From Inside to Outside

We are going from cold and snowy to warm and sunny this week at breakneck speed (for Montana). This is the time of year that everything happens at once. I will get seeds started tomorrow, but other jobs on the list include pruning the fruit trees and grapevines, fixing some trellises out in the garden, making sure the tractor is ready to go, and spreading chicken manure around. Some of the black plastic needs to be moved. I have a rough idea in my head where things are going to get planted, but a formal sketch would be helpful.

We could still have weeks of cool weather, yes, but if I don’t start thinking about some of these things and planning for them to get done, they will take me by surprise when the weather does stabilize. And I am looking forward to getting outside and moving around.

I’m canning a batch of beans today and working on other inside tasks. This house is going to need a good cleaning soon. The indoor lettuce-growing setup seems to have run into a problem. I need to look at it and figure out what is going on. Quilting and sewing are going to have to take a back seat for a bit. I am making a conscious effort not to be distracted by new projects. When I do have time to sew, it’s going to be focused on finishing what’s already in the pipeline.

I’ve had my fill of making hexies, so I got out the embroidery projects to work on in the evening. This is a pincushion kit I picked up at As the Crow Flies near Spokane in January:

This is ready to be assembled and stuffed. I’ve also got a kit that Tera gave me that needs to be finished, my embroidered chicken project, and this one:

I broke down and bought the printed pattern. Squash Squad was a free stitchalong that Sue Spargo hosted in the fall of 2020 on Instagram. I tried to participate in the stitchalong while it was happening, but Instagram is not my favorite social media platform and it was just too frustrating. Sue’s videos were supposed to be on IGTV—Instagram TV—but Instagram shut down access to some features due to “misinformation.” Trying to find specific posts for the stitchalong was a nightmare. I am hoping that I can restart this now that I have the written instructions all in one place.

I just realized that my embroidery projects consist of sewing machines, chickens, and vegetables. LOL. I have a pig one started somewhere, too, but it hasn’t resurfaced recently. The husband helped me measure for shelving in DD#2’s bedroom. I’ll pick up the supplies this week. Once he installs it, I’ll be able to corral some of these works-in-progress.

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The BMW has been running very well since the husband replaced the EGR valve. I haven’t had a single light come on. I am particularly grateful right now for the fact that my car gets 40 miles to the gallon. When the snow tires come off, I can go back to driving in Sport mode, which will make WS happy when he travels with me.

I think we’re going to sell our stock trailer at the upcoming fire department fundraising auction. It is a gooseneck trailer, and the only truck with a gooseneck hitch is the one that was totaled in the accident. (We are still waiting to hear on the settlement.) We talked about pigs again last night. We’re still going to take a year off, and if we don’t have a stock trailer, this will be a good year to do it.