Little Peeks of Springtime

Has spring come to your world yet? Spring has slowly been making its way to our little corner of the world. 

My windowsill stays lined with pretty pops of color in early spring until color arrives in our world outside. 

Someone else is enjoying the warm sunshine streaming through the window too! 

Pulling into the grocery store one sunshine-filled afternoon, I spotted these happy dogs in the back of the pickup, enjoying a nice day to town!  It was the cutest thing to see, but I just can't imagine having that many big dogs! 

 

The rest of the world has increasingly become a cauldron of chaos,
but I'm thankful for the chance I have every morning and night
to walk and see the splendor in the skies, and the world around me.   

After a cloudy day with little to no sunshine, the skies opened up to this
purple and pink decadent display. 

A late winter snowstorm moved through our area last week. It was a wild, windy and bitter cold day.  We didn't get much snow, but our temps dipped down into the low teens.  We walked anyway, bundled up.  The dogs were the only ones who were truly thrilled with the change in the weather! 

I'm sure the grocery shelves in your area have looked like this as well.  Thankfully the shelves in our local stores here have been restocked after the initial mass panic. Our home was not in panic, we have everything we need.  We've been stocking back extra for years, and I'm thankful we have.  It is in times like this that you appreciate having lots of canned goods, paper supplies, and plenty of wild game to eat!

We took a small hike a couple of weeks ago, and this was the view that met us at the top of the rocky outcrop - magnificent! 

We hiked at a friend's place, and also got to visit with their animals.  Meet Mr. Llama! Isn't he handsome!
I think he was even smiling for the camera!

Our friend showed how they like to get right up in your face space!  They don't know what #socialdistancing is! {smiles} 

Feeding the alpacas was such fun! Our friends showed us how much they loved their treats! 

I think I'm officially smitten with the alpacas!  They have the cutest personalities! 

Beyond adorable! They have the funniest personalities too... 

This beautiful butterfly flew by my window recently. I was able to capture a few pictures of it.  It was sitting, preening on a rock outside by the bird feeders.  I looked it up and found out it is a mourning cloak butterfly. It is one of the longest living butterflies, living 11-12 months! Wow!  

Another beautiful sign of spring in our area is the emergence of the buttercup.  Tiny and poisonous, yet these beautiful little flowers populate the hillsides with their bright yellow blooms. 
Always exciting to find them growing, usually next to a mound of snow! 

I've been making homemade kombucha for many years.  Kombucha is a fermented tea with probiotics and is a wonderful immune system builder.  Below I will share my kombucha recipe.  It is quite easy to make, and much cheaper than buying it! I make my kombucha with green tea but black tea works great too. 

BASIC KOMBUCHA

Makes 1 gallon

3 quarts water (filtered if desired)

4-5 tea bags (green or black tea, NO HERBAL TEA)

1 cup sugar (can add ¼ cup more if desired)

1 scoby

1 cup fermented tea

·         Wash all utensils with hot soapy water and rinse well.

·         Bring water to a boil, then add sugar, gently boil for 5 minutes.

·         Turn off heat, and add tea bags.  Let steep 30 minutes, then remove.

·         Cool tea for about 30 minutes, and then pour into clean 1 gallon glass jar. Add enough cold water to the tea mixture leaving room for scoby and tea starter. 

·         Add starter and then scoby.  More cold water can be added so that the scoby sits just at the mouth/opening of the jar.

·         Place a breathable cloth over the top of the jar (I use a tea towel that has no lint), secure with a rubber band.

·         Let the gallon of tea sit undisturbed at room temperature (best between 65-90 F) from anywhere from 6 to 15 days. (l let mine sit a week). You can taste the kombucha every couple days starting at the fourth day until the kombucha tastes tart, not sweet, and not overtly sour or vinegary (which can happen if it sits too long).

·         To enjoy kombucha, remove scoby from the jar.  Place scoby in a clean glass bowl, and add 1 cup fermented starter tea.  Pour remaining kombucha into glass bottles with plastic lids.  Store in refrigerator. 

Notes: After several months of regular feeding, the scoby will grow in size.  You can now separate it and give away the bottom layer of the scoby if desired.  If the scoby gets too big, you can always wait less time between fermenting periods, or you can separate it, and feed it to the chickens. They love it 😊

·       Never use metal utensils, bowls or jars with kombucha. It is always best if plastic lids are used on the bottles as well. If you don't have a scoby, please see this link to   Make your own scoby. 

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Recently our bible study ladies put together care packages for the local nursing home.  On the day I was to deliver them, the Activities Director contacted me and advised that they are no longer accepting care packages per new guidelines.  We still had fun putting them together, and will look forward to the day when we can deliver them to the residents. 

 

While on the phone with the nursing home activities director, she asked if our group would make face masks for their health care workers.  I told her we would do our best, and we delivered 20+ masks to the nursing home,
 and plan to make more.... if we can get more elastic.  Local stores are out.
 It is amazing in the world we live in what things overnight become a hot commodity!  

I'm sure all of us have been affected by the recent Covid-19 virus that has crippled our world.  Since making the masks for the nursing home, I decided to make some masks for our family too.  In this world where fear is rapidly making inroads into our lives and homes, I want to encourage each of you that in the midst of all this fear, our faith will sustain us and get us through these days, and yet it is also good to protect ourselves as best we can. 

Our state is currently in a "shelter-in-place" mode, and it is strange to see businesses that were thriving even a week ago, closed for 3 weeks.  Store shelves have plenty for the most part, although there are a few items that are now hard to obtain, but thankfully we have been blessed to have a full pantry and our needs are supplied.

My prayer is that the Lord will bless and encourage each one of your hearts and give you wisdom, protection, and guidance to safely navigate through this situation we are all facing. Our God is able to sustain us through it all.  Many blessings to each of you!