With longer days and decent weather, we are back to hitting the outside chores hard around here! Some of it is farm work and some of it is sprucing up the home. Since we live on the farm (obviously) the line between the two can be a bit blurry. Sometimes it’s hard to set priorities because you want to make farm business decisions, but you also have to live here and enjoy life and make the quality of life decisions too. And it’s not just about (sometimes not even mostly about) costs. A lot of times it’s more about time.

Do I weed the vegetable garden, or weed the porch flower beds?

Do I spread compost in the pasture, or spread rock in the driveway?

Do I change the oil in the lawn mower, or in the tractor, or in the truck?

It’s a constant dance of priorities!

And the real answer is that eventually it ALL has to get done.

So we do a little here, and a little there, and work together A LOT. {smile}

The past 2 weeks we’ve been working on adding stone to our driveway and walkways. I don’t think we’ve done that (at least the walkways for sure) in about 10 years. It needed it. And it looks good.

We also worked on doing some spraying in the fields. I had Speedracer with me hitting the early thistle in the back field. The grass is doing well and the crickets and grasshoppers are out in full-force. It makes the chickens happy, but they tend to jump in and out of the kids boots a lot, which can get a little awkward.

And the Ladybug has been working her off-farm job, as well as helping at home. We’ve got a new bottle baby this year–who is the sibling of her bottle baby (Lamb-Lamb) from last year. I named this one Willow and Lamb-Lamb is very jealous! He thinks any time the Ladybug is in the field is it to visit with him, personally.

He finds it offensive that he might have been replaced.

I have to say, I don’t feel sorry for him. He is a pest. Always getting in the way every time we try to do anything out in the field. He’s got to be the center of attention. Sheep. ::snort::

And we’ve managed to fit in a little porch-sitting as well. Penny spends a lot of time sunning her old bones these days. Next month is the 13 yr anniversary of us adopting her and bring her home. She’ll be fourteen this year and it’s starting to show. The vet said she’s still awfully healthy for her age and size, but we can see her slowing down.

So we’ve been giving her extra scrambled eggs in her food every day and letting her spend as much time as she wants outside (as long as she’s not digging holes!!).

How is Spring treating you?