March on the Mountain
Longer, productive days.
With the weather warming the chickens have started to lay WAY more eggs! I have 5 hens and 1 rooster and on average I’m getting 4 eggs a day. It doesn’t sound like a lot but it adds up fast. Four eggs a day makes for ten dozen in a month! Way more than I can eat. So, time to start pickling.
On the south facing hills the snow has melted. Not enough to be able to drive to town yet, but enough to collect some soil. On a sunny day Curt and I grabbed our buckets and filled them with dirt. We put some bark mulch in the bottoms of our planting pots for drainage, filled them with our soil and started some seeds! Curious to see what will take to our soil we tried a variety of things. Tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, green onions and more!
On March 4th I mixed the male and female rabbits in hopes of making more bunnies! It’s very hard to tell if your rabbit is pregnant. The only real sign happens just a couple of days before she gives birth. She pulls fur out of her belly and makes a nest! I noticed one rabbit ‘stoic’ pulling fur and putting hay in one corner of her pen. Things are getting exciting!
Sometimes it’s nice to stay in a different bed for a couple of nights, use a normal shower and soak in a bath. So, we went to town for a vacation! In February of last year we hiked out and had a stayed at a motel for a few nights. We loved it so much we decided to make it an annual thing!
Last year we hiked the whole way -this year we snowmobiled to the neighbours, grabbed the truck and drove! We enjoyed a couple of dinners out (no dishes to do-yay!) And grabbed a few building supplies. It was raining as we headed home on the sleds but as we gained elevation the rain turned to snow. Once home we parked the machines where they’ll stay until next season. Having the sleds has been a real game changer this winter.
On a recent hike I found a spruce tree that’s being attacked by bugs. From somewhere high up on the tree it was leaking tons of sap, ie ‘pitch’. I’ve read that tree pitch is is anti microbial and can be made into a balm using three simple ingredients, pitch, olive oil and beeswax. Since I happened to have all three and am waiting for the world to thaw, March is the perfect time to try out this experiment!
Fully winging the proportions, I mixed the pitch with olive oil in a jar and warmed it in a double boiler on the stove. Once the pitch was mostly dissolved I strained out the tree bits and mixed in some melted beeswax. It smells lovely, kind of like Vicks Vaporub.
I also carved some leaf shaped handles for the kitchen. While I whittled I listened to an audiobook. The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I haven’t decided yet how I want to finish them. Should I paint them green? Stain them? Leave them wood?
Let me know what you think!
Stain to start and if you don’t like it you can stain it green later.
I think they look good. My thought is a natural stain to protect them.