April Monthly Moos {It's The Little Things}

Spring is here.  The Dogwoods are in bloom on the farm!

With it came the realization once again that it is the little things that make such a difference.  My Monthly Moos column this month isn't about any big thing going on around the farm... just a lot of little things that bring happiness to all of us around here!

I love the Dogwoods.  We have a lot of them around the farm, mixed in with all the other trees in the woods.  But their white blossoms really stand out.  

My spring crops of lettuce and peas are up and doing beautifully.  The lettuce is a little small for picking, but not too small for nibbling on when I'm working in the garden!  

Our wild blackberries are in bloom.  I can't wait until we can don our long sleeve shirts and gloves to pick them!  (Notice those evil thorns!).  We are on our last little jar of wild blackberry jam.  

Eldon worked hard through the winter to clear our fence lines of the little trees and other scrubby stuff that loves to grow on the fences.  But we couldn't bear to remove the blackberry bushes.  So, we do have quite a bit of fencing that looks like this - taken over by the wild blackberries.  

The other clearing that Eldon did this past winter was removing trees and making a few little roads through the woods in different places.  The woods are so thick that it is hard to get in to check the cows and things.  I love this little road - the other day as I drove our Ranger through here with my little grand girls, Jillian was saying, "Go faster, Gram" and it certainly gives you that feeling!

I was walking along one of these little roads through the woods today and heard some rustling in the bushes.  These little mischief makers jumped out!  Love our sweet little calves.  (However, with my heart pounding I honestly thought they were little bears when they first jumped out!)

And speaking of cows.  They aren't doing too much except for eating that rich green clover and napping!  Talk about happy!

I love our farm this time of year.  Our little dirt road that winds through the woods and up the hill to our house is one of my favorite sights as we pull off the highway.  It says home to me.

And then you come to the dreaded gate.  After three years of stopping to open and close the gate Eldon finally had time to install a solar powered automatic gate opener for me!  I know exactly the spot along the dirt road that I can hit my clicker and I never even have to slow down.  This may seem like a little thing... it's actually a pretty big thing!

And to finish out the month... we are building again.  This time the garage and shop!  I'm hoping that I won't have to help quite as much as I did with the house.  I plan to have a summer full of gardening and canning!

I hope Spring has sprung for you too and you have the same feeling in your heart that I have - that it only takes little things like green grass and flowering trees to put a big smile on my face!  (And a gate that opens automatically!)