Well, the snow has melted, the sun has shone, the rain has fallen and babies are running around with an urgency to grow that I can not imagine, understand or predict, even though I see it year after year. Around here, there were countless piglets born. Within hours of being born, those tough little noses start rooting for who knows what – maybe they don’t know, but just have an urge to practice that movement – but maybe they do know. The sheep have been sheared of their thick, heavy and miraculous fleece jackets, and the lambs have been born. Countless chickens have been fed, insatiable. They seem to double their size from feeding to feeding. One day they are fluffy, the next day they have longer legs and long, naked necks, which turn into feathers over night it seems. Calves appear in the pastures, wet and sleepy for the first few days, then vigorous and playful in their soft coats that look too big and baggy, running around the pastures with their concerned mothers chasing after them to try as they may to keep them safe – like chasing laughing, unruly toddlers in a mall! The ducks are busy being ducks in their frenzied mating games of the spring. The piglets are escaping regularly as they can still squeeze under the fences – too many to keep perfect on every single day of the year. They go straight for the chickens feed of the laying hens for some reason. So every day, Patchy the Wonder Dog finds them and chases them back to where their mothers are grunting and “errffing” for them – more unruly and bratty babies on the loose. 
Our big old fashioned gobbler “Tyler” struts his stuff and protects his 2 hens with diligence and seriousness, puffing up his feathers like a perfect grade 2 Thanksgiving turkey art project if anything so much as looks at his girls. At night the coyotes try to creep in to steal a morsel of a young juicy chicken, or maybe even just a few eggs. No luck there. Luna, our boss of predator control out here is on the job all night, and enlists the help of Patchy the Wonder Dog, Bailey the Golden Retriever teddy bear – protector of her sacred spot on the deck(!), Chase our retired but still enthusiastic black lab who follows his young white goddess to the coyotes and barks from behind, and Demon the other retiree who barks from under the deck! There is always action around here. Always… something is hungry, something is thirsty, something has to move to a new pen, and something is breaking out of where they are supposed to be. Grandma has her broom handy for those bad pigs and sheep that are escape artists and who find her garden. Grandpa tries to keep the grass and trees from turning to a jungle. I have my broom ready for the floors in the house that are impossible to keep clean in this environment. I have used it to chase the laying hens off the deck if I have to be honest. All this action, while the kids are getting ready to graduate from high school (Another milestone under our belts. We crossed another one of many invisible finish lines.) 
There are concerts and events to attend, grass mowing to do, gardens to weed, laundry that cycles so fast we use the line and the dryer to keep up to the washer, meals to make, cows to move to new pastures, eggs to pick and wash, butchering to do, deliveries to make and we work off the farm too! Always lots to do! So, the grass is too long, there are weeds in the flower beds, there are piles of laundry to do, and the house is certainly not spotless, but we sure have rich lives. How incredibly fortunate we are to have this lifestyle and these opportunities to see miracles under our noses every single day. May you find your miracles too…
Lisa, Greg, Andy, Jessica & Taylor.
Spring Creek farms are a part of the Harvest Moon Local Food Initiative (view their profile and order food here)
