Spring forward!

It was a gorgeous weekend, and fabulous weather. Saturday I woke up somewhat bright and early and hit the ground sort of running.

The ladies were thrilled to be outside, and got busy digging up the leaves and looking for any little bits of grass or bugs.

My son and I went out for a walk on the back 20. I spotted a game trail.  It will be easy to remember where it is, thanks to those notches in the tree.

A certain little man just *had* to climb up the deer stand and survey his domain. 

While we were out and about, my man was busy getting the boat ready for the season. Woo hoo!

Before lunch my son had the notion that he needed to start training for 5Ks again.  Seriously.  He asked "Mom, can I go run the circuit?"  Um, okay. .... I walked part of it, then turned around and headed back home.

There is a little creek next to the road that goes by my house.  It runs all summer long, but it runs the loudest in the spring time.  I love hearing it.  It reminds me of the creek on the land we used to own, aka, my "happy place."

As I was walking back to my house my legs said "I want to run.  Let me fly over the pavement and see what is around the corner."  My head, remembering my hobbling knee injury last year, said "Uh, no you don't."

Never ever did I think I would miss running. Or that my body would want to take off and go.

At the end of the day, before sunset, I sat out on the deck with a pot of tea, a book and a snack.  It was divine.

I didn't get very far into the book.  My son plunked himself down in the other chair, with a chicken in his lap, and started chattering at me.  I put the book down and had a nice conversation with him.

Last night I finished off my pair of socks -- yay -- and frogged the test knit I had been doing.

One of these socks have a wonky stripe, around the heel area. I'm happy with them despite this particular design element. 

 

As for you, my dear Cascade yarn, one day we will know what you were meant to be. 

Today was Spring Forward day.  Ugh. We got up early, which was really about 4 a.m., old time, and headed off to get a load of chicken starter and meat producer feed.  I'm surprised I was even functional this morning.

Once we returned from our errand, we started nosing around the homestead, deciding what could be done outside.  The weather was still decent, but not as sunny as yesterday.  There was a bit of wind. The project I had in mind can't be done with wind blowing.  So we decided to pull out the new log splitter and give her a spin.

It is a dream working with this machine. I do believe both of us are wishing we had purchased this log splitter from the get-go.

The ATV trailer gets filled in 10-15 minutes.  I bring the logs over to the machine, my husband splits it, and my son catches and stacks the split wood into the trailer.  SO fast and easy.

My husband came across a different way of stacking wood, for drying.  We started the ground work for one of the woodpiles today.

The wood gets stacked in a circle and you can either stack the wood inside the circle, or toss it in, so it's sort of organized and not one big hot mess. 

Then, to keep the pile stable, you put crossbars in.  

We weren't sure what to make of it when we started laying out the first layer.  As it started growing we decided we like this method a lot.  I don't know if it's easier than stacking wood on a pallet, but it is prettier to look at.

This first pile is about halfway done.

In book news ... The first meeting of book club finally happened.  It was really fun.  There was good book discussion, great food and wonderful time with friends. The book we read was "Giants in the Earth."  I drove halfway home in fog.  That part was not cool. I was nervous I would have to drive all the way home in the thickest fog I ever recall having to drive in, and at night. Fortunately it cleared up once I got away from the big lake. Shorter after getting home I went online and ordered "Helena," the next book for book club. I have started it and am around 50 pages in.

I finished the other book I was reading. "Pane and Suffering," didn't immediately grab me, I'm sad to say.  I'm not giving up on the series but I think this will be a series that will need one more book to set the foundation.  I felt there was a lot was thrown at you quickly, without a lot of backstory explanation, and maybe some insta-chemistry between two of the characters.  

In knitting news ... I have nothing on the needles. I may take a short break from the yarn and start working with fabrics.  Some of my ladies are starting to do a spring time molt and they need something pretty to wear so their self-esteem doesn't plummet down.

On Friday I cleaned out the coop during my lunch hour.  I have many photos and a few videos from that time.  I will have to work it all as it's own blog post later this week.

Speaking of chickens. ...

A few more days until lockdown.  Candling can happen again tomorrow. We can also do the water test too.  I get a kick seeing the eggs bobble in the water.  My son was sure he heard baby cheeps this morning.  He came running into the kitchen and pulling me back to the craft room so I could hear. 

Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. The nice temps today.  It felt like a early summer day, minus the bugs.

2. Dinner in the crockpot.

3. Good coffee.  I needed it this morning.

4. Rose scented shampoo

5. How easy log splitting will be now.