It's been a mild winter

Feburary 25th... Where has the winter gone?

It's been a very mild winter this year.  We had one bout of ice and snow, with total accumulation of 1 inch.  That's pretty mild by my standards.

I saw a honey bee on a dandelion on Tuesday.  In February??  Strange.  Josh saw a snake.  My hens are betting broody.  The frogs have started singing.  Just odd.

I'm still working on my "Christmas" knitting!  My nephew Chris and his wife Jenny told me they wanted socks, a few days before Christmas!  Nothing like a little lead time.  I had 2 baby blankets I needed to get done.  Our friends, Jessica and Logan Bailey were expecting their baby, Silas, the first week of January.  My nephew Jessie and his wife are also expecting.  So, those socks just had to wait until I finished those blankets.  I've got the heel turned on the first sock for Chris.  Hopefully, I'll have both pair in the mail by the end of next week.

I've decided NOT to buy any seeds this year.  I have lots here already.  I may pick up some blueberry bushes though.  We only have 1.  We have TONS of huckleberry bushes scattered through our property.  But the birds and deer get them before we do.

John and Josh have been working on the tractor we got.  Mostly, doing the routine maintenance type things that had not been done.  I know John has a list of projects with it.  I'm not sure what is on that list exactly...

I'm anxious to get back to work on the Hobbit House. Our friend, Chris, has his hands full trying to build his own house AND work.  I know we're in his queue...

Summer has slipped away

Joshua and I made a trip to Ellijay, GA the last week of May to pick up granddaughter Ariel.  She spent the summer with us.

We didn't plan any exciting adventures for this year's visit.  Instead, I focused on teaching her some of the artistic skills I've learned over the years.

I bought several paper crafting and mixed media books at Barnes & Nobel's and Hobby Lobby.  These included:

Coloring Flower Mandalas

Coloring Your Prayers

Coloring Mandalas 2
 
She also got watercolor pencils, felt tip markers, origami paper, and some pastels.

We did our daily walks in the woods with the dogs.

This big oak came down over our lane after one thunderstorm.

We picked mushrooms...

 Chantarelle mushrooms in the woods.

After cleaning.













We did some sun dyeing on silk with our friends Gena Stout and Erika Schindler and Karna McFadden.

Sun dyeing is always so much fun!

I hatched out some chicks (in the incubator) just before we left for Georgia.  And while we were gone, our banty hens hatched out 10 chicks!

 Rhode Island Red chicks and 1 tiny batam chick behind.  We also hatched out 2 Black Copper Maran chicks.

 Bantam chicks are always so cute!

And a mama bird made her nest in the glove compartment of our golf cart.

Ariel and I went to The Pig n' Whistle in Hardy, along with Gena Stout and Erika Schindler, for a tea party.  That was fun.  Julie and Perry Morgan came in while we were there.  It was great to see them.

Sweets to go with our tea.

Erika and Gena

Tadpoles (pollywogs) in our "pond".

The addition that was built last fall is complete now, the cedar siding was put on by our friend Chris Graves in July.

Custom cedar siding on the bedroom/mudroom addition.

Our house, with the addition now complete.  I think it looks great!

Ariel sewed some aprons, and she did a great job on them.


Tammy and Rickie came to pick Ariel up the last Monday in July.  They stayed until Friday morning.  That was a teary day, here at the Teem household.  I really enjoy the summer visits.

I did manage to finish a few projects.  The tunic and sandals were for Tammy.  The alpaca shawl is for sale ($50).

Tammy's cotton tunic.

Cotton crocheted onto flip flops.  Tammy loved them!

Baby alpaca shawl in a nice, summery green.

An interesting visitor

Sometimes you just see something in Nature that makes you laugh.  Look who's been visiting our humming bird feeders...

A large woodpecker/sap sucker!  What a treat.

Mushroom gathering

My granddaughter, Ariel, and I have been learning to identify and harvest mushrooms.  I invested in 3 books:

National Audubon Society American Mushrooms
Good Mushroom Bad Mushroom
Mushrooming without Fear

We also got a great Pocket Naturalist guide, Familiar American Mushrooms folding guide

After taking the field guide into the woods with us, we've discovered we have at least 6 different types of edible mushrooms on our property.  They are:

King Bolete (also spelled Blewit)
Chanterelle
Smooth Chanterelle
Cauliflower (also called Coral)
Giant Puffball
Old Man of the Woods

Wow!  I guess I'll be doing some mushroom eating!  We've  been dining on Chanterelles all week.  We picked another 1 1/4 pounds yesterday!  Happy, Happy!

Here's an update to my posting, one day's mushroom gathering on July 25th.

Chanterelle and smooth coral mushrooms.

We tried the coral mushrooms for the first time.  The Audubon guide stated they were very delicate tasting, and were good with fruit.  We tried them sauteed in butter, and they were bitter.  I don't know if they were past prime... or were cooked too long.

I finished knitting a tunic for my stepdaughter, Tammy.  I think it came out pretty well.

Is it really the third week in June already???!!

I can't believe how fast time is flying by!  Ariel has been here for almost a month.... and will be gone in 5 weeks.  Summer is going too fast!

We haven't been able to float or swim in the Spring River this year.  There is an e. coli notice, and all the public swimming places are closed.  We've had so much heavy rain. I guess the runoff from the farms and such (or some dasterdly town's sewage treatment facility leaked).  Anyway, we've been hoping to go floating with our friend Gena Stout.  We're scheduled to go float on Saturday, June 27th.  I hope we can.  Here's a picture from last year's floating adventure.

That was a fun day!  April, Karna, me, Gena and Beth.  Ariel is in front.

Summer projects around the homestead are finally getting started.  With all the rain, we haven't been able to work on the workshop roof.  Or the slab for the carport we ordered.  Or the siding on the addition we finished last fall.

The carport slab is supposed to start today.  This will mean big trucks, gravel, a cement truck.  I think I'll keep the dogs inside today...  The don't need to be in the way out there.  That's just a recipe for trouble.

Chickens.  I lost another bantam hen last week.  I think a snake killed her.  She didn't have a mark on her, she was just lying dead in the nest area.  That makes me sad.  She was a nice hen.

We moved the Rhode Island Red hens into the smaller section of the chicken enclosure.  I suspect they are eating the other hen's eggs.  Or maybe the rooster Hexter is the culprit.  We've gotten 1 egg each day from them... and the Brahma Cochin hen's egg was broken, and she's still in the larger portion of the enclosure.

Either way... I need the rooster.  I want to hatch out chicks.  I would prefer that he NOT eat eggs though.

I'm going to have to decide how to divide and contain our 10 bantam chicks.  And  the 3 RIR cross chicks.  Those 3 chicks will be getting to big for their cage soon.  I'm thinking I will put them in where the bantam rooster, Ashe, is.  He's alone in that cage since the hen died.  He will go in the enclosure with the 2 RIR hens.  Once those chicks are large enough I can put them in the main enclosure. 

Exactly how I accommodate the bantam chicks is still up in the air.  They're alright for now.  They're 3 weeks younger than the RIR cross chicks, so I still have some time to work that out.

I finished knitting an alpaca shawl, I'm very pleased with the way it came out.

Summer fun in the making

My son Joshua and I traveled to Ellijay, GA to pick up my granddaughter Ariel.  The trip there and back were uneventful (which is how I like my driving adventures).  We had a good time visiting with my daughter Tammy (Ariel's mom) and her partner Ricky, and Pete the wonder dog.  Tammy and Josh's mom Margaret spent some time with us.  That was good, because Josh hasn't seen her in a year.  We had a nice seafood meal.  Crab and shrimp.  Yummy.

We're back home in Williford now.  We had some more bantam chicks hatch out while we were gone.  I was talking to my hubby John one night on the phone and he told me "your banty hens sprouted extra legs today.  One has 8 legs and the other 10"..  And I was totally baffled by this!  "WHAT"???  "More chicks hatched out Penny."  Duh. 

So now we have 10 bantam chicks, 2 maran/RIR, and 1 cochin/RIR.  I hope they aren't all roosters!

Here's some baby chick pictures to make you smile.

A little bird has built a nest in the dashboard of our golf cart.  Tiny little speckled eggs, 3 I believe.

Ariel, Cricket and I walked down to the spring yesterday.  It rained quite heavily a few days ago.  Now we have a large oak tree down over our lane.

Our good friend, Joe Barnett and his son Matt, also cut down a dead and leaning hickory tree for us.  It was beginning to threaten our workshop.  They also brought us 2 nice cedar logs.  I see lumber and firewood in our future.

Gardening and hatching eggs.... Two of my spring time favorites.

It's been rather rainy these past few days.

Our garden is growing!  I spent most of the day on Tuesday weeding the rows and pulling up Jerusalem artichokes.  Those guys really take over if you don't keep them under control!  We started out with 1 row about 15 feet long.  We ended up with the "row" growing about 10 feet wide.  The poor potatoes were in the shade!  Not any more.

This year we have cucumbers, zuchinni, crook neck squash, bell peppers, cayanne peppers, 5 variety of heirloom tomatoes, mixed greens, 1 candy roaster squash (this plant grows VERY large), 4 varieties of melon, rhubarb, asparagus, and garlic.

I put 37 eggs in the incubator back on May 1st.  They started hatching yesterday.  So far, we have 4 little cheepers in there.  I have the brooder set up, and will get them in it this morning.

It was really chilly when I got up this morning, 45F.  Yesterday, we broke the record lowest high daily temperature.  Our high was 60.  Geeze.  It will warm up a bit this weekend, and more rain is in the forecast.

I finished knitting a merino wool/silk lace shawl for my neice-in-law to wear when she marries my nephew next week.  I think it came out very well.

John did some brush hogging and mowing.  Josh mowed the yard.  I got the flower beds under control.  Our place is looking pretty good!