Life Goes On...

 The Covid lockdown officially started yesterday here in the US.

So we've stocked up on people and animal supplies, now just to go into near-100% hermit mode. I've traded in my perfume for the oh-so-alluring scent of Lysol and Comet. Sanitized is the new sexy!

This coming Saturday I'll set eggs in the ReptiPro incubator for a planned hatch date of April 11th--because if ever the world needed Chickam, it's this year, dammit. We'll be hatching all eggs from our own flock, although I'm hoping to get a few buff Brahma eggs from a neighbor...fingers crossed!

Although given what our girls are offering us these days...

Strange days, indeed.
Rafe, my youngster Russian Orloff rooster, found the tiny egg out in the chicken yard, he called the kid over and drew her attention to it by clucking at it in a most concerned way. I'm just glad Rafe is finally getting his rooster thing goin', he was a slow starter.

We were going to run the camera on the adult flock last weekend--I had a cabbage on a string all ready to go--but the weather ruined things. We'll try again this coming weekend, because...yeah, the world needs some chicken-y distraction these days.

Meanwhile, we had about two weeks of lovely warmish spring weather, which fooled my plum tree into blooming--something it hasn't done during the last three years. Then this weekend we had a sudden, three-day snow/wind storm.

Yup. Snow on the blossoms. The ones the wind didn't just rip off the tree, that is.

Yeah...I didn't actually tear my hair out,but there was much grumbling as I stared out the window at the storm lashing my tree around.

We'll see if it fruits this year. This particular variety is a self-pollinator, and I had gone out with my dry paintbrush to play pollinator the day before the storm hit; since I have yet to see a bee or wasp so far.

The water drops do look pretty, though, I'll give it that.

Lastly, the Northern Lights afghan I was making is basically done!

Okay, so I got a little carried away on expanding the size of it, it's roughly 71 x 52. I also used a basic ripple pattern rather than the one that came with the kit, and plan on edging the long side edges with a single row of a simple shell pattern, just to give the edges a finished look.

Since I made it bigger, I ran short of yarn and had to order more, but I wanted an afghan that was both wide enough and long enough, dang it! Nothing's worse than trying to grab a couch nap and having to fuss with positioning an afghan so your toes don't stick out.

Anyway, that sucker's warm.

Hey, A New Project!

This time it's a crocheted afghan from a kit, the Northern Lights afghan from Herrschner's. The yarn is nothing fancy--not spun from the hair of female French goats fed exclusively imported grasses from the foothills of Bordeaux, and then dyed using only organic nuts and berries, or anything like that... It's just your basic, 2 ply acrylic afghan yarn.

But it's pretty!

Anyone who does any kind of fibercraft, knows that making something from a kit is like cooking from a recipe...usually you can't resist making changes. I wasn't especially thrilled with the pattern that came with the kit, so I went with a basic ripple pattern, and also made it wider & longer than the 40 x 53 the kit calls for...which means I'll have to order extra yarn, since these kits are notorious for giving you just enough yarn, and no more.

The nice part about crocheting an afghan in winter, is that it keeps you warm as you make it!

Drawbacks, though? Yes, please!
Since you work with two skeins of yarn at a time, and switch colors every two rows, you have to pay *close* attention to the color changes, working in the new yarn at the correct spots. Also, I'd like to throttle whoever is working the machines that make the yarn skeins--every single skein had lots of places where the yarn had been cut and tied back together, and they all had some pretty serious tangles, as well. I had many opportunities to practice finding my zen while spending loads of time untangling yarn.

Outside of that, it's a fun kit that works up fast, and the frequent color changes keep you from getting bored.
I love the colors, my daughter says it looks like green hills, with the ocean and a sunset.
I have to agree!