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The World Widens and True Spring

The world widens with the arrival of true spring. Not only has the weather become warmer, but the COVID vaccine is also making it easier to go out. Of course, we must still use precautions as advised, however now we can go out with less fear of becoming ill or spreading the germs of COVID. We marked the end of the 14 day waiting period, after getting both doses, about a week ago. We got the Moderna 2 dose vaccine and fortunately did not suffer any side effects. No worse than the flu vaccination that we got for the first time ever last fall. YaY!!! Now if everyone would get on the bandwagon, I can see quilt shows and guild meetings resuming around the world.

  • Some Quilt Show dates!!!
    • The Heartland of Kentucky Quilt Show in Elizabethtown, KY will have their show this year! September 10 & 11 at the new Extention Office on Opportunity Way!
    • The Houston Quilt Festival is also on for this year, October 28-31
    • Paducah has set the date for April 27-30, 2022.

Farm

Gardening

True spring has arrived on the farm too. Life on the farm is once again busy, as I mentioned in the last post. We, (by we I mean “HE”) is busy! He is clearing some brush in what used to be a field behind the pasture and preparing the garden for the veggie seedlings we have growing in the basement under grow lights. Prepping the garden actually took a bit more time than was planned. The tiller we purchased at a yard sale in 2015 died. So we spent a day getting a new one.

Rototilling the garden
It was easier with a new tiller

As you can see the new tiller worked very well. We already have garlic growing, (those green stalks) because we planted that in the fall and we put the potatoes last week. They are growing in potato bags, (not visible). As soon as the ground reaches 50° again, we will begin moving the plants to the garden. We had snow earlier this week so ground temperatures have been set back a bit! So far the seedlings have done well, but next year more lights!!!

True Spring at the Pond

Springtime at the pond is a noisy affair in late March, and off and on through May. The toads start calling in the pond, sometimes it is just a single toad and sometimes many more. They puff up their throat and vibrate to a really high pitch. A little 33-second video of them singing, below. It begins with several unseen toads singing, and ends with just the one toad singing.

The results of the singing are these pollywogs. Soon those pollywogs will be little toads just like the one on my hand from last year, hopping through the grass. They were so tiny!!!

Pollywogs in the pond
Soon to be American Toads
Baby toad
Isn’t this cute? A baby toad from spring 2020

New Critters Also Arrive in Spring

The world widens in the barn too. Right after Sir Loin settled in we added two pigs. Both of the pigs are barrows, (neutered males). We have decided on Little Piggie and Pinky Pig. When they arrived they were sunburned. Their ears are still peeling. We are keeping them confined to the barn until they are a little older. Here is a cute 20-second video of them eating and talking.

They are half the size of last year’s pigs, less than 20 pounds, but they have arrived almost 6 weeks earlier. We don’t want to grow them as large as we did last year. However, we have found homegrown pork and beef are tasting amazing and the cost per pound is fabulous! Of course, we are not eating all this meat ourselves. We offer the other 1/2’s or 1/4’s to others. We are eating homegrown pork for $3.50 a pound and beef at $4 a pound, (that includes processing and packaging), a much better price than what is available at the store and I know everything that went in!!!

The World Widens Locally too

The local quilt world widens as well. Tomorrow one of the local guilds will be getting together at a park. Socially distanced and masked still. I plan to go. The other guild has planned on a sew-in at the weekend. I am planning to go, however, I am afraid our guest/visitor season may be beginning too. So, I may not make it to the sew-in. I had planned to sew a scrap quilt, but have already started sewing. It is at that uncomfortable stage of “I don’t think I will really like it”. Since I have it started, I will keep going and see where it ends up. This is mixed scraps and totally uncontrolled… and not my style!!!

Under the needle
Scrappy half square triangles

In what ways has the world widened for you? What kinds of things are spring and the COVID vaccine bringing back to your life? Tell, me I am so ready for BLOOMING EVERYTHING!!!

More Later! Beth

7 thoughts on “The World Widens and True Spring

  1. Hey Neighbor…….🖐🏼……I didn’t realize you had a blog !…….Heather told me about it……so I subscribed……Glad to see the pigs are doing well……Is that a little light attached to the side of your machine? You do a great job on your blog !

    1. Hi Robin it is a small world and getting smaller. Like just about down to a road! Yes, it is a little light attached. Actually, there are 3 lights on the machine. The one in the photo is a Bendable Bright Light. I’ve been using it for 10 years or so. Thanks for the note and for subscribing to the blog. I’ll try and do better with posts!

      1. I would love to see your quilts sometime……I am sure they are beautiful ……..I have about 3 lights sitting around my machine too……my eyes aren’t what they used to be ! But I like the idea of having a small one shining directly on what I am doing too.

  2. I like your light too! Never too bright, and these HST look great!

    1. Frederique the light is one of my favorites! Especially for seeing at the needle. I am making MORE HST’s… because… for some reason my count was off. I will have to get more background fabric too… tomorrow! Thanks for reading and the comment! Beth

  3. I like the pigs grunting. We are hoping that Pride of the Prairie can have it’s quilt show next March. We’ll see.

    1. These little pigs are cuter than last year’s, but I think it is because they are a bit younger. We have let them go outside already and they liked the mud, the cows were not so sure about the new guys. Looking forward to the show too!!!
      Thanks for reading!!! Beth

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