Jason is playing with his new toy here, burning off the weeds and grass before I add compost and till up the soil. We expanded the garden on the East side of the house and decided to have only one vegetable garden this year. We had two separate gardens last year and that didn't work very well. I was always hauling the hose from one end of the yard to the other. We're staying organic and I'm going to try successive planting for the first time. Don't really know what I'm doing, I just read a few books and make the rest up as I go.
How is that we had snow on the ground only a couple of weeks ago and I already feel so far behind in getting stuff in the garden?
Phoebe pair returned two or three weeks ago and this morning the male Eastern Towhee returned. The Eastern Phoebes eat
an amazing amount of insects during the day along with the swallows. We have bats to take care of the bugs at night and we're looking for their return soon.
I cleaned out and hung up all of our bird houses in the back yard yesterday, 12 in all, and not a moment to soon. Jason told me today that a couple of Blue Birds were flying to each one looking inside, checking out the construction and of course location, location, location. 
There is nothin' that says spring better than "mud". This is Jake after a full day of helping me in the garden. While I dug out last years leaves, dead flowers and plants Jake dug a gazillion holes in the back yard looking for moles. He has a great technique of sneaking up on them; he carefully listens to the ground and then stares at it for about 5 minutes, all the while he inches closer to the hole one gentle stealth step at a time. Just when the time is right he pounces and starts digging. Sometimes he knows the mole is long gone and looks for another mound to survey but most of the time he digs and digs and digs until his mouth is full of mud and he out of breath.
