Founder’s Day

I didn’t get any garden or coop work done today because I forgot it was Founder’s Day at the museum until 90 minutes before I was to be there. We did get some more bee traps and tomato cages and hustled home for me to change. The Hance’s were Swiss and the theme is Swiss and I wasn’t sure how to dress for the event, so I wore my shift and petticoat, but left the gown at home and used the linen apron with the pinned up bib top. I was going to wear the shallow crowned flat straw hat, but I can’t keep it on in the wind.

It was a glorious 2 hours sitting outdoors, using the 18th century quill wheel I donated to the museum, a walnut top whorl spindle, and my box loom, though the loom was a challenge without a table. I had a basket of hats, mittens, and cowls, and another of yarn, not as an aggressive vending event, but to show what can be done with the wool and available for purchase if asked.

The half hap shawl went along as a demonstration of how 9 breeds of wool could be used and by the time the sun dropped below the buildings around 4 p.m., it ended up around my shoulders.

No rain, warm temperature, quite a breeze that billowed my skirt and apron as I spun, but a truly nice event. Music, swiss folk dance, story time, events for the kids, and refreshments of cheese, chocolate, and beverages available. Not a huge crowd, but visiting with folks I only see there, providing some history, and making plans with the director for the next event.

Tomorrow it rains, then cools off again for a week, but not so cold I won’t be able to finish the tasks that were planned for today before I remembered I was to be somewhere else.

Avoidance

Another beautiful day kept me busy outdoors and away from the anxiety producing news. Saturday’s are Farmer’s Market day and breakfast out. The market was a zoo. Some protein and storage veggies, plus a loaf of rye bread with cherries, walnuts, and raisins for breakfast toast to go with an egg. Egg delivery, a small grocery run, and Tractor Supply for chicken scratch and dog kibble all made and home by 1 p.m.

Once everything was put away, a ladder was pulled out and the carpenter bee traps were hung. It is early, but with a few days of warm weather, some will emerge. We need at least 3 or 4 more. And tomato cages are needed to stake up the raspberries and blackberries that are in the half barrels. Tractor Supply had neither, so we will venture out again soon to one of the big box hardware stores to see if the can be obtained there.

The hydroponic and a starter pellet flat were seeded yesterday with tomatoes and peppers in the hydroponic garden, and spinach, Komatsuma, and two lettuces in the flat. The lettuces from the hydroponic garden were trimmed back for a salad and they were planted in the new mini greenhouse. Once the new seed sprouts and get enough size, they will join the spinach, Komatsuma, and lettuces in the greenhouse. We do have a couple of bitter cold nights next weekend, but by then the transplants from the hydroponic unit should have settled in and with the greenhouse closed, should be fine.

All of the beds and most of the paths in the garden have been weeded. There are still some stakes from last year’s failed tomato trellis to be pulled, but all of the string is removed. The cornstalks and pepper bushes need to be chopped up in the compost and that entire pile turned.

Tomorrow is another nice day and because the top of the chicken run collapsed in one of the heavy snows last winter, I am going to reconfigure the pen and try to put another top up for the period when the hawks are actively trying to feed their chicks and free ranging the hens becomes hazardous to their health and they need to be closed in except when I am out in the yard or garden with them.

Anxiety

The past few years have fed an underlying anxiety. Being an introvert, I have always had a level of anxiety that invades my being. There are many factors that play into it’s underlying cause from surviving a sexual assault while in high school, the Cuban Missile crisis at an age when anxiety runs high anyway as you realize you are facing making your own choices, leaving home for college or job, new relationships and still wanting to be protected by the adults in your life. There have been health scares for kids, grandkids, hubby, and me.

Then on the political front, watching this country take giant steps backwards from the advancements toward racial and sexual equality to the “Make American ‘White’ Again” movement. Our state going from progress to exclusion again.

And there is the pandemic. Living in an area where the majority didn’t and still don’t take it seriously, or even believe it is real. Mask mandates lifted as the CDC says they are still needed indoors in some areas, ours being one of them, but seeing them now, they are few and far between. Only those of use with underlying health condition, age, or having an immune compromised family member or members wearing them at all.

To add to all of this, a total madman has invaded an innocent Democracy, targeting civilians, firing missiles at apartment building, hospitals, and infrastructure and lying to his people about what he is doing and why. The constant flow of devastating news and the fear of nuclear war rising, adds to this level of anxiety.

Last night, my system couldn’t deal anymore and I escaped to a hot bath and a book in bed, hoping to get a good night’s sleep.

The nice weather is allowing daily walks, some work in the garden during the day, all efforts to avoid what I cannot change.