Well, Hello there September ...

 When I was busy doing other things, August went by in a blink. 

That's how it seems, anyway. 

The garden bounty is starting to come in. Check out these tomatoes!

I've been busy with canning and fermenting. 

My fellow flosstubers were keeping me company while I was making sauerkraut and fermenting radishes.  If you haven't had fermented radishes, I encourage you to give them a try.  They are so good for your gut health.

I've also done some dehydrating. 

This past weekend I was able to participate in a zoom yarn circle hosted by the two women in the Yarn Over With Us Podcast.  It was so much fun! I wasn't able to participate as much as I'd like because I was busy making salsa. I had so much fun sharing what I was doing and showing off my progress.

Yup, I'm the queen of multitasking, or some such thing. But look at that salsa! 

I pulled some salsa out to check the heat level, before adding the cilantro. My husband tasted it and deemed it the perfect amount of heat. Yay! 

I probably haven't spent as much time out in the garden as I should. 

The tomato plants are still growing and producing. 

The marigolds are in their prime. 

I've been working on a garden video. I'm hopeful to get it out by the end of the weekend. 

What else ... 

Last week I had a work trip. I attended a meeting. Mostly to observe, but I did end up speaking for a few minutes. 

It rained after I made it to the destination.

I think we are pretty much ready for hunting season. I picked out yarn for vanilla socks to work on while I'm out in the blind. 

I may have already started that pair of socks ... *whistles and looking innocent* 

And then I broke into my snacks. ... I'm probably going to have to get more snacks for when I'm sitting out. Darn me for having such tasty snacks. 

It's still pretty green out there in the back 20. 

The first signs of fall are here. 

I've been crafting in between the things.  Not as much as I would like, of course, but enough that I feel progress on some things. 

One morning, before I started doing the weekend things, I crocheted on one of my Maeve Squares while watching an episode of Kinda Loopy. 

I did a cross stitch birthday stitch along with my friend Mair, and stitched "Picking Strawberries" by LumiStitch.  

All done!

I'll post the stats in the shownotes of my next flosstube. 

I'm back in PT.  For a short amount of time. I hope. *fingers crossed* 

In my last flosstube I mentioned going back to PT and trying a few new things to see if any of it helps what I'm dealing with. I'm seeing some improvement. 

I thought I'd never see this tapestry again. It gives me something to stare at in the waiting room, if I don't bring my knitting. 

So I guess that's brings everyone up to speed.  Works been busy-ish. Life is busy-ish, while we do the things. Oh, I just realized I forgot to write any kind of update of the garage remodel.  I'll save that for another day. It is super close to being done. 

Oh, one last thing.  Last week a friend contacted me and asked for my address. I thought she was sending me one thing, and she did send what she said she would.  BUUUUUUUTTTTT, she also included something else. 

Oh my gosh, isn't she precious? 

I knew right away where I'd put her.  Next to Furby Jr., of course. 

Furby Jr. is thrilled to have another hen in the house. She's got a friend to have girl talk with.  Furby's Boyfriend looks like he's not sure what to make of having another hen in the house. Or, he's getting ideas in his little pea brain. 😂

The new girl has a name, too.  Everyone, meet Miss Wendy. 

Almost time to break out the hazelnut creamer

There is a slight change in the air. Last week I had been waking up to cooler mornings. It was nice to sleep with the windows open. And the leaves are starting to change from green to red and orange. We haven't had any decent rain in weeks so I'm sure this is what is causing the color shift. 

Time to break out the hazelnut coffee creamer. 

Well, I might be a bit early because the last two days we've had enough heat that I've had the air conditioning on. 

Once again it's been a moment since I last put virtual pen to digital paper.  I've been busy-ish. 

Busy-ish and a bit in my own little world lately. My mind has been tangled up with all sorts of things. Thinking about the garden, hunting, canning, the animals, recording videos (☺️) and my projects.  Oh, and reading. 

Hunting season starts in about a month. We've been checking the game cams about once a week. 

Here's a couple fun photos. 

Turkey babies! 

The tomatoes are starting to ripen.  I harvested my first tomato. Yum! 

I pulled the first cabbage from the garden ... 

And made my first batch of sauerkraut from the garden cabbage. 

Then I sliced a whole mess of cucumbers up ... 

And made my first batch of dill cucumbers in what feels like forever. 

I am very sad to say that they did not turn out. 😢 I checked on the internet to verify this type of cucumber was good for pickles.  The internet swore up and down it was a good pickle cucumber on various sites. Alas. ... my hubby said they would make good relish ... I suppose. ... 

I've been doing some gift crafting, so I don't dare share anything on the blog, just yet, in case the recipients read my blog. 

The biggest thing that's been going on is the makeover we are giving the garage. 

My hubby will be retiring in a few years and he's very deserving of having a good work space. 

The last few weekends have been spent at various big box stores, looking at tool chests and other manly things that go in workshops. 

This was when we were wandering around a Fleet Farm trying to find where they kept all their tool chests.  Apparently tool chests that hold tools for working on cars is over by wood working stuff. (Yeah, we thought that was odd, too)

Checking out the weight on a tool box. 

Debating on which line of tool chests to go with. 

It was finally decided what to get and we put orders in for everything. 

One thing was in stock, and we brought it home. 

But first, painting. 

We cleared out the area of the garage we wanted to start the makeover with, and started painting. 

The painting went better than expected.  It also took longer than expected because we had to put several coats on.

White paint was chosen, to help make it brighter.  Then we decided to do something fun with the door that leads in to the house, and to match the color of tools chests. 

Fun, right? 

My hubby spent a LOT of time on the door, making it look as good as it does, and keeping those lines sharp. 

The garage is going to be a work-in-progress for a bit. 

In between the crafting I decided that I must have a notions tin that covers both cross stitch and knitting. I've had this container for ages. I started filling it up with this and that. 

Am I missing anything? 

Today I took the day off work. I had an appointment.  Afterwards, I swung by the library.  I haven't done that in *ages.* 

Yes, I was looking at knitting books. 

Since the C0v*d, I have barely gone to the main library. Usually I put requests in and have the books come out to the branch in my area. 

Almost all the people are new.  Well, new to me. It's a whole different vibe.  Especially since they remodeled the library a few years back. 

So now I have a stack of cozy mysteries to read, or reread, a few knitting magazines, and at least one knitting book. 

I chose cozy mysteries because ... well, because they are cozy. A few weeks ago I put a request in for a book that I saw that was causing a big discussion in a book group I'm a member of.  I didn't really know what the book was about but knew it was an important book in American literature.  

Before I got the book, however, I decided to read more about the book, besides what it was about.  Is anyone familiar with "Beloved"? Well, I can do tough topics.  

However, it was classified as horror and that's when I decided "nope." I haven't read a horror novel in years and I'm not about to start now.  

So I guess that's it, for the most part.  I'm working on my next flosstube.  The big 5-0.  I'm not sure when I'll release it, as I'm working on it in bits and pieces.  I'm hoping it will be a fun one for people to see. I keep watching how-to videos, here and there, on making and editing videos. It feels like the production of my videos are getting better. But, really, how much can you improve on flosstube videos? 🤷‍♀️😃 I'm always open to suggestions and tips. 

The rest of the week is going to be a quiet one. Of this I am fairly certain. 

Okay, that's my check in for now.  

As my friend Becky would say, "Laters!"

A quick check in

 You know what? I'm a bit stumped on how to start this blog post. Life stuff got busy and I forgot to write anything.  When I remembered "oh, I need to write something." I promptly got busy with life stuff again, and forgot to write. How funny is that? 

When I saw I had two flosstube shownote blog posts in a row, I knew I needed to do something. 

Then I got stuck on how far back should I go? Do I write a book or do I condense it down? 

I don't know. ... 

Okay. 

Fishing season has officially started. Hooray! 

We haven't been out as much as we'd like, thanks to the wind.  But on the days we have gotten out and on the lake ... 

Beautiful skies. 

I enjoyed a nice Mother's Day. 

A "Fancy" breakfast of French toast, sliced strawberries and homemade whipped cream. I spent my breakfast time with Elizabeth Zimmerman, trying to decide if I wanted to attempt one of her patterns that are written in her conversational way. I don't know that I'm up to it.  Still.  I've had those books for more than 15 years. 

My hummingbird friend returned.  She (or he) buzzed me one day when I was out in the garden area.  I knew that was the command to fill the hummingbird feeder. 

I even made sauerkraut one day. 

When I first started making kraut I used to slice and chop it all by hand. 

Not anymore.  I use my little chopper. 

This batch is still percolating. 

At some point I went out to the she shed and did a tidy up. You'll likely never see it is this tidy again.

As I told a friend, you wouldn't believe all that is squirreled away in the she shed. 

And if you couldn't tell, the weather turned nice. Finally. This past Sunday (I think it was) we had a fire in the woodstove, and by bedtime we had all the windows open, wondering when it was going to cool down.  It was quite the temperature swing. 

I mentioned on my last flosstube that my son has an outdoor project he's worked on for the last several years. ... the weather and the rain caused his grass seed to sprout and grow.  

Course now it's "we need to cut the grass" because it seems to have grown two inches overnight, according to my son. 

The girls are loving the grass and the nice weather.  Egg production has increased a bit. 

I've started planting!

Yes, it's true! 

Slow but surely, it will get put in.  So far it's mostly flowers I've put in containers. I've started working on a garden journal video and hopefully it will be posted this week. 

This past weekend was Memorial weekend. We were to have company come up.  The visit was canceled almost at the last minute, for very good and understandable reasons.  A bummer, but my hubby and I managed to still enjoy the weekend, once the weather went from rainy and crappy, to *OH WOW it's warm out there!"

On Monday, when we were out on the lake, we saw two bald eagles.  It was a very cool experience to see them. 

I'm guessing they were not a bonded pair because someone has to be with any eaglets they may have, right? 

Of course I've been crafting.  Here's a couple photos from the last few weeks. If you want to see almost the most up-to-date, you need to watch my flosstube!

I will share that I finished the second vanilla sock. Yay!

Today was back to work. I would have really loved to have had one more day off work. Oh well. There's always next weekend, right? 

Gardening season 2025 has begun (and a few other things)

 I've been keeping an eye on gardening social media accounts, watching gardening youtube channels and reading posts and comments in the gardening Facebook groups I'm in, and paying particular attention to the ones local to my state. 

Finally, I planted seeds into soil today.  

Only a week later than what I was originally planning. 

I'm in zone 4a/former zone3b in northern Wisconsin.  I've been looking forward to this moment almost since I put the garden to bed this past fall.  

I was thinking about starting a few things in January and decided to hold off until February. The plan was to start seeds on Valentine's Day. I remember hearing *someone* (I can't remember who) saying they started their tomatoes around Valentine's Day.  Four or five years ago I decided to start seeds way sooner than I usually did and it was such a successful year that I knew this was the way to go.

I set things up and pulled my seed stash out. 

Peppers and tomatos, with a side of celery, herbs, and some flowering annuals is what I planted this round.

Last year I learned a neat trick involving a toothpick for planting those tiny little seeds. 

You wet the tip of the tooth pick and touch the seeds, one at a time, and plant them. 

It worked real slick for the tomato seeds, too.  No worries about accidentally dropping two seeds on to one block. 

Just a little "in progress" shot. I was listening to The Rusted Garden, Gardening in Canada and one other channel, I think. I know at one point my youtube auto played over to Roots and Refuge. 

It felt good to be seed starting.  Especially when the sun was out and shining for a little while. 

Halfway through I said to my hubby since it was sunny out and the temperature was up I could have been out in the greenhouse doing this.  He agreed.  Oh that would have been all the garden feels.  Maybe too much! Ha! I'm *so* looking forward to utilizing the greenhouse this spring. 

Photo from June 2024

My soon-to-be little seedlings are now in the seed starting station, along with some of the houseplants keeping them company. 

It may not look like much; I planted 400 seeds today. Crazy, right?  I do need to write notes and a list of the seeds I planted today.  When the seedlings are big enough I will transplant them up in to bigger soil blocks. I'd be shocked if all those seeds sprouted. li

The other *big project* I did today was chopping up peppers for the dehydrator.  One of the best things I've learned in the last few years is dehydrating peppers and grinding them up into a boutique pepper blend. 

For the most part things have been quiet around the homestead. Earlier this week we decided we needed a second yard wagon. 

I had a moment. Why? Because the last time I put one of these together, my girl Furby was with me, supervising. 

I know ... you are probably like "Why?" She'll be gone for almost two years and I still miss her.

Soooooo ... Furby Junior and her boy toy supervised and were no help at all. 

Yes, those are fairy lights draped over them. 

About an hour later I got the wagon all put together, with some help from my guy.  

My area has been dealing with subzero temps.  I don't mean to complain, but I am going to.  Just a bit.  It's been freaking cold out there! Also, not much in the way of sun. 

The ladies haven't been out of the coop much over the last several weeks.  When I have thought to open the door to see if they'd go out and deal with the snow, they opted to stay inside.  Smart ladies!

Yesterday they were out and trying to make sense of the paths we've made in the snow.  A couple decided they needed to hang out on the back deck, all fluffed up. 

I know, not the best photo.  There wasn't a good angle for taking a photo. 

Today I got some happy mail from a fellow flosstuber. Patty Penn at Stitching with my kitties sent me a few goodies. Scissor fobs/zipper pulls and a needle threader she made. 

All so cute and I got them on bags and scissors already. 

They are all so cute!

Speaking of flosstube. ... I know ... I haven't recorded since January.  I meant to.  ... 

I've got some health crap going on again. I don't really want to talk much about it.  Though those who are in the inner circle know what's going on. I don't want to look back on blog posts and read about it. If you'll remember, last year I got sick and was dealing with stuff. I haven't been feeling 100 percent and it's basically the same symptoms as last year.  I'm now at a certain age where certain physical things are happening and my body is rebelling like a teenager. If you are a female of about my age than maybe you know what I'm talking about. I don't know what's causing it and I'm doing what I can to get it figured out. So for the foreseeable future if I go quiet for a while it's likely because I'm not feeling all that great. And that is about all I'm going to say about that. 

I am starting to perk up a bit, and getting past January has helped. Officially starting garden seeds did wonders for my mood today, too.