Boys Spread Compost

Last fall, we had a delivery of compost. It has sat next to our driveway for the last four or five months, a black pile that has served as a sandbox for the boys.

Phil was pleased to read recently that it's good to spread compost in the spring, if you happened to not get to it in the fall. And when he was able to drive the water wagon out of its stuck spot, he figured he could drive through the orchard.

He commandeered the boys, who all joined him in the spreading process. It wasn't easy to figure out the best way to spread a fine layer of compost, but in the end, Phil slowly drove the tractor backward, and the boys, with varying degrees of skill threw handfuls of compost all around.

Abraham and Joe tended to drop little piles.

Isaiah flung compost with vigor, though not much focus.

Jadon put his head down and efficiently got the compost spread as quickly as possible.

That done, Phil then subsoiled the apple orchard, creating trenches for light and water.

In other news, a few of the peaches are showing pink!

For myself, I checked the tray below the beehive and was horrified to find mouse droppings! Had a mouse actually entered the hive, despite the large quantity of bee activity? Or was the mouse simply down in the bee tray, eating up pollen and such? I checked the tray a few more times, and saw no new droppings. But there was pollen, and little wax flakes.

The area we hope to plant to blueberries one day is a gorgeous mix of grass and clover.

In the greenhouse, the greens are not doing well: of 13 varieties and 80 soil blocks, only one or two varieties and about five actual seeds have sprouted. What should be a tray of green, but is solely soil blocks.

But there were little sprouts from the pineapple guava seeds! The first sprouts for the perennials. Good to know that at least some of the tree seeds are viable, even though I've never had a pineapple guava.

I also began to make a garden space. I have a moon-shaped bed that now has feedbags as a groundcover, weed prevention, and a little square with pea seeds planted.

And dozens of daffodils, mostly yellow, but some orange centered, both light orange and darker orange. So fun!

The sole guinea is probably not going to afford adequate tick protection. I found a tick crawling on me today. That seems awfully early!

The puppies continue to gain personality.

Roly poly.

Sleepy. They still sleep an awful lot.

They've started to eat solid food, and Bitsy is, we think, in pain from all the sharp puppy teeth. (Isaiah tried to get a puppy to suck on his finger and quit that quickly: ouch!)

Even animal ambivalent Abraham went to hang out with them.