"Do you want to see the cutest snake in the world?" I called down to Mark from the edge of the pig pasture.  I had found a Rough Green Snake (the first one I've ever seen!) in the lumber we'd stacked for our new coop/pig shed, and Mark was very willing to walk up the hill for the chance of a peek.

Which is all a long way of telling you that we're back at work on the new pasture.  Not that things have slowed down at all --- the weeds are growing a mile a minute --- but the broilers are too.  We plan to keep about ten of this year's first batch of broilers to replace our two-year-old layers, and those pullets need somewhere to live between when the new broilers get their pasture and then they begin to lay.  (At laying time, our new flock will take over the quarters of our current laying flock, while the old hens go into our tummies.)

In completely unrelated, but delectable, news, we ate the first strawberry of 2013 on Tuesday.  I suspect the floodgates will open soon, since lots of half-ripe fruits like this one are scattered amid the beds.  Our long wait is finally over!