Welcome Spring!

I just wanted to take a minute and comment on the very peaceful, but productive Spring day I had yesterday.I think Spring is my most favorite season.When the grass starts to green up, the flowers begin to bloom, the birds are all busy building nests and starting another family. It is wonderful to be alive one more season, to see everything awakening from a long dreadful winter.After breakfast, Pop goes on about his day, visiting all the local gathering places to catch up with all his friends, so I have the day,for the most part, to myself. No grand kids called to come over. I spent the first half of my day in the basement after checking on things outside. I usually make a sachet around the yard and make sure all is well with the animals.
These are my 3 pet goats. The one on the left is almost all black, so she doesn't show up too good in the picture.With the coyotes so bad nowadays, I fear for their safety. Especially since our property is edged with woods on the back side. It is so easy for varmits to slip up on the livestock. That's why we have our chicken pen totally enclosed in wire.Then, on to the yard to see what all is blooming.The highlight of my spring My new peach and pear trees are budding. Could be a bad thing though. We, most likely,still have a few more cold days to come. Frost gets the new buds lots of years, if it's not covered, and I have way too much to cover everything, so I just say,Let come what may. I can't be pampering things that won't survive in our area.I have much too much to do otherwise. If it don't survive, I just try another variety.

Not a very clear picture, but that is our car(at one time) and my 20 year old Wisteria.Some years it is loaded with blooms, other years, the frost gets it. I let it grow anyway though. We have a pair of beautiful Cardinals that nested in it for years, until the fire of 07 destroyed it, along with our house and garage. I have starts other places in the yard, and the cardinals now build in one of them.It's funny how they like to build in the Wisteria.These are only a few of my tame blackberry vines. I trimmed them back yesterday. I found lots of places where the runners had touched the ground and started new plants. I try to save them all for family that wants starts. I have a brother in Georgia who can't seem to get a good stand, so he will probably get the new berry starts this year.I don't can as many jellies as I use to, but I do love giving away blackberry and strawberry starts to those who want them. I know in the past, I have enjoyed having them, even if only for the grand kids to eat the fruit straight from the vine during the fruiting season.They love picking berries from the yard and garden. I think it's good for them to know where things come from and how they grow. Many kids, nowadays, know that things come from the grocery store, but that is the extent of it.
From there. I proceeded on to the yard to pick up tobacco stalks. We place the empty stalks from the tobacco crop, over the yard to let the nutrients leach out onto the ground as fertilize. Then when spring comes, we pick up the depleted stalks, and put them on a compost heap to finish breaking down or else place them in an area that tends to erode. They help stop the erosion by slowing down the water on rainy days, that washes away our topsoil.This past year, Pop found a shredder/chipper for me at the auction. I have drug in a few chippers over the years, thinking I had a real bargain, only to find they were no good. Most times when someone is selling something like that, there is a reason. Usually it is worn out beyond repair. That's hard for a woman to know, and in my case, Pop was never interested in my type of gardening, so he could care less about me having a shredder/chipper.But for some reason, he bought this one. I was never so shocked when he told me he had bought me a chipper. And it works really good.

Here is some of the finished product.Pop made us coffee and sat with me while I ran the chipper. We do enjoy taking a coffee break and sitting back to admire our works. Even though it was getting to my back, I tried to finish up the wagon load of stalks I had collected earlier.There are plenty more to chip up, but hopefully, I'll do a few more today.Pop is off to his regular Wednesday morning Flea Market trip today, while I start another day tieing up more loose ends around the property.
I may head out to the local Hardware Store to get some paint. My 2 sheds are in need of a new coat of paint.It's hard to say what I'll get into today. So many tasks, so little time. I best be getting off this computer and get to work, so until my next post, Happy Spring!