Around Bowenburg

Much has been going on around the homeplace. We are still staying home mostly. We did make a trip to Hot Springs to Walmarts and Sams. I guess we are turning into preppers though we aren't hoarding and buying food in bulk like MRE, etc. But we do plan to buy what we can in bulk at Sams. With hints coming from the media that we may be facing another round of this plague, we decided we wanted to be more ready. Thankfully the week before the quarantine in March, we had bought paper goods at Sams. We found out then there was a shortage of alcohol and bleach but we found both cheaper at Atwoods and the Dollar store. Now it seems there is going to be a shortage of meats. They are limiting purchase of meat to 1 package per shopper and to tell you that shopping at both stores was an experience. But it must be done.

Well enough of that...on to the photos. 

I've made 14 aprons since March. These will be Christmas presents. I've also made almost 1000 face masks and given away most. Elastic is not available anywhere...even online. so most I've made have ties. 

I made 4 of the cow print fabric. This yellow one has birdhouses on and think I placed the pockets too high.

Egg print

Grape vine and chickens

tomatoes and fall leaves

chickens and fall leaves

birdhouses and scissors

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Both of the younger sons finally got to leave for their hitches on their ships. One is off coast of Mexico and other is in Alaska. The one in Alaska won't be home until autumn. But they came out for a visit. We ate our first outside meal under the patio area.

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Our hawk babies have hatched. I've been trying to get a good photo and so far this is all I've gotten. They are the fuzzy blobs in the center top of the nest.

This shows the momma hawk

There are 2 babies.

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Our garden is finally growing. We have had very cool mornings so it has been slow growing.

Our semi-raised lettuce, spinach and onion bed. The fuzzy plant at the bottom left corner is mint and it never dies but will spread so we try to keep it contained. We have garlic planted with the mint. 

Hubby and the tomato and pepper plants in pots.

Our green peas and corn. The asparagus bed is in bottom right corner of photo. We are going to replant it next spring as it is over 20 years old and not producing like it should. 

This is 2 rosemary bushes. I even cut it back early spring. 

The herb bed. The middle plants are oregano and bottom 2 are sage. The rosemary is on the right. They are all perennials so will 

continue to grow year round. The spots between them have basil and Italian parley which are annuals. I hope to expand this bed later. 

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Since we dug up our iris bed, the only ones I have now are planted beside the driveway. The big bed was just too hard to keep up with us again. I gave all the tubers away to friends and neighbors. But these are the few that bloomed this year.

I was pleased to see the pink one. 

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Our clematis have begun blooming. This first photo is our oldest vine.

This one grows beside our porch

T

These bottom 2 photos are from our newer ones and grow on a round trellis in the yard.

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We have had so much trouble growing this rose. I have cut it back every year almost to the ground. It seems to get a type of rose blight. But this year it came back healthy and has bloomed and bloomed. 

O and we did get rid of our comode planters. The weather took a tole on them and they had cracked and broken. We also removed the old washing machine barrels we always planted with faux sweet potato vines. They are just so much trouble to work up each year. 

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We finally did a little pressure washing. 

It looks so much cleaner and nicer.

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Our baby dog Kinzey is now 3 years old. Here are 2 photos...one about a month after we got her and now. She now weighs in at 100 lbs.

She does not like to have her picture taken.

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Well that's all folks.

Doing our part

Well we are trying to do our part in this time of the pandemic. 

Sonny is busy trying to get our garden planted. Rain seems to be stopping him at every turn. He did get corn and green peas planted as well as lettuce, spinach and onions. And they are all up and growing. I just hope we don't have an Easter snap.

I've been busy sewing....mainly facemasks to give away. I have now sewn 118 but 36 have no elastic. Sadly all the outlets have sold out....even online. I have some ordered but told it will be sometime in May before receiving them. I've had several people asking how I make them. It does take time and I've spent hours cutting, sewing and ironing. So unless you have the time to invest.....well you get the idea. Ok here is how I do them.

First I cut out 2 exact same size pieces of fabric. I cut mine 8x9inches. 

This photo shows before I cut the 8 inch side. (You can use the same fabric squares or different ones, just as long as they are the same size.). 

Then lay right sides together and sew down one long side (9inch side). 

On other long ends of the fabric, roll under 1/4 inch twice to make a rolled hem. Stitch each side separate. Do not stitch together. 

Fold with wrong sides together and iron. 

Fold over with stitched sides up. Iron 

Open up and fold down top to center fold line and bottom to center fold line. Press. 

Fold this in half again and press.

Now open up and flip over and fold top 1/4th to center line and pin sides and fold bottom to center line and pin sides. 

Sew 1/2inch along each side. Remove pins. Cut a 3x5 1/2inch piece of fabric. It can be matching or contrast. Line up to end side of mask right sides together. 

Fold the 2 tags on the sides to the front and pin. Sew down side of mask catching in folded ends. 

Repeat on other end. This is what it looks like at this point when they are both sewn.

Roll the ends to the other side and do a rolled hem on raw edge and pin. 

Sew this down the sides on a tiny edge.

These sides are the casing for the elastic.

I have a neat gadget that basically is along wire with a hook on the end. I hook the end of my elastic to the hook and pull it through. But a safety pin will work as well. Use 1/4 or 1/2 inch elastic or ribbon. I cut these about 7inches long but can be adjusted. You don't want it too tight or too loose.

Once I run the elastic through the casing, I overlap a little bit and then hand stitch the elastic together by stitching down each side of the overlap of elastic. 

Now that they are finished, you may realize that these have a pocket. I wear the open end up and slide in a coffee filter or if you can find them, they do make charcoal filters for facemask you can purchase. But I just made some using finer chunk activated charcoal for water pumps. I cut a piece of fabric about 6x6 inch piece of scrap fabric. I folded over and sewed channels about 1inch wide along the piece to make channeled pouch. Leave the one end open. I used a funnel to fill each pouch with the charcoal and then sewed the long end shut. It will slide down into the pocket on the masks. Sorry I don't have a photo. If I make more, I'll post photos of them. In the mean time if you are worried, just use a coffee filter. I fold one in half and slide down inside pocket. 

Yellow Bells

Forsythia is blooming. I remember Sonny's mother calling it "Yellow Bells". To this day, Sonny still calls it that. I just love the cheery yellow.

Our daffodils and hyacinths have finished their bloom. My friends came out and dug up all the tulips that had been in our iris bed. They still have a few iris to dig. 

Our bush cherries have also finished their bloom.

I believe the world has gone crazy. Sonny and I have decided to go ahead and stay home for a few weeks. Even our church has shut their doors for 2 weeks and maybe longer. The schools here in Arkansas are closed until April 17 and probably longer. States are closing down, the economy is dropping and there doesn't seem to be an end to it. We already were kind of prepared. We freeze our garden veggies and I can some things. Sonny is an avid hunter. And the Good Lord was looking out for us a couple of weeks ago. I had doctor appointment in Hot Springs and we decided to stop by Sam's. We were almost out of bleach and rubbing alcohol but Sam's was out. We did pick up another large package of toilet paper. We probably had enough at home to last a month but thinking we may not make it back over to Hot Springs for over a month, we purchased it. Then we went to Atwoods and they had bleach $1.19 per gallon. Much cheaper than Sam's. We found alcohol at the Dollar store much cheaper as well. So we got 3 jugs of each. It has made me rethink why we have a Sam's card. Now that we are staying home, we feel we are more prepared than most folks. I told my friends not to come visit. Sonny and I are both over 65 so don't want to take chances. I will miss my family and friends but this is life sometimes. I hope everyone I know is staying safe, warm, dry and has enough food and goods to last them. I feel like this isn't the end of this and it is just getting started. We are not preppers but so glad we do stock up. That is the beauty of having lived a long life in the country and not being able to just jump in our vehicle and go get what we need for the day. We have always prepared to not going to shop for a month at least at a time. It has paid to prepare. I do have mixed feelings about the churches shutting their doors. I feel this is the time we need to pray more and open up for those who are stressing over this. 

Please all take this serious and I'll be praying for each and everyone of you. 

gardening and spring

It has been a very busy week. First had an appointment with orthopedic doctor on Monday. Shopped at Sams...People are stupid. I really needed toilet paper, bleach and rubbing alcohol....not for a virus outbreak but because I was almost out...we did manage to get toilet paper but no bleach or alcohol...we found bleach for $1.19 gallon at Atwoods later and alcohol at the Dollar store for $1.20. Makes me rethink my membership at Sam's. Do I really need it if I can buy the same things cheaper somewhere else. Anyway we then met the youngest son and wife at Sqzbx pizza pub. Ate the most wonderful pizza and had a great visit. They gave me a couple of things for a birthday gift. Their daughter Miss Molly sent me a set of hedgehog salt & pepper shakers and a dance photo of her. I'll share those photos on another post. But here is Carmen and Sean.

The cafe is owned by a former German accordion player. He had accordion lights and piano parts hanging on the walls. The building was built right up next to a mountain side. Old old building. Such wonderful atmosphere. O and they make their own beer. 

The rest of the week was spent in the yard while the rains allowed. We cleaned the herb bed and transplanted oregano that was being smothered out by the rosemary. I had bought Sage at Atwoods so got it planted there also. Later will plant basil and parsley between those rows. 

You can't tell much from the photo but that big clump is the rosemary. 

We also planted lettuce and spinach which was useless as we got a 2.5inch rain in 2 hours which washed the seed and soil to the bottom of the garden. In the meantime the mini-hyacinths have been in full bloom. 

And the ground is covered in starflowers.

A note on Kinzey...she got a good brush and bath. She is losing her winter undercoat so it is a daily chore to brush her. We also got her first flea and tick pills. 

My birthday was yesterday....turned 69. Had a couple of friends come out and we spent all afternoon digging up iris bulbs. I had asked them if they wanted them as Sonny had planned to mow them down. We removed the iris beds and the commode planters we had out front. As we age, we are trying to simplify our lives more. 

That's all...but as usual...