So while I wait for the spring rains to subside enough for me to get outside and acually enjoy working in the garden instead of freezing my buns off (did I mention it is supposed to SNOW again tonight?!?!?!), I've been sewing. Now let me let you know, I do not sew. I am just learning. My 9 year old daughter wanted to sew, so last year, we joined a 4-H sewing group. This is her second year in the group, and I have learned via her learning. Over Christmas break, I got brave enough to sit down and try my first ever sewing project. I made a Rag Quilt for my youngest daughter. Here's a picture:
A close up:
For all you other fearful wanna be sewers, let me tell you this is a great easy project to start with. I have in fact, started a second one for our bedroom, in turquoise, tan and chocolate brown prints with a chocolate brown backing. Here are the squares.
I will try and take more pics as I assemble the quilt and show them in another post. Right now I have about 2/3's of the squares assembled, meaning the backing, batting in the middle, and top print square, are sewn together by stitching a simple "X" through all three layers. I have to finish doing this to the rest of the squares, and then start sewing the squares together to make the rows.
Have you made a Rag Quilt yet?
Spring Rains are here....
Now that it is officially spring, I guess I can call them that! Since I posted a few weeks ago about it raining, and it still is. We've been busy with my mom visiting, and trying to refinance the house, so we've been pretty busy and not really able to get outside much. We did score a bunch of free pallets off of Freecycle.org almost 2 weeks ago, and will begin working on the new coop this weekend. DH took spring break off with the girls, and we plan to focus on the coop project while he is off. That's the first full week in April. The chicks are growing so fast, they need to move outside! I also purchased our first incubator this week. No using it until the coop is done though! Right now it will just be used to help the breeding project of the Japanese Bantams if it is needed. But I've been spending a lot of time on BackyardChickens.com and am really really tempted to buy some eggs off of some of the members there. But that's on the back burner for right now.
Garden projects are piling up way too fast! I've set up my lights for starting seeds, but haven't acutally started any yet. I still have winter cleanup to do in several garden beds. I need to get more peas in. Haven't planted any since I posted here last, and none of those are coming up yet. I fear either the birds have got them, or they've rotted, or maybe it's just too cold still. I've got all my seeds purchased, and just waiting for my final order to come in which included potato starts, onion sets and some strawberry plants.
March 1st and more planting done!
Well, my to do list was very long today, but I made a good dent before the rain came in. I planted 2 more packets of peas, this time the Little Wonder variety, last weekend I planted 2 packets of Early Frosty peas. I also got in 1/2 a packet of Swiss Chard, the Large White Rib variety...that was when the rain started! I had wanted to get some spinach and shallots in too, but I had to stop planting and put up a little fence around the garden bed as Toby the 1 yr old Puggle puppy keeps getting in the garden beds and digging around. He has also been eating my new young blueberry bushes! I planted 6 new ones last summer, and he's chewed them down to the ground! I bought two more to start replacing them, but need to put a fence around them too, so didn't get them planted today as I had hoped.
My husband and I also worked on the chicken coops a bit today too. Their run's are so muddy and gross, I bought tarps to put over them and needed the hubby's help to build a support to help the rain run off of the big one. I checked it out before coming in and it seems to be working well and not pooling too much anywhere. We need to find a rain barrel to place where all the run off goes. We also put 1/2" hardware cloth around the base of the smaller coop where we keep our Japanese Banties. They are the nicest birds we have and the girls want to use them for fit and show at the fair this year. Unfortunately, a hawk was fighting with our rooster this week, and through the chicken wire, the hawk managed to bloody up our rooster Charlie pretty good, by just reaching through with his talons, he was able to grab onto Charlies comb. He wasn't looking very pretty when we found him! I've been reading a lot on www.backyardchickens.com, and they say the 1/2" hardware cloth is the most predator proof material you can use, so hopefully it works!
Thinking of getting chickens?
Now is the season where your local feed stores will start carrying baby chicks! They are so adorable and hard to resist! If you are thinking of getting some and are new to chickens, here are some books I recommend:
Planted my first batch of peas!!!
I'm so proud of myself! I've never gotten my peas in so early before. My Mother-in-law and many others in this neck of the woods, have always said February is the time to get the peas planted, and I was determined to get it done this weekend. Hubby even tilled the garden bed for me after I cleaned it up. It's been in the 50's and sunny for the last week, but rain is supposed to come and stay tonight or tomorrow. So yeah for me!!
We have new baby chicks in the house!
I had to share what has been keeping us busy these last 2 weeks. We got new baby chicks! 13 in all, including 3 Buff Rock, 1 Barred Rock, 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Ameraucana (aka: Easter Eggers), 2 Silver Polish, 2 Rhode Island Red and one mystery chick that we know is a feather footed bantam of some type who is yellow in color right now. Here's the pic's!
We actually went in on an order with a couple people my husband works with, so you may see some other breeds in the photo's like the cornish. We babysat theirs for a week or two. Now we have to get busy building another coop, as our current one is not quite big enough for those we currently have and these, so that will be our spring project.
I've also been browsing at www.backyardchickens.com for coop ideas. Members there have posted lots of ideas and it's a great place to get inspired. Also been browsing on Craigslist.org to see if I can find a previously used coop or shed at a good price. We are also thinking of maybe using pallets to construct the new shed. You can usually pick them up for free on Craigslist quite often, and it a great way to recycle them. If you have a cool, cheap coop design, please share! I'd love to see them!
Spring Fever!!!
Well, guess what? I got soooo busy in the garden's last year, I didn't post here! Sooo sad! Well now it's that time of year again, I'm just itching to get out there, and it's still too cold and wet to do much.
So let me fill you in on things around here. The gardens were a HUGE success! It is February, and we are still eating our own potatoes, carrots, leeks, parnsips, turnips and winter squashes.........LOTS and LOTS of winter squashes! In the freezer we still have corn, beans, diced green peppers and raspberries.
This year I need to make a few changes. LESS SQUASH!!! Both summer squash and winter squash! Here is just one wagon load of summer squash we had, and trust me, we had many more!
I did waaaaay too much of both last year! This year, I want to do a lot more peas, enough to put a ton away in the freezer. We did a lot of green beans last year, and the kids are not so hot on them frozen. They prefer them fresh. They prefer the peas fresh too, and last year they ate most of them before I could get any in the freezer, so need to plant at least 2 or 3 times as much! Also would like to do a little more variety of things this year to take up the room the squashes took up. Maybe some try some celery, kale and beets and plant a little more cabbage and broccoli and spinach.
