Farm Fresh: Almost Spring!

Our Silver Appleyard ducklings arrived March 4th.  They are doing great under big sister A's care.

 March 10th my two experienced mama buns each had 10 kits.  Neither of the two new (choc/choc) ladies had any! Quite frustrating, but we will try again in a few weeks.

 The "White Way of Delight" (ornamental pear trees lining our driveway) are just about to blossom.

 And all the wild daffodils that I keep moving from various parts of the yard to encircle the base of the trees are coming up nicely.  Maybe some day I will spend the money to actually buy some other kinds of bulbs to mix in.

 I planted out the chervil and Johnny Jump Ups this week.  Only light frost (about 32 F) in the next 10 day's weather forecast and they are both semi frost tolerant.

 Transplanted most of the rhubarb into large pots and put them outside.

 The jostaberry cuttings are starting to take off.

 Perennial herbs are coming back. Yarrow, sage, lemon balm, tansy, chives, rhubarb, and the lettuces I planted in the fall are all coming up strong. Catmint, mullein, bee balm, and valerian are all growing well two.  I even spied some feverfew near the barn.  Thank goodness for perennials! Now to clean up their beds and get some annuals in place before the new baby comes.

 Another thing that would be great to have more of - there's nothing like hellebores in the early spring.

 And here I am wearing my latest completed knitting project. It was not meant to be a maternity sweater, but it kinda fits for now.

 The buttons are a funny story.  I bought a bulk pack from Amazon of these brown coconut ones years ago. I have used them on some other sweaters and still have plenty. The brown just didn't look right with this one.  And in keeping with my "Buy nothing. Use what you have." mantra I decided to try painting them to match the sweater.  I tried several different types of "paint" that we had around the house and then put them in a pillowcase to give them the washer/dryer test.  Most of the samples could not stand up to the washer.  The winner? Nail polish. It showed no signs of coming off, so that is what I ended up using on all the buttons.

 This is the first hooded sweater that I have knit for myself.  The kids have a couple already.  I had to meld two patterns together to get this the way that I wanted it to look. The dark green yarn is cashmere and the whole thing is very soft. I have been wearing it a lot lately. I made the sleeves extra long too.  Usually the sleeves of sweaters are a bit short on me.

 And a good belly shot because I know my mom wants to see it:

 I also put my sewing know-how to work fixing these fleece row covers for the garden.  Last year I put them up outside the garden fence to protect some flowers. The cats love hiding under them. Normally that is not too big of an issue, but since they were outside the fence the dogs thought that it was a game and tried to go after the cats while they were in there. Not cool. They cost about 25$ each and I have 4 of them.

 I took the metal hoops out and started experimenting with various patches.  I had some very lightweight fusible interfacing and it worked well and was the easiest to insert (no sewing required, just ironing).  All patched up now.