Our weekend projects

Well... Saturday was windy and still chilly but Mike was able to fix a broken wire on the shifter in our car, so we could get it out of " Park", so, we then decided we'd go to the city to pick up supplies to restock our pantry a bit. We haven't been grocery shopping lately, but rather using what we have on hand. We're trying to get down to one freezer, so we can unplug one and we seriously needed to get some older canned items used up. This cleared out several dozen jars, so we will be making some concord grape jelly from juice we canned two seasons ago.  Anyway going to the city on a Saturday is a BAD idea! To many people, to much traffic and after just a few hours we ALL were ready to head home to the peace and quiet.

Yesterday Mike and Cortney began cutting down the tree in our front yard. It unfortunately was never a very good tree. It had not been trimmed properly when young and had far to many weak crotches and when we received the wet snow in May 2010, it busted up beyond repair. While they worked on that, I put away items purchased in the city, cleaned out the entire refrigerator( scrubbing it down thoroughly) and got some house work caught up. Then it was decided, since it was such a beautiful day that we'd better clean the wood cook stove and chimney. We try to do this two or three times during a burning season, it's better to be safe than sorry and if you've ever experienced a chimney fire you know how scary it is!  So I began the cleaning of the stove, while Mike got the ladder and chimney brushes out and worked on cleaning the cap.  Really it only takes about 25-30 minutes to get the stove and the chimney cleaned and then you know a chimney fire is no worries( for a while anyway*wink*)

After we cleaned up for cleaning the stove, Mike and Cortney went back to work loading the wood in the tractor's bucket and gathering the branches into piles. While they were doing this  I got the BBQ'er started( it's the old fashioned charcoal type) and prepped the T-bone steaks, washed and cut up the potatoes for french fries and got the spinach steaming( frozen from last years garden). We had a light dessert of apple sauce topped with cinnamon, sugar and finely chopped walnuts and dried cranberries.

Then we watched two episodes of " Mash" from our DVD collection and turned in early.
Today is laundry day, Cortney was supposed to work, but Charlie called and he's going to be gone today and will call tonight about setting up another day. I'm making our weekly allotment of bread today and may just make a batch of Cinnamon rolls,( Mike hinted about it this weekend*wink*) We're having pork chops, mac and cheese( homemade) and canned green beans for supper. Not sure of a dessert but gingersnap cookies have been on my mind*wink*

Exciting news, we have gotten two calls about our CSA garden and one lady sounded like she was serious about buying a 1/2 share membership for she and her Dh. I mailed both callers for information, as well as a list of produce we'll be growing, so they can mark those they'd be interested in. This will help us in knowing how many plants to start. I put a deadline of March 15th on our flyer's, so.... praying  we fill all of our openings by then. :o)  Getting set to start our plants this week! I got my starting mix all mixed, all I have to do is was my starter pots and get to planting.
The seeds in the greenhouse are still dormant, due to this cold turn, but today and the rest of the week is supposed to be warmer, so praying it will sprout and grow. I have floating row cover material I can use if it were to get sub zero again.

Lambing will begin soon and Cortney is going to be a very busy young lady. Our meat chicks will arrive end of March and the turkeys are beginning their courtship and mating, so will probably see turkey eggs in a few weeks. The birds are singing, the Robins are back and  there is light at the end of our long wintery tunnel :o)

Blessings for your new week, praying it is filled with good weather and productivity.