Spring Weather

 

Good Morning! What a beautiful Monday! It's still cold but it will be warming up later today. I love these days leading up to flower shopping. I feel like we emerge from hibernation and start to get our property ready for planting. The chicken coop got a good cleaning, our new fence is up and we are preparing for our new patio with paving stones. I'm very excited. We have almost completed everything we've wanted to do! I hope the weather cooperates!

I've been doing a few little projects~nothing big. I found these wood flowers in Dollar Tree and they totally reminded me of the wood flowers very popular in Lancaster right now so I painted some of these! I also did some decoupaging and a couple of retouches of some outside decorations I had that needed paint touch ups.  

I am really surprised at how Dollar Tree has expanded their craft section! It's amazing. Not only wood projects to paint, but yarn, paint, all kind of things. Granted things are on a smaller scale but then again it is a DOLLAR store!

What's everyone doing for Easter? I have to buy hyacinths! It's what Easter smells like to me! and tulips and daffodils! I still make my kids Easter baskets too! I need to get a few more things. I don't put just candy in and I have to admit that as they get older being creative is a challenge but I always come up with ideas besides gift cards...

So I don't think I will be adding to my chickens this year. All of them are getting along so nicely I would hate to upset the bunch with a newbie UNLESS I find a rescue. Then I will. As we work in our yard, the chickens chatter at us constantly! It's so funny.  

Well, I just wanted to check in and say hi! Let me know what you're up to!

Is it Winter? Is it Spring?

Good Morning! Another beautiful day! A little chillier than yesterday but it certainly feels like Spring is in the air! So will it stay...they say no...they say we have probably turned the corner on Winter but...well, it feels like Spring today so I am going with that! And when the sun is out, the chickens feel like the one in the above photo! They were loving the sunshine yesterday. Giving themselves dirt baths and just languishing in every ray they could find! They are very entertaining.  I did my deep clean of the coop on Sunday. That's when I take every blade of straw out, wash the interior walls, sweep it out completely and add completely new straw. Even though every day I do  poop pick up, its still nice to get in there and put all the new good smelling straw and hay in! I do this in the Spring and Fall. My chickens are healthy, happy and free of pests. And the girls are starting to lay their eggs again so that' s awesome. 

I had to get this mug after i had bought a yellow one that says "Peep Peep"; how cute is this? 

I have a giant pine tree on my property that drops a ton of pine cones. Look at this cute craft to use them! I will definitely be picking them up from my lawn and using them! I love when I can use things I find on my property.

If you've gone to Lancaster County along Rte 340 in Intercourse, then you know this sign! Its my favorite! This time of year more and more stands are opening up! So exciting. I love Winter for the beauty and the coziness of it but I love the Spring and Summer for the farm stands and markets!

My husband is buying a smoker and we are designating an area in our yard for the bbq and smoker and a small backyard kitchen. We've been planning it for a while. Just a simple area. We are so excited for it and I've been looking up alot of info about smoking. I never knew you could even smoke desserts! We pretty much settled on the Pit Boss upright smoker because we don't need the combo with the bbq. Who knew you could do so much with it? I just thought it was meat and jerky! 

Well that's about it for me today! Time to get some laundry done and feed the chickens. Then I'm going to start my Sunday sauce..which I didn't get to do Sunday. I made braciole for it and I want to get that going for dinner tonight. If you don't know what braciole is it's a thin cut steak (very thin) like flank steak pounded very thin and rolled up with a delicious filling. I do bread crumbs, lots of garlic and locatelli cheese! Then you close it up with either a toothpick or string and brown it in olive oil and more garlic, which is the base for your sauce! After it's nice and browned, start making your tomato sauce! and the meat will cook nicely in the sauce over some time.. Not too long as the meat is thin so it cooks fast.  I've been cooking early and I enjoy the longer evening! 

Have a great day!
 

Welcome March!

 Good Morning Friends~ I love Winter! But I have to admit that when March comes, I can't help thinking about Spring. There are so many things I enjoy about the Spring season. 

But before I go on about my Spring plans, I have been working around the house and straightening up some of my favorite things around here including this tree. My kitchen tree with little utensils, cake molds, plates, and little things like rolling pins and wooden pies! Well, I took it all apart and added fresh lights and just added/removed some things! I just ordered some new ornaments from Debi Sightler of Debi's Wood Treasures in South Carolina for a 4th of July tree!!! I'm so excited! They should be here tomorrow and I have a new tree just waiting for them! The wooden ornaments are adorable and say things like "1776" and "Old Glory" and there are flags, etc. I'm going to keep it in the foyer for Memorial Day through end of August when I start to Fall Decorate. Then it will be moved tot he parlor. I don't usually take my trees apart. Plus since I have a lot of Americana in my house, it goes with the decor. 

So I don't know if I ever mentioned it but I'd like to introduce you to my Grand Kitty, Tito! My son and his girlfriend adopted Tito eight months ago. He's a Bengal kitten and he LOVES his Grandma and Grandpa :)  He is named after the NY Islanders player Anthony Beauvillier whose nickname is Tito. He's such a cutie. I can certainly see myself being that crazy cat lady someday. Just wait...I'll probably be blogging about being a cat lady someday!

So....SPRING!!!!! Some Spring plans I have are the flower and garden show at the big nursery we have visited all our lives, called Hicks in Old Westbury, NY. We look forward to it so much for some planting combinations. It's a fun morning and I always take lots of photos.

 My other guilty pleasure is all the "chick Days" events. We have a total of seven places we visit to see the chicks, buy some new things for the coop, see the vendors of chicken products and just feel like a real live FARMER :)    I'm always on the fence about getting more chickens as my group gets along so well and I hate to disrupt the tranquility BUT adding new ones over the years has worked out. I think I prefer rescues over chicks but my husband always falls for the baby chicks and says "the coop is plenty big for all of them." but then he teases that it's me wanting all the chickens!!LOL Seriously it is so much fun...well it is to me! I know some people may not think looking at chickens is a dream day but I do! and Spring is also when we start the prep for our gardens. My vegetable garden has expanded quite a bit. I do a large amount of lettuces and I do a about 6 other veggies. When it comes to flowers, we visit several favorite nurseries. It's great that we can buy some wholesale too as business owners and we keep our plant shopping local. Except if we go to PA then I like to buy plants from the Amish stands. I know we have a couple trips to PA in mind so we'll see. Its just a fun time of year. 

Well, I hope you are planning for Spring as well! All the seasons offer us something fun and interesting, don't you think?