Out of Hibernation

We’ll see if I can get through today without taking out any windmills.

I worked outside on Saturday. We have a very tiny window for burning slash piles—tiny because of the weather and tiny because of the husband’s schedule—and we would like to get as much done as possible before open burning season ends. This is continued cleanup from that windstorm in March 2020 when we lost dozens of trees.

Our neighbor, Ali, who works for the state department of natural resources in their forest management/fire division, came over for a few hours Saturday morning to help us. She set up her camera to take time-lapse photos. (When she finishes the montage and releases it, I’ll post a link to it.) These piles of brush have been drying out for a year. They burned hot and fast. The problem with spring (and fall) burning is that sometimes the wind comes up and fires get away from people. Just after lunch, the pager went off for an out-of-control grass fire south of us. The husband left me in charge of the burn piles and went and got the wildland engine from the station. Just as he was returning from that fire, though, the pager went off again and he headed off to another grass fire down in the valley.

Cleaning up this mess gives us a lot more usable area on our property. I’m not sure what we’ll do with it yet, but it’s not nearly as hospitable to ground squirrels as it used to be and that’s a bonus. We do plan to put a new driveway along the south edge of our property at some point, and our neighbors just to the south are planning to put up a fence line there. All of this should look much nicer in a year or two. We should be able to finish up the rest of the burning next weekend.

[I think I need to start shopping for a nice riding lawnmower.]

Inside the house, I took down all the insulated shades and swapped out our heavy down comforter for the lighter summer one. I like being able to see out the windows again.

We do need some rain. A weak front came through last night with a bit of wind and rain, but we could use more moisture.

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I am going to finish up the sewing projects I have in the pipeline: quilting the green/purple quilt, getting the Flower Garden quilt basted, finishing the Pepper and Flax top, and completing a few small miscellaneous projects. After that, I’ll reassess where I am before I start anything else. You can expect more garden and animal pictures for the next couple of weeks. Tera and her husband just got a small flock of sheep and I plan to stop over there soon to check them out. I am sure Cathy has got calves on the way. Our peeps are doing well. Piglets won’t arrive here until the end of May/beginning of June, although Elysian thinks her sow is pregnant and may have babies this month. It’s a busy time of year, for sure.