Winter is halfway over here in Ohio. Good thing too. We ran out of hay and have been paying premium prices for it.
We have had enough broken water buckets for the year. And cold splashes of water in the face while knocking the ice out of them. The pile of ice continues to grow because of the stretch of freezing temps.
This is the time of year when I start second guessing keeping livestock.
But spring will be here soon, along with baby goats, and I will forget all about this miserable time until next year.
Looking ahead, we will be getting some feeder pigs in, so will need to get an area set up for them. And hubby is already talking about getting the garden in.
The animals seem to be nice and cosy, despite the cold. We put 8' dog earred fencing around the animals pens inside the barn and this has cut down a lot of the wind. I experimented a little with the goat pens and divided the pens into two areas...one for eating and one for sleeping. They can go from one to the other. The sleeping area is bedded in straw with bedded dog houses inside of it. This has cut done quite a bit on the straw getting wet. They seem to hang out in the feeding area most of the time and just go to the bedded area for sleeping. I also have some wooden barrels in the feeding area for them to play on. I like the way that turned out, and will continue doing it. The price of straw is running about the same price as the hay. So I don't like to waste any.
The pot bellieds pen is always open. So they sleep in the pen with the straw and potty outside of the pen. I feed them in their sleeping area and they don't like to potty where they sleep, so this worked out well.
And I have the rabbits litter boxed trained inside of their hutches, so I just take the box out every day and dump it.
Now, if I could only convince my horses not to come inside to poop....lol.

Just trying to turn our 32 acres into something that looks like a farm. I'll be out there tomorrow, clearing brush away from any desirable trees. That's how I spend my weekends.

Hope to pour a slab for our first building in April. Then a trip to the John Deere dealership in the fall.

It was expensive but we managed to get enough hay to feed the horses so far...better than last year's panic. If we run out I don't know what we'll do.

The chickens are laying at an amazing rate!! The 10 of them are averaging about 8 eggs a day - and it is WINTER! We sell the extras and they are SO paying for their keep!

We're in the middle of South Carolina and it has been wicked cold here lately. I can't wait for spring. I WANT TO GARDEN!!

I have been around for about 1-1/2 yrs...not a newbie...but definetly not a "veteran."

12-baby goats on the ground and (1) more doe left to kid early February. It looks like one of my Loid Rage daughters bucklings "has what it takes" to keep as a future herd sire. Mostly for the percentage does...If he is half the buck the one I lost in December is...I should be alright.

The FB SA boer girls have an appointment in August to visit a buck with over 30-ennobelments in his extended pedigree. I hope that produces many good doelings and another future herd sire.

I have been spending a lot of time on Burpee Seeds website lately. It is like being a kid in a candy store. My wishlist cost's over $300...hahaha. I have already drawn the garden up on graph paper (to scale even). I want to try my hand at Market Gardening this year...so I am planting a lot more than we have in the past...(140-tomatoe plants!) I have been frequenting the Market Garden forum trying to learn the "tricks of the trade!" LOL

I have also made an appointment with a local "tractor mechanic" to get my 1956 Ford 601 ready for the spring.

The wife says this is the last year she is going to brood out any chicks in the winter. Just to cold and "too much work" keeping them alive. She said, "No more chicks past November!"

I am also thinking "real hard" about adding bees. Anyone have any experience? I have been looking at the Bee Keeping forum for information.

The wife says our chickens continue to "hold their own." Egg production is down...but with the extreme cold in SW Ohio...she is glad to be getting any!

They can't wait until winter is over...and I can't wait until 8-April to go home for good!

Brian

I'm new here. I lurk mostly, reading posts on everything from raising poultry and goats to beekeeping and growing berry crops - all of which interest me. Ours is a small acreage place and I keep a dozen hens for fresh eggs, but for as long as I can remember I've been a wannabe farmer. In another 5 years we'll have a bigger place and I know I'll get to do more of these things that have held my interest for so long. In the meantime, I'm learning a lot from this forum.
~Claire

This past year was definatly trying. The early April frost cut our hay crop by 2/3 which has left us buying semi after semi of Kansas hay. We're feeding four of thos big 3X4X8 bales a day and sometime more.

Still working on the house. Drywalling and mudding. I'd love to be in it before the daylilies start to bloom but I'm not holding my breath.

My intentions this year is to plant more thornless blackberries and start a row of blueberry bushes. I'm not intending to increase market vegetable production much more that it is already. I can't take care of all that and work the full time job too. If I retire next year as planned we'll consider more then.

I want to get more daylily beds worked up and get the heavy duty fiber mat down between the blocks so that I can cut down on mowing. 2-3 hours of mowing each week during the busy season is not where I need to be spending my time.

Janet

I've been on this forum for three years, many have come and gone since then but I still enjoy this place very much, and miss others who have left.

We are all doing well here, my 25+ chickens have almost fully recovered from a horrible respiratory illness, I lost two silkies and a americauna pullet as a result. I'm not sure exactly what it was but I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. We are now getting between 4-7 eggs a day, just about the amount they were producing prior to the illness. I have a steady egg customer who will take whatever I have for the week, 1-2 dozen.

I look forward to hatching some orpington eggs this spring, I have a lovely huge blue orp. roo that so far is a nice guy and the girls seem to like him, And 3 buffy girls and one black, 8 months old but has yet to lay me an egg.

Here's a picture of him from last November, he's filled out a bit more since then.
{{gwi:35023}}

We are enjoying our salsa and tomato sauce that we canned this fall, we plan on expanding the garden even more to increase our supply. I'd also like to plant some blueberry bushes this spring.

The turkeys were a success this past year so we are planning on picking up some more poults this spring. Hopefully we will not make the same mistake again and let them get so huge (30+ lbs.).

We are still kicking around a barn project, dh is looking into some "green" ideas, using local materials etc.

I'm still practicing my art, not painting at the moment but clay work, we recently bought a wheel and kiln, the excitement is carrying me through the winter here in New England, definitely making it bearable. I will be back to painting my chickens come summer :)

-Sheila

Hello,
I have also lurked here the past couple of years and posted once or twice. My husband and I have 4+ acres here in NC near the VA border. We currently have a 1/2 acre garden and are clearing another 1 1/2 acre this week. We just built a greenhouse and I am hoping to build a chicken coop this year and get chickens next Spring. We are planting 12 grape vines this year and with the expansion of the garden I thought I would add the chickens next year. We plan on selling some of our harvest at our local farmers market. I have also added 2 raised beds for asparagus, we will have 35 gus crowns growing.

Susan

Things are going well here,we had a philly paint born September shes turning black yahhhh I wanted black,she was born brown & white,
Swans will be nesting in about 3 weeks.she usually has 8 cygnets.Easy money.
Id like to breed more of the texas longhorns this year.Were talking of building a new cow barn.
Got all my seeds in the mail for this spring.
Other than the pond things are looking good.I make goals but health depends on alot..I need a kidney...Im on dialysis.3xs a week.
Im down to 4 chickens,a neighbors dog came through killed all the others.Free range.
We have 40 acres,were looking to buy some of the neighbors land.
I would love to get a pet turkey..
Hubby wants to clean our farm pond out but its full of fish, How Does That Work?????

Bulldinkie... Hopefully when you buy some more land you can buy out the neighbor with the dog.

As for the pond, I suppose it depends on what you mean by "clean out". If you were to hire a large track hoe it could reach into your pond, scoop out big chunks of your pond's mud bottom, all from the bank of your pond. The fish would swim away from the scoop and most would be fine. Your water would be very muddy for a while and it would help to run fresh water into it for a few weeks, while draining off the muddy water.

If you have a large pond, they'd need to use a "dragline" but it would work much the same way.

But you might want to post your question in the ponds forum ...with more details. How big is your pond, can you pump fresh water into it, etc....

Well its been a couple of years since I have been around on these forums.
So alittle about me...DH farms about 4000 acres with his bro. and feeds cattle, those are on another farm so he leaves for the day and is gone most of it.
Here at our place we have chickens, geese year round and then comes the kid's 4H cattle, pigs & sheep. Once in awhile one of the feedlot heifers will have a calf and we bring it home to take care of it.
I like to garden and help the kids with their peojects.
I also like to visit the garden junk forum, awsome ideas over there.

Sandy

We are new both to GardenWeb and to farming. Last spring we bought our 9 1/2 acre dream. So far we have cleared the pasture of junk (concrete blocks, rolls of barbed wire and enough styrofoam to refloat the Titanic), mowed like crazy to get rid of bloodweed, cleaned out the barn (see pasture junk above) and planted a small orchard and put in two vegetable gardens and an asparagus patch. One thing that I simply cannot get over is the friendliness and helpfulness of our neighbors! I keep checking to see if they have halos. They are all real farmers--rolling acreage, livestock, and BIG tractors. We are planning on six chickens and two bee hives, maybe three. However, they have accepted us, not laughed at us, and have been of more support and help than we could ever have expected.
In 2008 we will make a chicken tractor, get the grape vines going, and put in yet another flower bed. Putting a bench down by the pond is also tops on our agenda (we have a good friend who likes to fish). We also have a lot of work to do on the house, which is livable but in need of some updating.
Sullicorbitt, that is one very handsome rooster! We envy you.
We feel a little silly posting, since we really don't farm yet and have such a small acreage, but this is the best place we have ever lived, and we are so proud and so happy here that we went ahead and posted.

Oh, what a pretty blue Roo!

I'm glad to see so many people who are still here, and glad to see all those who are new to me.

I feel silly sometimes, as our acrage is only 5.25 acres. But this is the only forum that seems to fit the way we are living. Maybe HObby Farming would be a more accurate term for what we do. I'm hoping to expand to an herb-based cosmetics business someday. Not this year though.

Welcome all, and welcome back.

Kitty

marlingardener,
Welcome,
I feel the same way. We don't have any animals yet and only 4 1/2 acres but we love to chat to people on GW and they are mostly friendly and helpful. If nothing else just lurking and reading can give a wealth of info. Your farm sounds wonderful.

Isn't it great owning land!

Happy Farming,
Susan in NC

I've been on here for quite a few years, though I don't check in as much as I used to. I have 20 acres, work full time at a bank, and grow and sell daylilies.

I have three Mini-donks, here are the 2 boys, father (Cosmo) and son (Merlin). 2 dogs, too many cats! LOL!

{{gwi:35024}}

This summer I need to replace the floor in my barn, something I've been talking about for the past 3+ years. ANd rebuild a couple of my daylily beds. My gardens will be on tour for a NE daylily conference in 2009.

I had my 3/4 acre pond dug out a couple of years ago, after I had a winter kill of all my fish. They drained the pond and then brought in a bulldozer and backhoe and cleaned it out. It was amazing to watch. My neighbors and I rescued crayfish, toads, and turtles.

I'm about as new as you can get since I just found the farm forum today!lol
Not much of a farm. 10 acres and we have horses, roping steers, cats and dog. More into horse activities than farming but I get the problems with feral cats and varmits.
A we did have a rooster for years.....but he thought that he was a dog because we didn't have any chickens for him to hang out with.

I've been a member for almost five years but haven't been here lately... just sooooooo busy. We have chickens, geese and meat rabbits. I'd like to get a couple of meat wethers or pigs this spring to raise for the freezer... but not sure we will be able to manage it.

Our Dominique chickens - down to three thanks to the hawks last fall - have begun to lay again and after about six weeks of no eggs we are happy about that.

Our three Pilgrim geese are doing well and we are hoping for lots of fuzzy gozzies this spring. No eggs yet, but it's early.

Our meat rabbits have overwintered in floor pens in a room in the goose house, the three does on one side and our buck on the other. I plan to breed them within a week or two to get a jump on the season. Last year's big project was getting them off pelleted feed and onto a natural diet of hay, fresh foods and grain. They are doing very well and I don't expect to ever go back to feeding pellets.

Our winter has been relatively mild with a lot of snow... but there have been thaws too, so the snow has not built up too much. There's about fifteen inches on the ground right now, all from the big storm last week.

We keep our efforts small and manageable because we are not getting any younger and just can't handle as much as we could even five years ago, but I would like a larger vegetable garden this year and hope to grow more of our own food.

I'm new to this forum, although not so new to GW. We are new to farming also and have a very small patch, 3.5 acres plus a 10 acres field next door, most of which we can use. We plan to plant all available space.

I also work outside the home, M-F full time and I have a part time art business, busily painting pet portraits and widlife. The painting is usually only in the winter, though.

The property came with two large side by side garden sheds made into chicken houses with a securely fenced, good sized run attached at the back, so we'll have chickens soon. I am in the process of putting some roosts up and I still need to make up dusting boxes and get straw for the nesting boxes, etc. etc. I'm almost there and really looking forward to having fresh eggs!

I have so many plans for the property. We are right on a busy highway so have lots of traffic for garden sales. I'm going to plant every variety of vegetable that will grow here, herbs and flowers too, all for sale at our little stand on the corner on the weekends. I also make soap and will sell that too along with the luffahs I'm growing.

I'm looking into mushrooms and researching beekkeeping, as well. Lots of plans! But, like I said, I also work full time and have commissioned paintings to get done, so I don't know when I'll have time for it all. Fortunately, hubby is a big help and is home a lot.

We also plan on giving a lot to the Salvation Army Soup Kitchen nearby. They can take quite a bit of it, just not a lot at one time as they don't have a lot of storage facilities.

Don't check in here near as much as I use to, still love to read the messages though.
We have a few acres - nothing huge, 40 head of cattle some horses. I'd classify us as hobby farmers too because we both work outside the 'farm' area and spend more time commuting and being at 'work' than on the land. Most of our time on weekends is spent doing the odd chores around the 'farm'.
Would love to have a few peach trees for personal eating - but simply do not know anything about those.

I have been on Gardenweb since the 90's, I've been in this forum since 2004.
I am not a regular during the winter, but ususally start popping in here, mainly lurking,adding a comment or posting a question from time to time, mainly in the Spring

Yesterday the snow began to FINALLY melt... we have had snowdrifts over 10 feet tall!
I think I have some land....But right now my children have turned it into a winter wonderland of igloos, forts, snowmen,snowfamilies, reamins of snowmen, snowboarding slops, etc....
I am getting tired of the snow, slipping on the ice and cold.... I never grow tired of how pretty the icicles are... and even the fresh snow falling.
Here in Utah we get snowflakes that are gigantic!
It is awe inspiring to watch them gently float to the ground.... I would be happier if they just melted on contact and the sun would warm up the earth enough to let me get in there and do some serious gardening!

I am a Master Gardener, we have 8 children, 1 barn cat, 2 rabbits, and we are now down to only 3 chickens... I will be getting more in a few weeks, once I can actually see the coop, rather than the trail dug out of the snow that leads to it!

We are looking to buy some more acreage and planting fruit trees this year.

I know how you feel, songbirdmommy. We have huge piles of snow everywhere. I don't know what I have out there anymore, it's been so long since I've seen it!

Thank goodness the mailbox is still standing or we'd never find it. Had some narrow misses with the snow plow.

Can't wait for spring! I've been out in the chicken coops installing the roosts, even in the cold weather. Just too excited to wait.

I've been posting/lurking on this wonderful forum and soaking in the sage advice from you generous experts for a couple years.

I'm not a farmer, and probably barely qualify as a hobby farmer, but this is the place I've found the best information and assistance, and I really appreciate the high tolerance for my questions.

I live on a bit under two acres. We have a barn with chickens, ducks, and geese, and a vegetable garden with five beds (four 8X4, one about triple that). There's a small pond , two orchards (about 25 fruit trees total), a chaotic herb garden, and various small berry patches in various locations.

Gardener? Farmer? Homesteader? Elements of all and none of these fit at various times. I'm mostly a guy with too many hobbies, I think. :)

--Jonathan

{{gwi:35025}}

Oh my Jonathan, how many runners do you have???? yikes :) And what pretty goosies you have.

Sheila

Thanks, yes, I think my pilgrim geese are very lovely too. And they sound a bit like dinosaurs, which I see as a plus.

When that photo was taken, I had twelve runners. Now I have eleven, after finding a home for one drake, but I have four more drakes to relocate, if anyone wants one for free.

--Jonathan

Hi, I've been a member of GW for around 5 years but haven't been very active in the past year. I am more active on the veggie and harvest forums, I have mostly asked endless questions here in the past;) We moved to KS last summer to an older home on 10 acres. The barn is huge but in complete disrepair and I'm not sure it is fit to keep anything in. We plowed a large garden plot in the fall so I'm very excited to get started with that. My obsession is tomatoes so I have plenty of space for all that I want, my time and effort being the only restrictions.
I hope to receive my first chicks at the end of March for my first backyard flock. It was a long time coming, as I talked about this and asked questions even 2 yrs ago, LOL! I'm getting 20 or so chickens, a variety for different colored eggs. We had planned to get a children's pool and keep them in the basement under lights until they were big enough for outside. I found a source locally for guineas....for free, so I'm not sure when I will be getting those chicks. I am still planning on some meat birds but will do that later.
I'm holding off on my plans for an orchard and instead will be getting strawberry and raspberry plants for now. There is too much to do this first year to worry about trees and location, etc, when I don't have a good feel for the weather and such. So many big plans, I sure wish money and time weren't factors.
I like to can my produce and perhaps will sell some at the farmer's market. It will depend on how the garden takes off, I have a bit of a learning curve with the different zones. The wind is also so terrible here! At the end of next month sometime I will be starting my tomatoes (and peppers) for a projected set-out date of May. I'm rambling but I have lots of plans for this season. I will be checking in here a lot more so please be patient with my questions. Lori

This is a fun thread! Thanks for starting it miss kitty. It's great to see what everybody else is doing on their places.

I've been lurking for months, unable to log on and put in my own 2 cents worth. Very frustrating. Recently got a new internet security program and - voila - here I am!

My hubby and I have 16 acres in central Texas. We have a live creek with a swimming hole, lots of 100-150 year old oak trees, and plenty of field as well as old rock wall areas we leave overgrown for the wildlife. My mom lives with us in a m-i-l apartment. We have 4 dogs, 3 cats and 11 chickens, so far. We moved into the barn and started builing the house here 3 years ago, having already owned the property for 6 years prior. (For six looong years we journeyed out from the city every single week-end and vacation to clear land, build the barn, dig the well, bring in electricity, etc.) It was all worth it once we got installed here permanently!

I raise a big organic garden and can, dry and freeze so much stuff that we're starting feel pretty self-sufficient veggie-wise. The produce aisle at the grocery doesn't see much of me any more. And the home-canned soups, salsas, pasta sauces, etc. are SO much tastier!

We got our 10 Rhode Island Red hens and one surprise bonus Silver Spangled Hamburg roo last spring. On a friend's advice I ordered more chicks than I needed because some would "inevitably not make it to maturity." Guess what? I didn't lose a single bird and now have a surplus of eggs! I get 9 or 10 a day, every day. We like to do everything ourselves and use materials we have at hand, so we built a stone henhouse under the pole barn, with a large covered run and optional garden access. Neighbors immediately dubbed it Hen Hilton and declared that if a tornado comes they'll evict our chickens and move into it themselves. (Us city-transplants provide plenty of wholesome amusement for our wonderfully helpful neighbors!)

We planned on getting a heifer and producing offspring for the freezer, but gave up on that idea when we found ourselves unable to even slay the mean rooster! We have neighbors who raise their beefers naturally, so we'll just buy one from them to send to the butcher after we purchase a third freezer. No way I could raise a baby, then eat it. My meat has gotta be more anonymous, I guess.

We would like to put some mini donkeys out in the pasture, but fear our large, city-raised dogs would run them to death (or get kicked in the head). Guess maybe we'll wait until the old pack is gradually replaced by a country-born-and-bred bunch. None of our current pals are terribly young! No rush.

We are lucky to have a wonderful old pecan tree that some long-past resident of this place lovingly grafted and tended. Every other year it gives us more huge nuts than our entire extended family can use in 2 years. This winter I planted some apple trees, an apricot, and a blackberry patch. Two of the many fig trees I planted 5 years ago are finally looking like maybe they'll make something of themselves this year. And my vet gave me 3 pommegranet (sp?) cuttings that I have high hopes for if they're still alive come spring. His trees are awesome, but it can be difficult to nurse the cuttings thru the winter in pots. We also have mustang grapes growing wild - despite our best efforts to control their progress!

Basically, I plant anything I can get for free and see if I can get it to thrive. Some experiments have worked better than others and it's all a learning experience. At least I have fun.

I'm fortunate to be able to stay home and tend "the farm," look after my mom, etc. My work here contributes enough to the support of the household that my salary paled in comparison. DH hopes to retire in a few more years and become a full-time country dude. As it is he just works himself to death evenings and week-ends. He is finally easing up on his concerns about the klutzy wife maiming herself and teaching me how to operate the tractors, so I can take some of the burden off him.

We would love to keep bees, but worry about the killer bee infiltration in Texas. Anybody have any words of wisdom on that subject?

pam

Hi - I bought my "farm" (one acre in Virginia with a fixer-upper house) in April of last year. It isn't zoned agricultural, so I can't have any animals besides pets. So, I guess that means putting in a big pond and doing fish and greenhouses (maybe sneak in a a "pet" chicken or angora rabbit or laying duck or two, but that'd unfortunately be it). I love to garden, so maybe concentrating on two or three agricultural interests instead of spreading out to dozens is a good thing.

I am looking forward to my little patch of greeness being an education to my totally urban friends. (I'll bet if I told them it was a duck egg they wouldn't eat it.) I'll turn them loose in the garden and tell them to pick any vegetable they want. Bet they can only find the tomatoes!

Hope I can keep the "farm" though - my company was just sold, and my job's in jeopardy and the economy is down, jobs in our area being tight. But I'll keep praying about that. I will see in the future what the Lord wants.

Nice to see so many people really getting into farm life. I grew up on a post-war dairy; my dad milked cows for a living all his life. I had a childhood most people don't know anything about. I sure miss it -- must be true that you go back to your childhood. I am 50 this year, and I'd like to re-create it.

I'm enjoying learning about farm animals we didn't raise, particularly ducks, sheep and geese. Maybe I'll sell my place and go somewhere I can have some of them.

Nice learning about everyone's set-up.

Verdant Croft

Hello everyone !!. I am currently living in Fla, but moving back to Maine next month. Building a house,,and I have ordered chicks that will be delivered March 31st. Raised chickens for about 6 years in Maine, but haven't had any for the past 1 1/2 due to zoning issues in fla. I have a small chicken barn already waiting for them up there on the property. My husband hauled it over from the old house (across the road) on a flatbed truck. We are building on our 5 acre lot where my greenhouse business once stood. Look forward to my organic veggie gardens and new chickens, I haven't had either one hear in fla. Difficult to grow good vegetables on beach-sand type soil...not to mention the snakes and spiders, etc that lurk about. Eeeek.

I'm mainly a lurker, but have responded some on people with horse questions. I've had horses for nearly 20 years, for show, working cattle, and pleasure. I only have one old mare left, and she's mainly a pasture pet.

This year hasn't started out well. I was supposed to close on a new place - 13 acres with a pond! - back in Dec, but it turned out to have deed restrictions (was not declared). This is previous timberland cut into 3 tracts. Who would think deed restrictions? Well, finally got closed and started moving things from old house to new. Slow going. It has a 2yr old doublewide and I'm suprised at things it doesn't have, like more than one phone jack. I raise alpacas and have a full-time job (and single), so it's mainly a weekend move. Can't get the old ready to put on the market till I get more things moved over. The bit about no clutter was my realtor's top todo. Also need to do some temp fencing in order to move the 22 alpacas, dogs, 11 chickens, etc. This place only has slick and barbed wire fencing, and no barn.

This is also our busy season with the alpacas. Birthing, breeding, and shows, and then shearing in April. On New Year's Eve, I had a cria born with severe unbilical hernia. Rushed him to the vet, and tried everything to save him, but had to put him down. On the way to my first show of the season last week, I was rear-ended by a semi. Luckily, we were both going slow and I have this huge, heavy, horse trailer with a back ramp. It saved the alpacas inside. Now, I have a damaged truck, possibly totaled trailer, stress fracture in my left hand, and hurt back. Can't start moving to the new place for 4 weeks, till chiro treatment in done. On top of that, one of my boarder's girls gave birth early Monday, and I had to call on other local breeders to help me take care of her and get the pair to the vet (no trailer). The next day, another girl aborted 2 months early. This girl is an older import that had breeding problems, so it wasn't a huge surprise, but still a disappointment.

So much to do to get moved and set up at the new place. But most can't be done till I sell this place, which I can't do till I heal up. And the rain stops. Got 3 1/2" in 5 days. The old place is swamped. And I have tons of plans for the new place. I'm using the salvaged tin and wood from my parents' pole barn (tornado last year) to build to chicken coop (mix of various bantams and a couple of Americauna - they were all free). Have to have it totally enclosed to keep the hawks and cats out. Will have climbing roses over the top to discourage them and dress up the run. I am a Texas Rose Rustler, so I mainly have old garden roses. And tons of old garden bulbs. That's one of my main moves. Over 300 plants going over. Roses, daylilies, rain lilies, crinums, mallows, etc. I plan on building an enclosed garden, to keep the dogs from digging up. Will incorporate salad garden and strawberries into the flower garden for now. Have 2 border collie crosses and a Great Pyrenees, and 5 cats. A new barn is in the plans, so I can feed after dark in the rain and stay dry! And the fencing I've always wanted - cedar posts with mesh and cedar stays. Front entrance of solid cedar stays. Hay shed is being delivered this week and built! Now to work on getting satellite internet. No DSL out there.

But spring is here, early. The redbuds are in bloom, as are the azaleas and tulip magnolia trees. Haven't found a pecan tree to check yet. They are the true telltale sign of spring here. If the pecan is sprouting, it's spring.