Now comes the time of year when I am pulled two ways, wanting to spend time inside crafting and wanting to be outside working in the gardens and perennial beds. My husband did the seed starting inside this spring and has been itching to get a bunch of it planted. I have to keep reminding him that here in our part of the country it really isn't safe to put tender plants (tomato, pepper, cucumber, zucchini) out until Mother's Day weekend due to a chance of frost. We do have onions planted and coming up, about 2/3 of the broccoli, cauliflower, and cabbage plants are in. A few rows of peas are popping up after a nice rain the other morning. Radishes, kohlrabi, carrots, along with some lettuce, spinach & kale were all planted this week. I think my husband is going to put a few rows of sweet corn in the ground today (it is supposed to rain again here Sunday). He has also been planting several new trees. We are starting a small orchard area with some apple and peach trees. We also wanted a little more of a visual barrier on a couple sides of the property (less for the dogs to bark at), so he has been planting a lot of small thuja type trees (some will stay small, more ornamental, and some will grow huge).
The flower bulbs I planted last fall are starting to put on a colorful arrangement out front with spring flowers. Most of the perennials I was able to save from the farm have been transplanted and are putting on new growth. The rhubarb is coming back, I think I have 9 plants coming up this year. The strawberry patch is all cleaned out and growing, we are hoping to have a wonderful strawberry harvest this year. I like the June bearing variety, having them all come on at once and doing a couple big rounds of freezing or processing into jam (and of course some for fresh eating).
I have a couple of wonderful partnerships going on with crafts. I have started taking coffee bags (burlap type) and turning them into really neat rugs, placemats & coasters. I have also been making the feed bag totes, I washed up a bunch of feed sacks yesterday and hope to sew some more of those together this weekend.
My husband invested in a cutter for making easier work of cutting large remnants and the coffee bags, that should be arriving in a few days...we are anxious to try it out. I spent some sewing time with a dear friend this week, I have not sewn from patterns in many years....she was kind enough to walk me through it. I had my first opportunity in sewing on a computerized machine, I was very apprehensive of it at first but have to admit it was a lot of fun. I am finally putting my serger to use on the initial steps of the feed sack totes, nice to be able to use it.
I have started using a second recipe in some of my soap making. I have some that I like better under the cold process but have also included a hot process (that includes lard in the recipe) and have found some soaps work better with it. A friend has helped me with rebranding and some new packaging for the soaps and they have turned out beautifully! My husband made me some wooden soap forms for the hot process soaps, they are working very well to keep a more standard size bar that I am still able to hand cut.
Well, as I said.....this is rough time of year for me, so much I want to do inside and out. That time for today starts now, the sun is just about ready to rise, time to go let the chickens out, get another batch of soap going, some loom warping done, and see what else we can get in the garden before it rains tomorrow. Have a wonderful weekend! Hope all of you are able to enjoy a little outside time with some nice spring weather this weekend.
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