Springtime Crazies

Well, it's that time of year again. Time for the yard to be mown, time to plant a garden, time to find time to do all of it. Time for a prescription for nerve pills. I still haven't figured out how we get it all done.
The mini-greenhouses all have different types of basil, cress, dill, sage, and some bright purple zinnias(super excited about these). They work great, but I have renters. The frogs have arrived for the year, and have decided that these little trays of dirt make great hiding places. They wait on me to come out and take the lids off the trays. It's cute and all, but they're taking over my baby plants! Guess I've got to move them.
We have started to move dirt down to our main garden and planting corn, cabbage, broccoli, kale, beets, flowers, strawberries, my fingers hurt! This is an intensive process, and my Hubs has his doctorate in various types of excrement.
We raise worms for their poop, we have horse poop, chicken poop, and compost, or veggie poop. All of this poop makes for great dirt, as the dirt in the middle of NC is all red.clay.mud.
We get our exercise!
We also plant in the Native American tradition of the three sisters, planting in mounds. This didn't work so great last year, but we've made our dirt piles bigger, and didn't use fresh horse poop. My Dad said it was too "hot" (hot: redneck term for the poop is too fresh and will kill your plants because literally gets the ground hot where it's decomposing), and we didn't listen, so we had small jalepeno plants last year trying to make halepenos as big as the plant. But I did learn that gourds we grew last year seem to keep away garden pest animals, because the vines smell horrible! I'm the queen of the run-on sentence.
Our asparagus is in it's second year, and we finally got to cut some to eat. It was delicious, and I can't wait for next year when I can cut lots!
The next endeavour on our list of projects is to learn the canning process. Hopefully I won't blow up the house or singe anyone's eyebrows. It can't be that hard, can it?
As for the Pyrex collection, I'm running out of room in the Grandma Rizzo cabinet. I arrange this stuff. I must be weird.

Where does time go?

Can you buy time on Craigslist or Ebay? With all the Ebay action going on lately I'm tired. Like don't wanna go to the Goodwill tired. That's bad. I had one customer last week that wasn't happy with the shade of brown on the purse she bought. They thought it was a shade of olive green, but we always ask customers to ASK QUESTIONS! I don't know how you get from light brown to olive green, but I guess it grew some moss on it between the time I shipped it and when they got it.
I guess that was enough to break me down last week. I'd had two brain scientists for customers and that was enough.
But the good news is it's almost spring. That means more yard sales and auctions. We've set up mini-greenhouses in those plastic rotisserie chicken containers you get from the grocery store. This morning I saw sprouts through the plastic tops. That might sound gross, but wash them, and they are great mini-greenhouses. I hate throwing those things away because it's just so wasteful.
Just put some dirt in bottom, add seed, water, put the lid back on, poke about 10 small holes in the top, and wait. Great kids project. So far I've got different types of herbs and a some giant zinnias going on. I think the cat thought he had new litter boxes on the porch, until I put lids on.
Other great news; the chicken mansion is complete, and my girls are happy. I'm contemplating a rooster now...
This weekend I've really got to suck it up because there is a new bi-annual flea/antique market starting in our area, and I'm going to take a load there to see how I do.
Check out the new Pyrex finds and the awesome distressed leather living room set we got for cheap!

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Bug carvings, and Tobias face jug

I've got to post some of Bug's carvings. These are carved from found wood that beavers were snacking on. He's very talented and will put me in a headlock when he finds out his stuff is there for the world to see!
The devil is a Tobias face jug that has a face only I can love.

My Pyrex Collection

This is my Pyrex Collection so far, started with all compliments for the nesting bowls to my Hub's grandmother Rizzo.  Wish I could have met her, sounds like she was a wonderful woman we could all aspire to.  Turns out the blue casserole dish is the "Saxony" pattern, was promotional pattern. I could do a backflip.  I found another lid to go with it for 1.00 at the Salvation Army Store.

 The guacamole dip set was found at auction, and the hot pepper found at Goodwill for 1.50!

I love love love these sundial tureens and the silver plated ceramic bowl with floral design lid.  All came from yard sales, Goodwill, and auction!

And then there were 6...

This was an overly dramatic weekend.  I hit 3 auctions Saturday, bought nothing.  The first auction had absolutely nothing I could sell, or wanted.  At the second I saw one nice red Pyrex casserole, but it went over my price limit I had in my head.   I left that one.  Then I went to an community college auction-waited around for hours for them to get to some nice butcher block tables, then decided I didn't have the patience.  I'd already been to the Goodwill and Salvation Army waiting on them to get around to the tables-nothing there either.  I wanted to suck my thumb. I came home to list some things on Ebay, all was good at home.  Hubs got home from work, had some company...counted chickens around 4:30, still had 8...
....and then went out to put up the girls for the night.  But to my horror, the front of the coop had a lot of feathers.  Went to the back to open it up, and only 4 chickens, and then had to wait until morning to see how many had hidden in the bushes.  Thankfully, 2 had made it through the night, but 2 were gone.  Thank you for the beautiful eggs, my girls.  You will be missed.  We believe it was raccoons this time.  I want to trap them and relocate them somewhere else.  I will not go down without a fight!

I guess my next lesson in raising chickens is that the wild animals around your property watch your every move if you have tasty treats such as chickens.  Bug would be out in the yard most of the day when he was at home, but since he went back to work, we've lost 3 chickens.  They watch...evil little critters...

We've decided we now need Fort Knox for the heniehens.  Sunday we drove by a place that builds wooden chicken coops with tin roofs, and believe we're going to buy one of those, and put it on a concrete pad so nothing can dig under and get in to the girls. 

Making changes on Ebay sucks! Newest craze...Pyrex

There are days when I hate Ebay.  I think there is a little gnome at the house that goes in my Ebay account and switches things listed around when I'm not there.  Especially shipping changes....ahhhhhhh!!!

You really have to preview your listing, then preview it again, then preview it AGAIN to make sure it's right.  Some days I want to jump and down like a little kid with a bad tantrum. 
The Bug will not be happy with me if I goof on a listing and I will get a tounge lashing.  That felt good to get some of that off my brain. 

In other news, I've come across some really cool blogs on vintage Pyrex here of late.  I think I want to collect it because of this Butterfly pattern casserole.  I overpaid for it, but I'm trying to get in with the local antique lady to consign some of my "too big to ship" items.  It was so pretty!