2023 - APRIL - What Did You Do To Prep This Week/Month?

For once, I'm on time!

Thanks for the care, Dave.

My Dad has come home and is still hanging in there, but he is gently winding down. Still lucid and enjoys very short visits. My brother has come to stay to help with his care.

Husband's health is holding steady. He had some swelling, sickness, and general malaise from the radiation, but seems to have turned a corner in the last few days. His blood work numbers are slowly, slowly improving, and the doctor says if he holds this steady, they may power back on some of the meds, AND...he may never need dialysis or a transplant. We are praying every day for complete healing.

As part of our routine home/yard maintenance, Husband and I decided to hire someone to paint the great room, as both of us are getting older and it just seemed too much work, especially with his health concerns. We last painted the room when we built the house in 2008. The great news is, the contractor came in on time and under budget! He also fixed all the scratched and cracked places in the sheet rock (low points where furniture hit walls and scraped, plus some repairs in cracks and where water damage happened when the hail storm damaged the roof, and leaked into the ceiling inside). The room looks fresh and amazing.

We also bought one of those air purifier things to help with odors and dust. Wow, what a difference in the way the house smells and the fact there doesn't seem to be a lot of dust anymore. This is the one we bought, if anyone is interested: Winix Air Prifier

Since we were pushing furniture around and had to empty things out, I went through said things and packed up stuff I didn't want anymore. 4 boxes went to the thrift store. I also packed up the china and crystal in protective boxes to pass on to the kids who want them.

The wild plants are starting to get leaves, and the grass is growing. Husband spent time out in the yard today picking up broken branches/debris from the wind and the remnants of dog chewie toys in preparation for probable mowing in the next few weeks.

I finished a queen size quilt for the bed in the cabin (in anticipation of the family reunion in July).

Our next project is to get the front porch looking inviting and spring-like...which means pressure washing and sealing it! I'll have to make new chair covers, too. Lots of work, but it'll look nice when we're done.

Happy April, everyone! Looking forward to Spring and Summer!

Lost power this past Saturday and finally got it back on Monday, still, there are some that didn't get it back on until Tuesday. Our solar generators worked great, thanks to a sunny day on Sunday/Monday.

Spread some cow doo doo on a couple of the fields and plowed under the others, getting ready to plant some sweet and field corn next month.

Planted our onion sets yesterday, the garlic I planted in October is about 10" high now. We're ready to start our tomatoes and peppers.

Going down tomorrow to get a load of mushroom manure for the garden, too many weeds in cow manure for me.

Two of the grandsons have baseball games tonight, they go to different schools and they play against each other tonight. My wife cheers for the one and I cheer for the other, that way neither feels being left out.

May the spring Gods be with you.

My Dad is still holding his own and has even been sitting out on the back deck enjoying the sunshine. He's eating well and is happy my brother is here.

Husband's health is still improving, although he gets tired easily. We've been able to go on some excursions for a few hours, and even do a little bit of upkeep here on the homestead. He mowed the lawn two days ago, it was growing like mad from the rains.

However, today was a setback maintenance-wise. Husband decided to pressure wash the back deck, so he got most of the moveable stuff off the deck, and started the washer. It worked fine for about 20 minutes and then it died. Since Husband isn't familiar with this type of machine, we decided it needed to go to the small engine repair shop. They've told us it may be 5 weeks before we get it back!

In the meantime, I moved all the inside tropical plants outside to the back deck - the lemon tree, the orange tree, the avocado tree, the banana tree, and the pineapple plant. There are more plants to be moved outside, but I have to wait until I get the protective cage up for them as the new dog sees small potted plants as toys to be dug up and then tossed around.

The avocado is very peaked, I hope it survives. I plan to enrich it's soil and give it some fertilizer. The banana tree has sprouted a baby. I had to prune the lemon tree some, so I took the leaves and made lemon leaf tea. It's supposed to be quite healthy. Tastes a bit like lemon-lime soda, without the carbonation. You can drink it hot or cold, I opted for cold since it's been warm here today.

I sewed some small clothes for a grand-niece, and then sent them to her. Well, the sizes run small, because the outfit barely fit. She's a big girl, but she's not that big. So the next sewn outfit I'll size up and we'll see how that works out. I am also working on a quilt for an adopted grand-kid, and have it about half done.

My sister has given me some milk crates she no longer uses, and I was trying to think of a use for them. I checked Pinterest and found out there's a whole world of growing things in milk crates! They had a link to buy "grow bags" made from landscape cloth. Well I wasn't paying $21 for 4 bags. I bought a roll for $16 and will make my own. I'll let you know how it goes. Since we aren't doing a big garden due to Husband's illness, I plan to grow things on the back deck. This will make it easy, so I hope it works!

We will be doing more maintenance and upkeep in the coming weeks as Spring has sprung here.

I'm glad to hear your Dad and husband is doing ok.

My wife is working her butt of trying to keep up with everything. I had a hip replaced the 4th of this month and not doing too bad. I had a little bit of a rough time at first but things are moving right a long.

My goodness, Dave! I hope you're doing better! Will keep you in my prayers.

It took me 4 tries to get the milk crate grow bags made the right size, all with the same piece of landscape cloth. Had to rip stitches out multiple times.  The online instructions are NOT correct as to size, but the technique is good. Sewing Grow Bags

To make one for a milk crate - buy the 37-38 inch roll of landscape cloth. Unroll a good amount, and fold it in half. Cut at 56 inches, keep folded, and then follow the directions up above. The bag will fit inside a milk crate and fold a couple inches over the top. I don't put handles on the grow bags as they go inside the milk crate, and the milk crate has handles.

The milk crates sounds like a good idea. What about using old chicken feed sacks instead of using landscape cloth?

The hip seems to be healing well I am trying to convince the boss lady the I can use the tiller next week. Keep your fingers crossed

Chicken feed sacks would' probably work to make the bags - we don't have chickens so I don't have any.

I had to take out the 4 x 4 foot cage I use for sick animals and put all my deck garden pots/crates inside it. The dog just will not leave the potted plants alone. She's still in destructive puppy stage, although it's subsided a lot. However, dirt is meant to be dug in, so pots are fair game.

I'm currently trying to sprout oregano, parsley, sage, and rosemary in the east kitchen window. We shall see how that goes.

We've had a bit of a cold snap after all that warm weather, but I'm debating walking down the road to gather some redbud blossoms to make red bud jelly. And the may apples are blooming and have fruit on them, too. Might see if I can harvest enough to make may apple jelly.

I read up on may apples and it turns out it is decent wildlife food, especially for squirrels and rabbits. I've decided to leave them for the animals instead of trying to make jelly.

I also decided to let my friend long-arm quilt some of my quilt tops. I'm just getting too old to wrassle all that fabric and batting on my home machine. In trade, I am making her a pile of bowl cozies for herself and to hand out to her friends. I spent all day yesterday cutting fabric, piecing scrap batting, and marking it in preparation to sew.

Husband mowed the lawn today. The temps are rising so it's growing faster.

Also, yesterday I let the new dog play outside for a bit for a while because she was excited about Husband being on the mower. She came in and flopped on the floor, but wasn't panting. She kind of gave me a side-eye stare, as if something was wrong. I quickly got her a drink of water and turned on the A/C. Within 10 minutes she was fine. Keep an eye on your indoor pets when they're outdoors in the summer. I suspect she had a bit of heat stroke.

Planted rhubarb /strawberries and onions. Daughter gifted my wife a snowball bush and I put it in the ground yesterday. My hip is doing good I'm still pushing forward

Grocery shopping today - I've been stocking up on canned fish - salmon, sardines, oysters, mostly. Seems they're good for Husband's kidneys.

I also stopped at the high school and bought some bell and jalapeno peppers. Everyone buys from them during the season to help them fund raise for future projects. The school has it's own greenhouse for the FFA!

Since I was buying plants, I stopped at Ace Hardware and stocked up on more plants - 3 kinds of tomatoes - an heirloom large tomato, roma tomato, and a cherry tomato plant. 2 kinds of cucumbers - burpless and straight eight. I had to buy a few more herbs as a couple didn't survive the late freeze, even though we covered them. So, thyme, oregano, basil, mint, and rosemary. Also got a watermelon plant. I will also plant beans and corn salad.

I'll be busy this weekend, making the rest of the grow bags and planting everything.

Still working on finishing up some quilts. The pile is going down! I'm also working on a scrap quilt that just appealed to me, I don't even know where to use it, or if I'll just give it to someone!

And at the only yard sale we attended, I found an octagon shaped metal serving dish with a PYREX pie plate insert! I've seen the round ones, never seen an octagon one. $2. Amazing deal.

The weather is finally warming up here, however, we still need more rain. I hope we're not going into a drought year!

Went out to mow the lawn this past Tuesday, overcast and chilly but bearable, half way through mowing, it started to snow, crazy PA weather.

Planted the rest of my onion sets over at the sons house, they didn't buy any, so I planted them over their house. He planted some elephant garlic, holly cow, the plants are huge.

Today was the first day of spring gobbler, had a mess of grandkids, 1 son, 2 son in laws and 1 daughter over with 5 of the grandkids. Of the 9 hunters, they got 5 gobblers, not too bad. 2 of the grandkids missed theirs, they'll learn to let the turkey's come in a little closer before they shoot.

Will start my pepper and tomato plants tomorrow, a couple of dozen of each, plus I'll start some for the kids gardens instead of them buying them at one of the stores.

I finally went out this afternoon to assess the damage from the cold snap. Despite covering the whole cage, I lost the basil. I thought I'd lost the banana tree, but lo! and behold! I peeled back the rotton, soggy leaves that froze, and there's a full green stalk with leaves already unfurling!

The avocado is 3 partially green stalks. Don't know if I can save it or not. I'm watching YouTube videos right now to see what I can do.

The orange, lemon, lime, and olive trees withstood the cold much better. The mint and mossy rose didn't fare well, but they're already showing a bit of new green, so I guess they're coming back.

The next couple days will be spent getting this potted deck garden going.

And maybe a little quilting on the side.

Husband spent the day outside cleaning the leaves out of our driveway ditch and making sure the road mowing didn't do damage to the road ditch that goes to our creek. Our neighbors know if his diagnosis and a couple stopped to chat with him to make sure he's OK.

I think Spring is springing this time...looking forward to the growing season.