Around The Farm - Seeds, Flowers And Hens

I finally decided it was time to plant my seed trays, but this being my first attempt at such an endeavor, I tried to organize things:

I planted almost all (I ran out of one kind of seed before I finished all the cups) of the seeds I'd planned to sow in the trays and covered them with their clear plastic dome lids. The six baby roses were blooming in a row behind them:

 This was my plan for seed tray number one:

 And for seed tray number two:

One of the new baby roses was just coming into bloom, called Sevillana. It is advertised to be a fiery red, zone 3 hardy, prolific and continuously blooming rose with a mild fragrance and beautiful rose hips in the fall. I never saw the brown spots on the outside petal until I cropped the photo. Then I went back to make sure they weren't insects. It turned out to be dust, which all fell off when I touched the flower:

 The next day, all the dust was gone and the little rose was opening like - well, just like a rose:

 Outdoors, the Daffodil row was blooming happily:

 The newest flowers were the yellow ones, a variety which, if I remember correctly, were called King Alfred:

 The little hens seemed happy and healthy in their room inside the barn and continued to average about three eggs per day, a reasonable amount. I several times scrambled a dozen eggs for the dogs. I will not try to feed the dogs three dozen again:

 I removed the farm sign from its stand at the edge of the road as it was rapidly deteriorating and I don't think anyone noticed it anyway. I hung it against the east wall inside the barn:

 One side had lost much of its paint but of course I put the good side out. Now I hope it will last for many years, maybe even long after I'm gone, as a remembrance of my retirement effort:

 I noticed the Lilac bushes putting forth leaves as well as buds which looked like tiny bunches of grapes. I had to take many pictures because they were never in focus. I finally tried putting my hand behind the buds and that told the camera where to focus. It also gave a size perspective for the tiny buds:

More Pet Pictures

I snap photos of the pets now and then, whenever I am in the house and have my camera with me. I was running low on photos to use on the blog, but that all changed when I walked into the computer room and saw this mess. I grabbed my camera to record the "joys" of having kittens. They'd knocked the chainsaw bear off of the milk can and then tipped over the waste basket, which was filled with shredded paper and floor sweepings. I figured the only reasonable response was to laugh at the mess and then clean it up:

The dogs are older and less likely to run amok than the two kittens. They prefer the floor pillows in the kitchen corner. In this case it was Fergus, Daphne, Clover and Jack:

On another day, Bugsy joined Clover and Fergus on the big, soft, green floor pillow:

Seamus and Jack stood in the hallway and watched me while I was at the computer:

Then Seamus watched me as I walked into the kitchen. I'm not sure what he wanted, but he watched my every move:

More lounging in the kitchen corner: Fergus, Clover and Caspar:

Daisy likes to sit on the dog food bin so I can pet her whenever I walk by. I try not to disappoint her:

She also follows me into the computer room:

Clover and Caspar:

I caught Sammy Googling something, probably "cat treats:"

Bedtime, with Daphne and Fergus on the bed, and Clover, Jack and Seamus on the floor:

I've been trying hard to get Sammy to trust me. I often give the cats treats when the dogs are outside, and each night before bed, I tire them out chasing the laser pointer. It's a game they love and they clearly expect me to do it again each time I enter the bedroom. All this is working quite well in helping Sammy to trust me: