Preparations

Spring has come so early, that it makes me feel perpetually behind! But, we're getting the preparations done. My husband and I have have gotten the disc mower out of the back shed (I still have to clean it up). This was an iffy proposition, because it had half fallen over, and is extremely heavy - way too heavy for two people to lift. But, we got lucky and it came out easily. Sheep have been wormed. We've started greasing the baler. My husband sharpened the blades on the bush hog this morning.

The new tiller is coming in a few days, and we're excited to see how it works on a couple of old, overgrown garden beds. There is a major weed problem, so we're planning to plant buckwheat first. We'll mow it before it goes to seed, and then till it under. Next, we'll plant winter rye (might have it wrong, but that is what I remember at the moment). Then, that gets tilled under. With luck, that process will choke out the weeds, and we'll have a couple of nice new garden beds next year.

The barn swallows arrived back last night. I'm sorry to say I went out and knocked down their nests from last year this morning. I like a few around, but last year there were so many in the sheep barn that it was very hard to keep the water buckets clean. Would like it if a few stayed around - they do a great job on flying insects, and are just generally very cheerful. But, I need the sheep to have fresh water too.