Farm News April 25 2013

The word is out – it might be spring this weekend!  We never get enough spring to get all the yard work done and this year will be even worse.  I started last Saturday and got the rock garden cleaned, with help, of course.  I started to clean the leaves away from the hydrangeas and wondered why I’d remove such great mulch so I stopped.  So much clean up!

Yesterday I got an offer I could not refuse – Cheryl and Ed Barkema would help me get a load of rock in their hydraulic wagon using a backhoe and skidloader.  If I had realized the extent of the work involved in laying fieldstone around the foundation of the house, I’m quite sure I would have said “no”.  But as the siding is on from the windows to the roof and nothing from the bottom of the windows to the ground, it’s too late to turn back now.  I could go with brick or fake stone but I know I wouldn’t be happy with the end result.  And purchasing the stone is simply out of the question!  The siding is nearly completed and the carpenters will leave for awhile giving me time to gather the rock.  Did you know that every rock has to be power washed?????  Oh, what have I gotten myself into?

My friend Kate in NYC is having a baby in about 2 weeks and I just learned her name which is a highly guarded secret.  I love her name so much I made a little quilt last night with just her name in pieced block letters.  I’m hoping I can sneak it to one of our quilters so it will arrive before she’s born.

Many of you read the blog this week about my trials with the cats.  And lots of you could identify with the problem – it has been such fun to read your comments!

Rick is doing really well – the incision is healed and this morning he even got his sock on by himself – Yeah!!  When he trades his walker for a cane, we’ll know he is ready to get in the car.  Today is 3 weeks since surgery.

And yesterday I found the very first guinea egg – it is shown here on the right next to the assorted dozen I gathered from the laying hens in shades of white, brown, green, tan and pink.  It is much smaller and has a very different shape  than a chicken egg.

This Saturday is $5.00 quilt day at the shop so we’ll beseeing many of you at 10 am for the meeting.  We will be explaining our new “Inspired by Pinterest” Club – have you joined Pinterest yet?  I still love it and love the quilts on the boards – my contemporary quilt board is the biggest board I have!  Don’t ever say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks!  Ha!

By next week I hope to have the yard cleaned and then it’s on to the haymow and barn!  Oh, I would love to hire someone to help me but have not had any luck.  It’s not a fun job, for sure, and it’s also very dirty, making it an unpopular event.  It needs to look good for the All Iowa Shop Hop in June – are you coming to see us?

Enough for this week – check the blog for more chatter until the next Farm News comes your way on Thursday, May 2.

Mary E.