Author: Cabincrafted1

Sleepless in …

The wind has howled like a freight train plowing through the house all night. I don’t sleep well when it does for fear of it toppling the shed roof over the heatpump and taking out our heat. It woke me at 2 a.m. and that ended my night.

This is what we awoke to find

yes, snow blowing sideways. Note the small flag next to the post.

I went out to put food in the coop and open the pop door and because of the direction, there is a small snowdrift in the coop. Their water bucket is frozen solid. I left if outside as it is supposed to get up to the mid 40s later, so hopefully it will thaw.

I don’t know when the wind is supposed to die down, but the weather gods are telling us we are expecting 2 to 4 inches of white stuff before it does. Not what I expected this morn.

March 30, 2014
A Moment from the week

The chicks are now 3 weeks old and the 50 gallon plastic tote no longer large enough for them. They were starting to escape, requiring more than the pint waterer and the gallon one took up too much of their dwindling space. A piece of screen was put on the top to keep them in, but there was no way to expand the floor space. We have a large wire dog cage and an extra large one. The large one isn’t too difficult to erect, so it was moved to the basement, set up and set inside the larger plastic tray from the extra large one. I know that there will be more mess to clean, but the chicks are getting big. After putting it all together, I threaded two sticks from pruning fruit trees at two heights as perches and the chicks learning to use them is comedic as they tip and rock learning their balance. I think I need to make the perches with 1 x 1″ wood scraps or larger branches to give them more to grasp. We have a warmer week ahead and that hopefully is signalling an end of the cold weather. In another week, I may move them back to the garage and I need to start planning how to divide the coop for their introduction later this spring. That also means that the chicken tractor needs to be moved back outside and a nesting box or two added to it as 6 of the hens will be moved to it until sometime in the summer. My coop was built for 14 and I will have 14 in there when the chicks are moved. The size of the coop is fine during the spring, summer, and fall, but a bit over estimated when they are all inside on a snowy day. We will see how it goes and the flock may have to be reduced back to 10 or 12 after this year.

March 28, 2014
Finished Objects and UFO’s

I didn’t think it possible to finish Estelle before the cold spring ended, but since we keep getting blocks of frigid days, even some light snow, indeed I did. I really wasn’t too pleased with it right after I finished it, but a good blocking helped immensely. It feels softer and drapier, the sleeves are long enough and I didn’t stretch them, the band up the fronts and around the neckline lay much better. I am glad it doesn’t button, because yet again, I knit up 2 full sizes larger than my bust size and it would pull if it had buttons. Yes, I did a gauge swatch, several actually since I couldn’t get gauge with the recommended needle so I fiddled with several size needles before getting gauge. Estelle is a Quince and Co. pattern, made of Quince and Co. Lark in Delft color.

Yesterday while it was blocking, I sat and moved buttons on the last cardigan I made, the V necked cardi from Ann Budd that also seemed small when complete. I had purchased some very fine Raku fired clay buttons for it and managed to lose one when I took the train to Northern Virginia to babysit during semester break. After carefully moving the top one down to the missing space and putting retaining buttons on the backs, I broke one putting my coat over it last evening. Now instead of 5, I have 3, the broken one can be reglued, but I fear they just aren’t sturdy enough for the sweater. I purchased some different buttons on my way to knitting last night, so I think I will reblock that sweater after I take the pottery buttons off and then put the new ones on tomorrow.

Sorry for the fuzzy shot, I can’t find the original and copied it from my projects folder on Ravelry.

The Honey Cowl has been repaired and I have almost used one skein of the yarn for it. I think using half of the second, which would make it the yardage for which the pattern requires will make it too wide for the circumference. I’m not a fan of bunchy garments around my neck, so I may bind off at the end of this skein in another row or two and use the remaining skein for mitts or a hat.

My Addi Sock Rocket needles came and I went back to work on the never ending socks, Socks for the Plane is the pattern and I can only knit about two rows with the size 1 needle before my hands ache. I think they really will be never ending. I only need a few more inches of cuff to be done with them and I will have completed my first toe up pair, though I have enough yarn left to make them knee hi socks.

I am adjusting to my new spinning wheel and have been spinning the undyed Shetland wool. I’m thinking about folding her up into her backpack and going to the spinning group today, I haven’t been in several weeks.

The only other UFO is a reknit of a shawl that I adored when it was finished, but I carelessly left it on my chair one day when our German Shepherd was younger and she chewed a half dollar size hole right in the middle. I frogged it and started over knowing it will be somewhat smaller due to the loss of the short strands on each side of the hole. I’ll post it when it is finished again, but it is a throw in my bag and take in the car project and we have no trips planned, so it may be a while.

March 27, 2014
A Spring? Morning

The morning sight. Yesterday we awoke to it snowing and quickly providing ground cover, but not so much on the roads. The temperature hovering right around the freezing mark, thick gray clouds and we were driving an hour east to take my Dad who had been visiting for a few days, back to meet my step mom and her cousin who had been in a hotel there for a Garden Club conference. By afternoon, the sun was breaking out, the snow melted, but we continued to have bands of heavier snow that really weren’t accumulating. It was still near freezing at bed time and the mountain wind had picked up. Apparently it decided winter wasn’t quite over yet in spite of the calendar, because this morning we awoke to the snow cover and this

It is supposed to be springlike again by week end with rain and thunderstorms, but today is a winter day. Yesterday the chickens would not come out of their coop until they could see the ground and then they fled back in when it started snowing to come out back out with the sun.

This morning, they were confused and again did not want to leave the coop. I kicked around the straw so they could see it and since their ramp was clear, most of them came out to get food and water. When checking for eggs, I found this

The Delaware on the bottom, trying to lay her egg and a huge Buff Orpington trying to move her over so they could share the box. Maybe she thought they would be warmer that way. There are 5 other boxes, but interestingly, the 9 hens often all use the same box or the one at the opposite end of the row, rarely is there an egg in one of the middle 4. Crazy chickens.

Life is always an adventure on our mountain farm.

March 26, 2014
Role Model

We should all have one. Mine is now 90 years 7 months old. This weekend he spent with us and I was delighted. This role model is my father. He still takes great care of himself, walking for an hour each morning that isn’t raining and the temperature is at least at the freezing point or above preparing most of the meals for my step mom and him with an eye to their health. He drives within his city, with the care that a 90 year old should take. He delivers Meals on Wheels to other seniors, some decades younger than he. Liberal in his political views, he works with a Peace Making Committee in his region with the wish that our world could see world peace.

He was raised to be a loving and respectful son, educated and independent. Throughout my childhood and my siblings childhood, he instilled within us a challenge to become trained or educated to be able to be independent adults. This was a life lesson that I took very seriously, completing two college degrees to be able to work within the education system for 37 years.

When we still lived on the east coast of the state, holidays were often shared, cookouts and birthdays together. With us having moved across the state, our visits together are sporadic and any visit with him is a treasure. We have just been given 3 1/2 days of his company as my step mom and her cousin were in a nearby city at a State Garden Club conference. This allowed us to enjoy his company, to take him out to dinner with one of his nieces and her husband, to have lunch another day with some friends from his church who have also moved to this community in retirement. We were able to take him through the campus from which he graduated 67 years ago, to look for places he frequented as a student, young husband and new father, as I was born during his final semester. He was in the class of 1945, but his education was disrupted by a military tour during WWII.

He is from a family that enjoyed long lives and I hope that we have many more years of his company.

This morning, during our latest snow storm, we drove him back to Roanoke for him to ride back to the coast with my Step Mom and her cousin. A wonderful visit.

March 25, 2014
Productivity

The short spring of this weekend allowed Jim to take a 175 mile motorcycle ride. While he was out enjoying the weather in a way he enjoys, I got to work outside, which I enjoy. My chickens’ run expanded from 50 linear feet to 175 linear feet. The main body of the run more than doubled and I created a 6 foot wide attached run that goes down one of the long sides of the garden. My hope is that they will help keep the weeds and bugs down from that difficult to mow area.

The main body of the run now also provides a fence half way along one of the shorter sides of the garden and gives them access to a pile of old compost. They spent a good portion of the afternoon dust bathing in that pile and digging for bugs. I wonder how long it will take them to make this area barren of grass too. Putting weeds from the garden will be a much shorter walk now.

After coming in totally worn out, I stopped and unpacked my new spinning wheel. I was so glad to see that as a folding wheel, it came mostly assembled and already packed in its travel bag. There was very little assembly to do and I was soon able to take it for a short spin with a bit of undyed Shetland wool. There are 4 ounces of it to be spun, dyed and turned into something beautiful.

I love life on our mountain farm.

March 22, 2014
Spin cycle

The Vernal Equinox found us yesterday with clear sky, warmer temperatures and wind. It was too windy for Jim to ride, too windy to want to tackle adding ventilation holes higher in my coop, too windy, but so welcome. Today is warmer and calmer. We have three beautiful days as the calm before the next predicted snow event. I get anxious each year to start being outside more, to dig in warm soil, to plant, but truly, it isn’t safe to put much in the ground here other than cold weather crops until Mother’s Day, so I have to wait. I did start my peppers and some of my tomatoes in flats yesterday. I ran out of medium before I ran out of pots and seed.

My new spinning wheel arrived at the shop yesterday, but alas, it isn’t open on Wednesday, so I am meeting the owner in town today to pick it up. I’m excited to put it together and give it a spin.

Today the chicklets are 2 weeks old. I keep waiting to go into the basement and find them everywhere as they are developing feathers and starting to hop and flap higher up the sides of the brooder.

Socialization continues with them, with “The Hand” that appears over the side of the brooder and then teases with wiggling fingers, rings, or a small pile of their food to teach them not to fear me. I don’t handle my birds except when necessary like Wednesday night when 3 got out of the pen while I was out and couldn’t get back in to coop up for the night. When I arrived home around 9 pm and went over to close up the coop, I found Cogburn and two of the hens in a pile huddled together where the fence joins the coop nearest their ramp back inside. Each was picked up, slightly ruffled and put inside on a perch none the worse for wear.

Because of the lack of a spinning wheel and to try to have my sweater finished before the storm next week, I have been knitting only on Estelle. Last night I finished the second sleeve and picked up and knit the first 2 rows of the feather and fan band.

I am pleased that it will probably be finished tonight. Then I have to figure out where the marker goes in my honey cowl and how much of a row I have to tink to get it back on track. My sock needles that I ordered are in route, so I can finish the never ending pair of socks. My yarn came from Quince and Co. to make the Lola Shawl in the issue 9 of taproot magazine and I still have the Unplanned Peacock Botanical dk skein to make into something beautiful that will show off it’s wonderful colors.

We are off to enjoy the spring day, Jim on his motorcycle, me to pick up my wheel then work on the coop and run, maybe get a real gate in so that they can’t escape again unless I let them out. I also need to relocate some of the extra hay that seems to have all worked its way downhill to the end of their run, putting too much mulch around the peach tree and shrub in the run and none up where I enter their pen.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

March 21, 2014
Frozen Fog

We are engulfed in fog. The temperature is still below freezing, the ground still frozen and slick from the sleet storm of day before yesterday, the sky still thick and gray. No more significant precipitation has fallen, some light snow last night, but no more sleet or freezing drizzle.

When the fog thins enough to peek through, you see frosted forests.

This is a pretty sight, but some green buds would be welcome. We are working toward another two day warm up, followed by another potential winter storm. The weather pattern has been strange this year.

March 18, 2014
Stay Indoors weather

Our winter storm didn’t fizzle as we hoped, nor did it give us pretty snow. Instead we are encrusted in ice. The cars look like someone poured water over them in a deep freeze. The yard is white and slick. The chicken coop run has hay on the ground that has 1/2″ of ice on top. The chooks aren’t happy. I finally went out with a pitchfork and turned as much of it over as I could so that they had a place to stand and eat as they came out of the coop and practically knocked each other over trying to get back inside.

The weather prognosticators have extended the weather warnings “until further notice” with more ice, possibly freezing drizzle, maybe snow for the next 36 hours or so. But they are predicting 61ºf by Friday, it is 27ºf now and has been since I got up this morning.

This is a day to stay indoors and read, just finished Jefferson Bass’ latest novel Cut to the Bone. I am a fan of forensic science novels and found this to be a good read. It is the prequel to the Body Farm series. And to knit, still working on the sleeve. I hate knitting sleeves, they are so boring. Once I finish this sleeve, there is a feather and fan band to pick up and knit and I will have another sweater to add to my wardrobe.

This is Virginia, it is time for the winter to go away and bring us some springtime, though last year, we had light snow for 5 Fridays straight right up to mid April. This winter is wearing on us.

March 17, 2014
“Uncle” already

Will it never end? Winter that is. The predicted winter storm has already started, several hours before anticipated and it did not start as rain as predicted, but rather a slushy mix of precipitation.

When I went over to check egg production progess for the day, I don’t want them to freeze as the temperature falls, this is where I found all of the hens. Huddled under the coop wondering when this cold white stuff is ever going to end. At least with the lengthening days, their production is up a bit, getting an average of 6 per day instead of the 4 from mid winter.

The newbies are now a week and a day old and are starting to show signs of tail and wing feathers. The more feathers they grow, the less I worry about the loss of power killing their heat lamp.

I didn’t get around to my laundry and dishwasher detergent making session a couple of weeks ago, just made my lotion bars, but this morning, I realized that I was seriously low on laundry soap and out of dishwasher detergent, so I pulled out the recipes and went to work. I was surprised and pleased after finishing it and calculating the cost, to find that it will cost me less than $.06 per load for laundry and about $.07 per load for the dishwasher. Since I make my own soap, I know what goes into it and added to it only washing soda, baking soda, and borax for the laundry powder, I have an economical product that lacks any of the sketchy ingredients and it is safe for the front loading HE washer. The dishwashing powder costs slightly more per load as the citric acid is a tad pricey, but that mix is only borax, washing soda, citric acid and salt, again an economical product without the sketchy ingredients and safe for the dishwasher and the septic tank. Yes, the process takes about 10 minutes because I have to hand grate the bar soap, but I have a huge jar stored on the mudroom shelf, plus a small container on the washer and one to take to my son next month and I only made half of the recipe.

As the temperature is falling, the stew is simmering, I’m going to light the woodstove and fireplace and sit back and see if I can finish the second sleeve of my Estelle sweater that I am knitting of Quince and Co. Lark yarn.

I can’t spin as I packed up my wheel and shipped her off to her new home in Michigan and my new one won’t be in until late in the week.

Life is an adventure on our mountain farm.

March 16, 2014