We have 2 pear trees, one plum and an apple tree that all burst into bloom in the past few days. There is no frost in the next few days' forecast. Spring is such a critical time for fruit trees. There isn't much we can do if frost comes at the wrong time. We just hold our breath. And after that there is always the possibility of hail. Mother Nature can be very unkind at times.
Our neighbor brought cattle to our big pasture yesterday. Although it is difficult to count cattle in a group I think there are about 30 momma cows with calves that were born last fall. Our hilly pasture adds to the challenge. They are black Angus. By the time they leave here in a couple of months the calves will be almost as big as their mothers. They are born at around 80-85 pounds and gain two pounds or more every day. Black Angus cattle produce very good beef. As with most beef breeds the mother only makes enough milk for her calf. The calves start eating hay or grass when they are a few weeks old so by the time this group come here they are only depending on Mom for a small amount of milk.
Yesterday I sorted through my supply of seed packages and started soaking seeds. I also filled pots and today I planted the seeds and put the pots on a heat mat. I'm behind this year by about 10 days. That makes a big difference with our short growing season. Some seeds will be direct seeded into the garden rows, and more seeds will be soaked, potted up and transplanted later. The seeds I planted today are various types of squash, cucumbers, a few tomatoes and a lot of cabbages. I've found a couple of nice, small headed cabbage varieties that I really like. Katarina and Bobcat make small, very compact heads about the size of a softball. I also planted a variety that makes larger heads and plan to make kraut with those.
My newly planted raspberry plants don't look very good. I think they dried out while we were away last weekend even though I watered them well before we left. This rain we got this afternoon would have been appreciated last weekend. No sign of pea sprouts yet and I hope they survived. The onions have dry tips on some of the leaves. It was bad timing but we needed to go to a family memorial across the state, so spent one day getting there, two days with the family and memorial services, and another day coming home. Actually any time during the snow free months is a bad time to be gone.
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