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The past few days have been beautiful spring days, today the high of 52 occurred at 7 a.m. and is headed down to freezing tonight with snow flurries expected shortly for an hour or so. The wind has kicked up and is rocking the trees in their new coats of tiny leaves.

The littles all returned to the coop on their own last night. The escape hatch was sealed with rocks and an additional fence post before they were let out yesterday morning, but one managed to find a way into the garden compost pile. I will have to try to figure out how that happened as that side of the pen has double fence to make the holes smaller and is tight to the ground. She was removed and returned to her flock without incident. I’m unsure about letting them out this morning. The hens would return to their coop if it started cold rain or snow, I’m not sure the littles are that savvy yet.

Last evening, we went west to the next town to get carry out Tex/Mex dinner and as we sat in their parking lot eating, a quick storm came through producing the first rainbow of the season for me.

We watched as it went from a sliver on the south end to a full ground to ground arc that was wide enough to see all the prismatic color bands.

As a test for my bag idea for my shop, I took the scraps I was knitting into the log cabin mini blanket apart and started Tunisian Crocheting them into a 6″ wide strip. I think if I crochet strips, using different yarn scraps and sew them together, line them with quilting cotton, and add a braided leather thong handle, they will make nice bags. This strip will continue until it is as long as my craft display table is wide then I will start another strip of other breeds and make my scrappy blanket that way to show off the breed differences.

While we were returning from dinner and watching the rainbow develop, another square for the larger Breed Blanket was finished. Earlier in the year, I spun and knit a square of Gotland wool, but had only enough for one square. I purchased another couple of ounces of it and finished the second square last night. The rest will be spun and used in the scrappy blanket and in bags.

That makes three breeds again this month and 5 more squares knit for the blanket. So far there are 20 blocks each 8 inches square with 8 more months to go. I have no idea how that blanket will ever be able to be washed with all the different wools and the size it will be. I would just wash it and let it felt except that the wools wouldn’t all felt to the same size and some are more resistant to felting at all.

We have had a string of May like weather this week. Time to really think spring. The peas are up a couple inches and there were blank spots where a seed didn’t germinate or a hungry critter ate it, so the blanks were filled in and the seedlings watered in. Wanting to hurry this process along to have veggies from the garden, I preordered more lettuce and brassica starts from one of the vendors at the Farmer’s Market to pick up on Saturday and they will be tucked in to the bed that has the greens started in it. Soon it will be time to trellis the pea shoots and figure out how to thwart the cabbage moths from laying their eggs on my brassicas. I don’t want kale and cabbage full of little green larvae that eat the leaves faster than I can pick them off for the chickens.

The first batch of tomato seedlings are spending every day on the back deck and some nights too. If it is going to get cooler than 45 f I bring them in. The second batch are about ready to pot into 4″ grow pots to join them. The Thai basil seed is growing in the hydroponic starter, but the cilantro still shows no sprouts. They either take forever to sprout or the seed was no good, but you would expect at least one to germinate. The Thyme in the hydroponic herb garden was getting out of hand, so it and the mint have been moved outdoors. The parsley, Thai basil, Genovese basil are thriving in the herb garden and more dill and basil have been started. I have an empty cell from moving the Thyme, so I need to decide what to start there. When I transplant the tomatoes from the second hydroponic unit, there will be more empty cells to fill. Maybe with spring and summer coming on to provide herbs and vegetables outdoors, the two hydroponic gardens will be shut down, cleaned, and replanted when it gets too hot outdoors for the greens. I have ordered new herb pods to start for next winter.

Several years ago, I traded some plants for some daffodils, but they were not planted in a good place and never did anything. I realized a few days ago that I had a small Nandina shrub that was being dwarfed by a Barberry tucked in the back corner of the breezeway set back, so yesterday I dug it out and moved it to the front of the house with the other Nandinas there and in doing so, dug up two clusters of tiny daffodil bulbs. This spring, I bought bulb starts from Kroger and planted daffodils in the east garage bed and the walled garden.

They are to provide spring color before the Iris and later the Day lilies bloom, so I moved the two clusters of small bulbs to better locations and hope that I will begin to have nice bunches of Daffodils to cut in a couple of years.

On the back deck steps are pots that contained flowers from last year. One pot had Pansies in it from two years ago that came back last year and self seeded in the pot. The small pot isn’t full, but it was exciting to find some flowers as I descended the stairs to fill bird feeders.

The Hummingbird feeders were filled and hung yesterday. I haven’t seen any birds yet, but the tracker indicates they are being seen nearby, so maybe soon they will dart in and out to delight observers as they hover and feed and chase each other off.

This morning, I saw the first Eastern Bluebirds of the season at the feeders. I hope they beat the tree swallows to at least one of the Bluebird houses in the garden. I have one more house, but no pole to attach it to.

As I transplanted the Thyme in the walled garden, I realized that the herb area and another area nearer the deck need more soil, it has settled or blown down to lower areas. A few more bags of mulch are needed to to the last small section of path in the veggie garden, so I think one more run to the big box hardware store is needed.

The chicks are thriving in the coop and seem less afraid of me when I’m not a giant looking down on them, but rather a benign being bringing treats to the thigh high coop. They have discovered the perches and realize they can see out the windows and see me coming when they are up on them. About half of them will eat seed from my hand. I’m hoping the others will get brave enough to do so as well. I don’t pick up and handle my birds any more than necessary, but it is nice to have them not fear me when I enter their midst or know that I am the giver of treats when they are out and I need them back in their pen.

Yesterday at dinner, daughter said she took today off to spend with her kiddos and they were looking for a hike. I suggested that they do Kelly’s Knob and I would go with them. I have hiked it twice with Son 1 and family, the first time a backpacking, the second time from the road to the Knob and back because my knees were so sore by the time we got there the first time, I couldn’t get out on the rocks at the Knob. I had forgotten that the 1000 foot elevation change happens almost entirely in the first .5- .75 miles, then the hike levels out along the ridge line with a couple of shorter ups and downs, but basically a gentle walk once to gain the elevation. The hike is a bit more than 5 miles round trip.

It hasn’t greened up that high yet, so the trees are still bare, the only green being the moss and lichens. We heard no wildlife going in but had a Chickadee serenade us on our walk back out.

It took Daughter and me to get granddaughter across the crevices to get out on that rock, but from there you can look through the gaps in the mountain toward Blacksburg and Christiansburg off in the distance. It was a bit hazy today to see much out at the distance.

I have definitely gotten my workout today. We returned to the house and made lunch with ham sandwiches or salads then moved the chicks to their new abode. I still need to drag the 110 gallon tank out and clean the pine shavings out of it and into the compost pile, wash the tank out and store it away until it is needed again.

I’m glad I can still hike with my kids and they are patient with me when it is steep and I get out of breath.

The past two days have been gorgeous. Yesterday I got most of the lawn mowed. This morning before hubby got up, the edging was done, then the rest of the mowing finished.

In a day or two, the chicks are going to be moved to the coop. Today they are out in the 110 gallon water tank in the sun with netting over the top to keep them from getting out and to keep anything else from getting in. They were going through the food in the smaller feeders, so the big girl feeder was put in the tank for them to get used to it. They also got the big girl water dispenser. They are funny dust bathing in the wood chips in the sun.

Yesterday when walking up to the mailbox, I spotted my first wild bee with full pollen sacs.

I guess it is time to put the bee house out. And in a week it will be time to put the Hummingbird feeders.

Easter meal prepared, enjoyed, and cleaned up with daughter and her kiddos. Egg hunt was a success. Puppies got attention. Chicks moved back to the shelter and safety of the garage. I’m full and want a nap.

then run like hell to get it all done. The long awaited dishwasher installation was scheduled for today with the “you will get a call when they leave Lowes” message from the installation scheduler. Well, he called at 9 a.m. to ask me if I might have used a different name on the order. Uh NO. It was finally established that the extra parts, ie hose, power cord, counter clips were with my dishwasher, but mislabelled and he would be here after he did another installation. This company installs from Bristol, TN to Roanoke, VA and services 16 Lowe’s stores. He finally showed up at 2 and got the dishwasher installed.

After the very noisy GE we had that failed last winter, this one is so quiet I can’t even hear it running when I’m not standing beside it.

We had errands in town that were missed over the weekend or couldn’t be done until today, so as soon as he left, we hauled into town to get everything accomplished before 4:30 when a buyer for our treadmill was due to pick it up. We were on our way home when he messaged and asked if he could come early and he beat us home, but the treadmill is on it’s way to a new home and the basement has more room for ping pong when grandkids come to visit.

One of our errands was to pick up an alteration. I became enamoured with WoolX clothes a couple of years ago and wear them skin out year round. One of my favorite pieces is a heavy zip up hooded sweater/jacket, but it comes with a wimpy nylon coil zipper. The first one failed when the coil pulled off of the tape so I contacted WoolX and they sent me a replacement and the label to return the damaged one. Well the zipper on the second one failed in the same place, the same way, and again they replaced it and sent the return label. The third one had the same issue and they offered me a full refund as they were not in stock. I didn’t want to give it up, so they gave me a partial refund and let me keep the jacket, indicating they were going to have a discussion with their manufacturer about the zippers. I used part of the refund to pay a local tailor to put a real zipper in the hoodie and got it back today just in time for the not so springtime days coming up for a couple of midweek days and nights.

Somehow in the activity, I managed to smack the back on my left hand on the corner of a counter top and bruised it, then gouged a chunk out of the back of my right hand on the door frame trying to help the large man and his tiny thin daughter load the treadmill into the back of the pick up truck.

Yesterday on the way to Wilderness Road Regional Museum, I finished another square for my breed blanket. I have one more on the needles, to have finished by the end of the month, but here is a picture of the ones done this first quarter and a picture from Founder’s Day yesterday.

The one on the needles is from the same yarn as the bottom right, but the colors are slightly different as the roving had variation in it. There is only one more dyed wool to go in, the rest are white, gray, tan, and black so the colored ones will be spread out through more of the finished blanket when done.

Tomorrow is another sit and wait day as the John Deere Tractor dealer is coming to pick up our tractor to repair a rear tire that went flat and do an annual servicing. We have no idea when they will come.

Each day I see another news article about the amount of plastic in our oceans and our landfills. Another article that reiterates that every piece of plastic that has been made still exists. Another article, that most plastics can’t be or aren’t being recycled.

I drive by the local hay storage fields and see large round bales wrapped in non biodegradable white plastic. As the winter moves into spring, those fields are littered with the white plastic that was torn off of the bale before feeding it to the herds or flocks. I see that plastic in the streams and creeks that flow down to the New River, on to the Ohio River and the Mississippi River and into the Gulf of Mexico.

I try to not buy or use one use plastic plastic, but with Covid, you can no longer take your reuseable cup or mug to be refilled, if you want to eat out, it is take out and though we are seeing more and more use of cardboard containers, there are still styrofoam clamshells used by some food places. When you go in the grocer or even the Farmer’s Market, items are in plastic, so it is difficult to avoid.

Each year I stress when the garden starts providing food that doesn’t get canned in reuseable glass jars with reuseable canning lids, food that is destined to be frozen like peas and beans because the available containers are plastic bags or boxes. I tried wide mouth glass jars one year and had a lot of breakage. Yesterday an ad popped up for compostable 32 ounce bamboo fiber containers with snap on lids. They are hand washable, can go in the microwave or even the oven up to certain temperatures and when you are done, they compost in 90 days. That sounds like a winner. I can freeze peas in a smaller silicone bag and then remove them and pack several lumps in one container. Blanched green beans can be frozen on a cookie sheet and packed loosely. The snap on lids can be labelled with paper tap or written directly on the lid. I ordered a 50 pack to try this year. I hope that I have found a more environmentally friendly way to save my produce that I don’t want to can in glass for the shelves.

Our state has recently enacted legislation that will ban styrofoam and single use plastic by 2025. I see even Glad coming out with alternatives to plastic. I hope there is more of this type of restriction and innovation and less plastic in our future. I wonder how many of our health problems are the result of the rapid increase in the use of plastic in our environment and our everyday life. We already know that the industry has had to change the formulation to remove certain chemicals. Lets hope for change.

As a child we spent a week every summer in the Virginia mountains having travelled from the coast. It was a big “family” reunion, family being both biological and folks we saw but once a year, every year in the same cottage.

When we had children of our own, there were a few visits to the same location and other visits to Big Meadows on the Skyline Drive in the mountains of Virginia on the opposite side of the Shenandoah Valley.

Before children, I backpacked in the mountains with a Trail Club and then both sons became Scouts and I took up backpacking again, going as one of the troop adults on many weekend trips, a couple bringing us near where we currently live.

As our children became old enough to leave home or stay home alone, hubby and I began taking one weekend a year with my Dad and Stepmom to a B&B somewhere away from both of our homes near the coast, usually to the Piedmont of Virginia, they would plan one year and we would plan the next.

As retirement approached, we began looking for a place to build a retirement home and I wanted to move to the mountains. I was most familiar with the Shenandoah Valley areas, but land was so expensive there. Son 1 had hiked the Appalachian Trail and then rode his bicycle from New Orleans and both times coming though the south western part of Virginia. He suggested we look here for land and we found our farm in the Virginia Mountains, a few short miles from the Appalachian Trail, near the West Virginia line, in the county that was the birth place of my maternal grandfather. We built our home here.

I have learned old homestead skills, canning, spinning, raising chickens, making soaps, some herbal medicine knowledge to make healing salves. Along the way, got involved in the history of the area and began to do some 18th century re-enactment using my spinning and fiber history.

We have a lovely small University town only 15 miles away, trails to walk, ponds and lakes to visit, ever changing flora and fauna. I feel like I’m always on vacation in the mountains now.

Still too chilly to want to work in the garden, though the sun is out, if the wind would die down some, I would go start clearing beds and laying cardboard to begin the new beds. Next week is supposed to be warmer. More vendors are back at the Farmer’s Market, and it is starting to look like a real market again, though there was a fool who planted a chair on the sidewalk just outside the market entry gate with a megaphone, yelling an anti-abortion spiel (I think). Between his accent, the market noise, and the wind, I wasn’t sure what his message was, just that he was annoying. The market manager called the police and when I left, they were talking to him, or trying to as he continued to stand on his chair and shout into his megaphone. We left before there was any resolution. I believe in free speech, but I don’t want to have to try to talk to vendors or hear them when we are masked, over some fool shouting through a megaphone.

The local nursery opened for the season, yesterday, and though I don’t want to plant shrubs or pansies, we did go by to get me a planting flat. Once home with the week’s goodies from the market and the new flat, I moved two chairs that aren’t used at the dining table except when we need more than 4, set up a small table I use for craft shows, and started the flat with mesclun mix, spinach, kale, and several herbs. The flat is on the heat mat with the old grow light over it. That light is two small fluorescent bulbs and is fine for starting greens and herbs, but not so good for the tomatoes, thus the new LED hydroponic unit. The kitchen and dining area look like the green house we don’t have, with every available surface growing herbs or starting vegetables for the spring and summer gardens. I ordered some Thai basil and Cilantro seed yesterday, I probably could have gotten them locally as both the nursery and the natural foods store sell the seed I buy from the Virginia supplier.

On a fibery note, early in the week, I caught an update on my favorite spindle maker’s shop and purchased a spindle much larger and heavier than my others to use for plying. Most Turkish spindles have down turned arms. This one has upturned arms and every one made had a Road Runner etched into one arm. These spindles are named Road Runners. It arrived yesterday and I played with it some last night, trying to get used to the size and weight. Since the fiber that came with it, they always send a few grams of some fiber with their spindles, is organic Pohlworth. Since Pohlworth is one of the breeds I selected for my Breed Blanket Project and since what I had on hand is also white, I seem to have started three different breeds for the month. I’m about 1/3 done with the minimum of the one with silk in it, I will get enough of that done to count for the challenge and focus my attention on the three breeds for the blanket for most of my spinning.

I now have 6 Jenkins Turkish spindles in different sizes to serve all fibers and purposes. My poor wheels are totally neglected this year. But they look pretty sitting there.

Well, the chicks that are a week and a half old are getting wing feathers and beginning to try to test them out. I guess I should get on the project of making a lid for the box before they learn they can gain altitude by jumping on top of the water or feeder.