What is this life if, full of care
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare. (W.H. Davies)
Sometimes I feel this quote describes me. I feel driven to do all that I can. I’ve been too busy to really enjoy my animals and I miss that. So I’m going to try to slow down a bit and enjoy more time with the sheep, the hoop house garden and family. The quilts and other items are needed, but others are also making them and together we do make a difference.
We went to the feed store today to get a couple of these feeding troughs for the sheep. We needed two troughs instead of the little dishes we had been using. There are actually two in this photo with sheep surrounding each. This is a much easier way to give them their grain. Below are some photos of the babies. They didn’t want to come in tonight – too fun in the sun.
Yesterday morning, I thought spring might be on the way. Today, it definitely is not.
Here are 3 sheep photos. This last one you can see one of the dogs with the big fluffy tail. It appeared they rounded the sheep up and were counting them. Of course, we don’t really know what was happening, except they touched noses, then the sheep wandered off to eat.
This has been a big project. (I did hire help). The boxes were moved a bit this winter and another trellis was built. Then we had lost so much soil because over time as one pulls weeds or food out, a bit of soil comes out. So we used 6 bales of peat moss, 18 bags of sand and 3.5 bales of perlite to fill all the boxes again. This time the dirt is only on the bottom, so hopefully we won’t have the weed problem and the food will come out cleaner. It’s the Mittleider method if you are interested. So tomorrow, I absolutely MUST start the veggies seeds so they can be transplanted and I also need to get this fertilized and thoroughly watered this week. I’m a bit late, but the forecast is for freezing nights every night this week and rain through Wednesday. Then if the forecast is correct we’ll get 3 days of sun or partial sun, then more rain.
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Then there were these 4 bags of peat moss which each weigh about 50#.
Then I had 10 yards of playground chips delivered because the ground was so muddy that we were sinking in it, somewhat like quick sand. We have hard pan about 18″ down and this is a low spot, so water has no where to go.
While I was having my gym training this morning, I mentioned to my trainer that I had ordered all these chips and did she have extra time. She did and came when I called to tell her the chips had arrived. Without her speedy help, this area would only be about 1/4 done.
We also put it down the length on the left side. We used about 7 of the 10 yards and have a bit left for when this gets worked in and muddy and have to add more. We covered it with a tarp.
The raisins were miserable to get off the screens.
My 2 year old bantam rooster went to live with some folks who had 9 hens and no roo. I shall miss him, but DH is insisting we don’t need a bunch of chicks who will grow up to be more hens and roosters. I guess he’s right, but I shall miss this quiet little gem who spent nights at the front door. And that is another reason he has changed homes. He had a small harem that would not stay in the field with the other chickens. They wanted to stay up at the house with him. The mess was a bit much.
