A Crafty Yarn

The girls have arrived...and they are ADORABLE!    We got 2 Speckled Sussex, 2 Rhode Island Reds, 2   Black Australorps, and 2 Blue Laced Red Wyandottes.   I have to give props to  Meyer Hatchery  ...it's rare to find a company that will mix and match as well as ship small numbers of chicks!   All of the girls arrived healthy and are thriving!  

I've been seeing a lot of different vertical gardening ideas on Pinterest lately and this is my first attempt …   These PVC pipes were left behind by the previous owner.    I used Dan’s door knob hole cutter to make the circles.   I then buried them each about a foot deep and filled them with soil.   I planted strawberries on the sides and some marigolds in the top.

I'm impatiently awaiting the arrival of our chicks!!!   I was able to get their coop finished up today though!   It’s double walled and insulated with expanding foam spray.   The roof is a clear corrugated PVC sheet.   The tile was apparently a remnant of a previous project because they were laying in a pile behind the studio when we moved in. The tile will protect the floor as well as make it easier to clean.   The nest box was made from some leftover plywood and the roosts are the old stair rails from in the house.

I recently joined a local Heifer International volunteer group.   The leader of the group is a lovely woman who made me immediately feel welcome and I’m really looking forward to getting to know her as well as the rest of the group. Earlier last week she called and asked if I would be interested in going to the Heifer Ranch   for a Lambing Weekend.   I have to say that it was one of the best times I’ve ever had.   I got to witness several ewes give birth, met some fantastic people, and listened to some incredibly enlightening lectures.   The ranch is an extraordinary place and I highly recommend taking a visit there at your earliest opportunity!  I spent time cuddling these little cuties:   I met this fellow...    and this silly guy!       I discovered that I absolutely LOVE milking goats!     We took a walking tour...and a goat along for the walk....   The bee-keeping de...

Around six years ago I posted about my amazing find of this seed starting greenhouse .  It has served me very well over the years!       We recently had a strong wind storm and the little greenhouse blew down.   It was an especially sad day since I had just planted all my seedlings.     Enter the new and much larger greenhouse!

AND here’s one of those beautiful days I referred to in my last post!   Less than 2 weeks after the ice storm and I’ve been able to play in the garden all day.   Today I got all of the raised beds filled and I built this smaller bed over the body of our storm shelter.   I have a frame to put over it so that it can be used as a cold frame in the winter.

Growing up in the North I’m very accustomed to snowy winters.   Since moving to the South I haven’t had an abundance of snow to enjoy in the winter but it’s totally worth the trade off when you get to have a summer-like day in the middle of what is supposed to be the cold season.   This was not that day!   Today I got to experience another sort of winter weather that Arkansas offers….an Ice Storm.   It has a negative effect on the power lines and the roadways but it is so beautiful!