A dead hen. A tree fallen on the driveway. Cats with diarrhea. I thought I had it together. Carl had made it alive up to Saddleback skiing in Maine, but the snow storm here had turned to rain and left the trees all around Darwin’s View—and the solar panels—covered with ice. As the sun rose, everything around me twinkled.

I went to the coop for a photo shoot. I haven't been spending enough time with the hens and they let me know it. Squawking, pecking and staring at me mournfully, as if to say, “We thought you had forgotten us.”

Here are a few pictures of our garden. For all the rain we have gotten, it has been dry. For all the heat, it has been cool. Is anyone else wigged out by the weather these days?

Here are some photos and videos from the day the guys from the Harris Center came to band the baby kestrels. Stressful for both the birds and me, but everyone survived the experience. (Though Bird Conservation Director Phil Brown’s hands will carry scars. Apparently, even baby kestrel talons are talons.)

Photos and movies of the month include a microblast wind that flipped our outside couch and table top across the patio—but left the stalwart chickens admiring the activity with no apparent harm; kestrel babies (photo credit Phil Brown of the Harris Center); a turkey in the chicken area; voluptuous peonies; and a hotly contested race of our rubber duckies, with our rubber frog and tadpoles as referee and audience. And an unwelcome spider.

Here are some photos of the salt water batteries being loaded out of the house to their pick up destination. Carl found a company that will recycle and repurpose them. Apologies to anyone who had hoped for a very large paperweight!

A friend of ours midwifed ten baby goats into the world two weeks ago. This weekend filled up with another visit to baby goat land—waves of them leaping and cavorting on rocks while some of the visitors brushed Maybelle, the resident dairy cow.

The turkeys are in full regalia for spring. The Hens race about, slightly reminiscent of armadillos, while the Toms strutt their stuff.

These are photographs from the snow storm that hit on March 14th. We got about 2.5 to 3 feet of snow, but the snow drifts were up to Carl’s chest. We were snowed in for the first time in our 30+ years of marriage. Even Carl admitted defeat.

Our new batteries arrived in the Solar Pack truck. The intention was to have our tractor unload and take them down to the basement. That didn’t work. One battery is 450 pounds. Our tractor is about 450 pounds. We called our neighbors.

As the dawn dawns, I take a photo of six deer grazing. They have on their heavy winter coats. The next time I look up from my writing desk, I note the skies have lightened the clouds to steel blue grays… and a bobcat is trotting away.

Meet the chickens of Darwin’s View, including Apricot, the Pullets, Bernadette-Go-Bernie, Snowball, Fogbank, and more. The older hens are disheveled and pale, having all gone through a heavy molt this fall. But the Pullets—defined as under-one-year-old girls—have matured to the point they will consider laying their first eggs. After a month of no eggs, we are now getting 3-4 a day. From nineteen hens…