Red Dirt Farm and Studio

Good day y’all.

Are you doing the happy spring dance too?

Spring is the time for renewal and new life and new beginnings.

We’ve got lots of new here at the cottage.  New life springing forth, new growth, new beginnings.

Sadly we lost our oldest and largest koi, Gilligan, this past week.  Yes, I cried over the loss of a fish.

On the other hand, so far, all forty feet of our chicks are well and growing like crazy, all except one.

See that itty bitty chick in the center – her name is Sweet Pea, she is so much smaller than the others.  We worry for her, but she seems to hold her own.  Did the hatchery make a mistake and send us a Bantam?

 Whatever, she has stolen our heart and has been named Sweet Pea.

By request, this is for you Miss Linda, of Southern Rural Route.

I promised her I would share some closes-up photos of our Saucer Magnolia – Magnolia – soulangeana.

  Here the blooms are just beginning to open, perhaps my favorite with the sweet pink color and their fuzzy outer layers. 

This was the first year, in twenty some years that the tree bloomed for two weeks straight without being damaged by frost.  It was amazing.  Thank you, Linda for asking.

We had rain last night, and everything is green and crisp and smells so spring like.  Ah, what a great day.

The Asian pears are just beginning to bloom.  In the background, the road-side stand has been set-up.

We have been working hard the past week to get the area around the stand in ship-shape for the opening this weekend.

The girls have been busy laying lovely eggs, so we are all stocked up and ready to go.

Also, I have GMO free/organic tomatoes and peppers started, but I think it is too early to put them out for sale this weekend, that will have to wait a bit.  I can’t wait for it to stay warm so that I may get the gardens growing.

I’ve worked on getting a little garden display area in place, complete with a little white picket fence because little white picket fences make my heart happy.

I’m recycling all the old coop droppings, pine shavings and straw to build this area up.

The chickens and the peacocks are willing to help me spread it out.

I filled an old canning pot with flowers and rusty garden stakes that I made of metal roofing from a pole shed we had on our property.  The shed came down years ago during a winter storm.

In the garden display area I also hung one of my recycled record bird feeders.  I had fun making these.

More recycling and repurposing – these signs are painted on metal – roof flashing, that was pulled off the cottage when the new roof was put on a few weeks ago.

I hung them on the fence to dry while I started working on the next batch.

I also hung up this old burlap for a shade screen.  This burlap has seen a lot of use in and around the garden.  I used a stash of yarn to “sew” sunflowers on it a few years ago.  They are pretty faded now but serve the purpose well.

My helpers.

I styled my signs after the signage that was used on the TV shows from the 60’s – The Beverly Hillbillies and Green Acres.  They have that appropriately silly simple country look.

One of the few “new” not repurposed items at the stand is our 6-foot rooster mascot.

I thought I would have a name the mascot contest, sometime in the future.

 As far as the renovation goes, last week the plumber showed up one day and got a few things done.  GRRRR.  However, Mr. Cottage and his team knocked out a big portion of duct work and runs for the HVAC system.  Awesome good stuff there.

I know this has been a long post, but I’ll end on a personal note, asking for you to keep Father Cottage in your good thoughts as he has a surgical procedure done later this week.

I hope you are enjoying beautiful spring weather.

Thank you for being here today.

xo kim

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