Sunday, April 17, 2011

Waiting for Spring...


Well, it looks like spring has decided to visit the Pacific Northwest. I've been ready since January for her to make her appearance, but being the most stubborn of the seasons, she's held off until now.

With spring comes the "springer" salmon fishing season on the Columbia River. My Mister and eldest Man Cub decided to give it a go in between rain storms. Not only has the weather not cooperated, but neither have the fish. Apparently the salmon have an aversion to being caught.

Go figure.

According to the fish & game guy (who counts the fish that have been caught), only 7 were caught on the day my boys went out.

Out of 45 boats.

Here are two of them!


With the arrival of spring, the fruit trees are close to flowering. This means that the bees are preparing for their busy season.




There are 5 trays that still need to be filled for the bee's honey supply. After that, we'll be adding the boxes that will be for our supply. Since we didn't get our beehives until May of last year, they missed the festival of flowers on the farm. I'm hopeful that they will find the cherry, apple, plum and pear trees to their liking.

I'm also hoping that I won't need to sew little bee rain suits in order for them to visit the blossoms!
Because of the finicky weather, I've been doing a lot of indoor activities.



Homemade Root Beer


Lemonade Water Kefir


Buttermilk and Milk Kefir




After months of planning, this week we'll be starting a new homesteading project.


My Mister, with the help of our younger cubs, got the ball rolling by making a couple of soap molds and a cutter. He used the directions in the book, "Basic Soap Making".

Now if I can just get over the fear of blowing half my face off with the lye, we'll be good to go!


And finally, a friend of mine posted this on Facebook. It pretty much sums up my spring thus far.

INSTALLING SPRING...


█████████████░░░░░░░░░░░░44% DONE.

Install delayed....please wait.

Installation failed. Please try again.

404 error: Season not found. Season "Spring" cannot be located. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again. .-//

.........Is this how your spring has been this year?


This post is linked to The Homestead Barn Hop.


7 comments:

Penny @ Single Cup Coffee Maker said...

Oh... Spring, where art thou? Here in Michigan we had 60s last week, this morning I wake up to have a cup of coffee, look out the window and the ground is covered with snow and it is snowing!

Agggghhhh!

Penny

momma-lana said...

Spring has arrived full force in the SE except for the isolated day in the sixties and an occasional night in the low forties which are making me very nervous. We have had horrible storms with over 200 tornados touching down in the SE in the last 4 days.

Kimberly said...

We're excited for our bees to arrive soon. This will be our first time. Lots of firsts this spring including yogurt making from our goat's milk. :) We're in the Northwest here and it's been raining a lot, too. But it's getting warmer!!! And I am excited to see it.

April's Homemaking said...

I'm from the Pacific Northwest as well- in Clackamas County, Oregon. Loved your Installing Spring- that was great. The rain does go on and on. Can't wait for more sunshine- we have some sunshine now- hope it stays for a few days. Fun post-Thanks- April

aprilshomemaking.blogspot.com

Bonnie K said...

Still snowing here. What is lemonade water kifer? Sounds interesting. Looks like you have been busy with everything, except cleaning fish.

Unknown said...

I think spring is a teaser. Either that or just plain finicky.

I loved hearing and seeing all the things you've been doing on your homestead! You'll do fine with the lye making the soap. Just follow the directions and have fun! Thanks for linking up to the barn hop!

blank said...

Great job on the soap making venture! I have some recipes that we stick to here at our house, let me know if you'd like them...a great hair & body shampoo, a basic soap that you can add all sorts of stuff to and a castile soap that's great for skin issues, pet care, laundry, dishes and everything in between! Enjoy the journey neighbour!