(AF) WHEW!! What a Week It Has Been!

WHEW! What a week it as been! It is definitely never dull around here, that is for sure. And never a lack for something to do! The week, here, started out with gorgeous weather! Sunday and Monday brought sunshine and highs up to nearly 80°F! I was surprised that it was such a dead day at the flea market on Sunday, because it was so beautiful outside, and long term bad weather was predicted before this coming weekend. You would have thought the everyone would want to have gotten out and walked around outdoors after church and lunch. We usually have a pretty decent rush then, but barely had a dozen people the entire day!

Monday, Dave and I got to spend quite a bit of time outdoors here at Anna's Farm, getting a few things done. Of course, we never have time to get all we want to do done, but we had a really nice day, a quick picnic lunch, and a great, crock pot Pork Loin dinner together before he had to go back to Dave's Farm for the week and work for the corporate . . . well, I'll be nice.

Tuesday was still very pretty, with highs near 70°F and lots of sunshine. I had planned on going in to town to run errands on Friday, but with what the forecast looked like, I decided to go ahead and get all that stuff done Tuesday. Right now, as I sit here sipping my  hot cocoa and looking out at the falling wintry mix, I am really glad I made that choice to go in Tuesday, but gosh, it is soooo hard to go run in-town errands on those beautiful days that you want to be outside working!

Wednesday was supposed to have been rainy, but turned out to be yet another beautiful, nearly 70° day. I managed to get a little laundry done and hung out, and spent some time with a little more prep work to get me, and the critters ready for this long, nasty cold spell that hit during the night last night. The chickens and I are sooooo very thankful to the furniture store for all that wonderful, heavy plastic they let us have, that is now covering the supposed-to-have-been-temporary-pens.Wednesday night also brought a couple of earthquake tremors, the first of which was pretty loud and gave my whole house a good shake! Needless to say, it was near morning before I went to bed that night, because I was too scared to go to bed upstairs. I was afraid that a bigger one might hit and my bed would end up downstairs! We Okies just aren't used to this earthquake thing, and the activity here in the past couple of months has drastically increased! Over just the past month, the number of larger ones (well, what we consider large) has really increased and supposedly, this time, it isn't due to fracking, but instead, a shifting of the plates way off over in California!

I also got quite a bit of Tabasco Pepper Vinegar made up this week from all those peppers I pulled up just before our hard freeze a little over a week ago. They were finally ripe to the perfect stage for making pepper vinegar. Besides making some for friends and family, I made some for us out of three different vinegars so we can test them this year to see which ones we like the best. The bottle on the left is Rice Bran vinegar, in the middle jar I used the Bragg's Organic Unfiltered Apple Cider Vinegar (I think this one will have the most medicinal/healing properties), then the in the last bottle I simply used ordinary white vinegar. I think that one came out the prettiest.

And right now, as  I am watching rain and white stuff fall, and hearing the ice hitting the window, I am so very glad that I finished that Leg Sweater I had started last week!  Don't laugh too hard at my odd colors. I was using up some of my stash yard to try out my idea. I am really going to enjoy it this weekend as I sit in this drafty house by the fire, hiding from Old Man Winter, and knitting on projects!

Wishes for a TERRIFIC weekend to you all, regardless of what the weather may be in your area!