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Guess I’ll take a nap while she does the mowing.
Spring has been really good to us (especially compared to last year’s neverending snowfall, then immediate inferno and this year’s end of winter). There have been some setbacks, lots of mud (but hey, that’s Indiana for you), and a few cold nights but overall, we’ve had weeks and weeks of pretty awesome weather. That means we’ve been busy gettin’ ready.
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The season’s first toad!
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We’ve started spotting turtles on the road and to save them from being squashed by traffic, we’ve invited some of them to come live in our pond.

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A pretty painted turtle!

Some, well, they’re not invited to the party. This particular snapping turtle got relocated out back to our pond overflow, which leads to another, larger pond. They’ll be happier out there, anyway…

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The turkeys have been hiding their eggs in clutches–everywhere from under the playground to in the hay piles. Hopefully that means they’re going to start hatching chicks soon!

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The raspberry patch has been put in, and the raspberries are planted. C’mon, fruit!

Along with the warmer weather comes a lot of shoeless time outside. Kate had a sad mishap and while running, managed to puncture her foot pretty impressively. After a trip to urgent care, she’s been hobbling around a bit, though that doesn’t mean she’s off the hook.

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We had to wheel her around on occasion to help her keep up but she didn’t mind.
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With spring comes green grass and when there’s green grass, there are hungry animals who haven’t had a taste of what must taste like candy to them in months. To say they’re a little eager to get out there is an understatement. Fences are sometimes a casualty.
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At least that was an old post that needed to be replaced anyway…

So, more than one evening this spring has been spent repairing the damage done so we’re not leaking animals.

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Between working, the Easter Bunny also made a trip to the store to make sure the impending birth of our next baby doesn’t mean there won’t be Easter baskets.

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Even though the grass is growing in the pastures, we still take the animals out for a stroll on the lawn once in a while. There’s more than enough grass growing on the lawn, which saves the pastures a few minutes of being grazed.

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Family night was spent dying eggs…
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and the fruit trees are blossoming. We might even get fruit this year!
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Our garden last year was prolific but small, so we wanted to expand it so everything had enough space. A neighbor offered to plow, which he did, but his plow didn’t quite get the soil ready like we’d hoped. With deep ruts and patches of grass still exposed, it wasn’t exactly ready to be planted.

Claire and Jack having rut races, which is a lot like hay hopping.

While we were scrambling, trying to figure out how to actually till the garden so the grass would be broken up and the soil evenly distributed, our neighbor who’d done the plowing felt so rotten that he phoned a friend to come rototill it for us. Miracle of miracles, the garden is ready!

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It’s not been all work though. Warm weather means we can pull out the bounce house. Sure, everyone ends up getting kicked in the face/stomach/back/wherever, but for the most part, it was the highlight of their week.

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All this work and fun getting ready for spring has us all pretty wiped but it’s the kind of sensation that’s hard to describe–exhausted at the end of the day but so incredibly satisfied by it.

Hopefully she doesn’t think babies are meant to be pillows in real life…
 Spring has been so pleasant, the view from my back deck is spectacular, and life is good!
I could stand out here watching everyone play and graze for hours.

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Our budding family
 

Welcome to the farm!

True stories of raising children, remodeling, braving the elements and plotting out life, all while living on a humble acreage in central Indiana.

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