Forward Looking

Close to a month and a half in with social distancing and stay safe, stay home and starting to feel the effects . . . Like, I have a few vanities. Namely, having my nails done at a salon, having my eyelashes enhanced at a salon, and getting my hair cut every six weeks. My nails are chipped and either grown too long or cut off wonky by me; I'm going to have to resort to mascara to indicate I have lashes, and I may have to take scissors to my hair or shave my head! My 96-year-old dad was complaining to me the other day that he's beginning to look like Bernie Sanders having not had a haircut for a couple months and no one willing to do it (or able, for that matter as California, where he lives, has even shut grocery stores to the public). We'll all be rather shaggy and raggy once we "get back to normal!"

Anyhoo, the weather has been fine here and the weeds are coming up gangbusters. But just this morning we finished weeding the front yard and my old man mowed the grass. Late last summer we had finished the landscaping in front and find that we lost only a few of the plantings over the winter. Our friendly deer rubbed all the bark off of the western redbud tree and the rose of Sharon which did neither one any good, and two of the grasses winter killed. Not too bad considering that it was blazing hot when we put in most of the plants. I've trimmed up the spirea and rose bushes and cleaned up around all of the other plantings so that now it is looking very spruce; some of the flowering bushes even have buds and will be really pretty in a week or so.

Since my last post here I've made seven more face masks for family members and depleted my stash of elastic. If I make any more I'll have to make them with ties as elastic is non-existent in the stores. I've done some card making; four Easter cards sent out and one birthday card for a grandson-in-law.

The landscape version of this one I posted on Instagram for an Easter message.

I had fun coloring this lilies stamp.

Really pretty in this pink color.

I finished up an April table topper (posted on Instagram) and just need to quilt and bind one I made for May. So far I've been able to use fabrics in my stash for these projects but for some reason the scraps bin is overflowing! If I get a couple WIP's done, I'll tackle the scraps and first get them sorted by color and then MAKE something. 

Detail of the April Showers table topper. Fun little appliqued umbrellas.

Not much else going on around here. We are eating better than we have (no fast food and restaurant dining) and have been able to watch some movies courtesy of Amazon Prime and Acorn TV (which we subscribe to). Big event out on the ranch - had the arena "groomed" so that now there are less rocks to injure our ponies. 

The groomer entering the Diamond A Arena.

First pass around the outside. Note the arena banner. . . grandson Ty is sponsored by this horse supplement company who donated a couple banners. Our arena looks professional now!

The final pile of rocks gleaned from the arena. Amazing how they seem to bubble up; makes for rough going for the horses. Now, we'll hopefully see less stone bruising.

Grandson Ty and his dad drove down to Stephenville Texas this last weekend to retrieve the horse trailer that Ty had to leave behind when he came home last month. Not only did they bring the trailer back but also a new horse - Lucky is his name and a dandy pony he is!

Lucky in his new home (Zip is the palomino lump behind him).

One last photo of my favorite farmer out on the back seven putting up fence to keep the trash from blowing into the pasture. The grass hay and alfalfa is coming up nice and thick. 

There is still quite a bit of snowpack on the Oquirrhs.

Be well.

God's peace,

Hazel