Egg hunts, dry runs, more rain

It seems that every day is Easter on our farm. Even though Mama was mostly dressed for church last night she had to go on an egg hunt to gather what had been laid that day. Since we divided the coop in order to allow the little ones to grow to full size in a protected area the mature hens and rooster have been unhappy with the arrangement.

Now the hens are laying in a wheelbarrow in the barn, in a pile of hay in the hog building and in a recess by the equipment in the calf lot. At least those are the places Mama has discovered so far. We have been down on the total count of eggs both because of the discontent of the hens and the way they are laying in so many locations. Even I get confused.

We left Bowie quite early last night so we could look at a house just north of Decatur. It is not quite what we are looking for but the price and the attached acreage were within the range we are considering. When we got a good look at the property we were very disappointed. It is obvious why the house has been on the market for over a year.

The house is nice enough but it is smaller and less finished than many in the area. The acreage is a total bust. It is a very rocky area with very little depth of soil. The bulk of the property that goes with the house is a gully and the only really usable land has a battery of oil tanks with a pump jack sitting on it; not exactly what we have in mind for a home – although it could work in Texas. Not only that, but the realtor stood us up.

It was raining pretty hard this morning when I left the apartment. With half of the porch roof missing and the tears in the damaged part of the roof over the apartment I am not confident that the repairs I made on Monday and Tuesday will hold out all the water but they should keep out the vast majority of the rain. I will know later when I get an update from Mama. Pray that we will hear from the insurance company soon so I know what I have to do to fully repair the storm damage.

We are enjoying the rain otherwise. It is much needed. The recent rainfall has our garden looking very good. Mama and Victoria worked in the garden for several hours yesterday and it looks so much better than the withered, weed infested rows we had a week ago. There is still a lot to be done but we are catching up and maybe getting a little ahead.

The rain did not come soon enough to save the blueberry plants I had in the little orchard. I am not sure there is any life left in them but I will water and care for them for another month to see if they will survive. If not, I will give their place to some other plant this fall.

It is an ongoing struggle to get trees started.