11:40 PM, 3 April 2010
Temperature: 39 F, intermittent rain

Today started with a trip to the nursery for our final order for the season. This order was of three bare root trees for the garden (a pear, a crabapple and an apple) to which we added two bagged pears and two bagged plums. The bagged trees were all larger and older, with abundant flowers, as opposed to the dormant bare root trees. On our way home we also dropped by a local farm to pick up two dozen fresh eggs.

On the way there we found that the storm which has been battering us with rain and wind left snow all over the hills, starting about 300 feet over our elevation. At the nursery the hills were a moving tapestry of white on green overlayed with moving clouds.






We had a good view over the nursery's scion orchard. The hill is typical of the foothills of Mount Rainier, with very steep elevations.








At home we discovered that two of the ewe flock had made their way out again, and that the ewe flock had produced another lamb, bringing us to 15 lambs for the season and 53 sheep overall. As soon as the escaped ewes were rounded back up, digging commenced. The garden trees were placed so as to be as advantageous as possible, in pollination terms, for the orchards. This puts us at 84 trees in the ground, between garden and orchard.

The recent heavy rains have left some standing water behind the farmhouse. The waterfowl enjoy wandering around in this water, dabbling in it with their beaks. On a more practical front, we have taken to placing rainbarrels under the gutter of the workshop, discovering that two days of good rain are plenty to fill a 55 gallon barrel, although the workshop has an abbreviated gutter, rather than all along its eaves.