If we were having coffee ... The end of January

 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. 

So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. I'm currently drinking a hot chocolate with cinnamon. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd marvel at how fast January has moved. I've been in my head a lot this past month. I thought after the holidays were over I'd be able to take a break, catch a breath.  No. I feel busy, busy, busy. I'm not exactly sure what it is making me feel this way. 

Anywho, I blinked at here we are, at the end of the month. 

The month has been fairly mild, weather-wise, and I really appreciate that.  Just a handful of very cold days. I started writing this post on Friday evening, Jan. 29, I'm not sure when I'm going to finish it.  So, as of this paragraph I think I can safely say we are supposed to get snow this weekend. There hasn't been much snow this year, compared to last year.  Oh my gosh, I don't even want to think about last year.  It was daily snow movings and plowings. So. Much. Snow. Ugh. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd mention our wood splitting project.  We have knocked the pile down pretty good. I believe my husband said we have 30-some logs left. We aren't going as quickly as we did at the beginning. In fact, we still need to think of a place to put the last bit. It's not easy to scope out a spot now that snow is on the ground. 

Here I am in front of the wood stacks. I'm in awe of how much wood we've moved in the time since we got the load. 

I don't have any current photos of what is left to cut and split.  Saturday my husband cut up 17 logs, or so, and we have about that many left needing to be cut. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk reading, or the mostly lack thereof. I'm sort of mad at myself.  I said "Self, you are going to start up with books again." Very little reading has happened in the last year. And even less listening to audiobooks. Last week I picked out an audio book for my hubby and I (I think. I'm not actually sure who picked it out.) Defiance by C.J. Redwine

Dystopian book about a girl who's super brave, tough, can take care of herself, yadda, yadda.  More to it than that, of course.  The main character, Rachel, really bugs me with her "I'm so smart and clever and capable." Yet she gets herself in to bad situations. It's a type that just bugs me to bits. Not very clever, but thinks they are super smart. 

I'm at the tail end of the audiobook.  It finally got to where her behavior didn't bother me. Then I discovered the library doesn't have the rest of the trilogy in audiobooks.  I hate when that happens! 

I'm thinking I'll listen to "Revived" next. 

It sounds interesting. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd talk crafting.  Another thing that has not had much attention. My head is just not in the game, lately.  It wasn't until the end of the month that I started feeling the urge to do anything. 

At the end of last year I participated in the "Cozy Things" quilt along hosted by Pat Sloan.  I have the quilt top done and sandwiched.  Thursday I started cross hatching it. I don't know what took me so long to get going on it. I'm not ready to share a photo of it yet. 

I've been slowly working on my Halloween cross stitch. 

I was so happy when I finished the house.  Then I printed out the next part of the clue and was surprised that I wasn't done with the house.  I forgot there was a first floor.  I'm slowly chipping away at this project. 

I have a sock on the needles.  I started it so I'd have something to work on in the car. I haven't been going to many places, much less be a passenger. 

 I'm currently working on the heel.  The leg is a 1 x 1 ribbing. 

I did dust off my rigid heddle loom, and made myself some towels out of peaches and cream dishcloth cotton. 

This one was a mix of colorways. I think they look fun!

I made of the green ones two different sizes, by mistake.  I'm still learning tricks to measure the fabric as I go along.  

If we were having coffee ... I'd share that I've been daydreaming about springtime, gardening and seed starting.  I've been hitting the homestead and gardening youtube videos pretty hard. For as many videos I watched last year, I'm still learning things. With so many people getting into gardening this past year, I think that's driving the Youtube content to expand a little bit.  I've organized my seeds, saw what I had from last year, and I already purchased the seeds I want for this year.  I've also put my first order in to Baker Creek for Ghost and and Carolina Reaper pepper seeds. I'm super stoked to give those a try.  I'm debating on when I should seed start for them.  Maybe try one seed each and see what happens. 

I've got a calendar printed out and all my seed starting dates noted. As soon as I wrap up the quilt, I think I'll say farewell to the sewing machine for a bit and set up one of my seed starting stations.  Last year I started out sharing the whole seed starting journey and I went off the tracks.  Unexpected life things happening.  I'm thinking about giving it a try again. I realized I enjoy looking back at the photos and videos for the plants from last year. 

Which got me thinking about when I tried video podcasting and then almost right away Covid hit and I no longer had quiet time at home.  I can't remember what brought it up a while ago, but my son said something about my videos and I said I don't have anywhere to do it, and he said "You can close the door to your craft room." Yes, I suppose I could. ... I'm still thinking about it.  It took a lot for me to record that first video a few years ago.  Speaking of podcast videos.  Well, flosstube, my friend Leann started a flosstube and she's fun to listen to.  She gets so much done on her projects.

Okay, I realize I just blended to subjects together. 

If we were having coffee ... I'd let you know that all the animals are doing just fine.  Especially Miss Furby.  

She spends her days close to me, and she is so spoiled that when I'm not watching television, I leave it on for her, so she doesn't feel alone.  I feel bad that I still haven't told Furby's story, like I did Porkie's but I want her to have her own entry. Did I mention Furby lays an egg almost every day? She does!

The ladiess are starting to really crank out the eggs, which is great! We are starting to fill up the incubator so we can have chicks in about a month. 

Thor and Loki, and Shadow and Feffer are all doing well, too.  They are enjoying this mild weather. A little too much, maybe? Ha ha ha! 

Speaking of Porkie, I have some news that may bum some people out.  Some one took one of my Facebook posts about Porkie and sent it to the DNR. I got a talking to and was informed about what can and can't be done.  I'm hurt and upset that someone would do that, specially if it was someone on my Facebook friend  list.  Most likely it was someone in the "What do you see from your window" group. I keep reading the rules on feeding wildlife and know what I can and can't do.  Suffice to say, I won't post about Porkie on my social media anymore, unless it's like general update, like "he's still alive." It's a bummer because so many people enjoyed seeing his updates. Many people have contacted me and said seeing Porkie updates was a bright spot in the pandemic. I wrote a post to the group, to let his fans know why there would be no more updates and as of 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, it hasn't been approved.  My guess is the post will sit in limbo because someone taking groups posts outside of the group is probably against he spirit of the group and people would be more reluctant to share. I know I feel like my trust has been violated and I'll be even more wary about what I share on Facebook in general. 

The law is hard, but it is the law. I will respect it.