This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up.
If we were having coffee ... I'd say ... it's been a while. More than a month.
And what a month it was. As what usually happens when I try to do a round up catch-up, I've forgotten half of what I was going to write about.
Let me start with the biggest thing that happened.
We got a tractor!
A John Deere!
It was an adventure driving up to get it. It was one of those things where my husband had been keeping an eye on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for tractors for sale. Long story cut short: One morning before work he saw this gem listed on Facebook and declared it was *the one.*
After getting in touch with the owner we headed off to the U-Haul rental place, then back on the road and hours to go to get it. We drove up through the U.P and back down into Wisconsin. Bought the tractor and then back up through the U.P and into Wisconsin to get it home. It made for a long day but so worth it.
If we were having coffee ... I'd put my mom cap on and do a kid update. My son got to go to two proms. One at his school, and one at his girlfriend's school. They are a cute couple and they had a blast.
Speaking of the boy ... he's now a high school graduate! We are like a week post-graduation and it still seems surreal.
If we were having coffee ... I'd share a quick blather that I have started putting the garden in.
Last weekend my hubby rototilled the garden for me, and we expanded the garden just a bit.
A fresh, blank slate. Full of possibilities. I didn't take photos of it post-planting. That will be rectified soon.
I had my helpers out there, too.
Furby was helping till the soil and adding fertilizer.
My hubby was setting up the expanded area, and laying down mulch.
If we were having coffee ... I'd share about something really cute!
A barred owl has moved into the back twenty. I hear it calling often when I go to tuck the birds in at night. There has even been a few daytime sightings of it. It's so pretty. The one day it was peeking at us between tree branches.
One morning last week my hubby was out in the back yard, taking care of some things. He practically came running back to the house, opened the door and said "you got to come out right now."
I threw some shoes and a jacket on and followed him.
What did I see? A baby!!
It was so freaking cute! It was just sitting there, staring at us, and then it blinked one eye.
We both wanted to pick it up. We were good and did not. Mama was in a tree, nearby. She kept calling and vocalizing, so we knew she was keeping an eye out.
If we were having coffee ... I'd share that crafting and what not has been almost non-existent. You already knew that, though. Because of my no writing for like month. Then with the weather being a heifer, there wasn't much for me to write about on the gardening front, either.
Luckily, my eyesight has improved. It no longer hurts my head when I try to work on my cross stitch.
I've been doing a lot of pondering this last month about my crafting hobbies. Back at the beginning of the year I wrote a list (A LIST!) of all the stuff I wanted to work on this year. I even wanted to do Maynia again. Then life things happened. Boo! In my head I'm trying to work out how to rectify this so I'm a bit more productive in the second part of the year. We'll see how that goes.
Probably the biggest lesson I've learned so far this year is that Mother Nature can be really mean. ... and unpredictable.
Seriously ...
Here we are, at the end of April, and there's still snow on the ground. Granted, not as much as there was a couple weeks ago, but still.
All the plans I had for gardening for this time of year were based on last year, when grass was starting to grow and the snow was gone.
I've slowed down on the seed starting because I am out of room in the house.
I recorded a garden vlog at the end of last week and uploaded it yesterday.
You'll see how big everything is. All my plants are *so* ready to go into the garden.
If only Mother Nature would cooperate.
As I'm writing this blog post, I'm about five weeks away from my last anticipated frost date. There are so many different flowers I want to try starting. I need to get going if I want to see them bloom this year.
This past weekend I planted some flower seeds, and some more broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage. The weather was supposed to be sunny and nice.
Well, they got the sunny part, part-right.
I was making soil blocks while standing in snow and the wind was blowing just enough to make the whole experience miserable.
I had hauled out all my plants, thinking I was doing them a kindness.
I don't think my tomato plants have forgiven me.
My hollyhocks are *so* ready to be in the ground. Why did I start them so early? Craziness!
I'd say the only thing that really liked the weather was my lettuce plants.
Now I should tell you what flowers I planted. ... I'm trying to recall them all. I planted a few different types of marigolds and zinnias. Coleus, on of my favorite plants ... Dahlias ... Without getting up and going to look ... I can't name them all off the top of my head. So much for my notes taking this year.
Another thing I've learned this year is that you really shouldn't plan your projects.
I have so many things I wanted to make/create/craft this year. Things have gone so much more slower than I anticipated.
A few weeks ago I noticed my eyesight has really gone downhill and now I have an appointment to see an eye doctor in early June. Why so long? There is an optometrist shortage in my area.
With my near vision in the tank, cross stitch and knitting has come to a standstill. I'm going to attempt to continue work on my crochet blanket, and pull the spinning wheel back out, dust her off and get to some spinning up some wool. I've already tried cutting up fabric for quilting, but it's hard to see the ruler marks. Too blurry. Blurry vision sucks. Specially when you are a crafter.
If there are any typos in this blog post, now you know why. Please forgive them.
Let me start first by telling you about the Easter weekend the really nice weather we had.
We had nice weather! Ha!
The sun came out, the temperatures rose, and the snow started melting.
Easter dinner was lovely. We made a roast and a few sides.
it was cooked in one of my cast iron skillets.
I watched the first few episodes of "The Chosen." Now I know why some people are so smitten with it. It's a very interesting series, and I was bouncing back and forth watching it in the living room and in the kitchen.
My hubby and I spent a lot of time outside. Not that we could do much, other than sit in the sun. So much snow still!
We also decided it was a good weekend to rewatch the original Star Wars movies that came out way back when. He's been listening to some audio books and was curious to see how the movies would be, now that he had some backstories. We enjoyed them a lot more than we thought we would.
While we were watching the movies I worked on some stitching of the cross stitch and knitting kind.
Project Name: Vanilla socks
Started: Jan. 7, 2023
Finished:
Designer/Source: My own pattern
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Colorway: Mexicala stripes
Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white
Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams
Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)
Gauge: beats me
Made For: Myself
Dye Lots: WL238520
I finished the first sock! And look at that healthy start on the second one! I don't have much more to say about it, other than "wee!"
Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss
Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green
Needle Size: 26
Made For: Myself
I got some work done on the barn. It went slower than I would have liked. I was doing the details on the flowers and then had to keep recounting the stitches for the barn front.
Progress from last time.
As the weather warms up, the more energy I feel I have to do things, rather than being a lump. (Like I ever am a lump)
Speaking of the warming weather -- I'm so happy for it! The main downside is all the busted branches that are appearing as the snow goes away.
Weekend weather calls for rain. As long as the weather is decent I will probably be outside, doing clean up. And probably catching up on the seed starting that I need to do.
A few days ago I made a second garden vlog. I'm tweaking things just a bit. I'm starting to feel a tiny bit more comfortable talking. Can you tell?
Technically, could my little cornish cross chicks be considered a Work in Progress? I think so. On Saturday, or Sunday, I took this little video of them.
This past weekend I took the time to organize my youtube videos into playlists. It's a lot more tidy over there. Now if you want to watch Furby listening to music, you won't have to scroll through them all.
Speaking of Furby, she is loving this weather, too!
I brought her outside with me while I was playing over by the garden.
She was having a blast. Scratching in the soil, room to stretch her legs. Best of all -- sun!
Colors: white and rose colors with hints of green.
Required Amount: I purchased two skeins of each color
Needle/Hook Size: 5.5 mm / I/9
Gauge: beats me ; pattern calls for 13 dc x 6 rows = 4″ [10 cm]
Made For: Myself, maybe
Dye Lots: Will find that out later.
Crochet ... why do you hate my wrists so? The last part of part 4 was rough. I had double-crochet shells and there is so much wrist twisting. Is there a way to make shells where I'm not constantly twisting my wrists? Or is this a thing for everyone?
I am very pleased to say that I am done with part 4. 63 rows down, eight more rows to go!
When I started the section with the shells I discovered I was making more shells than what the row called for. It was about halfway through when the ruffling became noticeable, and I decided it was going to become a design element. No WAY was I going to rip it back.
Next is my vanilla socks.
Project Name: Vanilla socks
Started: Jan. 7, 2023
Finished:
Designer/Source: My own pattern
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Colorway: Mexicala stripes
Colors: oranges, red, purples and a smatter of blue and white
Required Amount: Two skeins of sock yarn. 100 grams
Needle/Hook Size: U.S. 1 (2.25 mm)
Gauge: beats me
Made For: Myself
Dye Lots: WL238520
I haven't touched my sock in ages. In fact, I forgot what project bag it was in. It took me a while to track it down.
The project is now back in rotation. Maybe this one sock will be done by the end of the month?
Floss: Using called for Classic Colorworks fancy floss
Colors: Black, pink, red, teal, green
Needle Size: 26
Made For: Myself
I started out *so* strong with this chart. Then I lost steam with all that dark text. It didn't help that I wasn't going to finish by the end of February. I think the next Month to Month chart I'll do is the August one.
Made For: Myself. Maybe. I haven't decided yet if I want to give this away.
I have made a lot of progress on my snowflake. Then it hit me that this is *way* hard and I didn't have the headspace for it. I will love how it will look finished. Whenever I get it finished. So ... no progress on it since my last WIP post.
Back on Friday I did a thing. I made a delightfully awkward video of myself showing off my seedlings!
I loaded the video up on Saturday. If you've viewed it already -- Thank you!
This entire weekend had mostly nice weather. Thank goodness!
I'm looking at things in my Facebook memories over the last several years and see that it's not unusual to have snow on the ground at this time of year. I think I'm in denial about it. However, the area I live in usually doesn't have feet and feet of snow on the ground at this time of year.
The snow is starting to recede. It makes my little heart happy to see patches of shingles on our roof. We've had a few snow flurry storms over the weekend and today. Not enough to stick around.
Anywho ... enough about the snow, right?
Saturday I had a lovely and leisurely morning. In the afternoon we ran to town and took care of errands.
I was cruising around Menard's and spotted their bags of onion sets, asparagus, and strawberry roots.
Yup, you guessed it, I came home with a 10 pack of strawberry roots. I'm going to give those a try.
Sunday I spent the morning up potting seedlings and my tomato plants.
I used a pair of embroidery scissors for thinning, and a small pampered chef spatula for cutting the soil blocks apart. You know, the appropriate tools for the job. (I'm so funny)
Last week my husband picked up a second 4 shelf greenhouse for me and these plants are in there for now, until I can start having stuff outside.
Sunday afternoon we went to a local feed store and picked up some BABIES!
I'm mamma to 10 more cornish cross birds and 5 barred rock chicks.
As you can hear, my Furby June was NOT happy at this invasion of *her* home.
She caterwauled for most of four hours.
My husband said Furby was doing her best to let us know what a horrible mistake we made.
When I was looking at my Facebook Records I saw that *today* is the one-year anniversary of when we brought chicks home last year, and Furby was just as miffed last year. Hilarious!
I moved Furby's tote over by my husband, since she now seems to be a daddy's girl. She still wasn't happy and continued to vocalize.
In a last ditch effort, my husband put on a song we know Furby likes.
It did the trick.
In the evenings this weekend I worked on my blanket. I was mindful of how fast I was crocheting and how long I was working on the blanket. Sunday I was happily crocheting on it, thinking how I was almost done with the section I was on, and would be done with working a seven double-crochet shell.
How disappointed I was when I realized I wasn't as far along as I thought. I still have a whole side to go!
After I finish this row I will have ten rows left! I haven't read ahead on the pattern so I don't know what the last bit includes.
This weekend I discovered a new-to-me Youtube channel, and I LOVE it! It's called Sprout. It's all gardening shows.
Yeah, I might be a wee bit obsessed. I'm a bit burned out on the few regular Youtube channels I've been watchings, and seeing all these beautiful gardens is hitting the spot!
A couple weeks ago I was feeling pretty low. Low energy may be the best way to describe it. It's officially spring and I have at least three feet of snow on the ground and no end in sight.
Then one day I woke up, had a leisurely cup -- or two-- of coffee, and the sun came out and the temperatures gradually started rising.
How nice it was to feel the sun on my face when I ventured outside to see what that bright orb in the sky was.
Something about the sun reignited something in me and I felt more energetic and I baked. I BAKED! I can't remember the last time I made anything in the oven that wasn't protein or pizza.
Both this past Saturday and Sunday were beautiful days, temperature and sunshine-wise.
I think it was Sunday we were all outside and soaking in the sunlight. It could be called taking a solar bath, I suppose. It was nice to be outside and feeling the heat from the sun. I had Furby on my lap and her feathers were *so* warm and she was leaning on her side, trying to take it all in too.
That weather was definitely appreciated.
This weekend was also around nine weeks from my last anticipated frost date. I set out to plant some seeds.
My notes were consulted. After making some soil blocks I planted some cabbage and a variety of peppers in some two inch blocks. I also grabbed three little round seedling cups and over sowed some onion seeds. I think I'm late to the party on those onion seeds. I've seen online that people have been starting them since January. The back of the packet said 10 weeks, I think. Over sowing onion seeds is a new thing to me. If they make it - great! If not, nothing really lost.
Then I set up two 1020 flats of micro blocks and started planting flowers (mostly) and more Alpine strawberry seeds.
Why more alpine strawberry seeds? I decided to purchase a second packet of seeds and toss it in the freezer for several weeks and see if that does anything for the germination rates.
In these two 1020 flats I have 400 seeds planted. Isn't that amazing?
Seeds planted are:
Cilantro (Yes, more. I'm planning for salsa-making)
Lavender
Stock (Flower)
Cosmos
Asters (More because the ones I already sowed haven't come up. I'm not giving up on them yet)
Petunias
Impatiens
Pansys
Violas
Cabbage
Big Red Sweet peppers
Tequila sunrise peppers
Hot lemon peppers
Sweet banana peppers
Habaneros
When I got to the impatiens seeds I decided to dump the contents into a bowl and look around. I picked up this packet of seeds from the dollar store, and it was full of vermiculite. The first batch of seeds I "planted" I figure the seeds were so small and that's why they added the vermiculite. Those seeds have been sitting under the lights for two weeks and nothing has sprouted. Then I thought maybe all the seeds were at the bottom of the package, and maybe I didn't plant anything at all.
Looking around in the bowl I discovered the seeds are pelleted. It's pretty obvious what is the seeds, too.
Can you see those white, rounds bits in the photo? Those are the seeds. I think ...
The seeds I planted two weeks ago. No sign of life.
This time around I decided to try a couple methods of planting the seeds. One, in first image of the impatiens, I decided to broadcast sow.
The second method I pulled out the seeds and dropped on on each microblock.
One on of our trips to town this weekend I picked up a another packet of impatiens seeds from Walmart, just to see what those seeds look like, and to have as back up in case none of these seeds germinate.
I put all the trays under the lights when I was done.
This time I was sure to label them all.
I have not done much in the way of craftiness this last week, or so. My hands were feeling a bit sore. I thought I'd try working on the crochet blanket and getting one row done a night. That didn't work out. I have 10 rows to go on it. I can't wait to be done!
I decided to play around with Youtube a bit, since I couldn't hit the crochet or cross stitch very hard. A couple videos were put up in the last few days.
I haven't talked about the chickens in ages. Our little flock has made it through the winter mostly unscathed. With the weather gradually getting more sunny I've been letting them out so they can free range a little bit. They mostly stay around the coop. With all this snow the don't have much to do or explore. We are getting between six and eight eggs a day.
This video shows how much snow we had last week. We've lost a good amount of snow since then. Buuuuttttttt .... we are still getting snow!
Last night we get an inch or two. The area is supposed to receive up to six more inches of snow between Thursday and Saturday this week. This news messes with my plans of up potting a few things and maybe setting them out in the greenhouse for part of the day. When the sun is out the greenhouse is going above 70 degrees Fahrenheit. I'm toying around with the idea of filling some small containers, or cups, of starting mix and planting some more lettuce and a couple other things just to see what happens. It's only seeds, right?
Depending on how things are the rest of this week, one day I will make a video and show off my seedlings in a greenhouse tour, of sorts. The thing is, I'm keenly aware of all the pauses when I speak and I don't want to go "Uh" and "Umm" to fill in the gaps. Not to mention, it's been ages since I've made videos of myself chatting away. I'm like a deer in the headlights when I hit the record button.
However, as I may have said before, I'm really eager to record the growing season this year. I need to get over myself and just take the videos. Right? Right.
I didn't write anything last week because there wasn't much going on.
If I had written a post this past Saturday, it would have been about the quiet, lazy Saturday my husband and I were having. I pulled out my crochet blanket and was working on it.
This is Furby and I watching Fr. Brown Mysteries this weekend. I was crocheting. She was supervising, and not doing a very good job of it, if you can see her eye. She was snoozing. Lazy slacker!
Then we got snow. We knew it was coming. We thought we were prepared for it. I don't think we really were. I think the entire area is completely done and over snow at this time. The roof on the mall collapsed, presumably under the weight of the snow.
Soooo ... yeah ... after spending several hours on Sunday and Monday, we were not very happy to hear about the snow storm that was coming to our region, starting today.
This is my poor greenhouse on Monday. I had to snow blow the path - yet again! - to the greenhouse.
I had to leave one size of the door unzipped so I can go inside now and knock the snow off the roof.
I thought I shared this video I made in February. A quick peek back is showing maybe I didn't.
You can see how much more snow we have received since then.
It appears Furby is as tired of the snow as we are.
I noticed this last week, or so, she's been taking naps like this. Is she blue that the snow isn't going away and we can't spend more time outside? I wish I knew what was going on in her head.
This morning my hubby and I were talking about snow removal/moving stuff that will most likely happen tomorrow. We are confident that when he said something about going up on the roof to clear off the snow, and Furby threw her two cents it, it meant that she was ready and willing to go up on the roof and help him out. Probably in a supervisor role. Unless she can flap her wings hard enough to knock the snow down. Wouldn't that be something?
Yup. That's pretty much this past week, give or take, in a nut shell.
The snow started today after the rain. The rain started in the 11 a.m. hour and switched over about 11:30 a.m., maybe.
So. Seedling update.
I had envisioned myself posting weekly updates, at the very least. Perhaps photos every few days. Obviously this didn't happen and I only have myself to blame. I really wanted to document this growing year. I guess I'm a lazy slacker, too!
I made a quick video showing how everything looks. Sometimes photos can't cut it.
Photos and more details are below.
The container of mixed salad greens I started on February 1.
I did a light harvest on the first or second day of March. What a difference fresh greens make on top of a salad made with some iceberg lettuce. I have ideas (grand delusions really) of always having some mixed greens growing in the house during the winter. I'd have to think of a good spot to place the container and grow light
My broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower I started February 12.
The broccoli is to the left and I think it's cauliflower in the middle. Cabbage on the right.
The broccoli ... I'm letting it grow, but I'd be surprised if it's very productive down the road. If the broccoli doesn't work out, I'll remind myself it was an experiment and to practice making the soil blocks. The other plants seem to be doing what they are supposed to. These plants are just over a month old now. I'm keeping an eye on how they look, and will up pot them when I feel it is time to do so.
All the peppers that sprouted ...
They are doing what I think they should be doing, and not growing too fast. I'm keeping an eye on them, too. Aren't they pretty, though?
So then I decided I was going to start some strawberry plants from seed.
Why? I like trying new things.
I started these seeds on March 4, 2023.
On the package it says it can take anywhere from one to six weeks for the seeds to sprout.
Within a few days this little seedling showed up. It's the only green thing on these two plates.
Is it a alpine strawberry plant? Your guess is as good as mine.
I also thought I'd try starting them on foam plates I picked up from the dollar store. I picked this idea up from the Gardener's Workshop.
While I don't regret trying the foam plates, I do have some concerns because they sort of stick to the seed mat when the thermostat isn't on and the mat is always warm.
In the meantime, I have another packet of strawberry seeds in my freezer. Research found some gardeners saying they had better germination rates if they cold stratified the seeds.
I also started some more lettuce seeds.
Gourmet and loose leaf mix started on March 4, 2023. Seedlings started sprouting in a few days. I dropped the seeds in the little holes and didn't bother to cover them up. I think these seed packets are two years old, at least.
On March 5 I planted my tomato seeds, more peppers and a sweet pepper. The tomatoes took a little longer than I expected.
I double seeded the older seeds I had. Some pinching out may happen in the future. Unless I want to try and prick some out and try to save them.
My jalapeños are just starting to pop up. I was getting a little worried. They started sprouting a few days ago. This tray is not on a heating mat.
Then I started one more tray of micro soil blocks. Mostly flowers, some herbs and some celery. Scroll down for full list of what I seeded this go around. I noticed a few days later I did *not* mark all the blocks. It will be a fun surprise once things come up (hopefully) and I can see what they turn in to.
I decided to not put these blocks on foam trays. I thought I'd give an upside down humidity dome a try. It works. ... It's very flimsy. I broke down and ordered some shallow 1020 trays. The humidity dome is sitting in one of the shallow trays now. Now my concern is that the watering isn't even. Glutton for punishment, I am.
A few things have sprouted. I was a bit concerned I cooked the seeds. I set the tray on a seed mat directly, and the mat wasn't on a thermostat. I rectified this by putting the mats on a splitter and plugging the splitter into the thermostat.
A couple days after I planted there was some green. I don't have a lot of experience with flower seeds. The slow show of green was concerning to me (Thinking I had cooked the seeds). I have to remind myself that a lot of these seeds take time to germinate. When to decide they aren't going to come up? No idea.
In the last few days my celery has started sprouting. One of the herbs is growing. A few of the flowers are doing very well.
Baby hollyhocks
Some calendula.
Butterfly weed.
I have read in a few places that you shouldn't start a variety of seeds on the same tray, since germination and growth rates are different. I decided to ignore that bit of information and be a rebel. Things can always been broken up and up potted, if needed.
Full list of things I planted on March 5, 2023
Cilantro
Lavender (Old seed, fingers crossed)
Thyme
Oregeno
Celery - Tall Utah improved
Calendula - Pacific Beauty mixed
Asters
Impatiens
Butterfly weed
Holly hock
Columbine
Jalapeños
Sweet pepper - California wonder (older seed)
Sweet Banana pepper (one soil block. Figured I didn't need several plants of this pepper)
