So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me.
If we were having coffee ... I'd say ... Well, I'd say "Hey! How have you been?" Me, I've been doing all right. All things considered. The "Safer at Home" my state has enacted has kept me at home. I've been working at home full time for at least three weeks now. I'm feeling very fortunate and grateful that I have the means to keep working.
However, I'm still looking for that "Free" and "extra" time people keep mentioning. My friends and social media peeps keep mentioning how they have been grateful for this gift of having being home, slowing down, and are able to be more intentional. The majority of what I'm seeing is people painting a pretty rosy picture and I call BS! No, seriously!
Why do I call BS, you might ask? I don't think I've been busier!
And why am I so busy? I have chicks hatching out, I'm starting and tending seedlings and my boys are home with me. This already busy time for me has been even more busy.
Let me break it up bit.
If we were having coffee ... My son has been home from school since mid-March. When the schools closed it was when his school took spring break. During spring break the governor said "All schools must stay closed." and our school district had to pull a game plan out of ... well, you know. They gave the kids a week to enjoy spring break then started communicating what the game plan is for the rest of the year. Online schooling. The teachers gave the kids a bit of time to get used to the new system before assigning homework and whatever else that is they are doing.
My son gets to keep doing schoolwork. When I'm not having him do chicken chores or helping his dad with things. For the most part my son has a good attitude about all that is going on. Though I know he'd much rather spend all day watching youtube and playing games.
I did see him reading a book for his English class! Last week his favorite thing to do was to go outside, find a high perch and read his book.
If we were having coffee ... I'd say that working from home full time right now is tougher than I thought it could be. It's not having the house full, if that's what you are wondering. My coworkers and I are trying to stay on top of the news and information that is changing daily. Sometimes hourly. Then trying to share the most current news possible through the paper and the social media channels.
When I'm not doing "work-for-pay" as I call it, I'm helping my husband with homesteading chores or catching up on house chores, or taking care of the chicks in the house and tending to the seedlings.
The weather hasn't always been ideal. In fact, the first week was absolutely awful. Cold, no sun and generally miserable. The things that we wanted to do we couldn't do because of snow. Then, when the weather was nice, we would hit whatever it was that needed to be done. One day I think I spent four hours, at least, helping split and stack wood. All three of us got a lot done that day!
So, in short, this quarantine would be more ideal if the weather was better. If the weather was better, though, I suppose I'd want to spend all my time outside, simply soaking up the sun and daydreaming about the garden.
If we were having coffee ... Speaking of the garden ... I've been doing some reading, pondering and probably romanticizing the garden. Technically the gardening is ready. I think. The snow is (was) almost all gone. I could push the shovel into the ground and scoop up shovelfuls of soil.
But it's too early. Boo! And the soil is sopping wet.
I feel torn between wanting to try all sort of different things and making the space inviting for this summer, and not wanting to do too much and getting myself overwhelmed.
I'm also thinking to myself how fruitious it was that I decided back in February that I wanted to make this *the* year for figuring out seed starting so I won't have to buy plants anymore.
Course I just wanted to experiment a little and see how successful I could be with it. Now my garden sort of depends on it this year.
Reading and a bit of research has told me that my average last frost date is June 1. Why didn't I remember this? Probably because I don't want to admit the cold can last that long in my area.
Now I have quite a few beautiful plant starts and I'm not sure how to proceed with them. Do I keep them in the house. Do I try to transfer them to an outdoor shelf green house later on this month? Not sure what I'm going to do.
In the meantime, I think my experiment has been a success. What do you think?
Those plants in the back are broccoli. They sort of took off.
Everything else in this mini greenhouse is tomato plants and various pepper plants. Oh, and chives, too.
These plants are in the other shelf greenhouse. It's mostly lettuce, columbine, lavender and broccoli. Plants that were started later than the other plants. Except for that lettuce that is sitting in the mason jar. You may not be able to tell which one it is. Anywho, the lettuce is pretty small, compared to the other lettuce I started in peat cells. What have I learned? Lettuce maybe doesn't do well in mason jars. Maybe it would if I was doing a hydroponic method. However, I have no interest in hydroponics. Not yet, anyways.
Two weeks ago I planted these seeds. The lettuce sprouted first. Then the broccoli, the the tomatoes.
Naturally, I'm fretting and obsessing about them. Just a wee bit. Are they leggy? Do I have my light at the right height?
Thankfully I have enough seeds leftover to replant if I need to.
This photo shows the "fun" light of the LED grow lights.
If we were having coffee ... I'd finally blather at you about the chicks. They are adorable!
This cutie hatched out yesterday. Well, they all did, but this one was looking particularly adorable so I took a photo.
This chick did not appreciate the camera flash.
The group from different angles.
Some seem to be saying "Get me from my good side." All while giving *that* look.
It's all good, though. We've spotted a few new colors this year. We've opted to keep some of the chicks that have hatched out. Just so we can see what the grow up to look like.
The one on the far right - looks so crabby! Ha!
If we were having coffee ... I'd let you know my crafting is almost at a standstill. More because of the busyness than anything. I've been pushing myself to work on my February Lady Sweater.
February Lady Sweater
Started: Mid-March 2020
Finished:
Needle size: U.S. size 8 (5 m.m.) and U.S. 10 (6 m.m.)
Yarn: Knit Picks Wool of the Andes
Colorway: Amethyst Heather, Lot: 199125
I went with a smaller size. I remembered that superwash yarn grows. Also, a few people told me the sweater doesn't fit like you think it would. Plus, I didn't have as much yarn as I would have needed for the size I measured out for.
The other project I started on was a pair of vanilla socks, to work on while I'm riding on the car.
Needless to say, it hasn't received much attention.
Vanilla socks
Started: early-March 2020
Finished:
Needle size: U.S. 1 (2.5 m.m.)
Yarn: Patons Kroy Socks
Colorway: Green stripe rag
What else ...
Oh yeah. I did crochet a few dishcloths. I had some left over yarn from making a few sunflower dishcloths. Nothing fancy.
I have barely touched my cross stitch project.
It's a free pattern from TinyModernist.com. I feel like I could get this done if I put in a couple marathon stitch sessions.
Spinning has *not* been done. My wheel sits unused and covered in dust. I had a plying party and that's as far as I got. I think there is almost half of the yardage needed to make my husband his sweater.
I did pull out the sewing machine last weekend. I made each of us a face mask, using the pattern from Unity Hospital.
I had some of that precious quarter-inch elastic in stash. It's the size I use for making hen saddles.
It's not a hard pattern, but it's hard for me to carve in any kind of crafting time right now, much less sewing. I don't have my sewing area because it's being used by the chicks and seedlings. It's hard to set the machine up at the kitchen table and have life going on around it. I was worried someone was going to trip on the cord. It was hard staying focused.
If things keep on the way they are going, I may have to bite the bullet and pull the machine out again and make the effort to sew more masks. I saw online that it's not recommended to wear masks when going out and being around other people.
If we were having coffee ... I'd chatter a bit about the photo challenge. So far I've been able to think of a photo for each day. Granted it's only been four days. One of my Facebook buddies shared something from the idea room from April 2017. I haven't looked into it to see if they have challenges for the rest of the months. It is something out of the ordinary and fun to do.
Photo challenge day four - black and white.
With the snow melting (finally) things are reappearing in the back yard. This is one of our practice targets. Wind knocked it over last fall and then the snow buried it.
If we were having coffee ... I'd ask what kind of television shows have you been watching? We are still watching seasons of "Alone." I think we are all caught up on "Naked and Afraid XXL." My son and I have been watching the "Kids baking championship."
Tonite I discovered "The Ten Commandments" on ABC. I promptly told everyone else that the channel was NOT going to be changed. It's been years since I've seen this movie.
Well, I think that's all I have to say for now. Thanks for visiting with me.
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