Ice in the water tubs this morning. We had some volunteer potatoes come up in the garden. Looks like the freeze may have killed them. We’ll have to see if they bounce back. I’m afraid to go look at the fruit trees. The peach and pear were in full bloom and everything else was budding out. I hope it didn’t kill any opportunity for fruit this year.

Today was also my 50^th Birthday. I want to thank everyone who was able to come out last Saturday and all those who sent Birthday wishes and gifts. You all mean allot to me.

My wife Lisa nailed it this year with the antique butter churn. We have the cow, buckets, churn and books. Just waiting for Olive to have the calf now.

While it isn’t here just yet, spring is fast approaching. Last Monday the peach tree started to bloom. One of the sows had 5 piglets and the bees are starting to take less sugar water. It won’t be long before the chance of frost is over and we can start planting the garden.

By Saturday the Peach tree was nearly in full bloom and the pear tree was starting to flower. We are still waiting for the Apple trees to wake up. The piglets have started to venture out of their house and follow the sow around.

Saturday we added two more cows to the farm. Olive is a 3 year old mid mini-Jersey measuring 45 inches at the hip. She is bred to a registered Jersey bull, vet checked to be 6 or 7 months along. She has never been handled or milked so she will require some TLC to before we can milk her. The other new cow is Rosie. She is a 6 year old Dexter. She has been hand milked and is very nice girl. Unfortunately she is not bred but I am sure our bull Mike will take care of that problem.

It was funny when we introduced the new cows to Marla and Mike. Mike started bellowing and jumped around kicking up his heals like a new calf. Marla was much less impressed with the new arrivals. She stood at the gate and rolled her eyes back in her head and started snorting and hissing. When the new girls pretty much ignored her antics and went around her she decided to pout for about an hour. Even when she did come around she stayed on the opposite side of the hay stack as you can see from the picture.

I have been worried about the tilapia because the drain from the fish tank got clogged. This drain carried water and sediment from the fish tank into the sump tan. Without this only the over flow was working. This allowed a layer of silt to build up on the bottom of the tank and the water was very cloudy.

Today was sunny and warm so I was able to drain the tank and check on the fish. When I uncovered the tank I had a large fish floating and was afraid I would find more but thankfully I did not. I was able to catch several Tilapia that were probably a half a pound or more each. I was also able to scoop up 15 or 20 ranging from an inch to about three inches in length. I am sure there are many more that I didn’t catch and couldn’t see due to the murky water.

This is much better than what I found last spring. Last spring was a total loss due to water temperature. I would have had to buy new fish if it wasn’t for the breeder tanks I set up in the basement. The new heater I put in has worked wonderfully. Even today I was able to keep the water temperature above 65 deg. by adding a little water at a time into the sump tank and letting it circulate through the grow beds back into the fish tank. Between the heater and the heat stored in the grow beds the process went off without any temperature related problems. The water temperature had climbed back up to 70 degrees by dark.

I cleaned the tank the best I could without completely draining the tank and cleared the drain blockage.  After refilling both tanks and restarting the pump water was flowing as is should. The fishtank should be clear by morning. Unfortunately all the sediment will end up in the grow beds because I have not had time to add a settling tank between the fish and sump tanks. This will have to do until the weather warms up for more than just a day or two. I need to move the entire system and when I do I wil make the modification but it will take the entire weekend and maybe more so now is not the time to start something like that.