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[Robert Walton <waltonrp AT gmail.com>]

I'm looking forward to the changes soon to come. It's like the frozen
tundra here, but a warm up is on the way for later in the week. That
snow storm really hit us. I do not envy those of you that deal with
months of snow. Spring is coming.

My first goat freshened this evening. Clarabelle is her name. She
always gives me "the look" and we've got kids in 30 minutes or so.
This afternoon I was gathering eggs and she gave me the  look. I went
for the house to get a towel and by the time I got back she had a head
coming out, but no legs.

I went back in and washed up and got a basin of soapy water. Had to go
in and got one leg out, she gave a heave and the buck kid was out. She
had hardly got started cleaning him up and a nice little doe kid was
born. We got them cleaned up fast since it was well below freezing.
Both of them ate good and mom seems good. These are the first kids of
my new Nubian buck so the doe kid should be a good milker in a year or
so. I've got 4 other does 3 of which are due soon.

I finally took that grafting course. Good information and I've got a
few grafted apples callusing and hopefully they will take. I did some
pruning on my little trees today. I'll prune the two big peaches soon,
I don't want to do it til the last minute, I've read that pruning can
bring on bloom. I've got a little plum tree that might put on some
fruit and it looks like it wants to bloom soon. Warm weather is coming
at the end of the week, so I bet the peaches will be blooming a a
couple of weeks.

My asparagus came in, garden is covered in snow and going to be too
wet to do anything in for a week after it melts. I need to get the 40
asparagus roots in and get some English peas in the ground soon. I
planted the apple, peach and 2 chestnut trees that came in last week,
good timing, it rained over the weekend and then the snow storm.

I've got broccoli and cabbage plants getting their first leaves, onion
seeds started and planted a flat of peppers tonight, tomatoes
tomorrow.

This is the kind of busy I like, though.

Rob - Va