| February was spent watching the lambs grow alongside their mamas and we got Easter egg hunting practice early! Started doing Woods Walks on a more regular basis as well so we can watch what is blooming each week! Enjoy! Amy | Table of Contents: ~ The Barn: Lambs are Growing! ~ ~ The Coop: Where are those Chickens laying?! ~ ~ The Garden: the Month of March! ~ ~ The Woods: Enjoying Nature ~ ~ Thank You! ~ |
The blog is a sampling of all the photos I’ve taken this month.
Please head over to our social media to see the photo dumps!
~ The Barn: Lambs are Growing! ~
Lambs are really impressing me this year! Lots of milk goiter going on (yes it’s a terrific thing!). Milk goiter means they are getting tons of nutrition from mama’s milk!
To keep our lambs safe from predators, the flock gets locked in the barn (with a small outside area where the water trough is). They are always more than eager to get out and make a run for the alfalfa they know I’ve put out for them!
I’m considering building a new creep feeder in the barn that can handle pellets. The amount of waste that happens with alfalfa in the wall feeders gets expensive! If we get a tractor sometime soon, some barn rearrangement will need to happen so we can buy pellets in bulk to save some money. Then those barn cats will really need to earn their keep with the mice down there!
I also want to build an outdoor hay feeder for the ram pen, yearling pen and for the maternity pen. Those feeders are absolutely trashed and may as well be throwing hay on the ground. The waste was astounding! Always need to spend money to make money. In this case spend money to SAVE money.
Another thing for next year – I think it’s time to start looking for a new Registered Katahdin Ram! Archie has been great but I have his daughters from all of my ewes now. I usually only keep a ram around through 5 years of age. I’ll use him again this year, but he turns 5 next year. I want my next ram to have a lovely mane. It’s been way too long since I’ve had that and I just love a nice mane on a ram!
Lamb & Ewe Sales!
The wait list is filling up fast! It’s looking likely we might actually sell out! The Katahdin feeder lambs always sell out first. What those buyers want with fast growth they are missing out with superior taste in those St Croix lambs. St Croix do not produce lanolin so the meat is super mild. They are also more lean as they don’t marble their meat with the fat. You have to actually keep back fat from other areas if you want to add it to ground lamb! I won’t be sad if I have some left over lambs that end up in my freezer this fall!
It’s time to start thinking about what you might want May 2026!
Categories include:
Feeder Lambs, Un-papered Breeding Stock, Recorded Breeding Stock and Registered Breeding Stock.
Contact us to be put on a waiting list!
~ The Coop: Where are those Chickens laying?! ~
It’s been like an Easter Egg hunt around here trying to figure out where those blasted hens are laying eggs! We get 1-3 in the nest boxes, we’re finding them in the sheep hay feeder, they had a place in the straw and in the hay loft (though that seems to have stopped), and we have to check the straw in the dog house (while the dogs have to be locked out of their kennel during the day so they don’t eat the eggs). We have been looking everywhere! I know the egg laying is due to start amping up so where they are going is a complete mystery!
One mystery we took February to solve is who is breaking the eggs and eating them in the chicken coop. We set up a trail cam but the angle was bad so the eggs would mysteriously be broken and mice would be eating them. I have a suspect of the Swedish Flower Hen variety but I want her caught on camera before she enters the crock pot!
~ The Garden: the Month of March! ~
Spring is coming up fast and the gardens are going to need to keep up! I’m a little sad I won’t be planting this year. The planting bug has been biting, but I will have to make do with patio plants!
Check out the garden guide…the list is getting longer!
I’ve compiled a list of planting dates for 2026 based on the moon phases:
2026 Planting Guide – Zones 7/8
Early March sow outdoors: asparagus, rhubarb, berry crops (strawberries, currants, gooseberry, blueberry, cane berries, etc), chives, parsley, sage, oregano, rosemary.
Prune fall-bearing raspberries, gooseberries, currants.
Mid-late March sow outdoors: arugula, Swiss chard, spinach, mustard greens and transplant: broccoli, kale.
Late March sow outdoors: garden peas, Sweet Peas, alyssum, phacelia, coriander, candytuft, sunflower, yarrow, dill.
~ The Woods: Enjoying Nature ~
Trail-cam Videos – Nature in Action When We Aren’t Looking!
In this case it’s Wood Ducks! They stayed in place, setting off that camera, for a half hour! I picked one video to share with you, even-though they are pretty cute! We did have lots of videos of deer, the opossum, and mice but we see those all the time!
February Woods Walks
My goal this year is to make it down to the woods once per week on either Saturday or Sunday to track the different plants blooming and the weather for that day as well. It’s my part in the study of Phenology: telling the seasons by what’s blooming, fruiting, or going dormant!
Shane and I took a Valentine’s stroll to our woods. Part of my motivation on Valentine’s Day was to see what had started blooming down there. First blooms mean Early Spring has sprung! We also took walks on Feb 22nd and Feb 28th. Here’s what we saw:
Early Blue Violet (Viola adunca), Snow Queen (Veronica regina-nivalis, Osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis) is the first shrub to bloom after winter, unless you also consider Hazel brush (Corylus cornuta var. californica) catkins. Oregon Grape (Berberis nervosa) is budding and ready to burst into bloom soon. Also saw some cool Lungwort Lichen (Lobaria sp.) mixed in Moss on a Fir tree and Witch’s Butter Fungus (Tremella mesenterica) on an Alder branch. On the 28th we saw “Wild” Cherry Plum (Prunus cerasifera) blooming and found some old conks on a fir tree too!
We had to slog through a swamp full of water this month too! When I was a kid I always loved exploring the swamp and seeing how far I could get without getting my rubber boots in too deep haha.
Creek Rockhounding – Hidden Finds
All the storms have had our little creek raging at times. It has stirred up some great finds though! Here we have agatized petrified wood, some Carnelian agates (though very little orange in our area), Banded Agates, and Jasper.
Here we have a minute of creek sounds for your relaxation!
~ Thank You! ~
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Boo says she’ll see you all again April 1st for our March Homestead Happenings, where we’ll celebrate weaning (already!!) and hoping the chickens aren’t hatching chicks in random places! Don’t forget, there will be even more Garden guidance as planting starts to amp up and more will be blooming in the woods!
Hollow Hills Ranch 