are you able to see Jay working inside his woodshop?
tomatoes are coming!
Hey pricey mates! I definitely hope this finds you doing nicely. How has your spring been? We have been doing all the typical issues – planting the backyard, rising our weekly manufacturing at Cobble Hill Farm Cleaning soap & Mercantile, caring for Oliver & Jack, cleansing up the flower beds, studying (me, not my husband), writing (me, not my husband), fishing (my husband, not me), and so forth. As we speak’s submit is slightly catch-up and can bounce throughout in subjects.
The climate has been stunning, for essentially the most half. We have already had some excessive warmth and humidity which I may do with out, however at the very least it has principally been gentle. At the moment we’re battling pollen, an enormous infestation of the spongy moth caterpillars (the timber are actually raining them), and, in fact, ticks. Oliver is taking the brunt of the pollen and the ticks, it appears.
Though I’ve completely struggled with seasonal allergy symptoms since my early 20’s and commenced taking OTC allergy reduction treatment each day by my late 20’s, I’ve discovered a HUGE reduction on this these previous few years. Ever since I started working for myself and adjusted what I ate (switched to primarily anti-inflammatory meals and eradicated all dairy), I’ve not had any points with my allergy symptoms/sinuses and have not taken any medicines. Dramatically lowering my stress and consuming otherwise has made all the distinction it appears. I beforehand assumed that each day allergy meds and extreme sinus infections 2-4 instances per yr could be with me the remainder of my life. Fortunately that was not right! I now buy zyrtec for Oliver – he has developed minor seasonal allergy symptoms (in fact he has….why not add that to the combo? 😁).
The veggies are rising, as are the weeds, so every part is in full swing. Bugs are consuming away at my zucchini and summer season squash vegetation, and one thing, a chipmunk I imagine, has killed all of my sunflowers. I think it is a chipmunk as a result of there have been a number of new holes dug within the neighborhood, so I believe the small sunflower vegetation have been an unintentional goal. I’ve the toughest time making an attempt to develop sunflowers. They both get eaten or destroyed by the wildlife each. single. yr. Ugh….
So….subsequent yr I’ll begin with pvc pipes and row covers, and depart my beds coated till the vegetation that want pollination require the covers to be eliminated. I believe I am going to depart the remaining vegetation coated. On a constructive notice, our greens are doing nice, as are the sugar snap peas, asparagus, and herbs. The remainder of the veggies are nonetheless fairly younger so solely time will inform.
We have now determined to implement an intentional low spend yr this yr with our private finances. I’ve been diligent at watching our spending on groceries and retaining it low, however we additionally determined it will be greatest to look at all of our spending. Final winter was a troublesome one for our enterprise and it’ll doubtless be related this coming winter if the present state of the economic system is any indication. Our gross sales have been fairly unpredictable this spring too. It is arduous to understand how the rest of the yr will go.
Are any of you spending a bit extra conservatively this yr as nicely?
That being stated, one factor we did determine to interchange was the tent for our again deck. We completely love consuming outdoors throughout the spring, summer season and fall, and having a screened-in space is a big assist when these bugs are at their worst in summer season. Our outdated tent was in fairly unhealthy form from being out within the solar for a number of years, so we now have a brand new one. You’ll be able to see within the pictures that Jay made Ollie his personal “chair” for consuming on the out of doors desk. He is not an enormous fan of it however he’d relatively be in it than be left on the deck or in the home, so it really works out.
Talking of the deck, I’m additionally cooking outdoors as a lot as attainable. Our grill has a aspect burner that I exploit a LOT and now we have extra out of doors burners when wanted. Grilled selfmade pizza (our favourite) is on the menu fairly steadily throughout this season. It’s the greatest – even reheated, it simply has such a pleasant crispy crust and taste.
And talking of spending cash, I managed to by some means break my digicam lens final month. Ugh…. So that can have to be mounted/changed as nicely. Does not it seem to be these are the loopy issues that occur once you determine to implement a maintain on spending?
Oh, and I simply topped off my gasoline tank yesterday. I paid $4.83/gallon. Yikes! I am certain it is even worse for a lot of of you as we have heard that gasoline is up over $5.00/gallon and as excessive as as much as $10.00/gallon in some components of the U.S.
Oliver continues to do nicely. Though his again finish continues to slowly degrade, he’s completely happy (and loopy at instances) and will get round simply nice. He nonetheless is not nice about sleeping at night time however the the rest of the day and night he does fairly nicely. I’ll say that I’m completely grateful that we determined to not add one other canine to our lives. After Emerson handed away, we very strongly thought of it. Fortunately I had doubts and we stopped shifting ahead. Not solely are we exhausted from taking good care of Oliver, however I believe we might have been coping with important jealousy points, which is what made me put the brakes on initially.
Jack additionally continues to carry his personal. He’s retaining his weight static which tells us (hopefully) all is nicely in the meanwhile. He has a follow-up along with his heart specialist in August (for his coronary heart illness recognized virtually 2 years in the past) however continues to have his weight monitored by his common vet. He additionally continues to behave precisely the identical as all the time, so we proceed to carry out hope that the sudden weight lack of 1-pound final yr was nothing main. It was thought initially it may very well be an indication of most cancers as a result of all of his bloodwork got here again good. So, we proceed to observe him and can carry him in for an ultrasound if wanted.
And identical to that we’re again as much as a flock of 35 girls.
I’ve learn a number of books! I did learn a few books that I wasn’t thrilled with, however they aren’t on this listing. These are the books I’ve loved the previous 2 months (affiliate hyperlinks):
How has your week been? What kinds of issues are you doing to assist fight the rising costs? Have you ever learn any good books not too long ago?
