Yesterday was a beautiful day in Kansas so the family decided to get out and get some spring cleaning done in the garden and animal areas. I was so excited to finally get out and get my hands in the dirt after a long winter. I am still so thankful for the garden space the previous homeowner started. It makes getting the spring garden in this year so much easier. Just look at the great soil I get to work with. The only thing we added last fall was some old bedding we had saved from cleaning up from the chickens. Hopefully we will have a good year.
While cleaning up the garden space we found lots of these onions growing that we did not plant. They must have been leftovers from the previous owner. I decided to go ahead and pull them to free up as much space as possible in our small garden.
We had plans to go ahead and expand the size of our garden this year, but we have not had a chance to get around to it. I may still go ahead with our plans...maybe. If I do I am sure the hens would be happy to pull their weight around here and clear an area for me if I pen them up where I want the new plot. They are great at their job.
I told this little cutie I would pay her if she would help me pull some weeds that have already popped up. She was so excited to get to help, especially when I told her she could use the new gardening tool we inherited from my parents. Work is always more fun when you get to use a new toy.
Ignore the mess behind her. Like I said it was cleaning day and there was stuff strung all over the place from the shed clean out. I am not sure if you can see or not, but we more then doubled the size of the chicken pen since we are not allowing them to free range as much as we have in the past. They were just too destructive in the garden last year. We will let them out if we need some clean up done.
This is Olaf, our new puppy. We were told he is possibly part Greater Swiss Mountain dog. To be honest I am not sure what he is. The Humane Society can only give us their best guess. After looking up the breed he definitely has many of the behavior characteristics and markings. So far he has been a great guard dog and he just LOVES our kids. At 6 months old he already weighs 57 lbs! I think we have a potentially huge dog on our hands. I am excited to see how big he actually gets.
From my research this dog was bred to be a working dog. Unfortunately there is not a ton of herding to be done in my backyard. The website suggested we get him a doggie backpack to wear on walks to help him feel like he is helping. I think we will get one and see how it goes. This breed is also known for pulling carts. I am sure the kids will have no problem hooking him up to a wagon or sled in the winter so he can "help".
The chickens were very excited about cleaning day. We kept finding lots of bugs and weeds to toss into their pen.
I have been wanting to get this shed cleaned out all winter. I hate it when things are disorganized. I was grateful to have the help of these two. My oldest does not like having a small farm in her backyard or getting her hands dirty. I just had to get a picture as proof that she does help out occasionally. If she had her way we would be living in an apartment in New York City.
After about an hour of work I looked around and these two had disappeared. Apparently they decided it was time for a break and helped themselves to a snack.
There is still lots of work that needs to get done, but it decided to go from 70 degrees yesterday to snowing today! You have to love spring in Kansas. I did manage to get in some radishes, spinach and lettuce in some planters on the porch. I had planned to start the snap peas and beets today, but that will have to wait until the weekend.