Friday, March 18, 2016

Empty Nest



CLUCK, CLUCK, CLUCK!!!

It's that time of year again! The grass is turning green, the flowers are opening up despite the lingering nip in the air and lawn mowers have begun to make their seasonal appearance...Spring has sprung! (Even though technically it starts on Sunday.) All of the aforementioned clichés have happened on the Shawhan farm... except for one. Sadly we have not gotten our yearly batch of chicks.  And this year we have decided not to.

  I'm a little bummed about this. It's been a standing tradition to take a Saturday morning and get our chicks for the past four or five years now, even as a way to "celebrate" my birthday. Bringing home baby chicks is the epitome of Spring (next to Easter that is). Now the dates have come and gone and time is just whizzing right by...we have never gotten chicks this late into March before, although there isn't a law saying you have to raise chicks in Spring or get them by a certain date.
 We've decided to make several changes to the Shawhan farm this year and hopefully in years to come. For this year we've added another raised bed for peas and decided not to plant sweet corn in the big garden. I will be up to my elbows this summer freezing, canning and making as much baby food as the soil will provide for us. Have I mentioned I want to put in a standing fence in the yard for raspberry bushes?? Oh and I'm banking on all those strawberry plants I planted last year to produce their little butts off!
 We aren't looking at this as the beginning of the end. Only a new beginning by trying to thin out the old crowd (not sure when or how this is going to happen but it will over the course of the coming year), so we can start fresh with a new batch of ladies next Spring. That is the goal anyway. I want at least 20 or more next year. Hopefully by then we will have made the changes to accommodate an ever growing flock!