Are You Feeling It Too?

Hey There David!

Dave from McElhoes Family Farm/Belmont here.

Uh Oh! It's here. The time of year when my newsletter efforts start to fall apart. The grass is finally greening and the sheep are getting their first tentative tastes of fresh grass, and now they would rather be hungry, and bellow at the top of their lungs rather than to eat their hay. Short, quick pasture moves take more time when I have to check each fence and spread nets.

Katie, also, is getting her seasonal restlessness. Spring has always made her homeschooling a drudge. It was a little better when she was younger and could read her books up a maple tree, or I could justify her catching snakes as "educational". Now, I have to try to balance nagging about her math or poetry and letting her disappear down to the river.

Our laying hens have been picking back up and are ready to leave their winter run to follow the sheep. If only I was as ready with their mobile coops. They are a large part of our regeneration plans, and as we feed and supplement them, they in turn feed and supplement our pastures. Many pests and parasites end up as feed for them as well. Our pastures become cleaner and more fertile incrementally.

"The brief span of an individual life is misleading. Each one of us is as old as the entire biological kingdom, and our bloodstreams are tributaries of the great sea of its total memory."
--J.G. Ballard

Seedlings are coming along in the green house, early potatoes are in and I am heading out in a few minutes to get in the peas. Lots of building and repairs need to be caught up, but the crops are even more time sensitive.

I hope you are seeing your own signs of spring, and I hope the restlessness is controllable, even focused for you.

Gotta run,

Dave