Sowing the Seeds of Spring

Not much time for taking pictures yesterday. The gorgeous spring day involved a flurry of activity focusing on other beloved projects.

In pretty much every case, there was some "sowing" going on, ranging from getting things ready for summer routines to actually putting seeds in the dirt. 

By week's end, I'm hoping to have the third box stall on the east side of the barn ready for use.  Three doors, three stalls means three horses can enter and exit whenever they please.

Yesterday's warm weather brought on a key reason for having this availability for the horses. The poor things spent the day trying to rid themselves of hundreds of annoying flies by switching their tails, constantly shaking their heads and rolling in the dirt. 

So, their freedom to go inside a stall to escape the flies will be great, especially for Lefty whose sensitive hide means intensified suffering throughout the warmer months from irritating insects. 

After completing other projects, I drove to the Co-Op Country Store to pick up a bottle of Calm Coat fly spray. 

Today, when it warms up and the flies come on again, I'll begin the daily application of the nice-smelling spray around heads, bellies and other body parts where flies love to drive horses crazy. 

The three-stall, open-door policy will also offer me an opportunity to give my sore shoulder/back a rest from shoveling stalls every day. That will be nice.

In addition to barn projects, Bill fired up the rototiller and worked up the garden patch for the first time.  He was surprised at how fast the garden dirt had dried out.

Meanwhile, over in the barnyard, most of the mud dried up enough yesterday that I was able to return with the 4-wheeler and harrow to smooth out the surface enough that a cart filled with hay can go pretty much anywhere in the enclosure. 

Again, that is nice, as I've been taking the cart completely around the barnyard in the morning and throwing flakes over the fence from the yard. 

This morning I saw a new horse activity after scattering flakes a good distance apart in a huge circle.  That led to a new game called musical flakes, mostly initiated by boss Lily who likes to take a bite or two out of a flake and then go check another. 

That led to Lefty and CB having to be in gear to move on from wherever they were eating.  

I have a feeling that we'll see some daily prance and dance shows in the barnyard, now that the surface has improved. For me, those moments are among the supreme delights that go along with having pretty horses.  

They're always much prettier when they move and show off. 

Yesterday also signaled the beginning of the lawn mowing season.  It was nice and relaxing to climb aboard my newly maintained zero-turn, bright orange Husqvarna and start the clean-up/mulching/mowing in lawn areas which have dried out.

This morning half of the lawn looks a whole lot better than it did yesterday with all the limbs, needles, cones and leaves chopped up and blended into the ever-greening grass. 

Of course, one problem for me during mowing/allergy season, which readers may remember, is the onset of "the itch."  So far, so good, but I'm not holding my breath because I think we have not yet arrived at the constant barrage of various pollens in the air. 

Nonetheless, last night every item of clothing worn during the day, including the baseball cap, went into the wash.  I washed my earrings, my Fitbit strap and the band for my pony tail.

Then, it was into the tub for a bath and thorough hair washing.  

Though it's a pain to have to go through this process every single time I mow lawn, it seems to fend off most of the irritants that cause that uncomfortable itch, which mainly attacks my hairline but also zeroes in on a few other areas which get exposure to open air.

In between all the other major projects, a few seeds got planted yesterday also-----sweet peas, to be precise.  I also had time to transplant some geraniums and marigolds into big pots.  They'll stay in the greenhouse where they can flourish until a long stretch of warm days and nights comes. 

A new season with lovely weather brings out the best in everything around here.  Our barnyard looks nice, the yard is looking better and the garden is primed and ready for a new season of tasty and pretty inhabitants.  

Plus, those daffodils keep opening all around the place, and as envisioned a few weeks ago, they look mighty pretty with all the green grass. 

Onward with spring and the sowing, which brings to mind:  the late Eleanor Delamarter, one of my mentors in life, would be the first to tell everyone that Marianne does a lot whole better at sowing seeds than she ever did "sewing" fabric.   

And, I would totally agree, adding that Marianne enjoys sowing so much more!

Happy Tuesday.