It is finally beginning to look like Spring is actually getting here. But of course, as soon as I say that, it's going to drop off cold again here this weekend. (Literally.) 

Anyway, I took advantage of a beautiful sunny, low-60's temperature afternoon to begin the spring yard work. I started with the poor, mostly dead weigela out by the road.  

Some of that might not survive still, but that was all that had any life left in it. 

​Once I got done trimming, I collected the trimmings and the windfall linden branches and zipped them up the hill in the go-buggy. After dumping that load, I collected another load of windfall maple wood.

Poking around here, there and yonder, I discovered that various mints are peeking out, the bleeding heart is coming up, and joy of joy--DANDELIONS!!

Right, so there were only about an even half-dozen that I saw, but still...bee forage is a comin'!

Katherine hied out to plant the cherry trees that Mr. Y, a WWII vet from church, had given us.

I took my shotgun out with me, on the off chance that a Starling would show his pointy little beak. Naturally, true to form, I saw nary a one during the entirety of my time out of doors, but I decided to give my little break-action a mini-photoshoot of her own:

I have bees buzzing in and out of both hives (Huzzah!) I made up some syrup and put it out since it will be warm enough (day and night) for the next few days to enable them to consume the stuff. 

That's the outdoor report. Indoors, I am taking baby-steps towards conquering a few piles and messes that I have not been able to keep up with with my feet being broke out (speaking of which, they are look and feel the best they have since before they broke out in November).

I am still extracting the honey I took off the hive that died in January (I think it was).
I finally washed the honey bucket that had the Spring 2017 honey in it that I fed back to my little hive. It had been sitting on the table for weeks now. (Procrastination. And not feeling good. A combo that I really am trying to to address better.) 

I still need to vacuum the floor here to finish my to-do list for the day...better go do that....

Last week, while not a perfect week (none ever is), actually saw completion of "things". 

"You mean, follow-through?" 

Exactly. 

I made it my goal to finish, truly finish, a few things I had started weeks or even years ago. And I did. 

First, I finished off my new corset (that was the most recent project):

Then...I finished a pair of socks I had started several months ago. (No pictures)

And I finally got that last side and sleeve sewn up on that sweater I started in 2012; finished knitting the pieces to in 2015 or early 2016 and had mostly assembled in mid-2016. After all that, I'm not even sure how well I like it...

What's more, I finished up the baby dress I had started in February:

Then I scrounged up my blue CW wash-dress and added a few darts so that it now fits properly:

In between times I kept the fire burning, hauled wood, made as many water runs to the basement as necessary (we are looking forward to having the RO water run back upstairs one of these days), tickled the keys on the piano, and even hauled my cello out of the case for the first time in a couple of months. 

By the end of the week, I had also made a new petticoat (I need to put a tuck in it to shorten it up--for the third time. I apparently didn't eyeball that hem to perfection...) and gotten my new CW dress's bodice drafted and the mock-up cut out. I planned on stitching that up today, but I've been running on slow today--what with daylight savings time (what a joke!) and the snowy weather and haven't done much un-computer related besides making lunch, washing dishes, making two water runs, stoking the fire and hauling wood, and writing a letter. AND...now it's time to make supper! ;) 

Yee-aw!! We have chickens again!! I sure have missed the little boogers. Daddy and I drove off to another county and collected twenty-two old birds from a good friend (paid for them, by the way ;) ) and a cooler full of eggs. 

It started to rain about half way up  and rained while Daddy, John, and Dee rounded up birds in the barn. I stood in the back of the pick-up to seize the birds brought out and tuck them into the "over-sized lobster trap" in the bed. (The "lobster trap" is in reality a big square constructed out of dog and chicken wire.) I got a bit wet as I stepped between the shelter at the end of the truck to the cage and stuffed birds in. It quit raining about the time we left--only to start up again harder shortly after we pulled out of their driveway.

Upon reaching home, I transferred to the driver seat of the go-buggy (the old Ford is not a 4x4 and Daddy didn't want to risk getting it stuck) and collected a bucket of feed on my way up the 'hill'. Backing the buggy tail to tail with the truck, we shifted the cage from one vehicle to the other. (Daddy did most of that, really...I mainly just "held".) Then...we zipped over to the coop and drug the cage off the buggy. I popped in and dumped the feed and then stayed inside to help line up the opening gap with the door. Most of the chickens behaved with sense and just walked on out. There were a few stubborn ones that insisted on the end of a broom to herd them out. Goofy things. 

Due to the pouring rain, we didn't stick around to admire the girls but hurried back to the house. 

In other news...I pretty much have Katherine's bridesmaid dress done (just needs handwork) and I got mine roughly half done today. I should be able to finish it tomorrow, unless I'm crashed like I was yesterday.

Also, I got two packages of bees ordered--and they are supposed to arrive the same week that Savannah gets married! It's going to be a busy week... I am going to have to buy a queen before then because if I don't I'm going to loose my remaining hive. I think Daddy is planning on asking about a queen when he gets honey again. (Apparently they sell queens, too!)

Weelll--that's about life 'round here at the moment. Including the usual--"I'm hungry" which my family and friends are oh, so frequently aware of! ;)

Since the last time I wrote on here, I actually started a post and finked out half way through it. I think part of it was that something needed to happen before I could finish the post and by the time it did...I had completely lost the writing bug. So...here's life this week.

Etsy Store #2 (Rompers by Racheal): I was contacted by a lady who wants three outfits of this style for her not-born-yet triplet grand-babies. That required a sizing down of the 6 month-sized pattern to newborn...which resulted in this as a test run:

I think that I need to take a little fullness out of it yet. At anyrate, she wants them in cream taffeta--so I ordered some off the internet. It got here yesterday and it is closer to khaki (okay, the color is "sand" but it looked cream in the photo!)  I wrote her this morning and have yet to hear back...if it's good with her, I'll order the ivory from the same place (the material feels nice). It won't affect her costs any...BUT as I try to please my costumers, I'm sitting tight until I hear yea or nay from her. And that "Sand" taffeta...I'll find something to use it for! :D

Etsy store #1 (Granddaddy's House): I had negotiated a sale of some C-7 lights...and as it turns out, I had miscounted the number of sockets on the one strand and now I'm really embarrassed and though I contacted her immediately about the mistake yesterday morning, I have not heard hide nor hair from this person yet...so I have lights waiting to be shipped and payment already in my account. 

So, on the Etsy front is has been a rather interesting/embarrassing/slightly frustrating couple of days. Hopefully, I'll hear back from both of them by tomorrow morning so I know what to do!!

I have also been tracing off the six vintage patterns I acquired round about Christmas time. I ended up with carpet burned knees yesterday thanks to that. I finished up today (standing at the ironing board!)

I started the day out in the shop, but was really feeling rather cruddy (partly due to an awful cramp in my upper rib-cage that still isn't completely gone--it sure made breathing painful), but after lunch and two cups of coffee I perked up a little. I've been feeling TIRED all day though too--I'll blame a good half of that on the rain. ;)

All in all though, this week has been full of sewing and sewing related things. Maybe...just maybe...I can finish up the red-check overalls tomorrow!! Now that's an idea...I started them before Christmas!

Oh yes...and before I forget...I started a "sewing blog": Stitchery Dickery Dock. WHY??
Um...partly because I wanted to do something a little different looks-wise and there is NO WAY that I'm going to change the theme of this blog. I'd kick myself from here to the ditch if I did.....I love this theme. (Besides, there might be an odd-ball or two out there who would like to read about my sewing, but not the rest of my fascinating life? ;D)

Today we got our first snow of the season. It has snowed pretty much non-stop since ten this morning. It was still snowing when I came in from locking the chickens into their coop for the night (a new habit which so far as resulted in no more dead birds). 

I spent probably thirty minutes out there knocking snow of the "breezeway" bird netting and trying to straighten up fences crushed under the weight of the snow. Netting was busted right and left and the movable cover for the paddocks was busted. Not just the netting off, but the 2 inch PVC pipe snapped off at the elbow joints. Booger. And I saw this massive hawk perched in the one of the Linden trees this afternoon, too.

Oh. man. I just had a thought. Since the breezeway is intact...I could just shut all the gates and keep the birds in the breezeway until we get the fences/covers fixed up. I'll try to remember that when I go to let the birds loose in the morning. Not that they'll be much inclined to be out in the snow anyway. I remember last year throwing a chicken out into the snow and it's reaction was hilarious as if foundered about absolute disgust at that white stuff. (I forget why I tossed the bird out there like that anyway, but it wasn't just to register it's reaction...) I don't want that hawk wiping out the REST of my birds.

Anyway, I kind of enjoyed my dusk excursion into the snow. I was able to stay pretty warm in my purple coveralls...I didn't even have my coat zipped. Hurrah for sweaters! (I love my red CHAPS sweater...it has cabling on it and a V-neck so's it doesn't choke me half to death. ;] )

We're going to try going to church tomorrow...I hope we can make it and don't have to stay home...

For starters, I fully intended on reading Authentic Christianity yesterday. I didn't manage it partly because I was tired, herxing, and blue and partly because a) we listened to a Dr. Morecraft sermon after lunch and b) Mama and Savannah were having a conversation. I ended up just crawling into bed and spending the afternoon there.

Now...to go back in time...I cannot remember all of what I did last week...but Savannah and I went to the "out of town" Farmer's Market on Friday. Savannah and Katherine were supposed to go and I was supposed to go to a doctor's appointment with Grandma (Mama was sick), but it got changed around because I parallel park just a wee better than Savannah (or so I think). Anyway, I took my guitar with me and played a little...I think the market master got a picture of me playing, but I don't know. 

The above photos are traditional (or becoming traditional) "road trip" shots by Savannah. You may be ale to spot some of our multitudinous array of market items behind my gorgeous sister. I enjoyed being behind the wheel of our Annabelle again. 

We did fairly well for a slowish day (I asked several other vendors if it was slow since I hadn't been there this year yet and they said it was). I spent the last thirty minutes or so sitting on John's egg cooler talking to him and Dee. Mr. "Clucky" seemed to think my nickname of Rooster was appropriate. I have an invite to put bees on their property which I actually do intended on taking up once I get my feet under me a little better as a beekeeper.

All in all, I enjoyed myself even though in a personal way I didn't make any "dough". 

The next day, Savannah and I set up at the local market and then she went home to eat breakfast. It rained some...and by 11:30 we had had a whopping total of FIVE costumers. Chuck (the only other vendor that day) had to leave early anyway, so when he left, we also left, but only partly due to the rain. The other part was that Savannah and I were going on another "sister trip". :) I was going to get my new queen bee! For further information, see the Bee Project.

Today I did a little Cow Cavalry work. Not as much as I hoped to get done, but enough to mark a few things off my list. I was going to get back to it after lunch, but I went out to stand Grandpa up (Daddy made him a standing frame--we hook a horse girth around his hips and crank him up into an upright position where he can stand and work on his leg strength; just in case you are wondering, he enjoys this...it's not something we make him do). While he was standing, I replaced the arms and the wheel handles (or whatever they are called) on his wheelchair. It took me two trips to the old garage to get the correct wrench for the wheels, but after that it was a breeze. It was actually kind of funny because Grandma had said something about, "I don't know if you can figure it out" and I kind of laughed and retorted cheerfully, "I have something of a mechanical bent, Grandma...I think I can figure it out!" Then she laughed. After all, I am the kid who always took stuff apart and put it back together again. (I keep remembering the telephone from years ago...but anyway.)

After that, Mama and I went out and planted a little buckwheat...then we picked the strawberries. Since then I've been typing...fed the chickens...took Grandma eggs...went and peered at my bees on the landing board...typing...drinking tea...but do you really care about all that? Probably not. :D

Now I'm going to go feed my cats their supper. Until next time then!

It is Spring!! 

You already knew that, though...but still...I can get excited. The weather is warming up around here (more or less)--it was in the high 50's today and I spent a nice hour and a half out of doors this morning, puttering.

First I planted the mustard greens (finally, I might add). I had pulled out the chard, but looking at the package, it seemed like a little bit warmer weather would be better for planting that.

Secondly, I gathered up the lopers and addressed myself to the "orchard". I went through and cut down the little saplings from where the Peonies will come up...from under the Flowering Quince (it gets these beautiful little red flowers) and whatever that other thing is next to it. Then I trimmed the little upstart Lindens and Maples from under that very characterful pine along the front. The top is missing from it and it does have such an interesting shape. From there I moved to the asparagus bed (if I remember correctly, it didn't do so outstanding last year; not that I myself would personally care over much as asparagus is one of those things I just don't like). I left one of the saplings in there...it can always come out later if the Executives (heehee!) don't like the underling's decision. ;) Anyway, I went about and did some "spring cleaning" in just that one area. I also picked up the dead fall. Still, I set myself the task and I completed it. I'm going to ease my way back into work and see how much I can do without coming down with a case of "the M"....

I did one or two piddly other things before coming in to be greeted by the piteous yowls of a cat who just knew it was lunch time...

I am pleased to say that I got everything on my to-do list done today. :) That included washing eggs. I always intend to do them every two days or so, but lately it's been more like every five--so it's no wonder I end up with 9 dozen at a time...

The next thing on my agenda was vacuuming the house. I did that, singing, as usual, songs along the vein of "The Southern Soldier" and "Riding a Raid". Abby dodged me and hid--also as usual.

Ah...satisfaction.... :) I even got this skirt I'm planning on making cut out....which really just entailed cutting the legs off a pair of jeans (the legs simply shredded when washed after I walked through the briers in Florida once) and cutting the one yard swaths of two different green fabrics into strips. I'm going to have a flouncy cotton skirt! :)

I'll leave you with that interesting tidbit of information...

It seems that so often, when ONE things happens, or goes wrong, something else is right on it's heels. Excitement tends to come in bursts around here, I guess I might say.

Savannah and I have been noticing that over the past couple weeks that when we stoked the furnace, there has been an increased level of smoke that came billowing out at us. Last night, things rather came to a head. Smoke was leaking out of the joints at the elbow where the pipe connects to the chimney. Well, at Daddy's suggestion we put metal tape around the cracks and that seemed to help. Then Savannah went back down to the basement again--and it was leaking from other areas, including around the door. She turned the blowers off and the thermostat in the house and we let it go out.

Thankfully, we have back-up with the electric heat (did I forget to mention the low was someplace around -5* last nigh?)...it isn't nearly as efficient, but it sure helps!! Well, anyway, that worked until shortly after 6:00 this morning when it quit too. 

Thus ensued the scramble to get some sort of heat up and running. When I went out to feed the chickens this morning, it was 0* outdoors and roughly 67* in the house. It had been determined that there had to be a blockage in the furnace chimney. I declared that, regardless of my fear of heights, I would go up on the roof and give the chimney sweeping a go. (Meanwhile we were on and off the phone and Skype with our parents.) Mama ended up giving that a very firm "No"...

I got to looking at the chimney and bonnet later (from the ground, that is) and decided that even had I been capable of getting the bonnet off (and Daddy told me it's hard for him), I am not sure that I would have been tall enough to force the brush down the chimney.

So anyway, we called a chimney sweep--who wouldn't be able to make it out here until Tuesday--and set an appointment with them. (It would later get cancelled; keep reading.)

Then, trying to trouble shoot even further, we went on an exploratory trek to the basement, Daddy in on-Skype consultation mode:

I would end up unhooking the elbow from the furnace and doing an initial clean out there. The amount of junk was, all told, very negligible. 

Well, there really wasn't anything to talk about up as far as I could reach there either, so we left it hanging. 

Then Daddy had another idea:

That's right, a candle.

See, we could feel a little tiny bit of a draft at the pipe, so Daddy told us to get a candle and light it, then hold it up to the pipe. If it didn't get blown out due to the suction then we would know for sure that we had a blockage of some sort.

Well, it didn't even think about being blown out.

Daddy next picked up the phone and called Mr. M...one of our deacons and a man who works at all kinds of stuff like this for his living. Mr. M said he'd be there within the hour. Daddy told me to go ahead and get the ladder set up and to have the chimney brush handy for when Mr. M arrived.

I had just sat down to eat my lunch when I noticed that Abby was craning her neck in an alert posture as she looked out the window. So, I hopped up, jammed my feet into my cowboy boots while at the same time pulling my denim coat on. Last step as I stumbled out the door was to cram Daddy's "Russian" hat onto my head. (That was my headgear of choice today.) 

After greeting Mr. M, I supplied him with the brushes and held the ladder for him as he mounted to the roof. He started to say something about the roof when he reached the point of transfer, but he didn't finish his sentence for whatever reason. But I know it had to do with the trickiness of the transfer because Daddy told me that was the hardest part. :P

I scrambled back into the house and bolted the rest of my lunch. Abby was freaking out because she could hear Mr. M on the roof and the brush going down the chimney. 

After I finished my lunch, I suited up and headed back outside just about the same time Mr. M was coming down. Poor man was frozen! We invited him in to warm up and have a cup of coffee. I went back out and took the cleaning rod apart (he had been too cold to do it). I couldn't get enough friction to do it with my gloves on, so I had to take them off. I think that is why tonight the backs of my hands are red...and the whole surface is quite rough. Coming in contact with fabric is rather uncomfortable. 

After drinking half his coffee, Mr. M went back up onto the roof to put the bonnet back on. And then he came back in and finished his coffee. The three of us tramped to the basement and he put the rest of the furnace back together and Savannah got the fire going. (I didn't mention earlier, but we had taped a feed sack to the open end of the elbow to catch the junk coming down the pipe.) 

Mr. M informed us that we had had an one-hundred percent creosote blockage. That could have been way worse than a smoke filled house. It could have meant fire in the chimney...and worse. Praise God that we did not have that problem and that Mr. M so graciously came to our rescue!! 

Later in the day, the guys showed up to fix our electric heat. I am not exactly sure what they did...or exactly what the problem was--other than some sort of heat limit override sensor thingy. (So that sounded really brilliant. Sorry. I got out of bed running today and I have barely slowed down and I'm kind of tired.)

In between Mr. M and these other guys though, I brought in three buggy loads of wood--all by myself again. I'm hoping that I don't get a meningitis attack tomorrow. If I don't, that will make twice in the last week that I've done some good physical work without an attack! However, I'm not jumping to conclusions yet. It's not tomorrow. :D

Someplace in here I also made a trip to the apartment--some sort of paper-work that I was the gopher/runner for.  

Later, Savannah and I went into town; me driving. I have been "chauffeur" lately since her eyes are bothering her (Lyme shifting up again). When we got home, I fed the chickens...and stopped by Grandma and Grandpa's again. I got their kerosene heater going for them. They were both cold--and I can't say I was sweating even though I had five layers on; two shirts, a sweater, coveralls, and my heavy duty flannel-lined denim jacket. In other words, it must have been chilly in there. Usually in the wintertime their place is so down right hot you want a sleeveless shirt on out there. (That is slight hyperbole.)

Then I came in and hauled wood from the old oil room into the furnace room. I think it was about that time that I noticed my hip was bugging me a bit and that I had started limping again. Oh well. Grit your teeth and bear it. That's my motto when it comes to this Lyme-arthritis. There tends to be some grimaces that accompany that as well...but I really do try not to moan and groan and complain about it--though I have been driven to tears by the pain. (It's no where near that bad tonight, by the way. Just a nagging little irritation mostly.)

Some how or another, I also ended up the day with the tops of my knees chapped. I did go outside briefly three or four times without my coveralls on. I would hardly think that would be enough to chap my knees (through jeans), but I guess it was. Cold is strange. All in all, I think I prefer 99* and being soaked through and through with sweat. Heh...that brings it's own set of physical irritations, so guess I cannot claim that is "perfect" either! :D 

Oh well. I am VERY grateful to have heat tonight. 

Soo....let's see if I can make this interesting.

I started out the day with a serious head-washing. It was time to drop the lye soap for a wash and switch back to my favorite, baking soda and vinegar. There was only one problem with that...the vinegar spray bottle has gone AWOL. I'm wondering if it isn't sitting on the bathroom counter at Granddaddy's house... Anyway, pouring cold vinegar out of a pint jar isn't necessarily my favorite way to go about it, but I was bound and determined that my scalp and attached hair would thank me in the long run. 

So, with clean hair, I find out that I'm going to help clean out the chicken coop. :D Seriously, I always seem to have just washed my head when something potentially nasty comes up. Anyway, I braided my ponytail and looped it up on the back of my head, tied a scarf over the top, and put on the respirator (I have elevated mold levels, so we're trying to be careful with me on that front.)

Oh, by the way, maybe I ought to mention that the reason we were doing the chicken coop today was that it was actually above freezing (I believe it hit 41 today!) and Katherine really wanted to get some of the straw/chicken "stuff" build up out. She was actually going to do it, but Davy called and told Daddy he wanted to go ahead and get the rest of a tree they started on last week, so she went with Daddy to help. 

Mama and I headed for the chicken coop and  forked and scraped and pounded away at frozen chicken poop...but that was after we (and Katherine, they hadn't left yet--obviously) chased the chickens out of the coop and into the snowy run (they hate snow) and managed to free up a frozen gate (I broke it in the process, but it still works) to block them out. I got so hot doing that that I striped my heavy duty denim coat off and never put it back on. 

Anyway, we got started sometime around noon (we ate breakfast late, which turns out was a good thing!) and didn't get done til around 2. Believe me, I was pretty hungry by that time! 

To be completely honest, it felt good, to a degree, to get out and work like that. My upper body strength is still lacking, but worse than that, my left wrist was killing me. I astounded myself at one point my lifting this huge hunk of frozen straw and being able to pitch it into the back of the go-buggy...but man, did that hurt!

When we came in, I went right ahead and ate (I have that prerogative since getting too hungry a) seems to cause my Lyme stomach issues to flair and b) I tend to get rather grouchy) before everyone else.

After lunch, Mama did the dishes (I intended to) and I went straight to my stitching. I did not quite get the bodice finished on the dress I'm working on, but I feel like I did a good job on what I did get accomplished. Trying to learn from my mistakes you know...like being in such a state of excitement that I plow ahead instead of double-checking everything. That was part of the problem with the Harlequin dress.

Anyway, in the middle of this post, Savannah started playing "My Southern Soldier Boy" and I got this incurable itch to get my cello out and play along (we used to play that one together in Florida, but haven't done so since we've been here, I don't think). I am really rusty...and my wrist hurt (of course), so you can imagine that I didn't sound overly amazing, but with Savannah on the piano, Katherine on fiddle, and me on cello, I think the piece might have some potential if we actually played it at all frequently. I think I would play my cello more if it wasn't of necessity stored in the case...if I had a stand for it where all I had to do was reach out and pick it up (like my guitar), I think I'd so. :D

Ah, well...it seems like today was busy with various interesting items...

Some of these are from last week (to the day). Last Friday we had rain...lots of it. Between that and the melting snow the barnyard (not to mention the barn itself--into my grandparents appartment) flooded. The next day, it was cold--so the remaining water froze. I went out and took some pictures. I would have posted them sooner, but I just now found Savannah's camera cord--I couldn't find it last Saturday!

The following couple of pictures are just random of particular people...

And there you go...a few random pictures of ice and peoples!