Suddenly, it's spring

I have the window open and have been listening to bird song all afternoon, but the neighbor's have come home and I'm listening to really bad, really loud nasty music.

Stan has spent the day putting drainage tile in some wet spots. He has a guy with a backhoe that actually works (the backhoe actually works, unlike Stan's which sits - both Stan and the guy with the working backhoe work!) come in to dig the trenches and then he puts down the tile and back fills with the loader on the 4wd. I think he's going to be really tired tonight - fairly hard work and all that wonderful fresh air!

I was in and out a bit, not enough energy this week to do much. I have some very early species tulips blooming and the miniature daffs. Tomorrow is supposed to continue mild and I hope to go out and tidy up a bit. There is soooo much to do.

We have been going to an Advance Grazers Group that the Cornell Cooperative Extenshion agents for Chautauqua and Cattaraugus Counties put together. It's mostly dairy farmers who have been serious about intensive grazing for awhile. There will be 10 meetings over the course of the year where we share our experiences and explore new possibilities. The meeting that we went to on Friday was interesting in that they discussed raising brassicas, specifically rape and turnip, as pasture forage. I was concerned about the adverse effect on milk flavor. Apparently, they have addressed that problem by saying if you put the cows on the brassics first thing for only a couple of hours, and then move them to other pasture for the rest of the day, the milk is untainted. Sounds like a load of cabbage to me. One of the members of the group is going to try turnips. He has a field that was corn stubble and wants to renovate it to pasture and is looking to this as a transitional phase. It will be interesting to see what happens.

Ah, the music stopped just in time for the sparrows to have one of their domestic squabbles. Extended families where everyone talks at once. I do wish they would leave the other birds alone, though, they've even been going after the robins and mourning doves - cheeky little things.

Maybe I'll make a list of things I'd like to do tomorrow, and another of things I might actually get done.

take good care,
kathleen