives and barking dogs keep them out only as long as danger threatens. Five minutes afterward... there they are again!

Another new calf was born at ten o'clock last night. Farmer girl crawled out of her warm bed and went out into the dark velvety night, bright with millions of stars. Little red-and-white Adele received a bit of colostrum in a bottle, enjoying mama time the rest of the night. Farmer girl doesn't mind midnight excursions (not for baby calves): the same cannot be said of everyone who is privileged to be roused out of bed and asked to help coax a new mom (a heifer unused to milking parlors: reluctant and suspicious of new territory) into a place she does not want to go!

Weather is beautiful. Warm sunny days, nights are a bit chilly with temps often going down to low thirties in the night. It is beautiful spring weather and we all feel we deserve it richly after a long cold winter! We did experience several fierce storms recently, which might be expected: a hailstorm went through last Sunday with twisters touching down in several places. One local farmer's barn took a spin through the air, with some chunks of it bouncing off a neighbor's roof. Crews are working on rebuilding and repairing both. Who can complain? No lives were lost that we are aware of, even the little girl standing at the doorway of the traveling barn was spared.