Butter, Belle & busy

Monday, May 11

Monday. A long, stressful one at that. More senior photos, more legal ads and some political ads all waiting in my inbox this morning. Monday’s don’t usually bother me but I guess until things get somewhat back to normal I’m not really caring for them these days.

On the bright side, I spotted a bird I had never seen before on my way home. I googled it and found out it was a Scarlet Tanager. It was bright red with black wings and was very pretty. I hear that they are a menace to the beekeeper although I’m not sure if that’s true or not.

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CountryBoy had a long Monday as well. The guests checked out after 11:30 a.m. There are times when I am bewildered by the lack of common sense in some people. The fireplace was still burning and a near empty tea kettle was left on top of it. The glass globes on the oil lamps were completely black which means they were burning too hot. I have painstakingly written a cabin guidebook that briefly and very simply explains how to use everything in the cabin and we ask each guest to please read over it. You’d be surprised at how many people have not used an oil lamp in their lifetime or have started a fire in the fireplace. We realize that all those unfamiliar items are part of the off-grid cabin experience and for some this is a totally new experience but by-jingles if they’re unfamiliar with something READ up on it!!! We expect our guests to take care of our property – both the cabin and grounds and all the items in and around it not only for us but for all the future guests. We know we will occasionally get guests like this, and thankfully we’ve only had a few, but it’s still frustrating to walk into the cabin and find a disaster waiting to happen or something ruined. Luckily, the majority of our guests have been fabulous and very respectful!

When I pulled in from work CountryBoy was shoveling rock. It was his fourth and last load for the day. He said that load completed the main driveway. Still to go is the circle part of the drive. Another day..

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It’s been cold today with the high of 48. I underdressed for work today and by mid-afternoon when the sun completely disappeared I started getting chilled. Needless to say I am sitting in front of the fireplace typing this journal entry. It’s nice to feel comfortable.

Speaking of comfortable, in order to be comfortable in our house during this time of the year we have to have a fire going most of the time to keep the chill out of the air. We’ve not had a bad winter but with many chilly days as well as supplying the cabin with wood we have used a lot of our wood supply. In fact, the wood shed has not been this low in a couple of years…

Looks like we’ll need to cut and split a LOT of wood this summer and fall in order to be ready for next winter. And all that has to happen around my work schedule because we only have the one vehicle. In fact, it seems we are trying to work around a lot of things these day – my work schedule, cabin guests, weather, etc. and it’s starting to get a little overwhelming. That’s when I feel as though mixing modern day must-do’s with homesteading creates a more complicated life. It’s nowhere near the simple lifestyle I long for.

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We made some REAL butter and buttermilk tonight!

I can’t wait to try the butter on some English muffins, mmm!

Farm news: 27 eggs

Tuesday, May 12

I pert near had to guzzle my first cuppa coffee seeing as I woke up around 7 o’clock which is about 30 minutes later than my normal time. Since we brew the coffee on the stovetop now it takes a lot longer so I had about twenty minutes to sit and enjoy that first cup. It was piping hot but I managed. The second cup I take to go and usually finish it up around lunch time. (My travel mug keeps it nice and hot the whole time.)

Work was good. We all steadily plugged along laying out the pages and I was outta there by 2 o’clock. I stopped at Save-a-Lot on my way home to pick up some English muffins for that homemade butter!

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CountryBoy took several more loads of rock up to the cabin. It doesn’t lack much and then the driveway will be complete. yay!

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Snug as a bug in her rug, or blankie in this case! LizzieBelle was sitting on her blankie on the couch with the sun shining on her and shivering. I bundled her up and in no time she was warm again. Although it appears I am being given the stink eye for capturing this moment and sharing it with the world! I couldn’t help myself as I thought it was just the cutest thing!

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Farm news: 30 eggs

Wednesday, May 13

Just before we headed to bed last night I checked the cabin email and discovered we had a booking for tonight. Thankfully, there’s not much to do to finish getting it ready other than dust, sweep & mop and take the snacks up. The bad part is we woke up to rain. It’s trickier trying to ready the cabin in the rain without tracking mud or debris in.

We finished our coffee and headed straight up to the cabin. We knocked it out fairly quickly and I still had plenty of time for my English muffin with fresh homemade butter and our own strawberry jelly. SO good! We split an apple and that was our breakfast. Right after that I threw on some jeans and a heavy fleece shirt and headed to the B&B. A fleece shirt. In May no less. It was 48 degrees at 4 o’clock when I was heading home. The good thing? The scenery is beautiful with the mountains full of trees dressed in their foliage and the green fields sporting bright yellow flowers. Today the cold and rain created wisps of fog across many of the mountainsides. It was lovely!

It was a longish day at the B&B. The few of us that were there (donned in our face masks and sitting more than six feet apart) had a meeting about the upcoming reopening and then I created a newsletter of said reopening. It’s not a difficult task it’s just a little tedious to get all the photos and text together and then put it all into a pleasing newsletter format. I have to say that it was good to see a few of the other staff and to see people working and milling about the B&B.

I came home with a headache. I’m not sure whether it was lack of food or lack of pooping. In either case, I’m going to take it easy tonight, drink a cuppa Smooth Move tea by Traditional Medicinals (great for the occasional bout of constipation) with some raw honey and wait for our guests to arrive. They are supposed to be here around 8 o’clock. Let’s hope so because I think bedtime is going to be early tonight.

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I’ve been asked to crochet another baby blanket. I did not commit to making it until I knew if I was going to be able to get the yarn I typically use from Hobby Lobby. Their website was out of the one color I needed. I kept looking and it finally came back in stock. I placed the order immediately before it went out of stock again! I will be making a different type of blanket than the ones I’ve made in the past for this customer but I think it’s still going to be super cute. I can’t wait until the yarn arrives so that I can get started on it!

Speaking of crochet, my beehive afghan is gone! Someone offered to buy it and since I would do anything for this person as well as knowing who the recipient was going to be I couldn’t refuse. I know they will appreciate the time and effort as well as the blanket itself because they are avid beekeepers. I don’t know if I will ever make another one but I have the pattern if I ever get bored enough one day, ha!

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Farm news: 29 eggs

I spotted a few, very small leaves sprouting underneath a few of the frost-bitten leaves on the potatoes. Signs of hope that our potato crop will be OK after all.