Signs of Spring on the Farm

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by Laura Parker Roerden

It’s that time again, when the hens become broody and build hidden nests that make morning egg collection a treasure hunt rivaling the White House Easter Egg Roll.

Last spring we found this nest in our calf barn.

hiddeneggs

Naturally, we left the eggs so that the mother hen could tend to them; though they did not hatch. Nature can be like that, life pressing forward always under the thumb of death, like some mad tiddlywinks game that makes progress in fits and starts.

We take our annual trip to the feed store to “pick up chicks.” This year, we went to Tractor Supply, where the chicks are kept in galvanized steel tubs that call to mind wholesome images of hand-washed clothes hanging on a line.

In no time my youngest son and I had thirty Rhode Island Red chicks settled into brooders in the barn, the chicks lounging under heat lamps like beach goers splayed on warm beach sand. In the morning, chores sound like a busy restaurant, with the clanging of scoops and grains meeting accents of chaos and urgency. Listen here.

chickssmaller

At night peepers and chicks compete for the soundscape as the sun sets over the upper pasture, having slid north so slowly over the winter days that I am shocked to notice it no longer sets over the lower pasture.

Photo by farm intern Anja Semanco, 2012.
Photo by farm intern Anja Semanco, 2012.

My nephew Ed Parker opens the upper pasture and the cows move north, too, like some oversized sundial stamping out time with hooves.

Photo by farm intern Anja Semanco, 2012.
Photo by farm intern Anja Semanco, 2012.

Rain from the west crawls along the river valley and comes up our hill as if a legend, depositing rainbows in the eastern sky and worn clay riverlets along our road.

rainbow

Swollen mud waters the fiddleheads and bluets, which will soon press forward from spongy ground.

fiddlehead-274840_1280

Everywhere, life is hungrily feeding or being fed.Mama Cow

Published by Laura Parker Roerden

Laura Parker Roerden shares a love of what nature can teach us. Writer, public speaker and supportor of youth to boldly know and save the wilds. She is the founding director of Ocean Matters and a fourth generation farmer and thinks today’s young people are reason to be hopeful about the many environmental problems facing us. She lives on a family farm in Massachusetts with her husband, three boys, and an assortment of fruit trees and farm animals.

5 thoughts on “Signs of Spring on the Farm

  1. Laura, that shot of the young fern fronds brings to mind a spring ritual on the farm where I grew up in Eastern Canada. Picking “fiddleheads” along the Saint John River when the spring flooding recedes. Baskets and baskets of them. Fresh steamed fiddleheads with butter and vinegar is still one of my favourite vegetables.
    Thanks for this post:)

    1. Susan,
      How lovely and amazing that you could pick baskets of them. It makes me want to make a trip to the St. John River right now. I love them too. Delicious! Thanks so much for commenting and sharing that.

  2. Laura, your post is full of word jewels!

    It’s great to hear about and see early spring on your beautiful farm. I’m rooting for those baby chicks – and imagining their wacky antics right now. Please keep us posted on how they do!

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