Down on the Homestead - April 11 - 17th

[homesteadmamma]

Good morning everyone, on this Easter Sunday. The sun is shining and the temperatures are up a wee bit from yesterday.

Today is a day of rest for me, although I do have to bake bread. There are no stores opened, and I'm completely out of bread.

Once the bread is on the go, I plan on quilting and doing some sewing.

Otherwise, a nice quiet day here, on the homestead.

Happy Easter everyone.

[Darlene]

Happy Easter! Sounds like a perfect day in your home CJ.
We are pretty busy here today. Jack is changing the oil from winter weight to summer weight in many of our machines. These babies really make your work easier so they get lots of TLC. When he's done, he'll be splitting wood with the woodsplitter. If he can He'll also give the garden it's first till of the year.
I'll be playing catch-up with the laundry and cleaning.
Nice dinner planned today too.

I was out in the yard yesterday & saw the rhubarb starting to peak out. I'm really looking forward to trying some of the recipes Brenda (Sinclairwife) posted using this tart stuff. We planted it 3 years ago and should really grow like crazy this year.

Hope you all have a fun filled, love filled day on your homestead.

[QuilterMom]

Happy Easter!

We're home from church and Sunday School, ds has hunted eggs in the backyard, gotten his basket, and dh and I are getting the cooking underway.

I may try to start a quilt block later - we just found out that dh and all his siblings and cousins have been asked to make a quilt block each and send them to one of his aunts. She is going to put them all together and make the quilt and then have a drawing for it at their family reunion this summer (we're not able to go). I have a lot going on right now, but I'm going to try to make the block so I'm not the "bad guy".

[forestdale]

I had a very quiet Easter Sunday. DH and DS both worked so I potted around the homestead gardening, cooking, reading and listening. We are not religious at all but I always make a Simnel Cake at Easter. It's a tradition that I've carried over from my own childhood. That was all the cooking I did yesterday. For dinner, DH and DS both had chicken curry from the freezer and I made some saffron rice, and for dessert we all had cake. Traditionally, the cake is decorated with 11 marzipan balls but I always use 11 flowers. This year I used native violets. Eleven symbolises the 12 apostles minus Judas.

I took the dogs down to the creek yesterday. I thought we'd just sit quietly but silly Alice jumped right in and then wet Rosie and I when she got out and went mental running around in canine excitement. I haven't been down there for months and it looks like a wild place that no one has ever been to before. Maiden hair ferns are growing wildly along the rushing water, there are vines hanging from the tops of trees and every so often you notice holes in the ground where I know funnel web spiders are lurking.
Today will be a similar day but I do hope to make an apron later this afternoon.
I hope you all had a happy Easter.

[guest2]

Happy Easter everyone!!!! We had a wonderful service at church today and Pastor taught on the historical context and Jewish tradition surrounding Jesus death burial and resurection. Very cool! We came home to scalloped potatoes and ham ready in the crockpot for our Easter Dinner. I added corn, green beans, apple and orange slices, milk, juice and water to the menu. We're having brownies later.

DH and Chris just headed into town to get yet another part for the little car. They picked up the wrong sized O rings today on the way home from church. Jeff wants that car running so badly again so we can save money on gas. I'm hoping that he can get it running and we can still do something fun as a family later today.

I checked the garden today and see that I have my first lettuce seedling starting to peek through the ground. I'm so excited!!!! My strawberry and broccolli plants are doing great and the rhubbard is coming up thicker than I have ever seen it before. The cherry and apple trees are budding and leafing out and they just look magnificent! It looks like my flowering plum will be in full bloom within a week's time and I always look forward to that. Chris has 2 clematis, 1 passion flower and a few other plants reserved down at the greenhouse for us. He is "working " them off. He loves plants and has made good friends with one of the ladies that owns the greenhouse. He'll spend hours working for her and spend all his wages on plants! LOL! Last year she gave him lots and lots of garden vegi plants for free because they had so many of them. Our garden never looked so good!

[forestdale]

Debbie, my elder son Shane is like Chris. Shane was always gardening and checking out plants on the web. The year before he left home he built the most magnificent potiger garden from heritage vegetables. He's in an apartment over at the beach now - it's much closer to his work, but he still has a herb garden and delights the elderly lady next door by giving her bunches of fresh herbs. Gardening is such a great activity for young people. I wish more of them did it.

[guest2]

Bethany,
It's so nice to hear of another nice young man who enjoys gardening! Chris hopes to go into landscape architecture one day.

[QuilterMom]

Good morning!

We've had rain since last evening. It's still coming down pretty hard. I was greeted by the weather alert radio siren at about 5am this morning (ugh!) with notice of a severe thunderstorm warning until 11am for us. We've experienced nothing bad yet though so the worst is yet to come I suppose.

Ds and I will just be hanging out at home today cleaning and doing school.

[homesteadmamma]

Good Monday morning. The sun is trying to peak out from the clouds. I'm hoping it doesn't rain, as today is laundry day and I'd like to hang the clothes outside.

Our pails are filling up with sap. I need to take some pictures so I can post them here once I get the film developed. Dh has a burner for outside to boil the sap down, so it should be interesting.

Later I want to work on another quilt I'm doing. I've decided to make some for the craft sales this fall. I picked up a book at the library and I'd like to get as many tops done has I can before I take the book back. I'm not sure if I can renew it, because its a rotation book. I may end up photo-copying.

Otherwise, thats about it. Once the kids are up, I'll feed them their breakfast and get them started on school. I also need to order a couple of hs books.

Have a great day everyone, down on your homestead.

[Heather]

Good morning ladies!

CJ, mmmmm....maple syrup!

We got home very late last night from my parents and DH's Mom's so I'm getting a late start to this day. DH left for work bright and early and it was great to have him home for almost 3 days in a row.

No school today as it is a holiday here.

Today I plan on doing some tidying....the kids got spoiled at Grandma and Grandpas and we had "birthday's" as well as celebrating Easter so lots of goodies!! We are finding a spot for all these gifts. Delaney is now watching a new movie Brother Bear and her toys are up in her room. My Mom bought me a pot of pansies and they are so pretty, a deep, deep purple.

I have laundry to do and it's a perfect day to hang outside, sunny with a light breeze.

Bedtime will be early here tonight for everyone.

[guest2]

Goodmorning!!!!
We have our first bloom of the year on one of our cherry trees! Chris found it this morning while he was hanging out the laundry. Speaking of laundry, we only have one more load to wash and hang out today!
This will be another busy day for us. We have our writing class and band practice this morning. We should get home in time for a late lunch and get some more thigns done around here. Later in the afternoon we'll be carpooling with a friend and her kids to a College in a Box seminar in Spokane, WA. It's put on by Global Learning and is free since the guy presenting it is a former homeschooler and from this area. How cool is that? We're looking at doing college partly from home for our boys since Jaysn is ready to start college courses academically, but not socially since he is only 16. It is also a much cheaper way to go with tuition around here skyrocketing!

[canadian gardener]

getting over a mega migraine from the past 2 days. Managed a nice easter dinner anyways yesterday, but not on the good china as I'd hoped. feeling a bit tired so I'll be a couple of days before I'm up to chatting at my usual rate.

[guest2]

and Prayers for you Margery!!!!

[Strawberry]

Hope you feel better soon Margery

Boy what a weekend! I need to teach my brothers how to use a telephone

Saturday at noon I received a call that my oldest brother and family were in town and coming over for a visit. They ended up staying for supper too. I'm so thankful I had made a potato salad earlier in the day and had frozen hamburger patties so we could grill burgers. We had a great visit; it was nice to see my niece and nephew again.

Sunday we went to church and guess what, my other brother and wife were in church (they're from out of town too). Surprise surprise my Easter dinner for 5 ended up being dinner for 11. It all worked out fine and again we had a great time visiting but gee, do you know how to pick up the phone and tell me your coming to town. Maybe I shouldn't complain but it was so weird that both my brothers unexpectedly showed up on the same weekend.

So today I'm trying to get caught up on the housework and laundry. I still need to get some muffins made too. I'm also trying to rest a bit; I tired from all the weekend happenings.

Hope you're all having a great day!

[Heather]

Debbie, the seminar sounds great!!

Margery, hugs and hope you are feeling better real soon.

Strawberry....glad to hear you saw your brothers this weekend....mine don't know how to use a phone either!