Sneaky Hens

 Being Spring, my hens have been laying eggs like crazy.  Way more eggs than I can use in a week.  I need to get an 'eggs for sale' sign put up at the end of my driveway and figure out a creative wording to use on the nearby community Facebook pages so that I can advertise my eggs without getting a slap on the wrist from the FB censors for selling animal products (apparently violates their policy).

The week before last, however, I noticed a sudden decrease in the number of eggs I was collecting every day.  It went from 9-11 eggs daily to a range of 6-8.  Hmm.  They've got food, they've got water, they seem healthy, why suddenly are 1/3 of them not laying?

Turns out they were laying.  They'd just discovered a way to hide them from me.  Instead of laying them in the six nest boxes I provide in their coop, they were being sneaky and going underneath the tier of nest boxes and behind the extra bags of wood shavings  and bin of hay chaff (for rebedding nest boxes) I store there.

Because when I pulled all that stuff out last week while giving the coop a good Spring cleaning, I found not just a handful of 'missing' eggs, but TWENTY-NINE of them!!

Darn sneaky hens.

Low-Key Cleaning

 Recently, DH said to me "I have an idea, kind of a New Year's Resolution but let's start on April 1st, since the year began almost four months ago.  My idea is, everyday, let's find something to throw away.  Something that's been laying around that is either junk, or broken that we're never going to fix since we haven't all ready, or things we don't even know why they're here anymore."

Since he's usually one to not clean until he gets this fit to clean an entire room/garage/basement NOW and it takes an entire day or weekend and involves me no matter what I'd actually had in mind for that day/weekend, I though this dispose of one thing per day idea was a great one.  Something that's low-key, should be fairly easy to maintain, and over time will result in less clutter.  Plus, it's a good way to start a new habit: looking at what he/we tend to save and learn to let go of it sooner rather than years (or decades) later.

So far, so good.  Some days I see two things and I throw them both away rather than saving one for tomorrow.  And he's managed to see/find one thing each day no matter how busy his day is; like the day he had to go to work in person plus had a Board of Ed meeting that evening and was gone from home 11 hours of the 16 he was awake.

I have to admit, in case the obvious trash-bound items start to get harder to see on casual observation, I jotted down a list of things to look through, or places to look for long-forgotten unnecessary items.  Like the drawers in the low-table that's been down in the basement for about a decade and a half.  What's even in those drawers??  I haven't opened them in at least five years.  More than likely everything in there can go.

Since we tend to keep stuff until it's totally worn out, and even beyond that point, most of our destined for the trash can items are not in any condition to rehome. "Good" stuff with life left in it is going in a different place; a box that will either be donated to a charitable organization or listed online for free/cheap once a month.

Another low-key cleaning method I find myself employing when I don't want to be overwhelmed by the concept of doing one room top-to-bottom (mostly in the case of decluttering a room) is what I think of as stream-of-consciousness  cleaning.  I'll start in a room and say "What doesn't belong in here?"  Then I'll pile together anything in that category that go together in a different place (say, papers needing to be filed).  I usually end up with a couple of piles. Once I've been around the room, I'll take the biggest pile and put it in the room it actually goes in. While I'm there, if I see something in that room that doesn't belong, I'll grab it and put it in the spot/room it does belong.  Then I'll return to the first room, grab another pile, and repeat the process.  

If I actually get the first room done, all piles removed and put away properly, if I still feel like cleaning or have time in my designated cleaning time slot to spare, I'll look around whatever room I ended up in (the final pile from the first room) and ask myself the key question "What doesn't belong in here?" And the pile-making begins again.

It's kind of backward from what most cleaning gurus recommend to do, but sometimes it's the only way I can stay motivated to finish a room.  By leaving the room even for a few minutes and then coming back to it, I feel less like it's a dreaded task I have to fulfill and more like something I want to do during that time slot.  Like I'm not restricted to that spot until the room is spic and span (which makes cleaning feel like a dreaded task) but that I'm free to come and go at will, as long as I take something with me and put it away while I'm gone.

Horse Update, April

 The barn has gotten a ton of DH's and my time and attention this past month.  All stall walls are up, two stalls totally completed with stain, and mats installed on the floors.  The other two stalls have the first coat of stain on the walls, have the gravel floors leveled and tamped, and are ready for mats.

dividing wall between stalls

matted and ready for occupancy

the final two, just need floor mats

looking down the aisle at the four totally finished stalls

Once we had a stall totally completed, I moved the LBM into it.  She and the Poetess really needed separating.  They were having a territorial dispute over the dividing wall between their stalls, and it was taking a beating.  Since moving the LBM across the aisle feeding time (and any time they are indoors) is so much more peaceful.  No more kicking or biting the wall.  Those two get along fine outside, but inside, there was just too much estrogen for the space.  (I really hope future boarders are mostly geldings!)

As mentioned in March's frugal post, I bought a few landscape timbers, got ahold of some exterior grade house paint for free, and painted them white.  Now I have ground poles to work the horses over.  Poetess was familiar with the concept, having done some pole work last fall at the place I'd boarded her, but the LBM wasn't sure what that white thing was lying directly in her path.  She willing followed me over it in hand, after giving it a thorough sniffing, and has been a champ about going over it on the longe line and under saddle both at walk and trot.

freshly painted landscape timbers;

reminds me of brand new pieces of chalk from my school days

The grass is kicking into gear with the warmer weather and spring rains.  You can definitely tell where I longe horses at, LOL.

  

I've had some horse helpers lately too.  Faline helped prep stalls for dinner feeding when she and Buck were staying with us while little brother Sixlet was born.

K3 also spent a night with DH and I--we'd invited her to be 'brotherless' for 24 hours weekend before last, and she actually crawled out of bed at 6:30 a.m. to help with the morning feed in addition to helping with feeding the night before.  She's big enough now that she can also help by leading the Poetess (who is much more patient and less of a bulldozer than the LBM) to or from the pasture for me.

K3 crushing on the Poetess

The LBM and I are riding all over familiar territory outside the fences now, even if DH isn't home.  We even trot without a boundary!  I have to say, her trot is not my favorite, and I've decided that the western saddle I have really isn't the best fit for me; I'm unofficially keeping my eye out for a different saddle that will be more comfy and not make my body hurt after sitting the trot.  I do confess that if the goal is just to get the LBM to work her booty and burn more calories at the trot, I have starting riding a posting trot in the western saddle to save on my body parts.

The Poetess has been working beautifully in a surcingle and side reins (to test how she reacts to rein contact with her mouth).  Last weekend I added a dressage saddle to the mix, and she looked at me like "Finally!  I know what to do with a saddle!".  She's been awesome on the longe being calm at all three gaits and not rocketing off in the canter (which morphed into a gallop on a small circle to the right side) anymore.

slack side reins the first day

I think we are ready for me to get on her back.  Needs to be a day with non-muddy footing and when DH is available to hold her for me when I get on.  She's been practicing standing at the mounting block for me to lean over her back, but I want a handler the first time I get on just in case she reverts back to prior experience as a race horse trainee.  I do not wish to run like the wind as soon as my butt touches the saddle!

Sewing and Stitching Update, April

As the days get longer, and the weather gets warmer, I'm outside more and more.  Always outdoor stuff to be done around this little place here.  And I do love being out in the sunshine.

BUT that means I'm not getting much cross stitching or sewing done lately, and from experience I know that more than likely the amount will dwindle even more as summer gets closer.  So, unless we get a string of yucky weather days (and my housework is caught up; it gets a little behind with the longer daylight/nicer weather days too) there probably won't be as much to show/talk about sewing-wise until late fall gets here.

What did I actually get stitched in the last month?  Well, I got a little of the backstitching done on my squirrel.  Mostly around the eye, on the tail and one of the legs.  Only two colors of floss so far; I think there's eight colors used in the backstitching part of the pattern,

I mended Faline's (hand me down) Easter dress by putting new buttons on it.  It was missing three of the four original white ones.  I didn't have any white in that size, but I did have some pink ones that matched the flowers in the dress, so I went ahead and took the fourth button off and replaced all four.  There was also a part of the sashing around the waist that had come loose, so I sewed that back down too.  And forgot to take a picture, of course.

When I gave that to DD1, she mentioned that Honorary Son had a faux leather jacket that the underarm seam had come unstitched and he'd wondered if I could mend that too.  Unstitched seams are an easy fix (way easier than seams where the fabric shreds), so it didn't take long at all for me to stitch that back together.  Rather than unstitching the inner lining to redo the seam from the inside, I just mattress stitched it from the outside. That worked really well.  Unless you look closely, you can't even tell.  I did take a picture of that, I was so pleased with the repair.  It's about a six-inch long section.  Can you tell?

I had hoped to start cutting pieces for a quilt I've been wanting to make for almost a year.  I had the idea last May, and a pattern in mind (which I purchased when Missouri Star had a deal on printed patterns for $1 each), and a whole stash of fabrics that will work as it's done somewhat scrappy instead of with a fabric line.

While no cutting has been done, I did pull fabrics for what I'm going to call the Airplane Quilt. As you can see, there's a red white and blue theme.  It's intended for DS1, who was an airframer during his time in the Marine Corps, and worked on F-18s.  My goal is to have it finished for his birthday this fall, or, if not then, by Christmas.

My New Grandson Has Arrived!

 Grandbaby #6 arrived almost three weeks ago.  Despite being induced at the 37 week mark, he's the biggest one yet!  8 pounds, 6 ounces and 21 1/4" long!  Which is partly why the doctor decided to induce three week early.

Unlike my other grandkids, it's taken me a bit to figure out what his blog name is going to be. His siblings were easy, as they were both born during deer hunting season, so naturally they got deer-related names.  He was due in early April, and we knew he was going to most likely come via induction before Easter, and I really couldn't find a Spring-ish name that felt right.  And then it hit me:  He's the sixth!  

So, I introduce to you, Sixlet! Anybody remember the Sixlet candies?  I loved those when I was little.  He's small (ok, not compared to the other newborns, but compared to the size they all are currently), and he's sweet, and he's my sixth grandbaby.

Faline adores him

And now that he's here, and his quilt has been gifted, I can finally post a picture of how it turned out.

Knitting Update, April

 Remember last month, when I said I'd started a new pair of socks and was planning to adjust a toe-up crew sock height pattern into a pair of cuff-down ankle socks?  Yeah, I had too much other stuff going on (like having a 3 yr old and a 1 yr old for two days and nights while their baby brother was born) plus came down with a cold (a gift from the grandkids), and was basically mentally fried and ended up ripping out the entire 30ish rows I had knit on the sock because somewhere, somehow, the pattern was off and the desired design wasn't appearing the further I knit.  It was just a garbled, unrecognizable mess.  Which, since I was using solid color yarn, tells you how badly it was going.  I mean, with wildly dyed yarn that has lots of short color changes it's not hard to have the pattern get lost.  But yarn that is all one color, without even tonal changes?  Yeah, it was turning out that awful.

So, start again.  But this time, because I knew I was brain-dead and just wiped out, yet I still wanted to add a new pair of short socks to my wardrobe, I picked a pattern that was SIMPLE and written cuff-down.

This time around, I am making the Churfirsten socks from the book Operation Sock Drawer, although I am altering them to be only ankle socks.   I have an entire 19 rows done at this point, woo hoo!  17 of those rows are the cuff, so pretty easy and repetitive stuff. So far, so good.

I finished reading Beer and Loathing by Ellie Alexander (good, good, good, as usual from her) and managed to read two more books, one of which was very short:

Neurodiversity: The Birth of an Idea by Judy Singer.  This is basically her doctoral thesis that apparently helped to spawn the phrase 'neurodiversity' but, I felt, it didn't really go into the detail I had hoped it would.  It was pretty short, so I did plug away and read the whole thing, but it wasn't what I had hoped it would be when I requested it from the  inter-library loan system.

Canary Girls, by Jennifer Chiaverini.  This one was interesting, partly because I like history, and partly because my own grandmother had worked in a munitions factory in WWII (the book takes place in WWI in England, so not exactly the same time or locations as my Grandma's southern US war experience) for a while until she turned yellow too.  Overall it was a good read, although I do have to say that in parts it felt like reading a high school history report--you know the kind, when you'd look up facts, try to put them in your own words and fit them into the outline your teacher assigned--more than a novel.

Right now I'm about 100 pages into The Tattered Quilt by Wanda Brunstetter.  It's okay.  Not great (although I tend to be a bit pedantic when it comes to assessing writing), but I will read it all the way to the end.  Mostly because I've all ready predicted what the ties between characters will develop into and I want to find out if I'm right.  LOL.

Frugal Accomplishments, March

Where did March go?  It was, apparently, a really busy month for me, because even though it was 31 days long, it flew by.   We did manage to do some frugal stuff during that time, though:

We ate mostly from the cellar, pantry and freezer.  This included a from scratch-ish banana cream pie (scratch-ish because the filling was pudding mix, but I had that mix in my pantry from a bulk buy summer before last!)

I cut DH's hair. He likes it really short, and at about the 5-week mark I can tell he's due for another haircut.

We needed to get some more wolmanized lumber and sheets of OSB for building the rest of the stalls in the barn, and I needed more stain/sealant for the wood, so we utilized a coupon for $25 off a purchase of $150 put on my Home Depot card and made one big shopping trip instead of getting a little now and a little in a month or so.  I'd been wanting to get some landscape timbers to use as trot/ground poles for working the horses over, and it just so happened that by adding 3 landscape timbers to what we all ready planned to purchase on our shopping excursion got us to that magic $150 mark.  So, when the cashier applied the coupon, my landscape timbers (plus about $4 more worth of lumber) ended up being free!  And then a few days later when the purchase appeared on my credit card I paid it off, so no interest accrued.

Then I asked Brad (who works at his family's painting business) if he knew of any white exterior paint that I could get for cheap.  He found a leftover mostly-full gallon of just that exact paint that had been at the paint shop for over a year, and offered it to me in exchange for some eggs, potatoes, onions, and garlic.

Tractor Supply ran a great deal for 25% off the log splitter DH has been contemplating buying to replace our old one that is currently not running (and he's tired of fixing).  So he stopped contemplating, and bought it.  By putting it on my Tractor Supply card rather than paying cash, we got another 5% off.  (And when the transaction appeared on the account, I paid it off with the cash we'd planned to use for the purchase).  30% off a brand new log splitter is tough to beat.  

(And now that he has a new one, he's actually decided to go ahead and fix the old one--with help from DS1--and put it up for sale.  Yay!  Even used, if it's running he can sell the old one for more than half of what we ended up paying for the new one.)

I found a deviled egg tray that holds an entire dozen eggs (so, 24 deviled eggs) for $3.29 at Goodwill.  I've been looking for about six months for one that holds more than 12 deviled eggs and is of good quality.

I went to a local book swap on the 30th and came home with eight books.  

Two other frugal things I did that weren't directly for me/my financial situation:

I mended the sash on a hand-me-down dress that Faline had been given and she wanted to wear for Easter.  It was also missing 3 buttons, so I replaced those using some I have in my button stash.

Honorary Son had a faux leather coat that one underarm seam had come out of, and I stitched that back up for him, so he was stylin' at Easter too!

Horse Update, March

The weather has continued to be really up and down.  Dry, for the most part, which is good because most of the time (except after heavy rain) I can use my designated longeing area as well as ride inside the fenceing without punching up the ground (much).  So there's been lots of longeing for both horses, followed by lots of riding for the LBM.

Poetess is finally settling in to the idea of longeing being calm and stretching rather than run-like-hell-in-a-circle time if I even suggest a canter.  I've put the bridle back on her and we've been longeing in that with much better results than we were last summer/fall.  Honestly, I think her being able to watch me work the LBM (and the Poetess does, for the most part, stand at the gate and watch while I longe the LBM) has helped her get the idea that longeing is not a big deal and we just go walk and trot and sometimes canter on cruise control, not like our tail is on fire.

A few times, after longeing her, I've led her over to the mounting block and had her stand next to it while I climb up the steps.  She's been awesome about standing still, so I've actually laid over her back a few times once I'm at the top of the mounting block.  No signs of nervousness there.  I'm getting really eager to climb on her back and start riding her, but I don't want to be hasty and end up dumped on the ground with broken bones.  I think I'm going to wait until after she has her teeth floated next month, and probably do a little ground driving first to make sure she's calm with contact on her mouth.  Plus, make sure the footing is good and solid (it's been greasy/slick this week) and have DH there as my spotter.

Meanwhile, the LBM and I have been working on short segments of trot under saddle, as well as lots and lots of circles and serpentines reinforcing the neck reining.  Honestly, she turns really well just with a shift of the weight, and little leg contact and a very slight touch of the rein (ie. my finger curls on the rein and she feels it in her mouth), but her owner wants neck reining, so we're working on neck reining.  We've also been working 'outside the fences' more, riding around the outer perimeter of the pasture as well as the (former) alfalfa field that is the designated site for my outdoor arena.  

The outdoor arena is going to be another project in itself, as it needs some grading/drainage work in addition to taking off the topsoil and adding a sand layer.  I'm hoping this summer, but DH is sounding like it's not high on his list for this year. . .  Meanwhile, until we're done with the wet season, the footing there is too wet/deep about half the time. That will change once we get closer to summer.  

With the increasing daylight and just general progression into Spring, there's been an uptick in play during turnout.  It's not unusual to see the Poetess and the LBM out running and racing at least a few days each week.  It's kind of funny, because the Poetess will let the LBM be in the lead all the way to the back (road side) of the pasture and about halfway along the short side.  But once they near the corner for the long side back to the barn you see the Poetess reach and flatten out and in two strides she's way in front of the LBM and just keeps increasing the distance between them.  You can definitely tell who's the Thoroughbred and who's the stocky, most-likely-got-something-gaited-in-her-lineage, horse.  And the extra two hands of height (and leg!) on the Poetess certainly aren't a disadvantage either!

Usually after a race, no matter what the temperature is (65 degrees or barely over 30 degrees), both horses throw themselves down for a good roll.  I managed to catch a picture of the Poetess mid-roll a couple weeks ago.

Barn progress has been sporadic.  

We got the third pasture secured (gate hung and electric tape electrified) but I haven't turned horses out in it yet because I don't want them punching up yet another soggy pasture, so I've been waiting until a dry spell where the ground is solidified.

DH bought lumber for the extra height (drop?)  needed on the two bottom boards of the stall doors I mentioned last month and got those put on.  We were in a warm spell at the time, so I got them stained and sealed right away.  Now we just need to put mats down in those two stalls and they will be ready for use.  He'd wanted to do that the day after putting on the new door bottom boards, put I'd apparently strained myself helping lift and carry one of the doors and I was having muscle spasms in my chest and back so I was unable to help with anything heavy for a week (like 100 pound stall mats) and we just haven't gotten back to that task yet.  Maybe this coming weekend.

 

Sewing and Stitching Update, March

There's been a whole lot of sewing going on lately.  Mainly the quilt for grandbaby #6, whose arrival is imminent.  I finished hand sewing the binding last night.  Because it hasn't been gifted yet, I'm going to wait until the April update to show pictures of the entire quilt. Here's a sneak peek:

The backing is a large piece of flannel that I bought at my favorite vintage/antique mall just over a year ago.  Kind of an ironic story now, as both DD1 and DD2 were with me at the time, and when I saw this fabric in one of the booths for less than $10 and it was very obviously more than 3 yards of fabric (therefore a great price), I grabbed it. Showing them my awesome find, I said "the next grandson I get is going to have this for the backing on his quilt." 

I was thinking that, fingers crossed, it might be DS2 and his wife as they had indicated they'd really like to get a family going.  Or, fingers uncrossed, might be DD2 and Brad if they weren't careful enough (DD2 has long said she is happy being an Aunt with no ambition to ever be a Mom).

Turned out about 8 months later, DD1 said "Surprise! You're getting a new grandchild in 2024! (And BTW, we're surprised too!)"  And then, in December, when she shared the news that she's carrying another boy, well, obviously he was going to be the lucky recipient of this cute tow truck fabric.

The yarn thief snubbing me because I told her she was in the way

 while I was pinning up the quilt for it's photo shoot.

In the last week or so, that baby quilt has taken up all my free time.  There's been no knitting done, and no work on my counted cross stitch.  Prior to that, though, I had been stitching an hour or more each week and have gotten the adorable squirrel just about all stitched.

I have to finish stitching the random snowflakes in the 'air' around him, and then do all the back-stitching. The designer of this pattern uses a lot of back-stitching to add definition and realism.  With the baby quilt finished, I foresee a return to evening cross stitching and maybe a completely back-stitched squirrel to show you next month.

Knitting Update, March

 Well, last month I set myself a goal to finish sock #2 of my Textured Lace Socks.  Did I do it?

Yes, yes I did!

Natural light showing the colors a little truer.

And then I promptly cast on for another pair of socks, also for me, but this pair will be ankle height.  I am attempting to adapt a crew sized, toe-up sock pattern to a cuff-down anklet knit.  So far, so good.

Actual yarn color;

Knit Picks Stroll in Buoy

The pattern I'm adapting (ie, using the chart, backwards since I'm doing cuff-down not toe-up) is Love Needs A Heart from the book Operation Sock Drawer.  I did my own cuff, a simple K2 P2 for twelve rows, then started the Toe and Instep Chart (from the book) at row 51 and am working backwards.  In the above picture I have completed just three rows of the chart. My plan is to do about 20 rows then begin the heel.  I'm sure I'll be able to be that far and take photos for next month's knitting update.

In the past month, I read three books:

The Bookshop on the Shore by Jenny Colgan, which was a light read with some deeper tones.  It is sort of a sequel to The Bookshop on the Corner, but the characters in the first one have much smaller parts in this second book. (note: link is to audiobook, but I read the hardcover from the library.  Amazon's pic of hardcover did not match the edition the library had but the audiobook pic did, so that's the link I used so you could 'see' the book.)

Ape House by Sara Gruen.  Interesting on many levels, I liked this book.  I found this author years ago, when she had just one (horse-related) novel, and have read and thoroughly enjoyed all but her third book (she has written five).  I tried reading the third many years ago, but set it aside after just a few chapters.  Perhaps it was just the wrong time for me for that particular book; I may have to borrow it from the library and try again.

It Could Always Be Worse by Margot Zemach is a children's book, and I got it from the library to read to the grandkids.  It's a really cute read, and they loved it when I read it to them with inflection and different voices for the different characters.

Currently I am reading Beer and Loathing by Ellie Alexander.  It is the latest (print) novel of the Sloan Krause series.  I'm not a e-reader type, so I'm a little frustrated that there seem to be some in-between novellas that are only available on Kindle.  Anyway, I just finally got my hands on a print copy of this one (via inter-library loan after waiting about six months for one to be available--my local library system only 'owns' e-versions) and I'm only through chapter two, so will have to wait until next month to give an opinion on it.

Frugal Things, February

 Other than our normal stuff like eating from what we have on hand in freezers, cellar, etc., baking our bread and cooking from scratch daily, and getting books from the library rather than buying them, I'm not remembering much of note in the frugal department this month.  Not that we spent money lavishly or indulged in things we wouldn't normally do, just that there seemed to be fewer bargains found this month.  Or, maybe just other than bills we didn't spend much money?  I mean, not spending money you don't have to is the ultimate frugal accomplishment, right?

Of note, DH did find a listing on Craigslist for a place that was having a used horse blanket sale the next day with nothing priced over $25, so he and I went to that to see if I could pick up any deals.  And I did. They aren't beautiful (they've had repairs), but they're solid, and have all their necessary straps and buckles.  I got one that is a heavyweight, which I don't have in Poetess's size, and one that will make a handy spare if the Poetess happens to destroy or soak her mid-weight blanket and needs another to wear while the original dries/gets mended.  Best of all, they were only $20 each. If you want to know how much of a frugal win that was, just google mid-weight or heavy-weight horse turnout blankets and see how pricey they are new. I also picked up a blue square fleece cooler with ties for just $5.  It has a small triangular tear which will be easy to mend.  

I ordered all my garden seeds and onion starts.  Of the five places I ordered from, one was having a 25% off special on all orders placed that day, another was offering free shipping with no minimum order amount, and yet another had some flower seeds I'd been thinking about for 50% off.  Which ended up being a savings of about $20 total.  With a good growing season, that $20 savings on seeds will compound into hundreds of dollars saved on food (that won't have to be bought at the store) in the coming year.

I don't go to the grocery store but about twice a month, and I'd been watching their weekly ads for the best time to go shop (as long as we didn't run out of milk, everything else is just restock, not totally out of it).  I went when they were having a 2-day special on our favorite brand of ice cream: Buy One Get One Free!  Since this ice cream is normally about $6 a carton, that's a great savings.  (Note here; due to my sensitivities to a lot of things like artificial sweeteners and soy proteins as well as some other soy derived additives, there's not a lot of brands of ice cream I can safely eat. Which is why we get the pricey ice cream.)  I bought four cartons, hoping that lasts us until the next time this brand goes on sale. 

This is probably a good spot to mention how useful a stand alone freezer can be as a money saving tool.  Without that extra freezer space, I wouldn't be able to fit four boxes of ice cream in my freezer at once!

I found the brand of wet cat food that the Yarn Thief eats on sale for $3 a box cheaper at the local farm store than it is even on Amazon, so I bought a month's worth while I was there getting horse farm stuff.

DH and I used a few tractor bucket scoops of the pine mulch we got free back in December to mulch around and in the grape arbor and the rhubarb patch.  Hopefully that will work well to keep the weeds suppressed in those areas.

I was given a whole bunch of quilting fabric. My mom was approached by a lady she goes to church with, whose quilter sister had recently passed away, and asked if I would like the fabric that had belonged to the deceased sister (since apparently my mom tells people about my quilts). It is mostly largish scraps, fat quarters, some small yardage, and a huge Ziploc bag of pre-cut strips. In total, there is about three kitchen-sized trash bags full, all nicely folded and bagged with matching/complimentary fabrics together. There are some put together 4-patch blocks, and about half of the pre-cut strips are in Christmas fabrics, which are handy for making lap quilts or table runners I can quickly sew up for gifts.  I've been thinking for a while that someday when life isn't so jam packed full and crazy I'd like to start making quilts for charity (such as women's shelters or infant/children's units at hospitals ), and a lot of these fabrics would be great for that since if they aren't Christmassy they are floral or child-themed designs.

What frugal things have you done or run across this month?

The Weird Weather Continues

 It sure doesn't look, or feel, like February in Michigan around here.  Today it's 72 degrees.  Yes, 72.  In Michigan. On February 27th.  The sky is blue, robins are singing (robins!), kildeer are arriving as I type.  Kildeer!  In February!  This is very unusual.

I have laundry hanging on the clothesline.  Don't think I've ever hung laundry in February before.

I gave both horses are good tail wash and conditioning before lunch, it was that warm all ready.  Their tails look and comb so much better now. I'm really glad that I got a chance (without freezing them or myself) to wash out all the accumulated mud and gunk from the winter.  I've been brushing their tails several times a week, but when they just go out and roll in the mud (or drag their tails through mud/slush), the hairs themselves tend to get gummy and coarse even with brushing.  This afternoon, those silky tails are blowing in the wind.

February, when it's not cold, has been way warmer than a typical mid-winter warm spell.  There wasn't much frost in the ground this winter, and it's all gone out of the ground all ready.  The mud is dried up and the ground is firm in all but the shadiest places.  

The garden is actually dry enough that we could till it!  Unheard of!  And I am hoping DH is willing to till it when he gets home from work later today.  We were so busy in the Fall (and I was so, so lacking in energy and stamina) that the garden didn't get cleaned up before winter.  Didn't get stakes or tomato cages pulled, and didn't get the weeds turned under.  Also didn't get the garlic planted.

This really warm weather lately has given me a chance to pull stakes and tomato cages.  And to try to redeem myself and hopefully have a garlic crop this summer; as soon as the ground thawed I tucked all my seed garlic into the part of the garden I had intended to plant it back in October. I covered it with a few inches of straw for mulch, and hope that it will be fooled into thinking it's been there all winter, instead of (delayed and forgotten about) in the garage.

Not only have I gotten the garlic (hopefully) saved and on it's way to growing, I also planted the rest of my tulip bulbs (ordered in July, arrived in September) that I was unable to get into the ground in the Fall.  Fingers crossed those grow, too.

Now, I know not to get too excited for Spring.  Because the current warmth comes to a crashing end tonight.  We're on the edge of a cold front that is due to push through (bringing storms) and temperatures that just keep falling all through tonight, tomorrow daytime and tomorrow night. Thursday we *might* see a high temperature of 40 degrees.  So I'll be feeling like winter again and wanting soup and hot chocolate and other comforting winter time foods.

Tonight, though, we're having chicken Caesar salad, with chicken breast cooked on the grill, and maybe even eating it out on the patio!

Horse Update, February

In the past month, we've had super cold weather for a little over a week. And then a warm up where all the frost left the ground and things were soupy mud, then deep mud, then fairly dried up. And then back to cold(ish) weather again, followed by another warm up.

Poetess checking out the sled that I used to carry lunch hay to the pasture during the cold snowy weather.

This was followed shortly after by a quick warm up that included an all night heavy rain (about 3"??) before the ground was very thawed.  Which meant that one Friday morning I woke up to a small pond in a portion of the circle created by the driveway.  It was quite  large puddle, and more than 6" deep in the middle.  So I took advantage of the opportunity to do some water training with the horses. 

The LBM wasn't sure she really wanted to go in the water, but with a little coaxing she followed me in both times I asked her to walk through it.  Poetess, on the other hand, seems to love water.  She really enjoyed marching through the water, even stopping in it and splashing around with a front foot as if she was contemplating throwing herself down for a good roll in it.  I suspect had it been warmer than the mid-30s she would have done just that.

During the soupy mud phase, I daily came in from leading horses into or out of turnout with lots of mud splashed onto my pant legs.  You can definitely tell how tall my waterproof boots are, LOL.

The last Saturday in January I went to a used tack sale and came home with some western gear (because somehow I got rid of the majority of my pads and the only work bridle that wasn't pony sized decades ago).  Since I'll be riding the LBM western, as well as probably a majority of future training horses and anything I might buy for the grandkids to ride, I felt like I needed to restock a bit in that area.

One purchase I was especially glad to find at the sale was some over-sized western stirrups. During our really cold spell, I found that my insulated winter muck boots are too wide to be safe in the western stirrups I had. And it was way too cold (and at times, wet/slushy) to wear my paddock boots during the LBM's training sessions those days. Wet/frozen feet definitely are not my thing at this middle-aged stage in life. So I had decided I needed to find some what I called 'big wide man-foot stirrups'.  And I did!  In brand new condition for $20 (current online brand new price $65).  

They don't match my saddle, but I don't care, as for me they are all about warm feet and safety for winter training rides, not for show.

As you can see in the picture below, they are quite a bit wider than the original stirrups for that saddle.

I've been riding the LBM a couple times a week.  So far, only on days DH is working from home (he has to be in-office three days a week now) in case there's any unexpected dismounts.  But she's doing so well (remember, she'd been in training in the past but not really worked in 2023) that I think very soon we're going to move on to riding whether he's home or not.  I always give her a quick longe session to warm her up and see where her brain is, so that will be the litmus test for riding while he's gone.  

As I told him the other day, when I'm on her back she doesn't feel any less reliable than any rental stable trail horse I've ever been on.  So, while it's definitely not the fine tuned contact and dressage horse feel I'm gotten used to in the past decade or more, I don't think it's high risk for being unsafe.  She's actually a very calm, steady horse. I think she would make someone with a horse experience and a firm yet calm hand, a super trail riding horse, or even an endurance horse.

view from her back

While the weather was in it's 'good' phase, we worked on fencing for the third pasture, getting all the posts in as well as insulators and the electric fencing tape installed.  Just need to brace the gate post and hang the gate and that one will be ready for use.

DH put together and we hung all four of the remaining  stall doors.  Two need different bottom boards; with the pitch (for drainage) of the cement floor over the 48' length of the barn we had to do some creativity with the height of bottom boards to get all the grills to look good and not like they were at different heights from one stall to the next.  Which means two of the stall doors need 2 x 8 boards for the lowest board instead of 2 x 6. You might be able to see in the picture below that we have yet to put the bottom --Wolmanized-- boards on each stall front.

We also bought a bunch of 2" x 6"x 12' boards for making the remaining dividing walls between stalls, but at least half the batch the lumber mill gave us were not good and will have to go back and be exchanged before we can finish those walls.  Boards with multiple raw/live edges just don't stack vertically very well and won't work for our purpose. As DD2, who took several classes in forestry as part of her wildlife management degree, said "These look like they were made from pulp sticks, not saw logs."

During the week where we had a string of days in the mid-40s and even up to 60 degrees, I stained the walls for the next group of stalls. Which is one entire stall. two stall fronts, and all but the dividing wall in the adjoining stall. The doors will get stained once we have the right bottom boards for them (DH put in some scrap ones in the meantime).

Do you remember in January's update where I mentioned having cold weather problems with gate posts shifting? One gate no longer lined up with it's latch and I had to use a chain to hold it shut.  Well, once everything thawed, DH was able to use the tractor to fix that post and now the gate and latch meet up correctly.  Hooray!

We have discovered a new gate woe, however.  With the gustier winds of the Spring-like days, we found that when the big 16' gate is opened (say, to drive the tractor through), the wind will take it and ram it into the mesh, bending the mesh, getting the prong that goes into the latch caught in the fence as well as allowing the top of the gate to lean on the strand of hot tape.  Not a gate you want to touch without unplugging the fencer in the barn first!

We are going to have to rig up some sort of 'door stop' for this issue so the gate can't open quite that far.  Gates touching the fence is not allowed!

Oh! Almost forgot to add that the water hydrant in my barn thawed and had been back in use for a few weeks.  Then we had two cold windy days in a row (highs only in the 20s) and it froze again.  :0(  But only for a couple of days, then the temperatures returned to 40ish and the sun came out and it thawed.  We definitely are going to have to do some investigating and repairing of that issue this summer so that it doesn't happen next winter.

Sewing and Stitching Update, February

 I did quite a bit of counted cross-stitching in the past month.  I guess I started it since the January update, and have the cross stitched portion (not to count the backstitching, etc.) about half done already!

The pattern is one I purchased off of Etsy and is by the same designer as the fox I stitched last winter.  It's a cute little Eurasian red squirrel in a very warm and comfy looking sweater.  I decided not to do mine on quite as dark of cloth as the original and am using a piece of  'natural' colored Aida instead.

In addition to stitching the squirrel, I've been working at least a few hours a week on the baby quilt for grandbaby #6.  It took a week for me to get all the pieces for the star blocks cut.  31 blocks with 17 pieces per block = 527 pieces.

Then I started sewing the star blocks together, beginning with the lowest number of stars needed in a particular fabric combo and working my way up the the highest number.  That took about a week and a half of my designated sewing time.

one of these for the center

two of these

eight of these

eight of these also

(color really off in this photo)

twelve of these

You're probably thinking "how are those blocks ever going to be in the same quilt and go together?"  If the mental picture I have, and the rudimentary drawing in colored pencils that I did before even starting to cut any fabric turn into reality, it's going to work.  Trust me.

It'll be a loud quilt, that's for sure, but hopefully cohesively chaotic rather than just a clashing mess.

first four rows