What I love about March

March is a crazy month in New England....on one hand you have daylight saving time, new seedlings, baby chicks and lots of signs that spring is just around the corner....on the other hand, you never know when a storm is going to come through and drop 17 inches of snow on you when all you thought you were going to get was rain. Right now we have all of the above going on. This weekend my family went sledding, had a snowball fight, watered our seedlings and picked up a couple of baby chicks.

 

 

Return of the Turkeys

Well, it's almost March and I haven't seen these guys since last summer...so I guess they just stopped by to see the new deck maybe offer some creative advise!

Here comes Nemo

so far the snow has not been too bad in my area, but the heavy snow will be falling later tonight

A sad day in the backyard

Well, it was a bad couple of weeks for us...we have had our three hens for a couple of years now and regularly let them out in the yard to free range and then lock them back in their coop at night. Two weekends ago one of our girls didn't come back, we weren't sure what got her, but found a small pile of her feathers just outside the coop. We were all upset, but thought it's the cycle of life and some animal, maybe a fox or something opportunistic grabbed her. Then, last Sunday, my wife and kids were walking down the steps and something brought her back and left her in the side of the yard....that really shocked us. So now we are just confused, maybe a dog would do that, but I don't know....just not sure why something would of attacked her and then brought her back a week later...needless to say I buried her under a flowering pear tree on our property, which made the kids feel at least a little better about it

Rest in Peace Maria

It's almost Christmas....time to pick a pepper

Doesn't everyone pick peppers as part of their Holiday tradition...well, maybe not, but I am. Peppers have never done well in my garden so last year most of them found themselves in pots on my deck. I decided to overwinter a few of them in a sunny room, production has definitely slowed down, but the peppers are still their and this one looks just about ready to pick so a Christmas pepper will be on the menu this year!

To molt or not to molt that is the question

The last few months seemed to be difficult ones for one of our hens, she was losing feathers, lots of them, everyday. At first we weren't sure what was going on, the other two looked fine, we didn't know if she was sick or being bullied by the other two, but something was definitely going on. After some research we realized molting was the answer. Although it's a natural process it just didn't seem it....but our girl got through it and looks great now. She even started laying again, even though the eggs are tiny she seems to be back to her old self again!

The Center of the Universe

It's been a while since I have updated the blog and a lot has happened. Since my last update, I took a trip out to the Midwest to visit my in laws and my father in law generously gave me a classic convertible, which has been sitting in his garage since my wife was a kid. It does need quite a bit of work and wasn't running so I rented a truck and trailer and towed it to the east coast, it was a beautiful ride. Since being back I have had some time to get out into the yard, but mostly just cleaning up for winter, most of my spare time has been spent working on the car to wake her up from her 32 year nap!

I was able to take a few pictures along my road trip, but unfortunately most did not come out very good, but I will look through them to see if any are worth posting. I hope everyone is doing well and also hope everyone has a happy and healthy Thanksgiving!

Mid West or Massachusetts

Spent some time at a local farm this morning picking apples. The trees were bursting with ripe fruit and as I looked across the farm I couldn't help but think of the mid west and how beautiful that area is. The farm also added a new addition this year, which was great to see, a coop with a flock of about a dozen hens

A busy Holiday weekend in the yard

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend, I know I did. I was able to take an extra few days off and spend some time with the family as well as make some great progress on my backyard project

 

a random surprise, I didn't plant this here, beside my walkway, but somehow a corn stock grew and is producing a couple of cobs of corn, considering I don't have corn growing anywhere on my property, I found this to be quite the surprise

The yard of my dreams a work in progress

So I have been making some progress on the yard work, hoping to get a lot done over the long holiday weekend

The Yard of my Dreams

So here it is, the yard of my dreams. Can you believe I have never had any artistic training, oh yes, it's true. But seriously, bad art work aside, this is what I am thinking about doing to my yard. The tan lines would be stone, the black circle is a fire pit, the tree is, well, a tree, and the green stripes are some zebra grass.The patio will all be filled in with the pavers you see and I will fill the spaces in with stone...This is just a "rough draft" I could still change...especially if anyone wants to chime in with some great ideas!

Its always nice when you can recycle

After fixing up my deck I had a pile of old decking...I also had a small shed that I use to keep the kids bulky toys in sitting on the ground. I bought just a few pressure treated 2X4's to make the frame and then covered it all with the old decking. The shed now sits level, off the ground, and the doors don't stick anymore, which I great. I was also able to reduce what was a pretty good sized pile of old decking down to a much smaller pile!