NGUPLUS

Spring is by far my favorite season here in Arizona. The weather is gorgeous and dry, the neighborhood farm animals are having babies, the flowers are in bloom, the hens are laying up a storm, and we spend every waking minute outdoors. I fully realize that this all sounds ridiculously cheese ball but its true (back me up here fellow desert friends). If you are quietly cursing me now, remember that I will be cursing you in just a couple of months when the crazy desert heat settles in. At least we have the haboobs to look forward to, right?

I dont think Ive shared any gardening or chicken pictures in a while so heres the latest and greatest of what weve been doing outside.

We added a second raised bed a couple of months back so we now have room for a small cutting garden. Fresh flowers in the house every day? Yes, please.

(Update: someone asked on Pinterest if the rebar over the bed in these pictures is a sprinkler system. That would rock but its not. We have a watering system snaking through the actual bed which works very well. The rebar above the garden is to hold the netting in place to keep the birds and chickens out. We also use it to hang our sun shade in the summer and freeze cloth in the winter.)

Even the girls are enjoying the beautiful weather. I think they know that summer is fast approaching so theyre taking advantage of this while they can. They are not big fans of the triple digits and really, who can blame them?

Jason and I were looking at the garden this afternoon and he lifted the net for a split second. In the blink of an eye, Francie was up there looking to snag a treat. If you dont watch it with these young pullets, theyll gouge out your eyeball to try and steal your food. They are crazy. We had a picnic under the trees last week and poor Finley lost his quesadilla to Minnie before he knew what hit him.

All of our trees are starting to produce this upcoming seasons fruit. The boys are checking out the apple trees (their favorite and mine too) with Old Lady. Her name is Addie but for some reason, Oliver has called her his Old Lady since he started talking. Sadly, we think that Old Ladys days are numbered so were getting in some good quality time with her.

And kind of related but kind of not...My sister, the AZ Plant Lady, had a film crew over from SheKnows.com today to film several "how to" segments on gardening for their website. She is a gardening genius (especially for the desert) and I know these videos will be incredible. Ill be sure to share when theyre available.

Wherever you are, I hope youre outdoors and enjoying spring (at least on this side of the hemisphere).