Spring, 2011

My favorite time of year! I am now enjoying the sound of the frogs over the pond, and now watching everything pop out of the ground that I worked so hard planting last year. I'm truly enjoying it! I've picked up some more, including a couple of special trees shipped to me from California, that I'm looking forward to getting in the ground soon, the weather just still gets a little temperamental at times...and I don't want to lose these two! I haven't talked much about them, I'm afraid I'll jinx my experiment...but they are pretty special to me! This week I intend to plant some canna bulbs along the house......trying something else new, and if all goes well, I'll dig up the rhizomes in the fall to save for next year. I'm trying caladiums this year too. Just planted some phlox within one of our rock walls...see how that takes off....

A woman I work with is the wife of a minister at a local church, and I was asked if I would bring in one of our donkeys for their annual "Donkey Walk" on Palm Sunday. Just leading the congregation through the city streets up to the church for their service. It was a great experience, and Kochia was wonderful! Some of the kids got to take turns leading her, and we've been asked to join them again next year. Kochia even sported a palm frond on the top of her head....it was quite cute.

Most of the animals are doing very well. The chickens provide us with eggs every day, and are happy in their environment, the minis are all doing well, as is Blue.... Kissy, my 26 year old Arabian mare, whom I got when she was a year old, is not having an easy time of things lately, but I'm trying to help her out. Her arthritis, at times, gets the best of her, and I'm afraid this may have been the last winter she'll see. Breaks my heart, after having her for two and a half decades, but I owe it to her not to make her suffer...and if there comes a time where that's all she does, I'll help her find her way. She has a very badly arthritic knee, among other legs of course, but the knee is the worst of it...and we have been working with our vet trying different things to help her out. We'll see what happens, but at this point, I am just taking things one day at a time. One day....and spending a lot of time with her.

We've had a TON of great wildlife sightings here this spring....lots of deer, some turtles, turkeys, and of course the woodchucks have already made us aware of their presence. I'll add a pic of a doe and her fawn, or the fawn at least, who came to visit us on a few occasions. I took many pics, completely undetected, from the house! We've also had a doe that continued to visit our back yard for awhile, RIGHT in the backyard, I could tell it was the same one as she had quite a large sore that was healing on her right leg...she was close enough I could see it clearly.

So spring brings the vaccinations for four horses and three donkeys, and next weekend will be our spring clean-up weekend, haul out the composted manure pile......etc etc. I'm happy to be back mowing the lawn again! I am looking forward to a summer full of beautiful plants, relaxing times with great friends and family, and if all goes well, finishing the deck we started!

So, that's all for now...I'll try to update a little more often, but you know how things go...and it won't be long at all and we'll be cutting and baling hay, planting pumpkins, etc etc. I did, very recently, update our website, http://www.glacierridge.com/