Spring Break!

Ahh!  It's feeling like spring time around these parts.

The chickens are happily clucking.

The bradford pears are blooming.

The bees are buzzing.

The onions are growing.

And, I always think Miss Daisy

looks like a little spring lamb

when she comes back fresh from the groomers.

Happy Spring Break! :-)

Carrie

Carrie (Underwood ;-), my Ameraucana,

is one year old this week!

I'm so glad she transitioned into the flock last spring

as well as she did.  She was on her own instead of 

being transitioned with another pullet as planned.

She lays a blue/green egg everyday and 

stays close to home when she free ranges.

She's a sweetie.

Blueberries :-)

Similar to a

rustic tart 

or a

galette,

this blueberry crostata from

 Heather Cristo Cooks

was so yummy and

a perfect, blueberry, Spring Break treat.

Spring Cleaning

I've been a fan of

Mrs. Meyer's

cleaning products for along time.

They are such a treat.

I was so excited to find the

honeysuckle

products at my grocery store

and couldn't wait to do some 

spring cleaning with them.

I bought them as a special treat,

came home and used the counter spray

ONE TIME

and my family nixed the fragrance right away. :-(

ALL three of them didn't like it.

So, back went the sweet honeysuckle to the store

and I'll be spring cleaning with my trusty

lemon verbena

scent that we all love.

I'm hoping to try out the new

radish

scent on the family soon.

We'll see how that goes.

My daughter said, "WHY would we want the house to smell like radishes??" 

They just don't understand... ;-)

Something else that I've tried recently 

are the ever popular 

"magic erasers".

I was very skeptical,

 but look what one little swipe

did to my yucky back door!

And I couldn't believe what the bath scrubber 

did for my kid's vinyl bath tub.  A-mazing!

Ever tried them?

Drying Herbs

Mr. H. and I are changing up our gardening areas this spring

and we've moved my herb garden.

My oregano really weathered the winter well

and was thriving

but I was worried it wouldn't survive a transplant, 

so I decided to dry what I had.

Instead of bundling stems with strings and then tying the bundles

to another string,

Mr. H. thought of this quick and easy way to hang them up.

It took no time to clip them with clothes pins and 

then we strung the clothes pins onto a string. 

It has taken a little longer than I thought it would for them to dry completely.

Today is two weeks in and I think they are almost done.

They should be really "crunchy" 

when I strip them off the stem for long term storage.