What’s That I See? Is it Spring?

It’s the beginning of February here in South Dakota. All I see around me is white. All I feel around me is cold. However, my heart is asking is it spring? This spring, we plan on being busy. The kind of busy that makes my heart so very happy though. This winter, my heart has been broken. We sold all of our livestock, except our laying hens, and they are so old that they are barely laying anything anymore, so really, they are just there to please me. It’s been a nice break, not having any chores to do this winter, but I am ready for the task again.

This morning, I went onto my favorite chicken buying website and planned our laying hen order. That’s right, 25 new baby chicks will be here in a few months. I might even throw in a few turkeys so we can have our own turkey for Thanksgiving this year. Baby chicks are my absolute FAVORITE! Quite honestly, that should be my business. Raising baby chicks for people who don’t want to deal with the baby stage. I keep all the baby chicks right inside my mudroom until they start flying out of the lick tubs we keep them in. It’s truly fantastic.

I’m on a mission to find new saneen goats. It’s tough though. Everyone I have found so far is too far away or too expensive. I have faith that the right goats will come along though. When we sold our goats a few months ago, I only had one saneen. I wish I could have kept her, but it’s a rule that you can’t have only one goat. They get heartbroken. So, in order to keep her heart from breaking when we sold all the nigerian dwarfs, I broke my heart and sold her.

Then, we also have the plans of things that need to be fixed up. Buildings, fence, etc. The never ending projects that are inevitable on every homestead.

Then, there is the garden. Planning the garden is such a fun task. I will be figuring out how much and what my family will need to eat throughout the year. I plan how much I need to can and then how much I need to plant. It’s truly fun for me. We are also looking to add more berry plants onto our property. Within the next week or so though, my mind will be filled with tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, lettuce, zucchini, carrots, broccoli, peas, watermelons, pumpkins, and herbs. Oh my!

Really though, I’m just aching to be outside all day long. It’s about this time of year that I’m normally in severe winter blue season. This year hasn’t been too bad though. We just got over influenza yesterday, which lasted a week. Not to bad when I talk to other people that have had it for 2-3 weeks though, so I’m taking it as a win. In this post, you can see my tips for making through winter depression. It’s a real and true problem here for many people in the midwest.

So, while it may be the first week of February here, spring is on the horizon. We are officially in the planning stages. Pretty soon, I’ll have some seeds started and green will be everywhere. Just have to hang on a tiny bit longer!