Today the weather was quite nice. Sunny and cool. I decided to let the birds wander loose and spend some time in the garden while I can. In truth, this spring-like weather can only last so long, so, even though I worked a 12-hour overnight shift last night and have another one tonight, I decided to caffeine up and make the most of the good weather.

My husband decided he was going to re-caulk the windows today. One of them was leaking in our last big rain and you know there’s going to be more and bigger rain before spring is over. So, I was on my own while he did his thing. I don’t think he’s done either. I may be on my own for a while, or until it rains or gets cold again.

I have decided to do a market garden this year specifically for herbs. So, I needed to expand my herb garden. This weekend I gave the bunny barn a good cleaning and took the hay and other waste out to use to kill the grass in the expanded area. The first year we moved here we had to take down a bunch of trees and so we had a lot of woodchips and I started my first gardens using the Back to Eden method, though I didn’t know the name of it at the time. Now I have no woodchips, but I have plenty of pooped-on hay and straw and that’s what I use these days. We improvise.

Today I decided to work on the path through the herb garden. I don’t like grassy paths because you have to mow them and mowing sucks. So, I dug up all the sod and heavily reseeded the path with the Alternative Lawn mix from American Meadows. I really want Roman Chamomile to be the primary plant there, but we’ll see what dominates.

I had a little help from my friends. Penelope followed along and cleaned up the freshly turned dirt of grubs and worms.

And Shazaam… industriously kicked the straw back onto the path.

I also marked out the area where my new garden fence is going in. My husband an I will put it in tomorrow if I feel up to it and if I need to sleep (after getting very little for two days) he can put it in himself.

It felt good to be out in the sunshine. Not expecting more for some time.

In other news: Sugar is broody and has been for some time. She has no eggs under her but it makes now difference. I pick her up and carry her outside every day to ensure she gets food and drink, but she hurries right back after about 30 minutes of activity. Yesterday, Ninjagirl was in her nest box when she got back and a messy fight ensued that had to be broken up. Ninjagirl has her own nest box, but my husband informs me that she has laid eggs in Sugar’s while Sugar was out the last few days. We will have to talk about this. We also have to have a conversation with Diva and Grimm about inter-species mating.