I enjoyed every minute. After we returned from the park, I pitched hay until I couldn't see the ground. I saw those moths, too! I'll be breaking out the Spinosad.

This post was edited by ChickenCoupe on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 20:43

Bon, Who needs Spinosad. Just turn on the porch light, let them flock around it, open the door....they fly indoors. Kill them with the flyswatter. : )

I just don't like seeing them out this early. It is kind of ludicrous. In the last really bad cutworm and armyworm year we had (maybe 2010? 2012?), I saw them in huge numbers but it was later than this. Maybe in March? So, I'll be watching to see if their numbers increase a little or a lot in the coming weeks.

At sunset when the crickets started chirping, I thought I was having hallucinations. I've seen grasshoppers hatch out during warm spells in mid-winter before, but I don't think I've ever had crickets out chirping this early. It feels like a bad omen. Mosquitoes in January. Crickets in February. I can hardly wait to see what happens in March. We are having such a strange winter.

Dawn

Yeah. I always have a problem with cutworms. Really bad. I remember seeing a mosquito a couple weeks ago, too. Very odd.

And, where's my snow? How can we have spring threatening to make an early arrival when I haven't even had to trudge through the snow to the chicken coop one single time this winter? The chickens and I were expecting to get to play in the snow once or twice. Of course, winter isn't over yet, and maybe we'll have some snow down here before it ends. I just don't want to get the snow...oh....in March or April. February is young, with lots left to go, and we'll be on the weather roller coaster for a while yet, even if yesterday, today and tomorrow seem like spring. It'll probably feel like winter by the end of the week if not sooner.

And May ... gawd, not May. I know it's possible. Not likely, but always possible.

I'm all in for some snow. Hey, if it's gonna be cold ... should be able to play, too. Snow carvings. Been 8 years since enough snow to carve. hehe Cars drive by reeeeeeaaal slow when they see me out with a knife sitting in front of a pile of snow. (they're trying to make out my gawd-awful figures)

I spent part of the day pruning fruit trees and giving them a dormant oil treatment. Had a cow calf emergency and the rest of the day was shot. Managed to save the calf but the moma cow didn't make it. Got her to the vet but nothing he could do she was already on her way out.

Spent the rest of the afternoon winching her out of his chute while he went on another emergency call.

Will try to get my muscadines pruned tomorrow after I do the bottle feeding routine with the calf. usually have to drop a tube as I usually give out trying to hold the calf and get it to nurse a bottle.

Dawn, I noticed a couple of my plum trees were just about to pop open also. Maybe the bees will get something out of it cause I know a frost will be coming soon.

Busy1 I'm so sorry about your cow. Poor little calf. You must be exhausted, too.

busy1 - so sorry about your momma cow loss but at least you got her calf! (Does anyone else here watch Dr. Pol? I think this is OUR home-grown version!)

And yes...I had not one but TWO actual flies in the house today. What the H?

busy1, Oh, so sorry to hear about the loss of your mama cow. Poor thing. I hope the little calf makes it. Now, there you go being too busy again. How in the world are you going to have time to bottle feed a calf?

Paula, I don't know who Dr. Pol is, but if busy1 is our home-grown version, then I know I'd like Dr. Pol.

Flies! I hate them! We had them over and over again in January. Our weather has been a roller coaster---freezing one week, burning up the next. In the freezing weeks, I kill mosquites in the greenhouse. In the hot weeks, I kill flies in the house. Wait, that makes me sound terrible....like I am a killer or something. Ooops. I promise y'all I hardly ever kill anything, well, except for flies and mosquitoes.

I tried that and at least got rid of the "1", Moni. Thanks. Now I'm me again. (grin) I don't think I ever had a capital D, just a capital O. Well, I might have had a capital D back when Spike owned GW, but my memory no longer goes back that far.

I thought about changing my name to Larry so I could get all that rain here that our Larry usually gets over there near Fort Smith. Do y'all think that would work?

Moni, Quince? It is so pretty. I saw one flowering today in Gainesville when we were picking up the dog from the vet. Or, maybe it was in Thackerville when we were on our way to Gainesville. Either way, it was in full bloom and so pretty. Forsythia will be next. We are turning back cold here beginning tomorrow and I don't think we'll see the 70s or 80s again any time soon. That is probably a good thing, but I'd rather be working outside in warmer weather than in cooler weather.

I am trying to remember if I saw any other signs of spring today? Hmmm. The Purple Passion asparagus is popping up out of the ground. The Jersey hybrids started a couple of days ago. It is too early, but what can you do? Oh, and the rhubarb put up a new leaf today. I had to check the calendar. Yep, it is still February.

This weather is starting to feel like 2012. I LOVED 2012 and wouldn't mind a repeat. Our last freezing night that year was around March 9th or 10th and I quickly turned into a planting machine. I put my first tomato plants in a large, non-movable container outdoors around February 23rd that year and only had to cover them up a couple of times. I probably put the first tomato plants in the ground right after that last freezing night. The harvest was early, prolific and lasted forever.