It's a busy time at the moment. Just last weekend we planted ten flowering trees along the bottom of the front yard. These are all native trees and they are hopefully going to break up the monotony of all the green with lots of spring color from the blossom and the color throughout the summer and fall from the leaves.

We have also cut a vegetable bed behind the well house and planted three rows of potatoes. I am in the process of cutting another bed for onions. It's heavy going though, even with the tiller. I've probably picked up enough rocks to build a wall.

Lea Ann has been busy in the side garden with all her other vegetable seedlings. Also the Iris' we were given last year are starting to blossom so she is excited about them too.

The fifty native fruit trees arrived this week and we will be planting them this next weekend. These were bought at a very good price from the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Soon after we moved in we noticed a small dark cat snooping about the place. It would come sneaking around the house at night and occasionally I would see it around the pond in the morning. I assumed it was a neighbor's cat that visited for the cuisine. Well the kids were playing Frisbee around the barn the other evening and Lea Ann said she thought she could hear a kitten crying. I crept into the barn and sure enough, tucked behind a bit of baseboard was a single blond colored kitten. We had named the dark cat Midnight, so the kids named the kitten Sunshine. I've been quietly checking on the kitten each day and it seems to be doing okay. I wondered if it had been abandoned by the mother and she had taken the rest of the litter elsewhere, or that it was the lone survivor of the litter and the others had been killed by a possum or raccoon.

The dead oak in the front yard has been felled and the wood from that should keep us in fuel for a couple of years. It was a load off our minds as this was large, and too near the house for comfort.

We feel there is going to be a lot to do this year, but it will be worth it in the end. To think that by the end of the summer we will have our own vegetables and even our own eggs if I can pull my finger out and build the chicken coop.