Hey friends! How are you? How are you hanging in there with the virus shutdowns and such? We’re good. Both NY and PA are putting lots of serious restrictions on travel and closures. We’re happy and healthy and hanging in there. I hope you all are too.

This week I wanted to do something a little different. Leslie from Once Upon a Time & Happily Ever After invited me to join her for a Spring Bucket List challenge and that sounds so good to me considering all the things going on outside our little world. But I also wanted to combine that with my weekly roundup. I have so much to catch you up on so let’s get to it.

First, my Spring Bucket List! How fun is this. Just a little something, or somethings, that I want to accomplish this spring. I made a list a couple of weeks ago when Leslie asked me and I realized that I’ve already accomplished some of the things! But I’m listing them anyway. Here goes nothing!

  • Hike the Fingers Lakes Trail
  • Trip to NYC
  • Pick strawberries
  • Plant a garden
  • Get chickens
  • Finish redecorating upstairs

Hike the Finger Lakes Trail:
the trail runs very close to where I live and I’ve never stepped foot on it! How can this be? So when Leslie asked me to join her I knew this would be at the top of my list. And given the current restrictions and situation, this is something I can do that doesn’t involve traveling far nor being around other people. I would hike it with a friend too if all is okay. You can see from the picture above there’s lots of trail near me!

Trip to New York City:
this one might not come to fruition given the current situation, but if it does there are a couple of things I’d like to do. This also involves a friend so we have a whole day of it planned for the spring. I haven’t been to the City in a very long time! If you remember from a couple of years ago I was going to the City every few weeks. But last year I decided to start my business so that took up a lot of my time. But now I have some extra time (not just with the current situation, but in general the business is doing well and I can step away for a day to do some fun things). Anyway, I want to go find this street photographer and my friend wants to get her favorite cupcake from Magnolia Bakery. I’m sure we’ll do more than this but that’s the plan thus far.

Pick Strawberries:
I know this seems kind of like a ‘no-brainer’ but I didn’t pick much fruit last year. I also want to pick blueberries but that’s more of a summer thing. There’s a couple of pick-your-own places near me so I want to take full advantage of that this year!

Plant a Garden:
Again, kind of no brainer but I just started my permanent garden spot last year and I didn’t have a lot of extra time to tend to it. So my goal for this year is to get the garden in the ground and to tend to it. I’ve already started some seeds and will continue to plant. The seeds I started already were ones I found from a seed swap from a couple of years ago. I don’t know if they’ll grow but it’ll be fun to find out!

Get Chickens!
I’m happy report that this one has already been accomplished! Chicks hatch and ship on Monday. I couldn’t decide what breed of chickens to get…I’ve always had barred rocks. But I thought maybe I wanted to branch out this time. Expand my horizons. But I just couldn’t pick a breed or two or three. And I wasn’t really having luck finding anything local, mostly due to my indecision. So I found this assortment on My Pet Chicken. If you know me you’ll understand how much I’m going out on a limb here! I do not like surprises. I want to know what I’m getting and when I’m getting it. So I thought this might be a fun challenge! I’m really looking forward to it. I really like heritage breeds as well and most of the potential chicks are heritage breeds. That has always been a big factor for me. The only thing that I’m not 100% happy with is that they are coming from a hatchery. But I’m hoping by branching out this time that I will get the full experience of different breeds and then can search out those breeds in the future. I would love to hatch out my own eggs too. Maybe that can be on the spring bucket list! Hmm. Time will tell 😉

Finish Redecorating Upstairs:
You might recall, if you’ve been following along for any length of time that we’ve been redecorating a bit. We finished up most of the downstairs (still need a backsplash) but the upstairs still needs some TLC. I painted the one wall with chalkboard paint and now we just need to frame it out and put some beadboard on the bottom half of the wall. I also want to paint that room. I have the paint so now I just need to hop to it! And we want to pull up the carpet and put down some other type of flooring. That might be more of a fall project, but I know we can get the room painted and the wall finished. It will cost a little bit of money for the wood but we can do it in stages.

I think that’s a good bucket list for the spring. As you might recall from last week I also have a running to-do list that I’m working on while we are at home for the next few weeks. I’ve scratched off the ones I’ve accomplished so far and added a couple more big ticket items. I actually started my business plan! But it’s going to take more than one sitting to get it done. But it’s in progress y’all! And that makes me feel so. much. better.

1. write a business plan (how do I still not have this done?!?!)
2. process grapes (remember them from last fall?)
3. grind meat and fat
4. write candles class
5. write cheese class
6. write crock pot soap class
7. freezer spreadsheet
8. order this years meat
9. sourdough starter
10. make face cleanser
11. make lotion
12. make shampoo
13. paperwork! Fun!
14. order seeds
15. order chicks!!
16. fix up chicken coop and run
17. send newsletter (sign up using the form in the sidebar if you haven’t already!)
18. finish chalkboard wall (this might be seen on a later to-do list)
19. paint upstairs (ditto)
20. organize class materials, order supplies needed
21. mending
22. organize photos

Weekly Roundup 3/21/2020:

How about a quick recap of the week?

So this week has been mostly spent doing. I’ve been working on the to-do list and then some! I finally decided on chickens and meat birds as well. All garden seeds are ordered, being planted, chickens are making their way to the homestead, and we’ll do a few meat birds this year. I still have a LOT of paperwork and planning to do but I think I’ll devote next week to getting that all done. I’ll spend the first part of the day working on paperwork and then I can do some other fun things in the afternoons. Like walk with Anna Lee. And can. And make things. I’ll continue that for a couple of weeks until I get all the paperwork done.

Before everything closed down I had my first class at a new venue. I think I mentioned that last week as well. I’ve since organized all my class supplies, made a list of things I need to order once classes are back in session, and I’ve put everything back in storage. I did make lotion, shampoo, and my favorite face cleanser. I’ll need to work on the lotion. It uses coconut oil and I find it to be very greasy. Next time I’ll use sunflower oil, which happens to be my favorite kind of oil to use. I don’t know why I didn’t listen to my instincts and just use it! The shampoo needs some tweaking too. I normally can’t use castor oil in my shampoo because it dries my hair out. This shampoo calls for castile soap instead. And it’s called “Shine Shampoo“. It made my hair really greasy. I’m hoping that’s not the kind of shine they’re talking about! hehe. I’ll keep using it since I’ve taken the time to make it. Hopefully it’s just my hair adjusting to homemade shampoo. I’ll keep you updated. The face cleanser is THE best. You can find the recipe here.

I think maple syrup season is finally winding down. I’m still hoping for one more round, but if not, I’ll be satisfied with what I got. So far I think I have about 2.5 gallons of syrup which will go a long way to starting my ‘alternative baking’ not using sugar. How exciting!

The Mister’s had some down time to go fishing. I haven’t joined him but I want to. Maybe that can be part of my downtime next week after a morning of working on paperwork…jump in the boat for a little ride down the river!

Our other library closed yesterday. I gathered some books and puzzles from them before they closed. That book up there about dough? It’s fantastic! I’m adding it to my Amazon Wishlist. But I’m also going to read it from cover to cover! And then maybe I’ll be adventurous and make bread without the bread machine. The sourdough starter is off to a good start too! I started it last Saturday. It took a turn during the week where it was very runny. So I cut back on the water and it looks great now. I’m just waiting to figure out when it’s actually done. I gave my friend some of the starter and she just made ‘discard’ crackers. I’m definitely adding that to my ‘must make’ list. I have about 4 containers of discard right now. I hope homemade crackers are on the survival list! Oh! And just so I’ll have a record here…I’m feeding the starter 1 cup of flour and 1/2 cup of water.

And I’m getting some much needed research and reading time in. I’ve had that book on heritage chickens for a long time. I’m now eagerly awaiting my box of rare breed birds and I’m fantasizing about all the ones that could be in that box! That book is the best. I got it as a gift. I love the illustrations. If you’re at all interested in birds, you have to check that book out!

I think that’s it! What a long post! How are you spending your time? Do you have anything on your spring bucket list? What are you catching up on with the time you have?

’til next time
-k
xoxo