April 30, 2022  – April was a whirlwind, and even though we celebrated Easter this month, unfortunately, we did not rest much. Just like Christmas, this was a depressing holiday because we had so much to do and living in the apartment was really getting old. We tried to unite our sufferings with Jesus on the cross, but we failed miserably. We were neither joyful nor charitable, and that compounds the depression.

Our plan was to not move in until after everything was done, but our depression was skyrocketing, and we decided to move in 2 days after Easter, with a long list of “to dos.”

Before Easter, we pushed hard to get things done.  We installed soft-close drawers and floating shelves in the kitchen. We also got all the window trim in in the house up (the windows in the mudroom did not get finished). We also got the front deck and stairs built. We still have to add the railings. The Tuesday after Easter, we hired a moving company to move our HUGE refrigerator from the upstairs apartment to the mudroom in the house. While they were here, they also moved most of our big furniture. We slept in the house that night!

As busy as we were, we went ahead and added to our backyard flock. We purchased a dozen turkeys and 8 baby chickens. We will raise them all together until the turkeys get too big. Turkeys are not very smart and the chickens will help them learn where the food and water are.  The turkeys are very social and don’t scatter when we come by.  The Big Red Broilers are growing well.  We had them in 2 pens that get moved at least once a day to fresh grass. The meat chickens eat the bugs and the fresh grass and deposit their fertilizer.  Because they were getting so big, we decided to take them out of their pens and let them free-range within an electric fence. I love watching them run after bugs!

Some farm chores don’t care how busy you are, and that is the case with our honeybees. In the spring, bees want to swarm to make new hives (that’s how they reproduce), so we split them ourselves to avoid the swarm.  We have 2 hives at our farm. that we turned into 4.  John also takes care of bees for a group of nuns and mentors 2 other beekeepers. He spent time with each of those this month, splitting their hives.

Our oldest son and his wife came for the weekend after Easter. We got the towels and shower curtains hung in the guest bathroom and set up the guest bedroom nicely for them.  We were overjoyed to have them for the weekend as we celebrated their first wedding anniversary.  While they were here, they helped us with some yard work and Amy even drove the tractor.

Last week, we drove up to Atchison, Kansas (about 3 ½ hours away) to see a play at our youngest son’s college. The play was Little Shop of Horrors and our son, who is an architect major, designed and built the set. It was a great to see his handiwork.

Today, Katie held her annual seedling sale at the farm. She already sold most of her starts to co-workers and friends, but she still had a fair amount to sell today. She did not start as many seeds as last year – We are really trying to prioritize the house and apple orchard. She sold about 500 seedlings.