Prisoners of Azkabantam

Big Dan's fixed up a prison for chicken felons. Their crime? Scratching up every plant in the garden. This will be their "summer home" until the tomatoes are all harvested, then it's back to free range fun.

My Front Yard

My 9 year old self dreamed of having these in the yard! She would have been riding every day. She would have been grooming them and tending to their every need.
My 40 year old self thinks that riding is too much work. Now, if I had a servant who would tack up for me and clean up after me, I might deign to ride.
The cold front moved through and left the air sparkling clean and new. If I don't ride my mare today, I'm a hopeless case!

The Pigs of Providence Farm

Don't we have the best pigs you've ever seen? Wilbur and Fern are so much fun, and so darn happy! Today, Fern (the black and white one) learned to grab the hose and spray herself and make mud. She also drank from it while I held it, like we used to do when we were kids. Remember that rubbery tasting water that was refreshing anyway because you were just so hot and sweaty? It's a good thing we learn to save up all our energy instead of wasting it like we did when we were kids ; )

For those of you who are new to the blog, the pigs are for meat. I don't like that, but I'm going to eat pork, and since Fern and Wilbur were going to be born, live, and be eaten, I'd rather that they have a good life while it lasts, and as humane an end as possible. After seeing how pigs are meant to live, I can't eat grocery store pork, and I hope my pig post will persuade you to buy pastured meat (unless you're a vegetarian!)

A Bumper Crop of Rocks

We decided to go collect some of the rocks that are just sitting there on the ground in our pasture. Well, about five feet out from where we started, here's the result. If only quartz were valuable...
We'll have to do a nature study on these rocks and why they're here, on top of our field. Speaking of nature study, I'm going to do a rare and unusual thing and talk about homeschooling! (This applies to non homeschooling parents as well.)
Karen Andreola has written some books which I think are excellent to encourage the Christian homeschool mom in her work. The first is The Charlotte Mason Companion. Karen sums up Charlotte's revolutionary educational theory for us in a quaint and cozy volume.
The second is Pocketful of Pinecones. I read this when I still lived in Leesburg, and it (plus The Encyclopedia of Country Living, by Carla Emery) inspired us to move to the country! Pocketful walks you through the FAQs of nature study and nature notebooks as recommended by Miss Mason.
The study of nature is one of the best parts of home educating. Children thrive on lots of fresh air and discovery. Nature study provides both! That Charlotte Mason sure knew what she was doing.

Now I realize I need to learn how to put links to Amazon and these books over on the side, so that you can buy them and make me a millionaire.

Today

I thought the moon and the tree and the turkey vulture were cool.

It was in the 70s and sunny, thankfully. Finally it's feeling like spring. But I'm not starting spring cleaning only to find myself in a dark and dreary monsoon again. I'm waiting till the real deal is upon us. I want sun! I want long term good weather before I allow myself to start to be motivated again. Can we be done with the rain till we really need it- like in July?

The Garden

Here are the rows of lettuce, broccoli, and cabbages leading down to the boxes for potatoes. More to come as the season progresses...

The Killdeer Egg

Here is our precious Killdeer egg.
Mother Killdeer laid it in a little depression between a rotten fencepost and a rock.