Spring Has Sprung

 Winter is over!

I did manage to do a few more puzzles:

I also made another tea cozy out of old mask material, this one was for my sister-in-law.  It's a bit straighter than the first one.  I think I have enough pieces to make one more!

I have taken many chances to walk outside with Stella.

Things are definitely blooming:

the rhubarb is up!

The apricots were blooming too, but the below freezing temps this week froze them all (again!)  I think it might have frozen the buds/blossoms on our fruiting pear tree too. 😢

they were gorgeous while they lasted!

We took a quick trip down to VA while J was home for Spring Break.  Her BFF came along (so we had 3 teenaged girls in our hotel room!)  L went for a college tour at our alma mater, EMU, and then we met up with JP's sister and brother-in-law to show them our "retirement" property down there.  We had dinner with them, 2 of JP's cousins, and his niece and her BF - 11 of us altogether! 

The following day, the girls and I walked around downtown, checked out a couple of little shops (including a favorite, Ten Thousand Villages), art galleries, and a quilt museum before heading back North to PA.  The last 2 hours, JP drove in blizzard conditions and could barely see the road at times!

I'm not sure how much breaking J had for her break - she was working on some paintings much of the time, AND we did her taxes before she headed back to school!

So, now we are waiting a few more days for the nights to stay above freezing so that we can get some peeps and plant the peas in the garden.  It shouldn't be much longer!

Late Winter Projects

I have been working on a few projects this past week.  I finally took the Titanic downstairs so that I could use the card table to put puzzles together as I usually do during the winter.  I started with one that I got from my mother, and I remember seeing in our home when I was growing up.  It was tricky as the picture on the box was only part of the entire puzzle and many of the tiny corners have disappeared over the past 50 years.  I believe it was manufactured in the 70's based on the colors and pattern, see what I mean?

I also made 60 biodegradable pots out of newspaper and planted them with seeds last weekend.  I already have some little seedlings that have come up!

I spent several hours this week taking apart that sad, sad rag rug that I made a couple of years ago, and then several hours today sewing it again.  It's better, but not perfect.

JP and I found a bunch of these Christmas Milanos on clearance for $1 each at WalMart in January.  I like to use them instead of ladyfingers in my Tiramisu, which I made this weekend (so yummy!)

I'm ready to take a little break to watch a movie with JP.  Hope your late winter is similarly productive!

No Longer Sparking Joy

There comes a time every February when I can just NOT TAKE any more cold, grey, dark days.  I would gladly pack up (or not, I'm tired of all this STUFF) and head to sunnier climes, or even a condo in town. It is just so hard and unrewarding to live on a farm in the winter:  there is a lot of work to keep it going (tend the fire, keep water and animals unfrozen, shovel and plow snow and some special people get to haul all the water they use a couple of times/week) and very little to make it seem worthwhile (1 or 2 eggs/day, water and heat in the house, the ability to LEAVE said farm if wanted.)  So when the time comes that it no longer sparks joy, what to do?  Get rid of it, right?

This is the state of our yard after driving the 
truck and trailer full of water through to fill 
the cistern day (after day after day after...)

Well, it's not quite that easy to unload a farm, particularly when the driveway and environs are so muddy that it's difficult to even get up here on the hill.

It's much easier to wait for a sunny day (we have had an hour or two here and there recently) which can effectively recharge my batteries and tolerance for mud.

I did notice that - right on time - my lenten roses are blooming, which is a teeny little nod towards spring being on its way.  It helps.

Do you like my new ring, by the way?  JP and I got new rings for Christmas - this is from the LOTR collection from Enso, the "Shire Leaf."

I hope there is more sunshine headed our way this weekend, as my winter stamina is just about at rock bottom.

Nine Lives

Back in 2010, a friend gave us 2 kittens, who came to be known as Bert and Ernie.

Bert disappeared long ago, but Ernie has been with us for the past 13 years until yesterday when the last of his 9 lives came to an end.

He was such a funny cat!  He loved lying on the woodpile in the sunshine.

He preferred to drink out of buckets, or with both front paws IN the water bowl.

He had a foot fettish, and if you let him near your bare pigs, he would be sure to bite them.

He was a good hunter, and frequently left "gifts" on our doorstep.  After he arrived, we did not have to worry about mice in the house any longer, even though he lived outside on the veranda.

His first buddy was Bert, but his longest friendship was with Lizzie.

Towards the end, he became very ill, but he would still purr, rub fur all over us, and drool.

I prefer to remember him like this:

A Titanic Feat

 Well, I had another birthday.  Huzzah.  Turning another year older does not hold the same element of awe as it once did.  I did get some nice presents, and got 2 birthday cakes!

I have been working on a couple of projects of late.  I decided to recycle all of those dozens of masks that I made early in the pandemic.  Look at all of the fabric I ended up with!

Then I turned some of them into a new tea cozy!  (I know, I know, the back side isn't straight...it just adds to the charm, right?)

L and I finished building the Titanic today.  It was a big project - over 9000 pieces!  It is a 1:200 replica and ended up right around 4 1/2 feet long.

I decided that the ship needed some passengers, so I dug up my tiny figures from the Lego Hogwarts that I built a couple of years ago.

Ron Weasley is King of the World!

The ship has many moving parts, some of which cannot be seen without taking apart the model:

So, that's what I've been up to so far this year.  How about you?

Out with the Old...

You know how the symbolism for the New Year is an old guy leaving, and a baby in diapers coming in?  Out with the old, in with the new?  Well, I've been thinking about it lately, and realizing that all the animals on our farm are elderly, and JP and I are definitely feeling our age recently as well.

Our 5 surviving hens are laying 1 or 2 eggs daily, some of which are so thin shelled, that I have not always been able to get them into the house whole.  They are almost 2 years old, which is middle-to-late aged for hens, and they definitely do not produce as well during the shorter daylight hours in the wintertime.  We will likely get new peeps in the spring.

One is wearing an apron to protect her from picking
 by the other chickens

Stella turns 11 in a week or two, and she has been acting like her energy is waning as well.

Ernie cat is almost 13, and has recurrent eye infections that we are unable to effectively treat, so he looks terrible and is basically blind.  Lizzie kitty is a mere 10-ish and doesn't appear to be affected much by age yet.

L's bunny, Chaz, is about 9.  We were told that the average lifespan for a mini Rex is 7-8 years, but he's still kicking (literally), although he does seem to enjoy the old towel that we put in his cage, and we find him curled up under the heat lamp most mornings.

J also has a goldfish, Copernicus, who is now over 2 years old and shown no signs of slowing down.  Unfortunately, J has chosen NOT to take him to her dorm for the 2nd year in a row, so Mom is taking care of him again.  JP discovered that he enjoys eating fruit flies, so he's been chowing down on organic food lately and getting bigger and bigger.

We're all aging up here, and it isn't always pretty.  Except in L's case - she had another birthday on Dec. 27th...number 17.  Last week we finally went to the DMV and she got her Driver's Permit!

Before that birthday went down, we enjoyed our Christmas!  L got her Elvish cape, so both girls can now dress up!

JP's sister, brother-in-law, and niece came on Christmas evening for dinner and stayed for a couple of days.  They helped us make tamales, as did J's friend.  I cooked the pork up a couple of days before - 6 lbs of pork roasts, 6 onions, 4 complete garlic bulbs, plus a bunch of jalepenos and spices turned into this:

I also made a bunch of other new things:

Santa Hat Brownies

Loaded Potato Waffles

And last, but not least, my Christmas present:

That's right, I'm building the Titanic!

JP and J drove back to school this AM, and L starts back tomorrow (along with the 7th and 8th graders who will be having their first day at the newly created Jr/Sr High School) - should be totally NOT chaotic tomorrow!  JP heads back to work tomorrow, and I'll be back on Tues.  (We did work last week as well.)  So...in with the new!