What with the snow and the bitter temperatures, we’re behind in our ready the yard for springtime chores. Although it still looks like the dreary days of winter, the bluebirds don’t seem to care. They’ve returned. We feel like hoteliers who don’t have our rooms ready for guests. Yesterday, Steve bundled up and cleaned out the bluebird houses in our meadow.

Some years, when he’s cleaned out the debris from the previous summer, mice have jumped out. This year he didn’t have to evict anyone, but he did remove the old nest so that the bluebirds could build anew.

Last year’s nest was beautiful. The bluebirds had used chicken feathers!

I recognize these feathers. They are the soft feathers that the Ladies shed when they were maturing pullets, as they grew their own adult coats. They molted them last spring, just as the bluebirds needed feathers for their nests. I wonder what the bluebirds will use this year. There are no soft feathers, but there is a lot of cozy goat fur. We’ll have to wait until next springtime to find out.

The horses are shedding. They are itchy. They roll. Did I mention that it is mud season?

Here Sister is showing off what mud season looks like at a New England stable.

X (the ex-steeplechase horse) has managed to get his entire right side, and all the way up to – and into his ears – muddy!

Mica has gotten his belly and quarters muddy, but has kept his long forelock golden. Still. Really. What a mess.

Libby proves that just because a horse has on a sheet, that there’s no protection against mud season.

Tonka, however, is the exception to the rule. He does not like rolling in mud. He does roll, but only in pristine snow. This is what he looked like today when I led him out of his squishy, squelchy, muddy paddock. This photo was taken before I groomed him.

Even his white markings are white. Amazing. Unheard of.

Thank you, Tonka.

The first stop on the Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook blog tour is with the Chicken Chick. She’s giving away a copy of my book. Stop in here and enter.

The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook is officially here!

If you’d like to try some recipes from it, the Boston Globe ran an excerpt in their magazine section (try the Pickled Beets and Eggs!) Cookstr.com also has recipes from the book (try the Cinnamon Sugar Puffed Pancake!)

The Farmstead Egg Guide and Cookbook can be found at your local indie bookstore (please shop there if you have one in your town!) It is also available from Amazon.com. I am selling autographed copies through my HenCam store. Make sure that you fill out the order form telling me who you’d like it signed to.

If you live in my region, do come out to one of the programs happening to celebrate the book’s release. A current listing is on my events page.

Lastly, starting tomorrow, there will be a blog tour with book giveaways! Check back here tomorrow to see which blog to visit first.