What Does Spring Hold For The Daniels Family?

An opportunity to practice patience that’s for sure. I am personally waiting on getting to the last frost date. Keeping one eye on the forecast as well. I don’t know, dear reader, if you have ever seen a garden bed truly spring to life after the thunderstorm. It’s an almost magical thing. I’ve heard said, by far more experienced and educated gardeners then my self. That it is caused by the nitrogen that the lighting puts into the atmosphere. So it rains nutrition right into your soil. But sometimes I like to think there is something less definable going on, just to feed that sense of wonder. I like making decisions based off a mixture of knowledge, intuition, and inspiration. To dance between what is, and what could be. Oh, look at me getting all poetic. The point I’m getting at is that I would like to time my planting, be it transferred starts, or seeds sown, to fall strategically before a thunderstorm. Not only to the plants then grow fast, the seem to get a stronger start. And the better started they are, the more they seem to be able to withstand pests, and other potential threats. So waiting, could be well worth it. I do have a number of somewhat leggy, but otherwise healthy starts in my kitchen. I personally find the humidity domes from Bootstrap farmer to be very useful. We have wood heat, so the air can dry out fast. The temperature in this old house fluctuates a lot. And the house cat (an newer addition) can’t accidentally smother them. I’ve got various herbs, and flowers, a few bush beans that need potted up or planted, and a good number of pepper starts. My tomatoes are the only ones that could have had a poor germination rate. If I do have to buy starts, I’m going to reach out to my local community first, and then the locality owned nurseries.

If a local community is something you are longing for, seek it out. On one restless day I just started searching groups on social media for the things that interest me. Rabbits for one. And local homesteaders. What I came across was a group of women, who homestead in my area! I had looked before, and found nothing. Their presence on social media was relatively new. I’m so glad I looked again. Keep looking until you find what you need. God’s timing is perfect.

I’m also waiting to see if we will have our first successful goose hatch. Our cotton patch goose is now sitting on 4 eggs. I thought we had another goose in the mix, but I’m not certain with the brown geese we have. So I’m waiting to see if another nest pops up. All 6 geese are in the same yard. But I’ll be splitting the breeds soon. We wanted crosses for meat. Now that our girl has gone broody, I don’t want babies hatching out with that many ganders around. The CPGs are very easy going, and I feel those ganders would be better with the new additions. It was NOT my intention to have the ganders outnumbering the geese. On a more positive note, I’m first in line to get a trio of CPG goslings from a farm in Arkansas. We are waiting on them to hatch too. No matter what the brown ganders will not be here next year.

I’m not waiting on the rabbits as much as other things. Most of our growouts are near processing age. The ones to be sold are also about ready. The ones that are bred are lines I intend to continue with for the time being. I’ve been saying I need to downsize. But the truth is I’m actually expanding. I’m only keeping a few Mini Rex breeders. But I’ll be getting more Silver Fox, and even more Rex.

And I’m waiting on things in life. Whispers of raises for my husband. Plans and goals to reach with my family, that are effected my circumstances far out of my control. Over the past few years there have been times where we were so ready to build on the small acreage we already own. Or we where so close to moving. And things happen. And we keep waiting. Surly this deep desire to build something, not just a house, but a place of being, of welcoming, of belonging. Surly that is not all in vain. What has to happen between here, and there, I do not know. But I will continue waiting. With hopeful expectation.