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Spring in Virginia can never make up it’s mind. Usually by mid May it has settled into predictable days and nights, but this week it is yoyoing. We had two freeze warnings for Friday and Saturday nights, yesterday, I worked in short sleeves. Today it is mid 40’s, gray, and very windy again with freeze warnings tonight and tomorrow night, but we are expecting daytime temperatures in upper 70s to lower 80s by the weekend.
Today’s walk was winter clad, wool hoody, quilted long sleeve jacket, gloves. The wind blowing down the mountain burned my face and though after doing some steep uphill walking I could partially unzip the jacket, I never did warm up.
I came up the hill right behind this tree with clusters of purple bell shaped flowers and still holding seed/nut hulls from the fall.
I took a steep but slightly shorter walk, just because of the cold wind.
Last weekend, I did a spindle exchange with another spinner from Minnesota. I got the one I was sending in the mail promptly and she mailed the one I was receiving also on Saturday. Much to my surprise and hers, it arrived in today’s mail. I’m sure she won’t see the one I sent for a couple more days.
This one has the largest wingspan by about a half inch, but is 3 grams lighter than the next largest one. It is made of apple wood, next smaller is Osage Orange wood, the larger of the tiny ones is Purple Heart, the smallest is Olive wood.
I have thoroughly enjoyed spinning on these tools.
After the 3 beautiful days, the temperature dropped from near 80 to low 40’s and it rained. Two chilly, dreary days. Today the sun came out, the temperature recovered to the 60’s with wind and a mild night, but tomorrow and Saturday nights, we have freeze warnings. After the two days of being cooped up, I gladly got outside today. The tractor helped me push over the big round hay bale. I have spent the winter peeling as much hay off the top as I could and had to tip over to get to the layers underneath the bale. The wet, compacted layers were hauled a strip at a time over to the garden gate and put down over the cardboard, weed mat, and to thicken the layers in the other aisles.
This will help keep the weeds down and make maintenance of the garden easier once it is planted.
This is Ms. Broody. I spent last summer fighting her broodiness and it has already begun for this year. I am going to put a leg band on her to make sure it is the same one each time and if it is, she will not stay as part of this flock. It is frustrating to feed a hen that plucks her breast feathers out and sits but does not provide over and over all summer.
On Monday, I received a tiny spindle that I have wanted for quite a while. The little tool spins cobwebs. The thread on the bobbin was spun on that little spindle, the thread to the right is sewing thread.
After filling the spindle twice, it plied to 48 yards and only weighs 8.81 grams (.31 ounces).
Tonight’s walk was off to the cow fields and then off road on our farm, to areas that can’t be mowed, that have the native fauna and flora, set high between two creeks.
The bony white cow in the back with all the calves is neighbor’s oldest cow and she seems to be the baby sitter, every time I see her she has a brood of calves with her and only one of them is hers. The “angel” sitting on the point was given to me by a boss when she retired. Every year since, I have received a holiday card from her with news of her kids and grand kids, and of a few former co-workers. I didn’t hear from her this year and have no one to contact in the area to see if she is okay. When she retired, she gave every member of the counseling office staff an angel to remember her by, she loved angels. When we bought this property, the angel was put on the point and visiting the point is getting more difficult now that nothing grazes up on that part of the farm. The bottom photo is a wild sedum of some sort that was all over the damp area around the point.
When I was younger, I never had sleep issues. I have always been an early to bed, early to rise person, but as I am aging, the sleep schedule seems to be off kilter. I still want to be in bed by around 10 p.m., but often awaken around 1 a.m. and can’t get back to sleep for a few hours. Then when the sun comes up, I don’t feel rested and often stay in bed dozing and waking for another hour or so.
Determined to examine my habits and see if I can get back into a healthier routine, I have signed off of Facebook. I realized that too many of the posts were virus or politics related and that caused me stress, because of the total saturation on TV and social media. I found that where I used to just skip through it, I was making snarky comments or wanting too and refraining from doing so which then caused me more stress. I have avoided reading news feeds. I can’t totally avoid the news because I am not alone in the house and my husband is a television watcher and news feed reader and so I hear it on the tube or we have conversations about an article he saw or read.
Through out my adult life, I have quit caffeine and started caffeine again in the form of coffee or tea. That is an area I can control and have returned to a policy of not drinking a caffeinated beverage after lunch. With the stay at home orders, my diet has cleaned up considerably as all meals are at home and I am controlling the ingredients, the seasoning, the fat. I have never had a problem with alcohol or tobacco, so that hasn’t changed.
We were already in a habit of walking nearly every day, but generally on a mostly flat paved trail. Being at home, the walks are on our rural road or the fields and as we live in the mountains, I can challenge myself by going off road and climbing steep terrain or stay on the road, which still has some significant elevation change over it’s mile. I can now leave home and regardless of the route, keep walking without having to stop to catch my breath and let the blood pressure pounding in my ears settle. Though I enjoy walking on the flats with hubby, I can challenge myself more alone.
With spring here, there is garden work, a lawn to be mowed and edged, and those are added to the daily cooking, cleaning, laundry chores, so I stay busy which keeps me from nodding off in my chair. I do take breaks and spend the evenings in my chair with my spindles and knitting to keep my hands busy and allow my mind to focus on creativity instead of news and other stressors.
Each day I try to get in a walk. We used to go to town nearly every day for lunch and take a walk on one of several paved trails, but with the Stay at Home order, the walks are limited to home areas as even the marked trails in the National Forest are closed. When the weather is too wet, because our road is not paved, I will concede to walk on the treadmill, though my tolerance of it is much lower than being outdoors. Yesterday was miserable, cool, windy, and rainy so to the treadmill I went. I am trying to keep up my stamina which doesn’t work on flat walks very well, so I spent 35 minutes walking at 3 or more miles per hour at an incline of 6 to 8%, then a few slow minutes flat to cool down. It was a good workout, but boring. We have a TV down there and I put it on a music station, but I can’t hear it over the machine without turning it up so loud it drowns out the upstairs TV that hubby is watching.
Today is a cool but sunny day so I took off up the road, then off road for some exercise. Our road has a cattle grate set in it not far beyond our house then I am in the middle of fields with cows. There was a calling back and forth between the various groups today. When I headed out, they were all off in the distance. When I go off road, I challenge myself.
This steep moss covered hills crests to a high spot where I can look down on the hollow and our house. Back down this hill across the pasture I see groups of cattle munching on hay.
This young one was more interested in me than the hay. Back on the road home, there were two cows with their calves that I had to walk quietly by. One calf was nursing and not at all concerned about me, the other’s mom was unconcerned, but the little one was less sure.
Before I left to wander the hills, I turned the hens loose for free range time. Only 7 came out, so I peaked into the coop and found the other two sharing one nesting box (there are 6 boxes), and instead of side by side facing out, they were 69’d.
One head, one fuzzy butt.
It is nice to be able to get outside and enjoy the beauty of this area.
Today was a glorious spring day. Tomorrow is wet and cooler again, then we warm up to spring for a while. Taking advantage of the beautiful weather, I transplanted the Calendula seedlings, some in the bed with the volunteers, some in a big pot on the deck. Also the Echinachea was given a partial bed and some in the same big pot. A few sprinkles of marigold seed were added to the pot and one of the flower beds. I want flowers, lots of flowers to brighten our days. It is still way too early to move the tomatoes, peppers, and tomatillos out to the garden, but the spinach starts were added to one of the half barrels that have lettuce, radishes, and Chinese cabbages in them. There are a few other spinach plants that were direct seeded in one of the beds with peas, but most of them became victims of the hens the first time they got in the garden.
Since dinner out isn’t an option anymore and since Eat’s Natural Food Store, one of my favorite local businesses, is providing email ordering and curbside pick up, I resupplied on Yogurt, nuts, herbs, and a selection of Mediterranean goodies like olives, hummus, Dolmas, and Feta. Tomorrow I will make Pita bread and we will have Greek salads and hummus with Pita for dinner. Since I don’t have to cook any of it except the Pita, it is almost like dinner out.
This evening, before the rain and wind resume, I wandered our hills again. Each adventure out has something new to see. I could hear one of the neighbor’s cows bawling well away from the road and spotted 3 of the spring calves trotting in her direction. I didn’t get a photo of them today. The recent wind had brought down a dead limb that the woodpeckers had really worked over.
When we had our perk test done for our septic during pre-construction, the soil scientist told us that we had really good soil because we were on the leading edge of an alluvial field from the last ice age. When you walk our road, you can see evidence of it in the huge scattered, eroded rocks.
On our way home from the grocery pick up, we drove across the top of our field to see how the grass for hay is coming along. It is so emerald green now. It will sprout seed heads which will brown off before it is mowed and it will either green up again if we have rain or remain brown for the rest of the summer. This is looking west back toward the orchard, coop, and house.
One of the bluebirds was visiting the feeders this evening.
I was hopeful that they got one of the nesting boxes by the garden, but it appears that both are occupied by tree swallows again. On the hillside in the distance, you can see the trees beginning to leaf out, and the very green shrub in the rock pile directly behind the bluebird is Autumn Olive. It is an invasive shrub that was deliberately introduced to the state as an ornamental shrub for landscaping. You can’t kill it my cutting it down, it has to be pulled up by the roots. On my way out to walk, I started the tractor for the first time this spring. If I can get a pin for the hitch, I will use a long piece of chain that we have to wrap around some of them and pull them up this spring. They can be burned after they dry and the hay has been mowed.
Whenever we go out away from home, not often recently, but I always carry with me a small knitting project or a drop spindle. My favorite one to take is one of my newer ones, the diminutive 2″ spindle in my last post. Because it is so small and fragile, I worry about breaking it, and today, I emptied a small 3″ diameter by 3″ tall round tin that had tea in it. It is the perfect size to fit the spindle and a couple ounces of fiber and is protected in my bag in the car.
My spring walks are improving my stamina. The road is not flat and the hills are not gentle. When I started earlier this spring, I would have to stop and catch my breath a couple times. I still slow down on the steepest part on the way back home, but I no longer stop.
Until we visit again. Goodnight from the mountains.
Two of my favorite books, Follow the River by James Alexander Thom and She Walks These Hills by Sharyn McCrumb are based at least loosely on the capture and escape of Mary Draper Ingles. Her capture was only a short few miles from here and after her escape and following the New River back, she was found even closer to here.
Each time I go off into the fields and woods of these mountains, I think of those two books. Today we are awaiting the arrival of more threatening weather, so my walk was right after lunch.
Some firsts, purple violets, buttercups (did you put them under a friend’s chin and tell them whether they liked butter), Virginia Bluebells at the mouth of the cave, Elderberry, wild daisies.
The wind picked up while I was walking and the sky is darkening, though the worst of the weather isn’t due until overnight. Not wanting to deal with a storm warning in the middle of the night and since we can’t go anywhere during the stay at home order, I went ahead and put the cars back in the garage.
It was actually much easier after the clean up of last week. I was able to get out without trouble and walk around them.
After the walk, I pulled out the box of saved seed, the new seed, the newly purchased seed starter tray. Grabbed some garden tools and headed to the garden, trying not to be overwhelmed because of the weeds, the wobbly fence, and the deteriorating raised bed boxes. The upper edge of the garden has the compost pile, the asparagus bed, and a 4 by 4′ box. A bit of weeding around the boxes, cleaning up the asparagus bed, and the box. After pulling the spoiled hay off of the box, I planted 4 row feet of spinach seed.
The next row below is a sound 4 x 4′ box that is planted with garlic and perennial onions, some straw needed to be pulled back from the onions, the garlic comes up right through it. Next to that box was a 4 X 8′ box that had not been levelled well when built and was breaking apart. I took the drill and some screws out, dismantled the box, created a spot immediately below the top row box, in line with it with a slightly narrower aisle, laid down newsprint and cardboard in the aisle and bottom of the proposed box. Using the old corners and boards, instead of putting it together in the corner grooves, using screws the boards were fastened to the corner posts to make sturdier though a few inches smaller box. Soil from the dismantled box was shifted to the new box and between that box and the one above it, 24 row feet of dwarf shelling peas were planted. The aisles and beds are full of this.
Fortunately it is fairly easy to pull and it attracts native bees, so it only is pulled from the boxes. It is not going down to freezing tonight and tomorrow is another beautiful day, so I am going to take the rest of the 4 x 8 box and boards and corners from another box to build a fourth box between the one planted today and the garlic. I will try to get more newsprint down under that box and move the rest of the soil. The chicken pen is full of good compost, so I will move a barrow or two over to the garden. If I rebuild the long boxes that are falling apart and level the spots where they will be placed, a little at a time, the garden should be ready for the warm weather planting after Mother’s Day.
Two long boxes are sound, one has the blueberry bushes in it, the other will be cleaned up and compost added to it. One smaller box is the out of control mint bed. If the boards from that box are removed, perhaps I can dig up some of the mints.
Now that dinner has been prepared and eaten, the grow light and warm mat are going to be brought up from storage and the tomatoes, peppers, Chinese Cabbage, and Tomatillos will be sown and started indoors. The cabbages can be planted in about a month, the rest will go in the garden after the last frost date.
Now I need a strong body to help me remove the existing fence, reset the t-posts, remount the fencing in a stronger straighter garden fence. And while that is being done, the chicken pen needs attention too.
We have had so much rain, that the occasional day or two without are such a treat. Today was the second in a row and the last for a while. Yesterday the pretty day was used for outdoor chores. Today, we took a walk. Because of back issues suffered by my love, when we go out together, we keep to smooth surfaces and not too much elevation changes. Between Blackburg and Christiansburg is an old rail grade that has been paved with asphalt, ideal for joggers, bikers, the occasional skateboarder, and lots of walkers, powered conveyance is not allowed. Because of it’s location and access points on and off of it, if you walk near lunch time, you see lots of business folks walking on their lunch break. In some areas, you see houses and parts of Virginia Tech Campus, other parts are in the woods or through the edge of farm fields. I’m not sure how long it is now, as they have extended it in two directions since I moved here. Today, we left from the original start, near the public library branch that for the first 1/2 mile passes between houses, then opens up to agricultural study fields and between a lacrosse and cricket field and the local small plane airport. We walk about 2 to 2 1/2 miles.
This time of year, the spring flowers on the banks behind the houses are beginning to peak through.
There was a bee busy with the crocus. I have wanted a pussy willow since I moved here and have tried to root it unsuccessfully. Maybe I will order one already rooted this year.
Up on our farm, nothing is blooming yet. I don’t even see daffodil shoots, but the iris, day lilies, and Autumn Joy sedum are beginning to emerge. Later, the forsythia, lilacs, and dogwood will bloom, but not for another 6 to 8 weeks. I fear that the warm winter will cause the fruit trees to bloom early and then get hit with a spring frost. I noticed that the garlic and potato onions are up a few inches and they too might get burned back, but if they have established roots from the bulbs, will recover. If the fruit trees bloom early and get hit by frost, we won’t get Asian pears and apples this summer. That will be a disappointment.
I’m glad we got out. Tomorrow will still be in the low 50’s, but rainy. Then we have cooler cloudy days, a couple with sunshine (maybe) but much colder, then back to rain again. When it isn’t rainy, we will add layers and gloves and go on out and walk. It is good for both of us.
Cabin Crafted 