There are flowers blooming.  Per my plant identifier app, these are Wavy bittercress, Bird’s Eye Speedwell and Bugleweed

Our one and only tulip.

Our magnolia continues to look spectacular.

And some of the fruit trees in orchard are blooming.  This is a cherry, Asian pear and apple.  You probably can’t tell from the photos, but there are a lot of bees working these blossoms.

Unfortunately some of our more challenging “weeds” are coming up as well.  The morning glory is starting to grow as well as the comfrey.  This is comfrey I dug up from a small portion of our vegetable garden bed.  There is a lot more to tackle.

The grass is growing as well so we are rotating the animals now.  Here are some of the sheep.

And the cows.  I always forget how beautifully green spring grass is.

Plus it is nettle season.  So I made my annual nettle soup.  It is so good!

I had it with some sour cream and red pepper flakes.

And the next day I made nettle pesto and put it one a salmon fillet.  So good!!

With rotating the cows, they now have access to tree branches for scratching, which they thoroughly enjoyed.

But there were also very large branches that had fallen over the fence during the winter storms.

I removed what I could by hand, but then Tom went out with a chain saw and took care of the rest.

He looks down their original scratching branch, but they decided then to eat it.  Fortunately there was another scratcher for them left.

The egg production is picking up.  They are selling quite quickly in the produce stand.

And our lone survivor chick is growing up.  I pet him each day.  I would love to know what breed you think he is.

The spring hormones are kicking in as well.  The male geese are coming after me all the time.  Fortunately all they can really do is pinch me with their bills.

There is goose sex as well.

There is turkey sex.  The white midget hen is getting the majority of the attention from our tom.  I put some Blue-Kote on her back as it was starting to bleed.

One of our young peacocks is strutting around as well.

This next photo may be upsetting so you may want to stop at this point.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I had accidentally left the alpaca outside one night.  So to get him back to his area, I had to move him through the side of the barn where the old sheep are.  He was briefly in there when I heard an odd noise and found him trying to mate with our disabled ewe Vanessa.  She can’t walk much, and he took advantage.  Fortunately I recognized what was happening soon and was able to get him off her and move him.  I don’t believe that there was any trauma.  But now I am concerned about the sheep he lives with.  Fortunately they are quite mobile, and I haven’t noticed any concerning behavior.  His previous owner didn’t have any issues with their sheep so I am hopeful that he can remain safely with our other sheep.

Completely unrelated, Roscoe is getting more comfortable in our house.  He has been coming down from upstairs and hanging with me on the couch when I watch TV in the evenings.  Wally is not happy about it but not attacking him.  So hoping for peaceful cat coexistence.

Wally has been enjoying the morning sun beams coming through the window.