By:  Kailey Mentink

We have had a wonderful spring, and so far have had at least four lambs born. We had one ewe who had two lambs and excepted one of the lambs but refused the other one. After keeping them in the barn for a few days, and helping the baby, she excepted the unwanted lamb. We have also recently had an adorable and funny calf from one of our milk cows. The calf’s favorite thing to do is to chase the other animals! She is very friendly and loves attention. Now Dad is milking again, and we have been able to have several delicious meals that we haven’t had in a while, including fettuccine Alfredo with home made noodles made with our new pasta maker!  We are also enjoying bright yellow butter again! Another exciting birth was four, cute puppies that our dog Spice had on March twenty-seventh,  Alena’s birthday! They are just beginning to open their eyes and toddle around. The two females are mostly black and the males have tufts of brown around them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Everyone loves spending time with dad when he is home, especially Asher. When Dad is at work, Asher (age 2) takes his toy phone (really a remote control) and pretends to call Dad. He says he wants to borrow the tractor because he’s going “to move hay bales”. He says the same thing almost every time!  He loves riding in the tractor and never tires of it. The rain we recently had was a huge blessing. The ground had been getting extremely hard and dry. With the large window in our dining room we were able to enjoy watching the rain coming down and the lightning flash. We are also enjoying the flowers on our lilac bushes in front of the house that smell wonderful!

We have been immensely enjoying our pasture-raised Beyond organic pork. The flavor is wonderful and it’s really tender. We recently moved the pigs onto a hard, weedy area, that we are planning to eventually plant to sweet corn. After a week or so, the area was completely torn up and perfect for planting the corn. Mom is very excited to begin planting and has her wood chip garden planned out. Recently our chickens have been getting into Mom’s garden and the boys and mom were constantly chasing them out. Now that Dad and Asher have built a new fence around the garden, the chickens will have to find another place to dig for worms. Mom and Dad have also planted several fruit and nut trees this spring. This year, in between the trees Dad is planting potatoes to take advantage of the space. We are looking forward to the produce from the garden and the some of the fruit trees that we hope will produce this year.