Chookshed Challenge/OMG for March

 The Chookshed Challenge number for March is #4, which a lot of people, including me, chose to use for a panel-type quilt.

My plan/goal is to use this panel piece...



...as centers for the stars in two (possibly three) wall-hanging sized quilt tops of this same pattern from Joy's Christmas in July Mystery quilt. They will then become my next hand-quilting projects to give as gifts. But for March, my goal is just the making of the tops.


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This week's goals will be tame because we're supposed to have warm enough weather for working outside and I have a major job there of emptying out a former woodshed that is falling apart (and the cats use as a litter box in the winter) so that Lovey can demolish it during his staycation part of next week if he's ready to do so.

I do hope to have some time to sew on these Christmas wall-hangings, but mainly I'll keep working on my cross-stitching during the evenings or when I need a work break.



My house also needs a good cleaning because I've lacked in motivation and I've been sick, so that needs doing. 😏

So this will be short, sweet, and hard to beat because the sun is quickly racing across the sky.

Have a great, springy day (unless you're in the Southern Hemisphere; then I wish you a cooler, beautiful day)!




Chookshed Stitchers Challenge Finish

 


Since I was not successful at finishing last month's goal, I'm very happy to be able to show that I finished this month's goal of turning this Autumn Jubilee project into a completed queen-sized flimsy, ready to take to the long-armer.

I'm also very thankful that this February had 29 days instead of 28 because I was too sick to get it finished yesterday and really needed this extra day to get it done.

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Tomorrow is a sewing day with my friend, so I hope to continue my progress on my Sew Scrappy Spools as well as a few simple projects that won't take much brain power. 😊 Sometimes those are handy for a little break.

Maybe I'll do the binding on this wall-hanging that I've finished hand-quilting.

I quilted around the poinsettias with black thread and they look interesting on the back.



And I hope to hem some large pieces of thick cloth with which I plan to cover/drape our swivel rockers to cover where the beloved but naughty kitty has scratched the upholstery.

So many options, so little time!

Hope your plans are fruitful. 😊

Raising Barley Fodder for Animals

In an effort to feed our rabbits for less money and more nutritional diversity, I have followed the trend of growing barley fodder for them, but here's how I have mine set up in a tiny, unused extra shower:



I had found the metal wine racks at a thrift store quite a long time ago and began figuring out how to best use them for this. When it finally dawned on me to use the shower that we never used because it's just too small (and not needed now that there's only two of us), things got a lot better than when I'd had it set up on large Jimmy Johns bread trays on a table. 

I put about 2 cups of barley seed into a 2 quart wide-mouthed jar.  After rinsing a couple of time to get rid of the floating hulls that won't sprout, I put in a little medicine dropper squirt of bleach to keep mold from growing, and fill the jar (or nearly so) with water to sit on the counter for a few hours or for the day if I get busy and forget. 😀


Then it goes into the shower, turned upside-down to drain on the milk crates that hold up the whole system.



I keep the seeds in the sprouting jars for two days to get a good start. I used to do three days, but then the sprouts had grown so much that they were hard to remove from the jar.

So, on Day 3, I spread the jar's worth of sprouts onto two 9x13 disposable pans into which I'd poked drainage holes. I also added some bits of foam tape to the ends of the pans just to help keep them from sliding off the racks.


After four days in the trays, they look something like the second level down, and after five days, like the top layer. I flip the trays end-to-end so that the lower, more watered part gets traded daily as I also move them up the racks daily. So I'll feed the rabbits off the top trays when they're about six to seven days grown.


Every morning and evening, the trays get watered with a simple shower hose attachment, and I've discovered that I can use it for rinsing the jar sprouts, too.

(For the curious, the tattoo is the Hebrew word hesed 
which means "steadfast love, loving-kindness, mercy" as in Psalm 136.)

Since fodder doesn't need to green up till the tail end of the process, I only have a simple full-spectrum light hanging from a nail toward the top of the set-up.





I divide each tray into thirds and spread them between our six cages.

Excessively happy rabbits!


Now that I have my system set up and running smoothly and consistently, I'm backing off on the store-bought feed and saving money that way. I won't completely eliminate it because there are vitamins and minerals in it that the barley doesn't contain and because when we go on vacation, it will be easier on our nephew who rabbit-sits if he can just use regular feed.

I hope to be able to also produce enough fodder for our quails when we get them soon.

So, get creative with what might work for you to feed your animals more frugally with more nutrition and see what you can do!

Adventures, Accomplishments, and Goals

 If you have not yet read Jennifer's post on being still, go there right now...I'll wait. Be sure to watch the video, too.

Now, aren't you glad you did that?!

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While I haven't been completely still lately (ok, rather busy lately), I did take it easy yesterday because I had the "fun" of having a tooth extraction in the morning and only felt like napping after I'd taken care of a few errands while the pain killers were keeping me happy. 😄 I was surprised by the relatively low pain even after the dentist's shots wore off. So, that's good!

After starting another batch this morning of supposedly Farmhouse Hard Cheddar Cheese (it comes out more like Parmesan cheese, which we like), I'm gonna sit, relax, and chatter on about projects and goals.

My cool pottery molds and rustic pressing method to extract the whey.

So, what else has been happening besides enjoying my kitty friends?


Well, last week I drove the six hours to visit my 89yo mom and we visited an Independent Living/Assisted Living home near her which is also very close to her church with which she's very involved and has quite a few friends. It is a very pleasant place and she'll probably be moving there before next winter. Not an easy thing to think about, but 'tis time. As I was with her, we drove the hour farther south to meet up with my two daughters who now live in Ohio and had a lunch and explore/shopping time. It was fun!


Accomplishments:

When I got home, I did a good clean-out of the "Critter Corner" including shop-vaccing the quail cages in hopes of finally getting said birds. Our buck, Winston, was quite interested in the process.


The cage units conveniently roll so I can put them wherever I need to while cleaning, or when we finally begin getting eggs rolling out onto the little roll-out lips.


This is the brooder into which the chicks will go when they come out of the incubator. We still have to hang the heat-lamps above it, but other than that it's good to go.


Portable handwork projects were again the order of the day and I finished crocheting edging around these two receiving blankets to take to the pregnancy care center along with a bunch of preemie hats that Mom had knitted and several bib and burpie cloths that I'd sewn. I'm hemming some more pieces of flannel to be ready to crochet more edgings.



That's about all the sewing/crafting I've been able to do, but I've had some continuing my experiments with indoor gardening. Here's the progress made on the potato plants. They look kinda spindly to me. I did get a couple of full-spectrum bulbs, so I'll install them in their clip-on fixtures soon and see if that improves things and if my other gardening attempt work better.

I planted seeds of spinach, cilantro, and Swiss chard to enable me to have more salad greens besides my soil sprouts.


Whenever I visit Mom she makes sure to do her paper shredding and sends me home with more bedding for my vermi-composting (worm bins). So I added that and stirred it up nicely and can't wait to add it to my gardens this spring. I hope to make a screen sifter so that I can also use the compost in the house without including the worms which I prefer to have safely tucked away in the bins.


Another project has been revamping my fodder-growing system for feeding the rabbits to make it more efficient, but I'll write about that in another post cuz this is getting long.


Goals:
Homemaking/Homesteading (the line blurs):
* Finish clearing/decluttering desk area
* Organize craft dresser in bedroom & make pretty labels
* Declutter kitchen counters/workspaces
* Ensure that quail watering system works
* Put up heat-lamps
* Plan gardens and order seeds
* Keep an eye on rabbit mamas who are due to deliver Saturday and Monday

Crafts/Sewing:
* Crochet more blanket edges
* Make at least 4 bib/burp cloth sets
* Finish last blocks of Sew Scrappy Spools and begin to make into a flimsy
* Finish borders of Autumn Jubilee flimsy

Ongoing Reading:
* Sacred Sorrow by Michael Card
* The Collagen Diet by Dr. Josh Axe
* The Complete Stories by Dorothy Sayers
* Essentialism by Greg McKeown


May your day be filled with wonders and delights 
tucked in along the way.













Words of Wisdom Wednesday : On Living Free and Loved

 


This is the trifecta of freedom in a believer's life.

His faithfulness eclipses our clawing for control;

his forgiveness erases debilitating guilt and shame;

and his favor eradicates our need to look anywhere else for love than God himself.

- Ruth Chou Simons in When Strivings Cease

Week's Observations & Goals

 Well, being a little slow at catching up on some of the blogs I enjoy reading, I just now discovered that there is a White Rabbit Blog Hop going on. And, here I am out of it, though with a penchant for bunny decor. Sigh! So, I'll just post some pictures of my handsome and goofy live buck rabbit, Winston:



I'm going to enjoy seeing the various crafters' project throughout the week.

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Thanks to an afternoon of concentrated sewing with a friend, I made some fairly good progress on my Sew Scrappy Spools blocks. I finished a little left on these Stamps blocks, and did start to finish on the Star and Stripes blocks.


It seems so much of the time is spent scrounging through scraps to find just the right piece, but I'm happy to be using the scraps.


And many of the pieces have happy memories attached to them.


My friend's Little Children of the World quilt top is finished and so she was able to piece together a backing of a world map and some hilariously colorful "hippy" fabric.

 I wish I'd taken a picture of the backing, but here's a shot of some of the leftover fabric she gave me. I may have to make something wild for my semi-hippy daughter.



I also finished the cross-stitching on a birthday gift which I won't show till that birthday is past, just in case. 
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Much reading has happily occured (that's one good thing about a snowstorm) and I was able to finish this excellent book:

Her books are always so beautiful - words and artwork - and thought-provoking. Once again, I'm inspired to examine my own heart and motives and rest in Jesus to heal and renew me.

I also finished the audio versions of the Emily of New Moon series by L.M.Montgomery, the author of the Anne of Green Gables books and, though I have not read all the Anne books, I think I like Emily better. She's not quite so "out there" and inspires me to write more, even if just in my journal. A kindred spirit, indeed.




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I also got around to treating my wooden cutting boards and utensils with a paste of 3 Tbsp coconut oil and 1 Tbsp beeswax melted together (I have a pan set aside for beeswax use so my cooking pans don't get coated). I got the recipe from Crowded Table Farm on Instagram. I think they look a lot healthier now and should last longer.



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I wish I'd set up some kind of measure so we could see how much my potato plants have progressed, but here are last week's shot and today's picture so you can kind of see how they're doing. I'm really curious as to how the actual potatoes are doing, but am not going to mess with them yet. Still no grow lights.




This week's goals:

Reading: 
* Continue with Essentialism & taking notes
* Continue study of Galatians with John MacArthur's commentary
* Continue The Heart of the Family by Elizabeth Goudge
* Get side-tracked by all the other interesting-looking books around me 😁

Crafting:
* Sew Scrappy Spools - Triangles and Tulip blocks
* Mount cross-stitch to make easel-ready
* Start hand-quilting Christmas gift wall-hanging that I got pin-basted yesterday
* Put new zipper in DD#5's dress (I'm scared of ruining her dress, but will soldier on!)

Housekeeping:
* Thoroughly clean and organize the "play room"


Well, that ought to keep me well-occupied. I hope the rest of your week is delightful!





Winter Storm Watch

 While I watch for the storm to come later this evening, I'm enjoying the less threatening snowfall throughout the day. Since I'm tucked into my cozily warm cottage and we have plenty of firewood, groceries, and even water stocked up, I feel quite privileged to follow my husband's injunction this morning to be more relaxed and enjoy the day.



Of course, I still have my housekeeping to do. (The kitchen needs some extra attention after having our daughter and son-in-law over for supper last night and spending the evening in a well-fought battle of Trivial Pursuit.) But most of the day is dedicated to catching up on blog-reading, cross-stitching, and hopefully sewing.

I've done more research into growing barley sprouts/fodder for the rabbits and am being more faithful at watering them twice a day instead of just once, so I think they're going to do better. We'll see. I also plan to feed them a few days earlier than before for maximum nutrition. If I can get the whole process to be more streamlined and efficient, I'll be able to grow some for the quails, too, when we get them.


Meanwhile, the bunnies are getting more adventurous and coming out of the nestbox.


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I completely finished this small (2"x3") cross-stitch from Sweet Annet's Etsy shop yesterday and got it mailed off to my daughter for her birthday. I think it's super cute and hope she enjoys it.



So last night I started the next one for the daughter whose birthday is at the end of the month. I hope to play with that a little this afternoon while I watch some Sister Boniface Mysteries.

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I've been investigating doing more indoor gardening beyond my salad shoots...


...and regrowing store-bought green onions...


...so Matt the Cat (aka Mr. Licky-licky, or Stupe-stupy) though he needed to help with the Youtube research on grow-lights. He was, of course, extremely helpful. I have some shelving set up in our woodstove room where it's nice and warm usually, but need more lighting. My Lovey will probably help me set up a more economical lighting system, cuz he's smart that way, than what we might buy.


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Look at what my sister-in-law posted a picture of on Facebook:



As you read, you fill in some color for each book. There isn't enough space on this one to stitch in the title of the book, but one could redesign a much larger project and do so. 😉 So, now I have "I-really-want-to-do-this-even-though-I-already-have-too-many-projects-and-plans" anxiety. 😊 (That needs to be shortened to "IRWTDTETIAHTMPAP anxiety" though it's not much shorter.) Ah, so many projects, so little time.

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I did make some progress on my Sew Scrappy Spools quilt last week:


And I did get my January wall-hanging hung, only a few days after the first:






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So, the crafting goals for this week are:

* Cross-stitch next birthday mini
* More progress on Sew Scrappy Spools (I have a sewing day planned with a friend, so I ought to be             able to make good progress then.)
* Add a strip of fabric to backing for first Christmas wallhanging gift so I can pin-baste it.
* Begin hand-quilting said Christmas gift

I also want to do better at meal planning so I can try out some new recipes instead of just defaulting to the same-old, same-old.

Can you see the snow coming down?