Spring, Begrudgingly

The spring equinox came last month, and in a rare show of compliance, the weather obeyed. And then we hit the high 70’s for a couple days last week, which felt like a mild personal attack. It’s not that I don’t enjoy sunshine and warm weather, but it was all a little too sudden if you ask me.

Thankfully, the rain has returned, restoring dignity to the season.

We’re now in the home stretch of the school year. Spring break derailed our homeschool momentum somewhat, especially since we were sick through bits of it, but the thought of finishing the school year a week or two early has me dragging us all back into formation. I’m eager to shift gears from daily lessons toward gardening and summer projects.

Last year’s garden was slapdash, which was better than nothing, but we’re aiming for more structure if we can manage it. We’re still probably a year or two out from building our greenhouse or finishing the orchard terracing project we started last year, but there’s still a ton of infrastructure stuff to address first.

My seed delivery came in the mail last week. I spent the better part of an evening with my cup of tea, sorting packets into their various piles, feeling quite productive. I’ll be buying seedlings again this year for all the heat-loving plants (tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.), but still direct-sowing what I can. It’s a compromise between ambition and reality, which seems to be the theme lately.

I’ve been storing all my seeds in cassette organizers inside the fridge for the past few years, and it’s working better than I thought it would. Some of the seeds sown last year were from 2020, survived the hot weather when we moved over here in 2023, and still managed to sprout. Honestly, if I’m not totally exhausted by midsummer, I’d like to try actually saving seeds this year. I tell myself I’ll do this every year, but seed prices aren’t getting any lower, so now’s a real good time to start.

Which brings me to chickens. I’m extra grateful for them lately. Even with older hens, we’re getting nearly a dozen eggs a day and selling the extras. I go semi-seasonal with my egg consumption these days, avoiding the grocery store as much as possible during the off-season, which makes me appreciate the spring abundance even more. Fresh eggs are my fave.

Goat update: we bred four of our eight does earlier this year and staggered them with last year’s batch to avoid drowning in chores. All four ladies are due sometime between mid-June and July, so baby goat chaos is on the horizon again.

Luckily, we were able to sell all of last year’s boys and even the lingering wethers from the year before. In winter, no less. We also sold Gretchen, our homegrown doe, opting to keep her twin Matilda, who gave us our one and only girl last year. Hoping the odds will be slightly more balanced this kidding season.

As for what’s on my needles lately, I was gifted yarn from the Falkland Islands recently by a relative, and it just happens to be in both my daughters’ favorite colors - an intentional choice, I think. I took it as a sign and decided to knit them both Hoodolas for their birthdays. The girls’ birthdays are about two weeks apart in spring, and while they get separate celebrations, we fully lean into the birthday season chaos. Seeing as how the weather is warming up, the Hoodolas will probably go unworn until fall, but this is the way.

I notice I haven’t been knitting nearly as much as I’d like to lately, and it suddenly occurred to me why: I’ve lost my yarn ball winder. Yes, I can wind the yarn by hand. No, I don’t want to.

I did wind the Falkland yarn by hand with the help of my swift, which I somehow managed to unearth from the big move early on. Small victories. Everything else is likely buried in the Room of Requirement, our unofficial graveyard for moving boxes and abandoned furniture. I step into that room and immediately turn back around again.

Those boxes are yet another thing to tackle on the summer to-do list this year, along with our typical overly-ambitious list of projects, both indoors and out. We’ve lived here for nearly two years now, so yeah… it’s time.