First day of spring

Happy spring! Woke up to temps in the teens.

We all decided today was going to be a day for relaxation.  I relaxed by baking and puttering in the kitchen, among other things. 

The last few days have been pretty calm around the homestead.  We've been oohing and awwing over the baby chicks.

I know this is why you come to the blog. 



 And that's okay.

 

I tried to get sharp images of them but they decided to be busy little budgies this evening. Most of the time they've been pretty chillaxed or sleeping. 

In all the times we've had baby chicks I think this is the most relaxed group we've ever had.  They barely make noise.  Whenever I look in the brooder, a few of them are doing the "I'm so content" leg and wing stretch.

We realized on Friday that one of these babies has spraddle leg.  It's our time time experiencing this. I immediately went to The Chicken Chick website and found how to treat spraddle leg. If The Chicken Chick had a book, I would buy it in a heartbeat. I love how informative her blog is.

So our little guy now looks like he's on a chain gang of one.

He looks pretty normal in the picture above. Just yesterday his poor little legs were sprawled out and he could barely move.  It was sad.

Here are his little leg braces.  Almost right away, no kidding, he was standing and walking.  Now he runs all over the brooder and he takes no sass from anyone.  Yesterday the other chicks were running over him and he had to put up with it.  Now, they fear him. As well they should! .

Naturally I have video, cause everyone wants to see these little guys in action.

 

One Saturday we sold 6 chicks to a family that drove a couple hours to our place.  That's determination to have chickens! I wish them lots of luck! It is their first time having chickens and they were quite excited.

Other things that happened this weekend:

We finished the circular woodpile.  I now know this style of wood pile is called a Holz Housen.  It's eight feet across and six feet tall. 

I crocheted a hat.  My son decided he wanted it. 

I started it on Friday night and finished it Saturday.  I realized about five rows into it, on Saturday, that I had flipped the hat inside out and started working on it.  I'll call it a design element.

I started a knit hat Saturday night.  I was looking for a pattern that called for using double yarn.  Found a pattern by plucky knitter. I'm about halfway through.

I got the itch to sew a little bit again.  I pulled out a tote bag I had goofed on and put away.  I fixed my issues and got to sewing it.

I used my wonder clips for the first time.  They are nice!

I love this fabric. It's something I found at Wal*Mart way back when.

 

I'm not one hundred percent happy with my finish work on this bag.  I'll be using it as a WIP bag.

When I was sewing I realized I never posted a picture of the skirt I finished back in January.

I am really pleased with how it turned out.  I did cut out the pockets and do a straight seam on the sides.  I messed up placement of the pockets so they didn't mirror each other properly.  I will be making this skirt again as soon as I find some fabric I enjoy. This fabric is jersey fabric I purchased at Hobby Lobby.

Now ... I need cute shoes.

And this might have happened today ...

Yes! More eggs in the 'bator!

**Squee!!**


Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. Getting crafty this weekend

2. Scones and cream.  Yum!

3. Watching the babies. 

4. It's finally spring.

5. It's staying light out later now.  Does so much for the peace of mind.

Baby chicks and a snow storm, oh my!

The first thing my husband said to me this morning was "We got more babies!"  I'd like to say I hopped out of bed and ran over to check them out.  It didn't quite happen like that.  But I did get up and take a look-see. 

Babies! Babies everywhere!  Nine more chicks hatched out during the night.  I let them stay in the brooder until they were dry and fluffed out.  This ended up being a good thing because of some snow storm aftermath by the way of heavy snow hitting the power lines in my area, and causing power outages.  The power kept flickering off and on. At one point our power was out for at least 15 minutes.  This cause me some worry because of the chicks being so fresh and damp.

Thankfully we have power backup so I worked a few things around and the babies were fine. My son kept going and peeking through the viewer holes on the incubator and letting me know when more hatched out.


I took some time this morning to survey the land near the house.  It was a winter wonderland out there.

I am amazed at how much snow stuck to the trees. 

The chicken coop.  I could hear the ladies bustling about in the coop. 

Every so often the wind would knock a bunch of snow off a tree.  It looked like it was snowing but it was just the trees. 

We did have some branches get knocked off the trees. 

View from the road.

My house seems tiny compared to those trees.

I tried to take a video with my digital camera.  I'm not sure where the noise is coming from. It was a bit windy out. 

I know some of my friends have been waiting for first photos of the babies.  Here they are!

We don't have a red light district. We have a blue light district.

Checking out a pine shaving. 

Hanging out at the corner, I guess. 

Solicitation, maybe? 

Still looking at the pine shaving.  "What IS this thing?"

 "I dare you to eat it."

Everyone is chilling.  Breaking out is hard work, guy. 

Snuggle time!

They are so stinking cute!

Baby needs some quiet time. 

All settling in for a nap, I think. 

Yup, out for the count.

This little one was so exhausted from partying so hard, it passed out like a rock star.  Just imagine a little bottle of Jack tucked under it's wing.

Meanwhile, in the incubator ... more are hatching out.  

While I was sitting at my computer I could hear the babies in the incubator cheeping away.  All the babies in the brooder were quiet and happy.  They were running all over and I could hear the pat-pat-pat of their feet on the paper.

Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. So many babies!

2. I made my son happy but loading a bunch of music on his phone.

3. Not having to go out in the snow this morning.

4. Rice packs.

5. Using a real camera, for a change.

We have a baby!

We woke up this morning to a No School notification.  The entire family got to stay home today.

This morning I realized I forgot to put the incubator in lockdown last night. I opened it up and discovered two chicks had pipped their egg shells, and were cheeping up a storm.

Oh my gosh!  It begins!

My husband got the brooder box all set up and ready to go for the babies.  I'm wondering how many will be there tomorrow morning.

Last night I cut up enough material to make eight hen aprons. Today, here and there, I sewed them up and put them on the ladies who needed some extra coverage while their feathers grow back.

I bought this fabric back in October, I believe, at the Hobby Lobby down in Rice Lake. 

I snagged a photo of one of the Wynadottes wearing it.  I'm sure she knows how pretty she looks.

She was acting pretty sassy after the apron was put on her. 

My husband got a hold of Grandma P, when we were in there.  She was feeling chatty today.  

This evening I tried my hand at a Shamrock dishcloth from the Sugar'n Cream website.  It was a quick project.  I made it using acryllic yarn because I plan to use it as a decoration.

I would do the handle part a bit differently next time.

And then ... this evening when I walked back to the craft room I could hear a baby cheeping up a storm.  I took a peek and there it was.  Freshly hatched and wondering what to make of all this.

 

I wish I could have gotten a video but my phone was about ready to die, and the lighting conditions weren't all that great.  Plus, I wanted to make sure all the heat stayed in the 'bator and dried this little one out as soon as possible.

School has already been called for tomorrow.  It snowed all day in my area. About eight inches of heavy snow fell in my area. The "big city" had problems with flooding.

Daily 5 things of the day that made me happy

1. Both of my  boys got to stay home today, and not venture out into the nasty weather.

2. Baby chicks are hatching!

3. I *finally* got the hen aprons done.

4. Cozy fires

5. Popcorn

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.