Wednesday, March 8, 2006
Almost Spring!
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Spring is just around the corner... the weather is warming, the chickens are laying well, and the wild birds are very active. The seed and hatchery catalogs have been trickling in for me to happily browse through. Two days ago we tapped our maple trees for the first time this season. We have two very large and very old oaks next to the house which we've tapped for the past few years. This year we also tapped a couple of the smaller trees in the woods beyond the big maples. So far they've been flowing slowly, but they should be picking up soon. We tapped them just in time, too, since a week or so ago, we opened our last bottle of syrup from last year, and have been enjoying it on pancakes & french toast. Yesterday we FINALLY got our new wood stove installed.  It was originally supposed to be installed in mid-December, but there were some issues with the chimney needing repair. With baby Ingrid being born around that time, things got pushed back a lot, and we finally got things fixed and the stove installed. It is a Jotul #3 small stove, but it is supposed to kick off a good amount of heat. It would have been nice to have it during the winter, but here in New Hampshire we have a few cold days ahead of us, so it will be put to good use before Spring finally arrives.Another sign of Spring around here is the hum of the incubators. I have 2 styrofoam Hova-bators (one wafer heated circulated air with egg turner, and one electric thermostat circulated air). I stared collecting eggs from our Dominiques and Silkies to hatch, and have around a dozen eggs so far. Unfortunately the Buff Silkies are on strike, but the Splash & Blue Silkies are laying like crazy. I'll be putting the eggs in most likely this weekend. We won't have any chicks for Ostara to hearald in the first day of Spring, but we'll at least have chicks well before Easter.  |
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