Crazy few days

The last few days have been a bit insane. Work Thursday was exhausting, so by Friday morning, writing anything would have just taken energy I did not have to spare. Though I guess a number of drivers around here have spring fever of some kind, as I nearly ended up in a head-on collision on the way to work Friday due to a dumb driver in a big pickup passing in a no passing zone going uphill because he did not like being behind a tractor with a large hay bale on the front bale spike. I saw the tractor from a bit off and just knew instinctively that the way people drive around here that someone was going to get stupid. I slowed way down and got ready to pull onto the grassy shoulder and stop, and sure enough, the pickup darn near hit me.

Then yesterday, on the way home from errands, which took pretty much forever and left it after 10PM when we finally got home, I nearly got rear-ended by two pickups as I was slowing to make the turn onto the mountain road. Apparently, they could not see the darn turn signal or brake lights on my car, because they were too focused on getting around the car in the right hand (slow) lane! Impatient drivers give me the willies, because you just know somewhere down the road that one of them will be the cause of you being an accident victim where they caused the accident.

But at least errands got done, though hubby insisted we leave everything but the few perishables in the car last night when we got back because he was tired. Fine, but it is supposed to rain off and on all day tomorrow, says I. He did not care, he was tired. So now it is raining and he does not want to bring stuff in so he does not get wet. As if getting rained on is going to make him melt. Looks like I will be digging out the Coleman cart and hauling stuff in myself in a bit!

Mom's lap quilt came out of the dryer beautifully finished off, so now I can find a box around here to mail it up to her. The baby quilt I am stitching to sell has a good start on it, but it will be a long while before it is done. The MAM antifreeze afghan is coming along nicely as well. I watched a few of my shows on Hulu last night and did quite a bit of crocheting on it, so now I only have round three to finish up on four more strips, then I have to do round 4 on sixteen strips and the joining round and it is done.

Tick season is also upon us here in the Ozarks, as I pulled two off the other day. One was behind my ear, crawling around, but the other had decided my waistline was a good spot to sink it's mandibles and start guzzling my blood. I got that one off before it got too far along, but the spot still itches. For those of you who do not have to deal with ticks, be grateful. They are an integral part of country living, but they are not fun in general. They do make good snacks for chickens and guinea hens, though! They love them and will go after them all day long. Same for grasshoppers and other insects at ground level. Though you think of chickens as being just simple grain-eaters, they are like all other birds in that they are omnivorous. They will eat just about anything they can get their beaks on. I have seen chickens go after frogs, mice, snakes ... if it moves, they will go after it. Chickens love to play keep away with stuff like that. But boy, do they taste yummy on my plate!

But I have so much to do. Get stuff from yesterday in and put away, straighten the bed (hubby is a blanket thief), clean litter boxes and add more fresh litter, dinner to make later for Ostara, needlework to do, more TV to finish watching so I can catch it up, shower to take, dishes to do, taxes to finish double checking before printing and mailing, writing to do, webstore to work on ... folks may think homesteading is easy and peaceful and loads of fun, but it is hard work. Yes, it is a lot of fun, but easy and peaceful it is not. There are moments when it is easy and/or peaceful, but they are few and far between. Mostly, it is a never-ending list of things that have to get done, and if you are lucky, you get a few moments a day on any of them. My writing, for example. I figure if I get ten minutes a day to work on one of my little how-to ebooks, I am doing really good. More than that is rare, because there is always something taking away my time. Mostly the off-farm job. But each day gets me closer to goal, and feeling better about what I am doing.

So in the meantime, for those who celebrate Easter, have a Happy one. For those who celebrate no holiday at all, have a great day anyhow. For those, like me, who celebrate Ostara, Blessed Be to you and yours. For everyone, may your day be filled with love and joy and happiness. Hugs and love all ... I am off to get things done like crazy around here.