Ah, Spring in Virginia…when you get all the seasons of the year in a week. Every week. For 2-3 months. One day it’s sunny and 70, the next it’s rainy and 40. We had snow flurries overnight, and then tee-shirt weather 48 hours later. Crazy. But the green is starting to haze the fields and the irises and daffodils are coming up. Even the daylilies are starting to poke through.

The crew got dirt bikes for Christmas, so I’ve got one that’s been out hitting the mud every time the sky clears.

And as you can see from that picture, we picked up our last couple of bales of winter hay to tide the animals over until the grass is fully in. They’ve already self-regulated down from a bale every 3-4 days to a bale lasting almost 2 weeks. Why eat dry grass when there is fresh green out there?

I’ve already had to treat a couple cases of bloat. We use a quick homemade remedy of vegetable oil and baking soda for mild or early cases. There is a bottled treatment as well that we sometimes have on hand, but we haven’t had a case in several years so I didn’t have any in the cabinet. Hopefully this is not a sign for the year to come!

Berkley, our Thanksgiving Day calf from Molly is doing well. He’s growing and very curious. Every time I’m out in the field doing something I turn around and there he is, batting those beautiful eyelashes at me. He’s knocked over a few buckets and he’s gotten turned around and stuck in the chicken house a few times.

And if I had any questions about how fast time is flying around here, we now have a new driver in the household.

I’ve gone from this…

To this….

And I swear I can’t tell you how it happened!!

She started her first “real” payroll job (meaning she’s on someone else’s payroll!) before Christmas and the new parenting moments and milestones have been coming hot and heavy around here ever since. Now we’re a household of all teens (16, 14, and 13–eeekk!) and all middle and high school. Our elementary years are done and behind us.

Anyway, always forward! I’m glad the snow is probably behind us and flowers blooming are ahead.

How are things around your home place?