Life lesson for Drew: The Mule doesn’t work in snow, the 4-wheeler can also get stuck, and Dad doesn’t like to stop what he is doing to help dig you out! After a lot of shoveling and some pulling, Drew now knows how to get things unstuck!
It’s hard to believe February is almost over. It always amazes me how quickly time flies. We decided to do our phenology wheel journaling for February today. It’s fun to see what each of remembers most from the month. We pulled out our nature journals too and went through them to remind us what we observed and what we studied on those days we couldn’t get outside. (Which was most of the February as there was just too much snow and too many cold cold days.) We are starting to really enjoy these phenology wheels now that we have two months filled in. Our nature year all in one picture!
It really hit home today that spring is on its way. Along with a wonderful warmer week, today Drew spied our resident chipmunk out running around. Hibernation must be over! We noticed him last year living around the oak trees and today he was out running all over the cave and around the yard and trees. Drew and Possum would go from one dining room window to the other watching him run around. Drew was entertained and Possum was wanting to eat him. It’s a good thing there was a window between them! And he was a great addition to our nature journals!
It is cold and white in our neck of the woods. We are experiencing the longest stretch of cold weather we’ve had in a long, long time. I think today it’s supposed to get up to 1 degree. Just walking to the mailbox this morning was brutal! And we have lots of snow on the ground, with ice underneath. It is not fun to be outside right now and it’s been so hard for Drew. Last week he took his little pop up tent, loaded it with blankets, warmed up a bowl of soup and had his lunch out there. He lasted about 20 minutes each time which surprised me and it was a nice break for him. He’s struggling with being cooped up in the house.
We did some watercolor painting using watercolor pencils on our homemade paper and that was fun. Drew wants to make more paper now but I told him we needed to wait until we could do it outside as we had water everywhere. We plan to try our hand at coloring the paper using natural dyes like onion skins and red cabbage. Something I hope to do at Easter too when we dye eggs. Something to look forward to!
Saturday we got the call that our deer meat was ready for pickup in a neighboring town so we dressed warm and headed to Washington. I have to say it was nice to get out of the house even if it was originally for a drive to the locker and back home. But on the way our daughter called and talked to her dad about a smell they had in their master bathroom and what it could be. Jeremy had to work and wouldn’t be able to look into it until Sunday. As we would be so close to their place anyway we decided to head over there after picking up our order and see if Joe could help.
Joe decided the issue was a snow blocked vent on the roof and he wasn’t sure he could get to it without help so we spent the afternoon playing with grandkids and made plans to head back over the next day. So a weekend of staying home and keeping warm ended up being a fun weekend spent with grandkids! We had a lunch of tacos and taco salad and I took a dessert I had made. Then I had the grandkids color some plain seed packets I had and we picked out some flower seeds to put in them from my stash of seed I had harvested in the fall. Their great grandma has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and we thought she might enjoy a little bundle of flower seeds, homemade body butter and a rice bag Abby had asked me to make for her. We know the kids’ Great Grandma and Great Grandpa very well as Abby married a local boy and we’re a small community. I’ve known them both my whole life. Caroline worked as an associate in the high school library when I was going to school there and she was there when Abby and our two older sons where there. She is a wonderful cook and always has a big garden. We’re praying she can enjoy a little gardening this summer.
I always enjoy watching Joe playing with the grandkids. He loves to wrestle and play games with Braxton and it’s been so many years since we’ve had a little girl in the family that it’s fun to watch Joe playing with little Bayah. She is this sweet tiny little thing that loves anything pink, her books, and her dolls but she couldn’t wait until after lunch because she told me was going to jump on pillows, stand on a blanket and punch Grandpa! She is definitely small but mighty. She has no idea just how small she is!
Yes, my table needs refinished. But it’s such a daunting job and Joe keeps saying he wants to build me a table. And we bought this table years ago with some money my grandma gifted to me. And this is the table that we use every day and have for close to 30 years. Oh the stories this table could tell. Lots of meals, crafts, games, laughs, tears, talks, arguments all around this table. And the wear and tear shows. But I’ve decided rather than hide all its faults in pictures, this is our table, this is us, and no hiding what some may consider the ugly!
Anyway, my mom made me some placemats. And I love love love them! I know how hard it was for her to pick out fabric that she thought I would like. She doesn’t appreciate my choice of dark, prim things and she lets me know that! But, she picked these out all on her own and they are perfect! They will definitely be taken off the table before we eat, craft, homeschool or whatever. I want to keep them nice!
It’s cold here in my neck of the woods. And snowy. We have lots and lots of snow this winter. I just came in from taking care of the chickens and my toes are cold and my cheeks are cold. I was doing pretty good until I decided I needed to shovel off the patio as we got another skiff of snow this morning. I love love love winter and snow but these zero and below temps are not fun. It’s even cold in the house since I refuse to turn the furnace up. We just layer, pile on the blankets when we’re sitting down, and this year I’ve made rice bags and boy do they help!
Last week was tough as Joe was gone most of the week. And this week is the same. We have gotten so spoiled over the past year as he hasn’t had to travel. Last week he was only 45 minutes away which even though he’s not home, we at least know if absolutely necessary he can come home or we can go to him. This week he’s out of state. The only positive to that is he’s there to hand over the account to someone new so he shouldn’t have to go again. Yeah! The last time he was there was last year. We weren’t sure he would be able to get home due to the quarantine and the state shutting down. He made it home and the next day everything shut down. Scary times!
We had been so used to him traveling. He had slowed down considerably over the years but he still was gone quite a lot. But over the past year, he’s been home. All the time. And after an adjustment period for all of us, we settled in and loved it. He’s slowly been going out and to accounts and been gone during the day for part of the week and that’s as it should be. But again, it was an adjustment as we had gotten to used to him being here all the time. There have been so many negative aspects of this pandemic but being able to spend so much time together has been a blessing that I have cherished.
Another positive of the pandemic has been homeschooling. Something we had been thinking about doing became necessary at the end of the last school year and then we decided to carry on this year. While challenging, very challenging some days, it’s been fun. A fun new project we started at the beginning of the year was a nature journal. And then the darn winter weather hit and getting outside and exploring really isn’t possible right now. There is just too much snow and it’s too darn cold. So, for now we’re taking what we study in Science and our Mammals unit and we’re transferring that into our nature journals. As you can see, Andrew drew his food chain but then he decided to embellish his journal with a turtle with a food bowl in its shell. I never know what he’s going to come up with!
I’m sitting here munching on dehydrated apple chips from the apples we picked at a friend’s house this past fall. They sure taste good on this cold, foggy winter day! I’m thankful I broke down and bought a dehydrator. I got it thinking we would make beef jerky and so far, that’s the one thing we haven’t tried!
It’s been a quiet few days around here. It’s cold and there’s lots of snow on the ground. I enjoy these days and would enjoy them even more if Drew did. He needs to be able to get out and run. Being cooped up is not for him. We’re planning a trip to the library later this week. We have to make an appointment to be able to get in. Hoping to find some books for our mammal study we’re starting and hoping to find a good book for him to read. With all the books in this house that his siblings read you would think something would grab his interest but so far nothing.
I’ve been busy stitching orders and am finally caught up so last night I switched things up and stitched a chicken. No reason. Just ran across the free pattern, had some fabric begging to be used and ran with it. A little bright spot in the kitchen to cheer us up on these cold winter days!
Drew learned to run the snow blower and got to put it to use over the weekend. He thought it was fun to try and bury me in snow! We went on a road trip before the snow hit. Joe showed us where they hunted for deer and told us about the hunt! Drew and Rambler must have gotten bored, they both fell asleep! There’s been a lot of fort making going on and I’m ready to have my living room back! And then there’s Possum, just enjoying being King of the Castle!
Joe is gone today pheasant hunting. Something new for him. He hunts deer every winter during black powder season with our son in law and his family and he loves it. And we love having the meat. But this year he’s had a friend ask him to go pheasant hunting. This will be his second trip and I’m hoping he’ll be successful this time. I haven’t had pheasant in years. Not since I was at home and Dad would go hunting. Also, he has been given strict orders to be sure and bring me home so tail feathers!
I haven’t been on here since before Christmas. We started some remodeling in the kitchen the day after Thanksgiving and didn’t finish until New Years. The house was in complete disarray during that time and every spare moment was spent helping Joe with whatever he needed done. We now have new countertops, backsplash, woodwork, wainscoting, flooring, repainted cupboards. We did the ceiling about three years ago. I think that’s the only thing we didn’t touch during this time! There were times when we wished we could just hire it done but there’s definitely no money in the budget for that. And besides that, there is so much satisfaction in doing things yourself. Not only do you save a lot of money but looking at it now and knowing it was something we did, together. I think we appreciate these things more when we do them ourselves. I am really happy with what we accomplished. We went from curled and nicked up light blue linoleum to these beautiful laminate floors that are supposed to hold up to kids and pets. My countertops went from fake butcherblock that were showing oh so much wear to real butcherblock that we stained and varnished ourselves. I’m all about old, chippy, peeling, showing wear and tear but not on laminate countertops. These are absolutely beautiful! And we found this wonderful corrugated tin that is lighter weight and made for kitchens. We’ve used it for backsplash and wainscoting and I love it! And woodwork, I have woodwork! I hadn’t had woodwork in my kitchen for over 20 years. I can’t tell you how happy having woodwork makes me. We stained and varnished it too. We did it all! My kitchen is small and cozy and now it’s a beautiful space that I love to be in! When the countertop was in and the backsplash was done and Joe put the stove back into it’s place, I literally started crying. Poor Drew, he thought something was wrong. Joe explained to him that they were happy tears. We tore that wall out six years ago, Joe custom made cupboards out of the old ones to fit the new space for the new stove and I’d had ugly plywood counters and backsplash that I had tried to paint to at least look good at a glance since then. Seeing it all come together and finally looking so nice was the best Christmas present I could ever ask for!
Trying new ways of doing something doesn’t always work for me. Especially when trying shortcuts. I ran across a way to make beeswax candles by filling the jars with wax pellets and melting them in the oven. I fought the process the whole time and should have known they weren’t going to work. I had to add more pellets as they melted down, consequently they were in the oven double the time suggested. I couldn’t keep the wicks centered no matter how hard I tried. And even though they looked good last night, they had sunk in the center this morning. The only reason I tried this was to eliminate the mess of pouring them. And yet, hindsight, the whole process of melting, pouring, letting them set is what makes the process fun and fulfilling for me. Why would I want to eliminate the mess and bypass the fun? Though far from perfect, they still burn and make the house feel warm and cozy on this damp and chilly November day. And next time I’ll go back to the tried and true, old fashioned process. That usually works the best anyway!
I’m slowly exploring the art of homemade products for the skin, health and home. There is so much information out there and so much to learn. I don’t plan to become an expert but it does fascinate me and I want to learn some of the basics. I have been using a handful of homemade cleaning products for quite some time. And I have a skin cleanser that I am really enjoying. I have made lotion bars, body butter and lip balms. I want to explore more of those too. I find so much joy in using products that are all natural and that I have made myself. To know there are no chemicals in them gives me peace of mind. My newest project is infused oils. I have calendula and lavender infusing right now. They look so pretty sitting on the windowsill with the sun shining through them! In a few days they will go into a nice dark cupboard for a few weeks. In the meantime I’ll be researching what all I can do with them. I know the first thing I’ll be making is a salve with healing properties and to use for fungus. Maybe some lavender lotion of some sort. The possibilities are endless. And then next spring I hope to plant some lavender and calendula so I can harvest and dry them myself. Now I need to break out the seed catalogs and start planning!
We started out with beautiful fall weather this week and today it’s cold and wet. We enjoyed the last of the fall leaves on our Mule drive. We don’t have a lot of vibrant fall leaves around our property but I still find them beautiful. Joe was gone for the week again but hopefully will be home now for the foreseeable future. We’ve gotten so used to him being home that it just doesn’t seem right when he’s not here. Our last lunch and read picnic was Monday. We loaded up chicken noodle soup, jumped in the Mule and found our spot then ate lunch and read another chapter of Little House in the Big Woods. It was a great way to get Drew to sit and listen to the book. Now to brainstorm another way to get him to settle down and listen while we’re in the house!
We decided to try our hand at pouring beeswax candles and what a calming and fun project that is. Time consuming but fun. That beeswax takes forever to melt! I love burning candles but I don’t like all the chemicals that are found in the commercial ones. I had read how burning beeswax candles is actually good for the air in the home, had some beeswax here in the house from other projects, some yogurt jars I had been saving and we now have some beautiful little candles to burn. We tried putting essential oils in a couple of them but it takes so much to get any fragrance and the candles have a nice soft honey fragrance to them anyway, we’ve decided to skip that step in the future. We’ll run a diffuser when we want to scent the air. Since then I’ve found instructions on how to make the candles using the oven and/or a crockpot. A project to try on a cold winter another day.
