The weather is turning colder

We've been having rain and wind the past few days.  It's really Autumn now.  I took Cricket for a long walk this morning, and we really needed to wear a coat.  That's a change for sure.

Our garden is done and looking rather sad.  We talked about turning it under... but with the rain and wind that's not happening now.  Too wet.

I'll have to bring my plants in for the winter soon.

Josh has been grouting the tile in his new bedroom and the mud room.  Then he and John will get the molding up.  And the freezer needs to be moved into the mudroom... set up the shelves... get it ready for winter.

We'll need to get some wood cut and stacked too.  We have our propane tanks full already and have "pre-bought" for the coming year.  That's a load off my mind.

We have our bulk food purchases all sealed in jars, stored in the "root cellar".  That feels good too.

Our friend with sheep a few ridges over gave me a few fleeces last week.  I really appreciate that!  Her fleeces are so nice.  She's so generous.  Thanks, Sue!

We're hoping to go to Parker Homestead this weekend.  We always have fun there.

Man, I have been remiss in my postings!

I haven't been posting very much lately.  I just haven't felt like I had anything to say....

Tammy and Rickie came to visit the last week of July.  We had fun!  One day we all piled into the farm truck and went down to the neighbor's creek.  Here's a few pictures from that day.

Tammy's fish was just bigger than her bait!

We also spent a day fishing on the Spring River.  That was alot of fun too.

We've been destroying an old addition on our house.  We're building a new addition to replace it.  Progress is good, so far.  First, the destruction....

And now for the construction!

This is one week's progress.

And here's week 2!

The addition will be our son's bedroom and a mudroom.  The ladder is standing in the closet area.  The boxes are in the mudroom area.

And 1 last picture to share... 1 day's harvest from our homestead.

Summer visit almost over....

So, today I realize Tammy will be coming in 8 days.  That's great!  I'm looking forward to seeing her and Ricky.  But, that also means that Ariel will only have 2 more weeks with us.  Bummer....

We haven't done as many outdoor activities as we did last year.  We went floating once with Gena, Karna, Beth, Rhonda and April.  That was fun!

Ariel has really been focusing on weaving this summer.  She's woven 2 dishtowels on Gena's loom and 1 on our table loom.  She's also warped our little inkle loom, and now she's weaving on the backstrap loom I got her as a little present.  She's loving it!

She's also learned a lot about baking and cooking this summer.  She really like baking cobbler and pot pie.  I admit, I like those too!  Yummy!

Gardens, grandkids and crocheting

My son Joshua and I made a quick trip to East Ellijay, Georgia to pick up my granddaughter, Ariel.  She's 11 now, growing up fast!  She was 2 1/2 when John and I got together.  That first year we were together, we lived in East Ellijay.  Ariel's mom Tammy lived right next door and Josh lived next door to her.  We were all within shouting distance.  John's brother Jim and family lived a few hundred yards away.  Brother Joe and family lived across the street.  John's mom and stepdad lived just up the road.

Then we found our home in Arkansas and moved.  John had always wanted to live in Arkansas.  Tammy and Ariel came and stayed with us the first 2 trips we made out here.  Ariel came to spend the summer when she was 6 and 7.  The next 2 summers we weren't able to take her, but she's been here last year and this year.  Good memories in the making.

Who knows what we'll get into this summer.

The garden is growing, very weedy at the moment.  I spent 2 hours out there this morning and got 1 row done.  Here's what it looked like before I started.

I finished the crocheted baby afghan for my niece Tricia.  She's to have her baby in July. Raven, I believe is the name of the little one.  Now I have a birthday present to get done.

I also promised to finish a lockerhooked rug.  I enjoy making rugs.  But they do get hot and heavy after awhile!

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...

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!

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.

A cool, foggy morning

We've had a nice week so far.  Mild temperatures get me in the mood for looking at seed catalogs!  What to plant?  We usually have garlic, onion, asparagus (not old enough to harvest yet), rhubarb, tomatoes, bell peppers, potatoes, cayan peppers, carrots, beets, turnips, collards, okra, musk melons, cantaloupe, Cranshaw melons, yellow squash,acorn squash,  zucchini, Jerusalem artichokes, cucumbers... A few years ago we also had popcorn.  That grew really well.

My friend Michelle and I took a day trip to Baker Creek Seeds last year.  Baker Creek Seed Company     That was fun!  I hope we're going to go again this year.  Michelle and her husband Jerry are coming to visit today, so I'll talk to her about that while they're here.

Here's a picture from a few years ago, just the harvest one morning.  Things were growing really well!

Here's what our garden looked like last spring when we plowed it, getting ready to plant.  This was taken April 10th last year.

My niece Tricia is having her second baby in July.  I've picked out the yarn and pattern I want to use to crochet her an afghan.  You can see it on Ravelry, link is here...  Tricia's baby afghan.  I've got to print out the instructions, then I can get started.  I love starting a new project!

Cricket and I took a walk down the hollow to the stream.  It's running, slowly but running.  This is the melt from our sleet/ice/snow storm earlier this month.  We're supposed to have rain this weekend.  That would be nice!

I spent part of the day burning leaves yesterday.  My back is aching today from raking!  I originally hurt my back while I was raking leaves, back in May 1999... and believe me, it really hurt!  I blew out 3 disks!  OUCH!  My back went POP! I fell down on the ground and just laid there for about half and hour before I could even try to get up.  That was the pits!

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.

Weather changes and life changes...

The past few days have been very cold and icy.  We had sleet on Sunday/Monday and below freezing temperatures.  Then it snowed.  And so, we've spent the past week indoors.  Today the weather turned warmer and the 3 inches of frozen yuck started to thaw. 

When Cricket and I went for our walk this morning, the driveway (and all the world around us) was totally frozen.  I walked down the driveway on the ice sheet, and my feet didn't even leave a footprint!  The ice didn't crack... not a sound.  Very strange.  We walked down to our little "seep" area.  And all the little pools were full of frozen water from what little melting we had yesterday.

By the time the mail came at 3PM today, most of the driveway was ice free.  Now it's all mud!  I went to town to do some banking and came right back home.  By morning the drive will probably be frozen again. 



One of our friends, Chris, advertised a steer he had for sale.  Another friend, Julie, and I bought him and he was taken to the processor last Saturday (2/28).  The processor called on Tuesday and said our meat is ready for pick-up.  Julie and her girls picked it up this morning.  She was so nice and picked ours up too and brought it over!  Thanks Julie!! You're the greatest!

Josh and I then spent about an hour trying to find freezer space for it all.  We ended up putting some of the ground beef in our friend Jennifer's freezer, next door.  I called Jennifer to make sure that was OK.  We left a package of steak in her freezer as payment for the space.  That tickled her!

John thought that half a cow was too much meat for our storage space, and he was correct.  We have it all stored for now.  We shouldn't need to buy any beef for several months now.  That's a good thing.  I like it.

I also like the fact that I know how this steer was raised.  I know what it ate.  And I know how it was treated.  He had a good life, eating grass in a real field.  No toxic chemicals.  I like that.

Chris also told us he's going to have milk for sale once his cow has her calf.  I told him I want to be a regular milk customer.  I really LIKE raw milk.  I like to make cheese and butter.  I like to make fresh custard.  And I love drinking cream in my tea and coffee.

I haven't started any seeds yet.  I need to decide what to grow this year.  In the past, we've had a fairly good number of tomato, potato, pepper, squash,  and cucumber plants.  Last year I planted more melons.  They did OK.  Not great, but OK.  The carrots were OK too, but not as good as the previous year.  I didn't plant any collards last year.  I might this year.... Last year, our best surprise was the Candy Roaster squash.  It grew VERY well, tasted great and stored very well.  I will definitely be growing more of those!

Josh burnt off the weeds in the garden last Saturday.  It was a beautiful day, it got up to 70F.  And then it started with the freezing rain on Sunday... by Monday morning it was a winter wonderland again... But I've already talked about that.

I decided to close my Facebook account.  I took this step for several reasons.  First, Facebook is VERY anti-guns.  I own several pistols and a .22 Henry rifle and a .410 shotgun.  John and Josh each own several rifles, pistols and shotguns.  We live in the country.  We have poisonous snakes in our yard and woods.  We have predators who try to eat our chickens.  A raccoon  chased our cat right onto the front porch.  And if I hadn't turned on the light and chased it away, it would have eaten Rusty for dinner!  And it's now been confirmed there are cougars, black bears and wild hogs in this local area.  I need a gun when I go for walks in the woods!

So, the owners of Facebook might not like guns.  That's their right.  But it's my right to have a gun.  And I do!

Facebook is just a company, after all.  It's nice to think of it as a cool, friendly virtual place to share pictures and thoughts with my friends.  Look at things for sale, or learn about activities other's are attending.  Collaborative learning.  Sharing my knitting and crochet with my cousin's wife.  Swap recipes. Look at the neighbor's goat pictures. I will miss those.

But I won't miss the snarky people.  The easily offended, politically correct people.  I kept in touch with my friends, traded recipes and pictures, and crochet patterns... before Facebook ever came into existence.  And I will still be doing those things when Facebook has lost it's glitter.

I'm just feeling the need to be more in control of what and whom I correspond with.  Who I let into my little world.  Who I spend my time with.  Online or in real-to-goodness life.

If you're feeling like you're missing my witty Facebook posts, send me an email.  I can be just as witty, one on one.

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