Gardens bring us together

Even though Spring is still out of reach, at least the snow and ice have melted, and we've had a couple of days where at least the sun was out, even if it didn't get much above freezing. And of course we're supposed to get more snow tomorrow night.

So I am trying to cram as much prep time in as possible. Today I dug 2 more potato beds, charred several other beds, and weeded and worked the over wintered beds, checking on my winter veggies. that was a bit disappointing.

My veggies have struggled all Winter against ice and snow, only to succumb now to what appears to be a single hungry bunny. I scared him up out of my bok choi bed a couple of weeks ago, but apparently I wasn't scary enough to keep him away, and he's been busily keeping my greens nicely trimmed of any new growth. (sigh...)

But even with the dismal outlook for any fresh greens this Spring, there are little glimmers of hope. My Russian Kale and baby Collards are hanging tough, and their wilted frozen leaves have given us an opportunity to make a new friend.

"Pardon" our rescued Simbrah calf has discovered that we aren't as scary as she thought we were. We've been working on getting her used to us being around her, and trying to get her to come when she's called. Every time she moves toward us and comes within a foot or so, she gets a yummy green leaf.

Even though that part's going well, as you can see in the pic,  I haven't really been able to touch her without her backing away in fear. But today we had a breakthrough. She came up to me and was begging me to go pick her some greens. She sniffed my hands, gave me lots of licks, and for the first time didn't bolt away.

Of course I obliged, and for the first time I was able to sneak in a few pets on her muzzle while she nibbled. It was great to see her so relaxed. Finally! Never underestimate the power of green!

Spring, Oh Spring, where art Thou?

Well so much for the "warm dry winter" that our local forecaster predicted. After 5 days we are still buried under 6-7 inches of solid ice. The fate of my winter veggies seems bleak at this point, but they had made it through all of the other freezes we have had over the past 2 months, so maybe we'll have some luck. Ice is supposed to protect plants by insulating them from wind chill and moisture, so we'll just have to wait and see.

The ice has been a real problem for us. The horses won't go outside, and they are all getting cabin fever. The dog and the cat hate going out because they slide down the hill. The ice is so thick they can't break through to walk safely. Today even the horses were having a hard time breaking through the ice when I forced them out into the paddocks. The cracking under hoof was pretty scary!

The huge amount of snow (huge for Georgia anyway) has allowed us some fun. Mom and I built a snowman on the driveway. He's pretty cute. Freaked the dog. We've had the snowman about 4 days now and the dog is still growling at him when we walk by.

Goldie is a golden/chow/some sort of hunting breed mix. Total mutt. But his greatest joy is the snow. He gets so excited when he knows there's fresh snow on the ground, and he gets me up early in the morning to go out and play. It's like kids at Christmas.

But the ice has been a problem for him, and isn't any fun to play on. He can't make snowballs or roll in it, and his tongue sticks to it in the early morning. Lucky for him there was a little patch of snow on the porch where he usually likes to lay in the sun that was still mostly fluffy snow. We got some great pics of my little snow bunny all curled up in his snow nest. Pure paradise! Makes me think he has husky or malamute in him somewhere back a ways.

It's been an interesting Winter in other ways as well. We rescued a cow that showed up on our property. She had a lasso around her neck and what I thought were rodeo tags on her sides, so I assumed she had escaped from an arena during a local event.

Long story short, she was a slaughter animal that escaped from the man who had bought her. It took us a week to catch her, and by the time we got her she was thin and dehydrated and just pitiful.

But we got her on Thanksgiving day, and so decided to call her "Pardon." She is adorable, and she has a perfect little cross on her right cheek. It took us 2 weeks to figure out how to corral her so we could get the rope off her neck. Our first few attempts were a disaster.

She's doing well now, recovering from a couple of common illnesses that cattle get from the "cow pound," and learning how to be a "pet" cow. Considering she's never had any positive interaction with humans, and in fact has had a pretty rough go of it so far, her recovery has been dramatic. She's playful and inquisitive, she's not terribly afraid of us anymore, and in fact she comes up to sniff our hands looking for treats, and stalls up on command every night.

I know this isn't really a gardening post, but she will be helping us with our compost production, so technically that counts, right?

OK, back to the garden blog.