Frogs are singing, Spring is springing and Espaliered Apple Trees

 I haven't seen any groundhogs around here, but plenty of mole hills, wild bunnies, deer and now dandelions!

The frogs are starting to sing down in the beaver dam, too.  Not a huge chorus of them yet, but individuals trying out their voices before joining in the choir.

 The Autumn Crocus are up, too.  Funny plants - in Spring they send up their greenery.  By Fall they will finally bloom. 

 These daffodils are on the North side of my house.  It stays pretty shady and cool over there but the daffodils are valiantly poking their heads up and if you look closely, you'll see the flower buds.  We live just up high enough in elevation that most of our stuff blooms/ripens about 2 weeks after the rest of the local area.

 We live on 81 very hilly acres.  Our house sits on about 5 or 6 cleared acres on top of the hill.  This road leads down to our valley where we have about 12 or 15 acres of pasture.  We usually herd our cattle (all two of them) down each Spring to finish fattening up for Fall.

The rest of our land is in Douglas Fir, growing for timber.

 If you walk down this road just a bit, you will come to our Bee House.  A couple of years ago, a BIG black bear destroyed all our hives.  The game department brought out a huge bear trap (looked like a steel drum on its side with bait inside and a trap door).  We did catch our bear and they relocated him.  We've worked to replace our hives and now have 5 good, healthy ones again.  This structure is now bear-proof.

 Paxton wanted her picture taken.  She did not freshen (kid) when the other two did, so I think she's waiting for Spring.

 This is an 'after' picture of my Espaliered apple tree.  I've enjoyed training it and answering interesting questions about it.  In the summer, when it has fruit on, I've been asked "Are those real apples?"  What?  Did they think I tied them on? 

 Here are two 'before' pics of the espalier.  The deer like to nibble on it, but they need lessons in correct pruning.  This is actually a Lodi apple.  Not the best for fruit production in an espalier mode as they are tip-bearers and, of course, I have pruned all the tips off to keep this shape.  It does bravely manage an apple or 6 each year.

Spring is coming and I've been working just a little outside.  This week it's back to a cold rain, so I'm spending a little more time in the rabbit barn, organizing, repairing cages and breeding rabbits.  Hopefully soon I'll be able to report new litters! 
Today was my mom's 82nd birthday!  She chose pizza (homemade) for her birthday dinner and a trifle for dessert.  She's battled cancer for over 4 years now, so each birthday is a real blessing to us. 


I was getting a little overwhelmed with making primitives for my Ebay store, so my daughter (the brains of the outfit) determined that I needed to raise my prices a bit to control sales.  THEN she opened an Etsy store for me also, to make sure I still sell enough!  Hmmm.  Seems like things are still selling, but at least I'm making a little more pocket money this way!   I do love to create things!

She (daughter) and I spent the weekend at a rabbit show and came home with a couple Grand Champion legs and a few new rabbits.  I now have Netherland Dwarf rabbits of my own!  I'll take pics and post them next time.  Enough for now, I sold something in my Etsy store so now I've got to get sewing!