My daffodils aren’t blooming yet, and patches of snow remain in the shady areas of my yard, but I am absolutely, positively, sure that Spring is here. The sun has warmed the earth in the chicken yard enough so that today the girls scratched out hollows in the packed-down pen, and took the first dust baths of the season. Here is Buffy luxuriating in loose, defrosted dirt.

My friends, the talented LaReau sisters, came to visit last month. I sent them each home with a dozen eggs. Kara had tasted them before, but this was Jenna’s first time eating eggs from my hens. This is what she says about them: “I’m going to have to come up with a new name for those other things I’d been frying up with my bacon in the morning, now that I know what real eggs taste like. Bleggs? Dreggs? You spoiled me!”

Thanks, Jenna. I’ve been trying to come up with another word for those factory-farmed supermarket eggs, and I think that dreggs is perfect!

Yesterday was one of those perfect, 60 degree, Spring days. Did I go window shopping, or sit at an outdoor cafe drinking an iced latte? No! I moved manure. I’ve got an area at the back of my yard that has poor, sandy, pebbly soil. I’ve had soil trucked in, which is expensive, and it just seems to disappear. Last year, I came up with a better solution. I put a temporary chicken wire fence around a 20 foot diameter area, inside of which I wheelbarrow loads of the coop compost from the previous year. Everyday, or so, I’ll take a couple of chickens up to this patch and let them scratch around, spread it, and dig up bugs. In June, I’ll plant pumpkins. In the fall, the chickens get to do their thing again.

Last year’s patch is now ready for wildflower seeds. Yesterday, Snowball and Petunia got the honor of doing the inaugural scratching in the new pumpkin bed. So, don’t worry. If, when watching Hencam, you think that a couple of hens are missing, they’re just up in what we call, “hen heaven.”

I might be there, too. I’ve got two lawn chairs right outside the fence. I could bring my laptop and get some writing work done. Or, I could just sit in the sun and watch the girls. Maybe I’ll make a latte.

Are you afraid of eating raw eggs? I’m not. Salmonella, and other serious food-bourne illnesses rarely occur, and when they do, it’s usually due to a food processing or food service mishandling problem. The eggs from my hens are clean, my girls are healthy, the eggs are fresh and I keep my kitchen scrupulously clean.

I had some friends over on Saturday and so I made chocolate mousse, adapted from a recipe from Green & Black’s Chocolate Recipes cookbook. This is mousse at its most basic. Take 5 ounces of the best dark chocolate you can find (Green & Black’s – an organic brand from England is perfect) and melt it in a double boiler with a stick of butter. Meanwhile, separate 3 eggs. When the chocolate is melted, take it off the heat and stir in the yolks. Whip the egg whites with a few tablespoons of sugar (I like the minimum of 3 tablespoons. Add more if you like things sweet). Fold the chocolate mixture into the RAW egg whites. Plop into a pretty serving bowl. Chill for a few hours.

Sorry that I don’t have a photo. It was eaten up before I could get one.

As you probably noticed, we got a lot of snow. Then freezing rain. So, right now there’s about 10 inches of snow topped with a hard, shiny crust. It’s not safe for humans to walk on, but it’s perfect for a rabbit. Candy, like all bunnies, loves to dig and tunnel (which is why she is no longer welcome in my asparagus bed.) The recent snowfall gave her the perfect conditions to create a rabbit playground. She has excavated one long tunnel and is working on a second. It’s a bit out of Hencam viewing range, so here are two pictures: