At Last!

After thinking that winter would never end, I have been proven wrong by the profusion of blooms everywhere I look, both here at Camp Topisaw and at Rose Gate Farm next door. I can't remember a spring that has been more beautiful in recent years. It seems that all the plants have burst into bloom almost at the same time. I'm grateful to be able to enjoy it. Edie and I went to a nearby nursery yesterday that had loads of very nice hosta plants for sale. We bought quite a lot that we plan to use to make a shade bed underneath a large, treelike Magnolia fuscata. Now I am waiting for summer tropicals to break dormancy and begin growing. I have seen some sprouts on the ginger plants, but nothing yet on the bananas. Perhaps in just a week or so more we will see them sprouting.

Eggs in several colors

The hens are certainly making up for lost time this winter by laying prodigious numbers of eggs now that spring has arrived. We are getting about three dozen eggs everyday, which takes up a lot of refrigerator space. I am thankful that we have a separate fridge that we can dedicate solely to egg storage. While I have had many dozen at once earlier this spring, I now only have a few to store, thanks to the boom in our eggs' popularity. The eggs pictured come from our mixed flock of Black Australorps, Ameraucanas, Rhode Island Reds, and Marans chickens. They surely are good, and far superior to those available at the local markets. Let us know if you'd like to try a dozen or two.

Emma and Her Family

Our granddaughter Emma was baptized recently. She was, of course, incredibly well behaved and looked beautiful in the dress, bonnet and slippers that her great-grandmother Gale made for her. It's always nice (probably because it's so rare) to have our entire family together. There's a freedom in having your grown kids come home to visit--you've done your job, and now you just have to listen, encourage and trust them to make their own decisions. Having grown kids AND children still at home is especially nice--knowing that we can raise them and that they will move on, get jobs and function (and bring us such swell grandchildren!) makes us much more relaxed with the younger ones. Anyway, a beautiful day and a photo to treasure.

Year of the Camellia

After the cloud of this year's winter, which seemed like it would never end, we are finally seeing a little bit of a silver lining. The camellias have been especially beautiful this year. The have kept their buds tightly closed until now and they are all opening in a burst to welcome spring. We are still waiting on the azaleas, though. They are fully one month behind normal, but I know that they will be exceptional a little later this spring. We ordered a few new camellias this year from Camellia Forest, a nursery in North Carolina that we like a lot. We even got a tea plant (which is a type of Camellia) and hope to try to pick,cure, brew and drink our own tea in a couple of years. Just for fun.

Southern Snow

We're having a only-a-few-in-a-lifetime snow here is South Mississippi! The ground is actually white--the snow is not melting as soon as it lands. The girls, of course, are having a ball--getting soaking wet and running in every few minutes to stand by the fire. May the electricity stay on, may the roads stay clear.

Month of the Chickens

They are everywhere. Well, they were everywhere--now they're in our freezer. Cornish Cross Broilers. We recently raised and butchered 150 of these massive white chickens. I'm not a real football person, but they remind me of the guys who run over everybody else--tackles, I think. When they're hungry (and they're always hungry), they appear as a white swirling sea. They are not terribly bright, and they're not terribly afraid of electric poultry netting, either. Imagine walking toward their pen, feed bucket in hand, and seeing this horde rushing toward you, their combined weight allowing them to merely walk over the electrified fence. A bit frightening... But, as I say, they are now appearing (one at a time) deliciously roasted on our dinner table. A happy ending.


On to smaller poultry--Here's a very cute photo (taken by our oldest daughter) of one of our youngest daughter's new bantam chicks (notice the baby peeking out from under the mom). They are exceedingly cute, being so tiny and so active. When they're not hiding out under Mom (aka Cinnamon), they're riding on her back or scratching in the grass.

There are many wonderful things about living on a farm--and more wonderful things, I think, about growing up on a farm. It's a delight to watch plants & animals grow, to learn where the expression "Don't count your chickens before they're hatched" really comes from, to know that, though the pig is for eating, we'll give him the best care/food we can while he's here, to realize that when Peter heard the cock crow, it was, indeed, VERY early in the morning. Life here is very real, very immediate and very full.

Home Within a Home

Our latest project is redoing/saving our barn. It's been incredible to see the transformation--from a sagging, vine covered home for rodents (aka rats) to a solid, gleaming (with it's new metal roof) testament to the beauty, dignity and utility of a well-built pole barn. Perhaps the nicest lagniappe of the redo is the "unveling" of the log corn crib. We have much respect for our carpenter, who also built our guest house and has done numerous projects in our home and at church. Art will add 6 stalls to the barn--a snug home for the horses, donkeys, sheep and maybe a few cows when it gets really nasty outside!


On the door of that sturdy corn crib we found another home--this one for dirt daubers. They obviously visited the various clay banks at the creek and came back to create multi-colored tubal apartments. They remind me of something from the western deserts...