Days of Summer?

It's been spring here since the middle of February. Don't get me wrong, we love the warm weather as much as anyone. You can't beat the money savings from not having the furnace running and all those little chores you have to wait to do can now be done....oh yeah, YEA! But watching the kids run around in shorts in the middle of February sets up expectations for your subconscious brain. You start thinking about planting and building fences and chicken coops and mucking stables and why the heck haven't those horses dropped their foals yet....oh yeah, it's FEBRUARY!!! Then to top it all off we're supposed to be getting snow this time of the year but day after day after day dawns bright and clear and sunny with no hint of moisture for my thirsty pasture or trees. (sigh)
So I have given into temptation and started my spring planting. The grow room is full of pots filled with dirt and tomato seeds. Some are sprouting but I've sort of stretched out the process so many are still newly planted. So far, 375 possible tomato plants live in my special grow room. I'll be planting pepper seeds next week and probably the melons and herbs another week later. I may run out of room which almost seems impossible but I hope to sell some plants this year so I've planted many different things that I wouldn't actually grow in my own garden. I tend to be a bit of a tomato snob and only heirloom varieties get to grace my garden.
The big chickens have been TURNED LOOSE!!!! They are definitely free range girlies now and there ain't nothin' scarier than chickens gone wild. They are scratching up the evil weed-infested straw bales and hopefully eating all the weed seed. Throwing the pieces of straw in the air until the wind takes it and then chasing it down only to find it's a piece of straw, chickens are more entertaining than.....than kids!
We've also got baby chickens now. The MacMurray order came to us with one DOA and the rest all terribly healthy and active. Those were all Easter Egg chicks. The Ideal order was Rhode Island Reds, Buff Orps and some extra RIR males but the boys are all marked. It's very colorful out there in the baby chicken room because of course Easter Egg chicks come in lots of colors and we then we have the pretty little butterscotch colored Buffs and the cinnamon colored Reds. The two lonely little chicks I hatched are out there too. The little Easter Egger has disappeared into the throng of chickens who look just like her but the black boy I hatched out is still quite noticeable.
And that's it for today. I see snow in forecast for this weekend. We'll hope for a little reminder that it's only March and not May.