Spring break!

I am so excited to have an entire week with no school obligations. Okay, I do have a bit of grading to catch up on, but I don't have to go anywhere for a whole week, and neither does Mike, which means we should get a lot done around here. That's good because we are so far behind!

My order from Heirloom Seeds just arrived this week. I ordered in January. At that time, they said it would be a month because they had so many orders. I'd say business is booming for them because it does not normally take that long to get orders. Sounds like people are perhaps tired of the GMOs and/or wanting to grow more of their own food for health and/or economic reasons. "All of the above" sounds good to me!

Just a few things we have to get done in the next week:

• get garden cleaned up (yank out all the old, dead plants from last year)
• put up the greenhouse we bought on clearance last fall
  
• plant cold-hardy things like onions, spinach, and peas
• start seeds indoors for tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, and other sensitive stuff that can't go outside until early May
• make soap
• clean out the barns
• move mama goats from kidding barn to milking barn
• make cheese, buttermilk, and yogurt
• butcher a few chickens and turkeys
  

Mike got started today by putting up shelves and lights for starting our seeds in the basement, while I sorted out the seeds and put them into piles of "when to plant." We went shopping and bought the seed-starting mix, as well as the flats and little pots. I gave Joy a bath this afternoon. Tomorrow morning, we'll attack the barns, then after lunch I'm taking Porter to a intro-to-herding class. I imagine tomorrow night's post will be rather interesting, if not entertaining.