Flowers and bees

We've been blessed with mild temperatures lately, and plenty of rain.  The flowers are happy!

Our garden is sprouting, growing and looking good.  I'll spend the morning thinning out the seedlings.

I found 2 strawberries under our lilacs yesterday.  Dang, they were good!

Sadly, our beehive is empty.  Our bees didn't survive the winter.  That is very sad.  We have seen some honeybees flying by though...  We weren't successful in catching the swarms the past few springs, so there are bees around here somewhere.  John and Josh saw some on Riverview Farms property when there were visiting the creek.  I've seen them on the clover in our yard.  We're hoping to get our hive re-established.

There are lots of mason bees and bumblebees around this year.  And those darn red wasps.  John killed a LARGE Japanese hornet here in the greatroom yesterday.  Nasty!  Yellow and black with red highlights!  I'd never seen one before. Not even when I lived in Japan!

I should have chicks hatching in a week or so.  Tuesday next week is what I marked on the calendar.  I hope this batch does better than the last.  1 chick out of 28 is awful!  That little guy is doing well in it's brooder though.  Growing and chirping.

That's a wooden egg I have in there with it.  I found it standing on the egg reaching for a fly yesterday.  Silly little critter.

The garden is finally in!

Josh got the tiller going last Wednesday (May 7th), and we got the garden planted!  Yippy!

I hope we have the same kind of year we did last year.  Man, things grew really well!  Here's 1 day's harvest...

Projects around the house

We've been staying close to home lately, puttering around.  I've been playing in the flower  beds and knitting, baking and making soup.

Monday and Thursday, Chris and Jack came over and worked on the finishing the interior work on the windows.  They milled some cedar logs into boards, and framed around the windows.  It smells VERY good in here now!

While they are here working, I like to make a large meal for lunch and feed them.  Heck, they are working for us, helping us out.  Besides, I like to cook.  So the other day I made some beef stew, baked bread and made cinnamon rolls.  YUMMY!

Our friend, Joe Barnett, also stopped by and had a "fresh & hot from the oven" cinnamon roll with us. 

I started a new lace knitting project.  I'm making another circular shawl with some lovely lace yarn I got as a birthday present from my friend Nancy Bjerke.  I decided to use the pattern "Old Shale" (also known as Feather and Fan).  I really like knitting that pattern.  It's easy and looks lovely!  Here's the Raverly link to my project.  Feather-and-fan-stitch-or-old-shale

Yesterday, I went to a few yard sales with Gena Stout and Karna McFadden.  That was a lot of fun.

I guess I'll spend my day today puttering around outside.  Maybe we can get the seedlings planted in the veggie garden.  I'll take some more pictures of things growing and post them.  I really LOVE Spring!

Latest round of storms to hit Arkansas

Last Sunday night, Arkansas was hit by another round of tornadoes and flooding.  Thankfully, none of my friends or family were effected. 

We do have a storm shelter.  We have never had to use it.  In fact it's our "root cellar", where we store our dehydrated foods and such.

For more info on the how Arkansas was effected by the recent storms, please check out our local news station, KAIT8.  Storm surveys continuing for arkansas tornado

We got 7 inches of rain in our area.  The local town of Hardy had some flooding, along with all the other little towns along the Spring River.

Our friend who live in Ravenden found a cottonmouth (2 feet long) in their basement while there were sheltering from the storm.  NOT GOOD.  Luckily, it was stuck to one of those stick mouse trap things!  Damn!  It wasn't enough that they were in the basement, watching the river rise higher and higher... they had to worry about MORE snakes being in their basement!

Some home improvements and spring landscape

Spring is busting out all over here in the Ozarks!  We have things blooming.  Bees are buzzing.  Dogs are running around outside after the squirrels and chipmunks.  We saw our first black snake down by the gate earlier this week.

My lilacs and peach trees did really well this year.  We didn't have any frost when most of our neighbors did.  I'm not really sure why.  I think those who were unlucky and got frost are closer to the Spring River than we are.

Peach trees and daffodils (with bedroom to be removed in the background)

Peach petals falling like snow

Our peaches usually do well.  We had more blossoms this year.  These trees are about 8 years old.  I'm looking forward to fresh peaches!

The wind really blew the petals around!

Now the lilacs are blooming, and the violets.  It smells so wonderful walking by.

Our house has been in disarray the past few days.  We decided it was time to replace our windows.  The ones we've been living with for the past 8 years are the windows that were installed when the house was built in 1978.  The 2 windows in the Great room were cracked (I had packaging tape over then hole/crack).  We got our friend, Chris Graves of Mammoth Springs, to install the new windows.  He and Jack are doing a great job!

The first 2 sets went in fairly well.  But when they got to our bedroom window they discovered some pretty serious rot in the logs.  Out came the chainsaw! Once all the bad wood was removed, Chris called around until he found an acceptable window.  Jack drove up to Koshkanong, MO to Ozark Salvage and got a very nice 5 ft by 5 ft window.  So now we have an egress window in our bedroom.  The other 2 windows went in well, no problems. 

Jack and Chris are milling some cedar to use for molding and such today.  And depending on the rain and other possible issues, will be back on Friday or Monday to finish the interior work.

So, here are some before and after pictures.

South entrance, before

South windows, after.

Front entrance, before.

Front entrance, after.

 

 

North side of our house, before, with bedroom addition to be removed.

 

 

Our bedroom window, after.

Our computer room/utility room window, after.

Our kitchen window, after.

After Chris and Jack get the molding and such up, they will be building us a new storage shed to replace the old aluminum one we have now.

The storage shed is behind the truck, on the left.

 Once the storage shed is complete, we'll be moving Josh's furniture out into it.  The weird extension on the northwest end of the house will be torn down, and a new addition will be built in it's place.  This space was a afterthought porch kinda space when we bought the house.  We did a some work on it and made it into our "back porch" and a bedroom.  The brick patio was added outside.  Here's what it looks like now.

Patio and back porch now.

Here's what it looked like before we worked on it in 2007.

North side of our house in 2007.

Notice how much the landscaping has grown in 7 years!  Amazing!

It's spring!

Spring has sprung here on the Farm!  We have daffodil and hellebore blooming.  Our peach trees are showing off (they looked better before the winds today). 

Peach trees on the north side of our house

Peach blossoms on the ground from the wind

We have thundershowers moving through our area today.  Winds, some thunder, a tiny bit of rain.  Some sun.  A typical 75 degree spring day.

Daffodils and wild violets I've transplanted from the woods

I wish I had taken a picture of the trees yesterday.  They were beautiful!  And the fragrance!

My lilacs should start blooming soon.  I love the smell of them!  One of my favorite smells from childhood.

Guinea fowl on the south side of the house

The guineas were out looking for fresh shoots and bugs.  They can be out and about until we get ready to plant the garden.  Then they have to go back in their run.  They just DESTROY the garden, dig up everything.  Even if they aren't going to eat it.  We had replant last year and the year before because of their digging.  So, they have to live in the run during egg laying/gardening season.




Our banty hen, Pebbles, and her 3 little chicks are doing fine.  Those chicks are so cute!

I didn't get all the leaves burnt yet.... too much wind.  But, I'll get it done slowly but surely.

I've been taking it kinda easy, since I know I have that kidney stone in my left kidney.  I had an outpatient procedure on Tuesday to put a stent in.  On the 10th the doc will try breaking up the stone so I can pass it.  I really hope this works, because I don't want to spend time in the hospital.  The stone is too big to pass, so if breaking it up doesn't work, they will have to remove it through my back.  Not something I would look forward to!

I've been working on one of my longterm knitting projects.  A peach/pink merino and silk spiral lace shawl.  I started it back in October 2011.  And now it's done!  Hurray!!

Here's how it looks.

How you wear a circular shawl

A closer look at the shawl

Dealing with health issues

I guess this week was "doctor" week for me.  On Saturday, I had a little surprise!  I passed a kidney stone!  OUCH!  So Sunday morning bright and early, Josh took me to the Urgent Care in Ash Flat.  Not how I like to spend my Sunday morning, for sure...

But the staff were really nice.  They took an xray to see if there were any more stones in my system.  Yep, a nice big one in my left kidney.  Wonderful!  More adventures in health care!  Just what I need....

So I called our family doctor, Dr. Douglas Bernard in Batesville.  They didn't have any appointments open on Monday.  We had a previously scheduled appointment on Tuesday morning, so that was when I went in.  John and I really like Dr. Bernard.  He's a good doc.  He takes time to talk to us.  And listens to us.  And we get to talk about "farm" type stuff.  He referred me to a Urologist, Dr. Emery, and got me scheduled for an xray/ct and an appointment on Wednesday.

So, Wednesday morning bright and early, we head back to Batesville.  The xray was uneventful.  Dr. Emery's staff was nice.  They listened to my situation, did a CT scan of my abdomen, and put us in an exam room to wait for the doctor.  He was very thorough.  It seems this stone is too large to pass out the duct from my kidney.  In fact, it's probably been growing there for several years.  So, there are 2 courses of action.  1) put a stent in my bladder to enlarge the duct to the kidney and then use ultrasonics to try and break up the stone.  This will involve 2 outpatient procedures in Batesville 10 days apart.  Once the stone is shattered, I would then have to pass the pieces... Fun, fun!    2)  Have a 2-step surgery which will involve making an incision in my back and installing a tube.  Then, in a second procedure, Dr Emery would use the tube to remove the stone from my kidney.  This would require staying in the hospital for several days.  Again, more fun.

We opted for option 1.  Doctor Emery will be out of town all week next week, so I have the stent put in on 4/1. 

Wednesday was also food co-op day.  Since I was in Batesville, Gena and Kevin received the order without my help.  And my help really wasn't needed.  Gena said it took about 15 minutes to divide up the orders.  The driver was very nice.  Our next order is in 6 weeks.

My friends, Linda and John Smuzer, from Concrete Washington are here visiting his Aunt Vivian in Mountian View.  We were supposed to get together for lunch on Thursday.  Because of the doctor adventures earlier this week, I asked Linda if we could re-schedule.  We're going to Mountian View for lunch on Monday.

Linda and I have been friend since 1992.  We originally met during a knitting class in 1989.  In 1992, I found the Spindrifter's Spinning Guild in Bellingham.  What a wonderful group of ladies!  I became good friend with many wonderful people because of this group.  Linda, Margaret and Nancy are special people.  Very dear to me.  Debra and Terry helped me a lot when I first hurt my back.  Debra took me to many a doctor appointment when I couldn't drive.  We learned a lot together.  We had many "fiber adventures". 

As with many things in life, things have changed.  Some of us have moved, changed our life circumstances, divorced, married, found new loves, had our children grow up and move from home (and find their own loves and have children)...

I moved away 9 years ago now.  But I still keep in touch.  Seeing Linda and John is always wonderful.  And a bit hard on my heart.  It makes me miss my friends... 

I love my life here in Arkansas.  John and Josh really make life worth living.  I love being in the woods, having my birds, dogs, cat.  And my spinning and knitting keep me busy.  But, sometimes I miss watching X-Files with Margaret while teenager Virginia (changed her name to Alex years ago) playing with the cats while Margaret's mom was quilting away...  Or going to St. Distaff's Day Spin-in in the snow...  Driving to the ferry in Edmonds to go look at fleeces with Terry.  Having Irish coffee and scalding hot pot pie because we missed the ferry... all in the snow.