Just ducky

Okay, I’m doing it. I know I’ve been saying it for a while. But I’ve been reading up and studying.

I’m… Getting ducks.

I was looking into getting a few cayuga and black Swedish ducks. No one locally has them, and shopping was pretty expensive. So we’re going to get some Welsh harlequin ducks. They’re local, inexpensive and will make a good trial flock until we can get our own place and add to them.

I didn’t want this to be a crazy expensive endeavor (anymore than it has to be) so I decided to use wood I had on hand to make a coop.

That was what I started today.

I went from one jumble of wood, to a different jumble of wood. The difference is the bottom picture is cut and ready for 3 sides.

I’ll need a few 2×2 pieces of wood, and a piece of corrugated metal or plastic for the roof.

Then I’ll get my eggs to hatch, make a couple food and water containers and we’ll see what we get.

Compost

We’ve had our compost in a galvanized trash can for quite some time. It works, but it never breathes. Well since we’re getting the garden together, I wanted to get a compost pile set up. I was a little limited on pallets, so it’s only a 2 bin pile, but I think it will work. Not to mention it was free and went together in only a hour or so.

Touching home

Day 1 of lockdown.

So  far it’s like any other morning for us. Our county leaders chose to lockdown even though no cases reported locally. I think they’re taking precautions because cases have been reported in surrounding counties and those counties locked down at the same time.

I think it’s foolish to believe that just because cases haven’t been reported that the virus isn’t here. Testing isn’t exactly readily available. A lot of people through here don’t have healthcare. And many of them wouldn’t go anyway.

I had to run a couple of last minute errands yesterday. I witnessed a mixed bag of reactions to the whole thing. I saw people carrying on as normal. Some people in masks. Business taking extreme precautions, and others taking none.

Most of all what I’m seeing, is a lot of mistrust being sewn. I’m jaded and cynical enough to jump right on that boat, but not for me, for Nova’s sake. Everyone’s said this isn’t dangerous to littles, but for how long? As this virus spreads, it’s bound to mutate again. Who knows what happens then?

I only hope that we can rise above all of this as a better society. It might be a far fetched hope… but I still hope for it regardless.

Just an average night

It’s been seven months since I’ve worked. I know this because Nova turned 7 months old today. And for the first time in those 7 months…

I’m bored.

It’s not that I don’t have things to do or work on. I think it might be the time of the evening. Too late to dig anything out, but a bit to early to wrestle an energetic baby to bed. She’s settled into a new schedule where she’ll take a nap right after dinner, and then she’s UP! At least for a couple of hours. I don’t want to push dinner time back, I like eating early. So we’ll figure something out.

I have a needle felting project partially complete. I’m working on a dragon at the moment. But it’s in the “ugly” stage and I don’t want to mess with it right now.

I could sit around and knock out a few more birds, though I’m running a bit low on my wool. So there’s not much variety in the colors at this point. Still, it would be good to have a few more on hand.

I’ve done all I can with the garden stuff till about Thursday or so.

I AM working on crocheting a bunch of granny squares for a blanket I’m going to make. But I’ve popped out about 10 of those today and I need a break. I DO still have Nova’s raccoon to work on, but the next part is the head. And since I’m winging it, I just haven’t had the energy to mess with trying to figure the head out yet.

I’ve put my painting stuff away for a short time. And of course that’s when I’m like – I could paint. But I don’t want to pull it out.

I need to rearrange the kitchen to make it a little more baby manageable, but that’s a job for tomorrow.

I could write… But I have a difficult time keeping on track at night.

Though I have been sitting here watching Murphy track down all of Nova’s toys and put them away. She sat in the kitchen the entire time watching him as well. Now she’s going to try and rip everything back out. She likes to wait till things are put away to be interest in them.

Really, I’m just trying not to think about this virus and everything that’s going on. And of course you can’t go online anymore without hearing about it.

So… yeah. Tomorrow I plan on signing up for a marketing webinar for my bird business, and working on the rearranging task. It’s supposed to rain tomorrow all day, so it’ll be all indoor tasks. But AFTER tomorrow, we get a few good days. I’m looking forward to those good days.

I have some spinach to plant, and some marigolds to transplant. I still need to get out and harvest some more dandelion heads for my jelly. I got interrupted by the rain. Then we’re going to camp. Most likely just in the yard so we don’t have to deal with running into people. I’m excited for a couple nice warmish, dry nights. Truly I’m just excited to sleep in my hammock.

But for now… for now I’ll finish this post and get ready for bed. I’ll see about getting this little pickle wound down for the night and hopefully I’ll be able to sleep without too much trouble. See you tomorrow world.

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Shut up brain!

What have I done?

I may have bitten off more than I can chew. We finished clearing about 300 square feet of garden space (give or take). But now that I’m going through all of our seeds… I don’t even know if THAT will be enough! I have seeds I need to start indoors this week (so many seeds) a few to start outdoors because they’re cold hardy and still seeds to sow direct to ground in the oncoming weeks.

I have a nice little app that I actually paid for to keep track of them all once they’re planted… but I’ve never been a successful plant person. I’m so worried that all of this investment is going to be for nothing and it’s all going to fail.

Impostor syndrome is a horrible pain in the ass. It creeps up and whispers in your ear constantly, ruining any drive and motivation you might have.

“You’re not good enough”, “you can’t handle this”, “you’re just going to fail, why bother?”

It’s mewling in my ear about the garden… and also about my birds… and as always my writing.

I’ve already invested so much in all of these things. I’ve got my assumed business name and tax stuff filed for the birds. All the social media pages started and ready to go for launch. Heck, I’ve got over $300 in inventory ready to go.

But I started watching some videos to help me brush up my technique. And then it started. “You’re no where near as good as that lady. You can’t sell this fodder“, “How can you put a price tag on these things? No one will buy them!”, “Remember what happened when you tried to sell your crochet work? You’ll just fail again.”

……. The crochet business was my fault. I didn’t know how to use Etsy correctly. I didn’t market myself. The product? The product is great. It just dawned on me the other day that my favorite poncho (that I wear pretty regularly and you can tell) is nine years old. It’s fuzzy, but the stitches have all held. It’s not frayed and the color is good. It’s comfortable and warm and fun… and I MADE that.

So shut the hell up brain. Let me do my stuff.

If I can get this garden growing and take care of it, it will cut our grocery bill down.

If I can get these birds posted and sold, then I can not only pay for a hobby, but actually contribute to our bills with them.

And one day, when I finally get my books written… I might be able to completely (or at least mostly) support my family with them. All by doing things I love.

So shut up brain. If I fail, I fail. But if I listen to you? Then I’ve failed before even starting.

A short days work

Today would have been a glorious day to go hiking. Sunny, warm, dry… But that also meant it was a perfect day to get some work done for the garden.

The ground was still damp and soft. The grass roots are still shallow in the ground. So I put on my work clothes and started digging up the yard.

I’m thankful we had a hoe. While I’m sure we’ll need the pick, I didn’t have to bend over ALL day. I didn’t get it finished, but definitely bit a big chunk out of the work. I need to cut the rest of the corner out, then make a small strip back where I stood to take the picture. But that might be another day or two of work.

All the top dirt that has the grass (it’s really hay) roots in it is being moved to make a berm so that all the rain water from the hill doesn’t erode out the newly dug garden.

I don’t know if we’re going to need to till it before we plant. It’s really good soil with a ton of worms already. Maybe I just need one of the twisting tillers to loosen the soil for each plant.

My sweet baby came out for a but to help. Then decided she wanted to be held.

Despite the nice busted blister on my thumb, I feel great. I can’t wait to do more.

Watching the sun move

It’s fascinating how moods and urges change with the season. It’s like our primal instincts are still tied to the movement of the earth.

The sun has moved. Nominally, but I can see a huge difference in the morning with how the light shines through the windows. It thaws my soul along with the soil. I can feel myself waking up.

It makes me want to go hiking. I didn’t hibernate this year, but I haven’t wanted to take Nova out in bad weather (which is a lot of what we had). But now? Now the trails are calling to me. Whispering their sweet promise of adventure and union with nature.

I want to take my little girl out to get dirty. I want her to learn to walk with dirt under her feet and leaves in her hair. To appreciate the outdoors and how simplicity can bring peace.

So, we’ll start practicing at home. Hammocks and tents, pads and blankets. I need to see which one will work the best with her. Then we can hit the trail for a good backpacking trip. We’ll start small. An overnight here or there. Push it to a couple or three nights. Eventually, press on for a week.

I need some gear for Nova. Not a lot. Some soft sole shoes like moccasins. Some quick dry layers like bamboo or merino wool. Otherwise, we’ve got the backpack carrier, and she’ll be sleeping with me as usual. She’s already eating what we’re eating (along with still breastfeeding). Diapers would be the most annoying, but we can figure that out.

So I’ll be adventure planning, and once we get some nice weather, we’ll be hitting the trail. And I’m so excited.

It’s supposed to rain today. I mean… it’s been raining every other day practically, which makes doing anything outside very mucky. I was able to repot some of my daffodils and clean up the deck yesterday though. Nova sat out on a blanket with me while I worked. She was content trying to pick up the little maple seed pods off the ground.

But today it’s going to rain. That means we can’t start digging up the back to prepare for the garden. I still need to get some more seeds started anyway. I have onions to start from seeds and read that they need to go in around now. I already have my herbs and marigolds starting so that they’ll be a little more mature when I plant them around my other stuff. Hopefully I can keep more of the pests out of the garden that way.

It’s going to rain today, but it’s also supposed to be cold. Which means I don’t want to brave going out in it for hiking. Even with rain gear and an umbrella, we’re bound to get wet… then cold… And I don’t want to bring Nova out in that just yet. We’ll get there… but not just yet.

So since it’s supposed to rain again today, I’ll be doing things indoors. I made all of the finishing touches on my birds yesterday. I’ve got 16 ready to be photographed. But now I’m holding off on getting them posted. I thought I’d gotten all my bases covered as far as the naming and stuff… but like a moron, I didn’t secure my sites all at once. And there is a photographer using the handle @twitterpatedbirds on Facebook. So I’m debating on whether I should just use something slightly different on Facebook… or go and change EVERYTHING. I can’t update the name on Instagram, so I’d have to start that whole process over again and go and follow everyone all a new. Thankfully I hadn’t submitted my art to get my business cards printed just yet. I messaged them to see if they’d be willing to change their handle, but I wouldn’t expect them to if they’ve got any sort of media or cards printed with it. Just waiting to hear back. So I don’t want to go any further till I know.

But I DO have a couple of crochet projects to work on and a sweet baby to play with. She’s currently sitting in her jumperoo, munching on a bite of mashed banana between jumps. She’s so close to crawling. She can sit up from being on the floor and then the other day she surprised HERSELF when she stood straight up from a sitting position without holding onto anything. She shot up like a weed and immediately sat back down and looked around like “Whoa – what just happened?!” I love watching her play and figure things out. To see the wheels turning in her head as she studies something.

I started a Facebook group to try and go through the year (one week at a time) by sketching out things from a book or game you’re working on. But between my sweet girl, the garden, the birds, and everything else – I’ve let the sketches pitter off. I’ve even put the writing aside while I build up an inventory of birds. But once I get a few more ready – I’ll sit back down and finish up my book.

Just not today. Today I’m going to make a hand warmer (or two) and maybe even finish up the little racoon that I’m making for Nova. I found this nice velvety soft yarn. So I’m making a little purple and black racoon. And then probably a hat with whatever yarn is left over. We’ll see.

So bring on the rain. We’re warm in our little house, with plenty of food and love and things to do.