The grass really is green!

This past week was good. The grass turned green. The trees starting budding out. The weather was kinda yucky with lots of rain, but the weekend was beautiful. Today has turned cold, windy, and you guessed it! Rainy! But we're all snuggled inside, including the chickens. They were out in their new run (minus a roof...we're still working on that!) for most of the weekend. They were out today but I think they finally gave up and decided it was time to go back inside and nap under the heat lamps. I still have at least one lamp on for them since they're not completely grown and we still have night temps under 50 degrees. But they seem happy. And I'm happy.

It was decided by the powers-that-be that the house where we live (and share with the guides during the fishing season) will not be open to anyone other than the Mister and me. This, of course, is only temporary for this year but it made me breath a sigh of relief. With everything going on with the pandemic, I was very nervous about sharing the house. But it's been settled, without me even knowing, and for that I'm grateful. The guides will have alternative living arrangements. So with us having the house to ourselves for another year, we've been settling in. We've been here in the house now for over 2 years and we slowly started making it into a home. A home we share with a bunch of people for a few months each year, but a home nonetheless. And now, it's becoming the cozy home that I crave and need.

I've been rearranging things, cleaning things, throwing things out, or getting a donation pile ready. The sunporch (where I store all my class and product materials) got a good cleaning and rearranging yesterday. As did the 'craft room'. I'm not really sure what you would call it, but it's where I have my office and where the Mister ties his flies. You can see it in the pics above. It used to be a living room way back when. The Mister and I showed up here in 2001 and things looked so different then! But that's when the craft room was a living room. Then it turned into a bedroom for the guides. Then in the winter it slowly became our crafting room.

I also rearranged the front porch. I used to have a table and chairs out there on one side and the other side was where the guides threw all their crap (well, most of them. Some actually kept their stuff in their rooms). But we cleaned off the porch and I moved the table and chairs to the chicken coop area (so I can watch the girls. That's one of my favorite pastimes--watching chickens!). And then I put some chairs and a table on the porch and decorated the table. I still have to decorate the other side of the porch (must find chairs for that side) but I have a good idea for a table over there. We have an old keg that we've slowly been putting stickers on. I want to make a table top for it and then that can be the table for that side of the porch.

I've also received some happy mail these past couple of weeks. Over on instagram I asked if anyone had extra seeds and sure enough my friends came through! The seeds literally came from people I know. It was so sweet of them. I just asked for flower seeds to plant in the garden and I got all those seeds you see above! And I got a surprise handwritten card from my dear friend. It was so nice! I love a good handwritten card.

I finished filling all my orders, with the exception of one. I have a request for a handknitted hat. I'll get that together and get it knitted this week. Things have seemed to slow down here--but in a good way. I don't know if it's my mental clarity or if things are just pacing themselves better or if I just got a ton of things done and don't feel like I have to rush around like crazy. But my pace seems to be slightly less than 100 miles per hour. Maybe 75 miles per hour?!?!

I'm excited to add some eco-friendly lip balms to the shop soon. They're all ready to go I just need to list them. HA! 'Just' need to list them. That means I have to take pictures, edit pictures, upload pictures. And then create the listing. It's really not so bad, just time consuming. Things have been better with my shop too. I literally just finished up all the orders (except the hat order) on Saturday. I wanted to enjoy the beautiful weekend so I took some time away. But it's good to be back at it.

I also made a grapevine wreath yesterday. I've never made one before. It was a little tricky to get started--I had to tie mine with twine--but then it got better and it's pretty easy overall. I have enough vines left to make another one, which I was going to do today but it's so cold outside. Maybe I'll still make one.

The garden is hanging in there. I got all the beans and peas planted, but I still need to put plastic on the hoop house. We were going to do that today but the wind is crazy outside. I'm hoping those poor beans will make it just one more day. Everything else is looking good. I'm ready for the plants to move out of the house and into the garden. I can't finish the garden until the ground dries out so I can drive the tractor across the lawn (with some dirt for the garden beds) without tearing up the lawn! I can't wait to get back on the tractor. I've missed the tractor.

In other news, I'm going to start infusing sunflower oil with things that I've grown here on the homestead or things that grow wild on the homestead. I'm really excited about this. It feels like it's the right next step. But I need to set up an herb garden that I hadn't planned on doing. I'm thinking they'll grow great in containers lining the back porch. So now I have to get all the planters from the garden to the back porch! That was supposed to happen today, but see above about the weather. LOL.

I'm still doing my facebook live features every Saturday morning. I'll keep doing them. They're fun and I think people like watching along! This Saturday I'm making pasta so if you're around and have time, join me! I'm also doing another class with my local cooperative extension. It's this Friday. I'm making beeswax food covers and then my friend who works for the extension office is making dried flower wreaths. I'll give more details once I have them, but there will be a facebook event and the workshop will be through Zoom.

So it's been a good week. I needed that. I needed the mental clarity that comes with things working out. With making a house a home. With being outside. With watching chickens. With getting my hands dirty. With making things. So the title of this post is a kind of double entendre: the grass is literally green. And our grass is green.

I'll be back soon with some recipes and other such stuff. And I'm slowly working my way through your respective blog posts. I'm sending out a newsletter this week so if you want receive it, just sign up using the subscribe feature in the right hand column.

I hope y'all have had a good week and are hanging in there. So tell me what you've been up to! How are you?
'til next time
-k
xoxo