Spring may have sprung!

Monday morning I went out to feed the chickens and discovered my banty hen, Pebbles, had 3 little chicks!  Wow!  What a surprise!

Pebbles with her babies.

My hellebore have been trying to bloom since before the sleet/snow we had recently.  And now that the ice and snow are all gone, they are blooming merrily.  The daffodils are not far behind.  Everything is waking up and poking their little heads out of the ground.

Hellebore by the den

The south entrance to our home

Yesterday's high was 80!  What a change!  Last week we had ice and couldn't even get out to the highway, today we have to fun a fan!  Amazing.

I went to our friend Doris' on Monday night to help start the Hardy Homesteader's Quilt for this year.  We're doing a nice queen size quilt, the motif is Candy Corn.  I spent the evening ironing the fabric before we started cutting the pieces.  I think we'll get it all cut next week and can start to sew after that. 

This quilt should go together rather quickly.  The blocks are 12 inches square.  Background is a nice autumn leaf fabric with greenish blocks at the intersections.   I'll post pictures once we've got something together to show you.  Here's a link for the basic block. Basic Candy Corn quilt block.

We've lived here 8 years now!  Time is flying by.  One of the items we love to eat, but have a bit of a challenge finding is bulk dried fruit.  I love snacking on raisins, figs, dates... and John loves pineapple.  Josh loves apricots.  We have to drive about an hour to find bulk goods.  The little Memmonite store in Dalton is great.... West Plains has Meadowbrook...Meadowbrook Natural Foods.  There's a store in Jonesboro also, but we don't get to Jonesboro very often.

So, several families we know have decided to go together and make bulk orders from Country Life Natural Foods. Country Life Natural Foods We get our first order today.  It's being delivered to my friend Gena's house, because we don't have a garage or anything that would be a good place to sort out a large bulk order.  If you live in our area and want to be part of our "Co-op", please let me know.

We're finally able to go outside!!!

It's been bitterly cold here in NE Arkansas.  Ice and snow on the ground, driveway frozen over... and overnight temperatures in the mid-teens!  Dang, this is the SOUTH!

We finally had a chance to get out onto the highway last Sunday for the first time in 10 days.  It's not that we NEEDED to go to the grocery store... but you have to replace what you consumed at some point.  So, when it got up to 30 degrees and the sun was shining we decided to make a trip to the grocery store (14 miles round trip).

What kind of things did we need?  Milk, half & half, dog and cat food, frozen burritos, potatoes, a beef roast, coke (for my hubby...), flour, juice, ice cream.  What we call "consumables".  Could we have gone another week without going to the store?  Sure.  Do I like putting canned milk in my coffee?  Not really.  I could.  But I'd rather have half & half.  Sure, I'm spoiled.  I admit it.

We're in the process of forming a Co-op group, to place an order for dried fruits, grains and such from Country Life Natural Foods.  Country Life Natural Foods  If you're reading this and live in our local area, let me know if you want to be involved.

I finally got a chance to take Cricket for a walk yesterday.  We walked down to the bottom of the hollow, on the north end of the property.  She really loves her long walks.

It was exactly 40F when we left the house at 4:15 PM.  We made it to the stream and back before sunset.  By the time we got back to the house, it was 35F.  The low last night was 34, the first night above freezing since 1/31.  That is really odd for Arkansas.  And now, it's supposed to warm up to 60 by Monday.  Very odd!

This morning, it's 36F and we're having drizzle.  I won't be going outside to play in the woods this morning!

I've been crocheting an afghan for my stepdaughter's partner.  It's going well.  I've got 3 more blocks to crochet.  Then I get to sew all the pieces together.  Fun!  I've been posting my progress on Ravelry, if you're interested... Circle Dance afghan crochet-along