Of the promise of Spring, Young things born & Psalm 139.

 Rhubarb is hopeful.  It's a promise of Spring to come.  Very brave, Rhubarb. 
 Here in Washington, Spring only means a bit more rain and slightly warmer temperatures than Winter.

 On my venture outside in between morning and evening chores, I actually took out my camera and checked on a few things.  These chives are beginning to grow, too.

 My New Zealand Red doe, Russet, had a lovely litter of 9 fat little bunnies.  Now don't cringe, but if these don't sell, they will end up nicely canned in Ball jars.  Rabbit is an excellent and tasty white meat and cans up beautifully!

 My New Zealand Black doe, Coyote, had a lovely litter of bunnies, too.  Since I don't have a black buck, I bred her to my white NZ buck, so most of these are either steel colored or blue.

 My garden is being kept under control by the chickens until planting time.  It's so wet here that we won't actually plant until mid May.  Mind you, we will start things in the greenhouse, but they won't go out until the ground dries enough to rototill.

 This has been keeping me busy!!!  These six kids were born since the 30th of December.....three sets of twins and all are doing great!  We bottle feed them morning & night, saving some milk for the house.  We will disbud (dehorn) them all tomorrow and wean them from individual bottles to a bucket feeder for their milk very soon.  We wait until all are strong enough to get their fair share!
They were napping when I snuck in for a picture.....

 ....and this is what happens when they see 'Mama'!  There was much yelling involved (on their part, not mine) but you probably didn't hear it.  Did you?

Their names are:  (pay attention, there'll be a test later....)
London
Celeste
Marzipan
Voce Elyse
Milton
.....hmm.  I can't remember the other one.  Oh, well.

 This is a WEIRD winter day here in SW Washington.  It is WEIRD, because the sun is actually SHINING!!!!!!   We do not see the sun except on rare occasions and for most of August.  Other than that, it rains.  Or there is fog.  Lots of clouds.  Moisture.  Mist.  Showers.   Drenching downpours....Get the idea?

Our average yearly rainfall is 52-60".  Mind you, that is average.  Sometimes we get more.

 A good harvest, even in winter.  The pop bottles are for goat kid feeding.  We do not drink pop.  Nasty stuff.  Never have liked it.

 In between chores & the other stuff of life, I have been working on Valentine primitives.  I've done quite a few of these wooden hearts.....

 .........wool mice in vintage coffee cans (my Grama & Grampa always let me open their coffee cans with those cool winding key thingies!!!)....

....and so I made a place to store some of them while they're waiting to be bought out of my new Ebay store!!!!  You can check it out here:
http://stores.ebay.com/hilltophomesteadprimitives

You don't even have to buy anything ;-)    I'm having so much fun.  I've done this kind of stuff since I was a kid, only now I can do it a bit better, I think.

Well, that's enough for now.  The sunshine is calling to me, so I'll sign off with a suggestion that you read Psalm 139.  Recently we passed the anniversary of the Rowe versus Wade abortion decision that has been responsible for the deaths of many millions of souls.  This Psalm reminds us that God is familiar with each of us, even before we are formed.  How He must grieve over the souls of babies killed by their own parents' choices.   Whether you choose to believe it personally or not, it is still true.