Definition of cagey (cagier; cagiest)~  1: hesitant about committing oneself  “officials are cagey about giving out details”. 2a: wary of being trapped or deceived: shrewd “a cagey consumer”  2b : marked by cleverness “a cagey reply”  Then there is our addition: 3: feeling drawn to making cages “its been raining for 3 days and I need something to do in the house; I’m feeling a bit cagey.”
It has been raining for 3 days now. We needed it so badly!!! Thank you, God, for sending the rain. It’s been such a nice, steady gentle rain too, the kind that just soaks in really well. Wonderful! It has filled up our holding tank to overflowing (which is a great thing because I ran it out – bone dry – accidentally one day – and we’ve just been waiting!), that happened on day 1. So far we’ve had a smidgen over 2.5″ , almost an inch in the last 24 hours. That’s great!

As much as we’ve needed, and prayed for, rain – I think Sue is happy it’s about done – for the time being.  She hasn’t really been able to work on her most important project of the moment, the RCW, since Tuesday. It’s hard to do things on the farm when it’s raining. Yesterday she did spend a goodly amount of time reinforcing the chicken netting; the wind continued to blow fiercely, until today. So many of the poles had started to loosen in the, now, wet ground. Of course she was thoroughly soaked and chilled, but that was what she was able to work on out side.  So, today, Sue was looking for an inside project to take on.  She started to feel a bit cagey!

Making root cages is an ongoing thing around here. If you’re reading from Ramona, CA – you probably already know exactly what I’m talking about. (I don’t really know what the rest of the country deals with, in regards to root eating rodents.) They are little cages , made from welded avian wire, that go around the root balls of trees and bushes and things, when we plant them in the ground. Our belief that this is necessary was reinforced this year when we lost both our Japanese Maple Tree and our Bay Laurel Tree to gopher attacks. Both trees had been in the ground and thriving for over a year.  They were two of the first things I planted when I got here.  The other was my Rosemary bush… it’s still standing; I don’t think gophers like Rosemary much. Anyway~ Sue is creating cages and cages and cages for the trees we will (hopefully) be putting in the ground this spring/summer.  I’ve lost count on how many we have in our nursery right now, and there are more seedlings in Sue’s green house. We don’t dare try to plant them without, so it’s a good rainy day project.

Tonight, since the rain has died down quite a bit, we’re thinking of moving the few little hens in the Banty enclosure, over to the littles’ coop side. They are just getting ganged up on by all the roosters we have over there. Not fun for them. We still need to set a date to process the roosters, but until then, it’ll be good to have them all separated.  Tomorrow we’ll need to keep watch on them as we change out their straw – just to make sure we identified all the hens. No hen left behind! We’ll have more news later. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

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Today’s Weather: Looks like the high was a whopping 58°.  Winds were minimal today, around 8 mph.  Overnight low is forecast around 43°. Rain should be slowly tapering off. Sunrise: 6:59. Sunset: 6:09 Visibility: 8 mi.

Egg report: We’ve had two identical days of 10 chicken eggs, zero duck.  I think the ducks really like it when the sun shines.