I really can't believe that 2021 has come and gone.  We've had a lot of changes here on the homestead in the past two years.  We added chickens and more chickens, we raised and butchered pigs, we are now raising a steer for meat and come spring we should be milking a cow, preferably a Jersey.

Our egg supply is starting to build up again, we have 15 layers, 5 hens and 10 pullets who have really started laying.  We've also acquired 5 bantam hens who have not started laying yet and a bantam rooster that we named Barney and thinks he's a really big man but he's not :)

I'm trying to balance homesteading with my hobbies such as knitting and quilting and for the past year or more I haven't done a very good job fitting knitting and quilting in.  So, this year I am really going to make a strong effort to take the time and knit or get in my sewing room.  With that said I'm starting off good, so far at least (LOL).  I have cleaned my much-needed sewing room, it has been neglected for far too long.  I have also pulled out the knitting needles and made myself a winter hat from the pattern I absolutely love from SouleMama.  It's such an easy pattern and I love how it fits.

So far 2022 is starting off good.  Last year I picked a word for the year and that was FOCUS, for the most part I was able to focus on things better than I have had in the past.  I had been picking my brain for a word this year, the word "focus" still pops up in my head and that's good because I believe I can still have focus in my life.  The word I have actually decided on is "balance".  I need to start balancing things in my life better, so that's the word I am going with...BALANCE.

So, here's to a wonderful 2022 and I am focused on balancing things in my life from this day forward.

I really need new mittens like I need a hole in my head, but I do need a pair of fingerless gloves for when I head out to the chicken coop on these cold days.  My mums are in need of watering I can see by this photo, but it’s been raining pretty good all day today so I don’t think I’ll be needing to water the mums tomorrow. 

With the colder weather upon us I’ve been thinking of new dishes to make, casseroles actually. I have pinned so many food ideas on Pinterest I really need to start making them. I’m thinking if I add one or two new meals a week that would be good. I don’t know about you but I tend to get in a rut now that I’m cooking for only 2, it was so much easier for me when all the kids were home to make meals. My problem now is I make so much we either eat it for a week or I freeze some of it, which is ok for when we’re too busy to cook.  I can’t wait to get started. 

Finally after almost 2 years in the making it’s finished. The pattern is called Barn Sweater.

I’m very excited to finally have it done and I can’t wait for fall to come so I can use it. 

I maybe smiling but believe me I was quite warm (lol). Now I have a winter hat for myself on the needles, which I have been meaning to make for awhile now. 

Life continues to be busy here, I hope you all are doing good. 

It’s definitely been a long time since I’ve posted.  Winter is still here but instead of a snowstorm we are having freezing rain which is not nice to drive in so we are hunkering down and staying in since we really have no place we need to be.

Here’s what I’ve been doing, the guys came out hunting in early November, some of the kids came for thanksgiving and we went to Texas for Christmas this year and stayed down there for a month. We had a wonderful time. The weather was pretty chilly but we sure didn’t mind, being with our family down there was why we go.

We spent a lot of time with our kids and grandkids and had quite a few sleepovers with the grands.

I did manage to get some UFO’s finished.  I finished my Chicago Cubs socks...yay!

Hopefully this will be the start of my blogging again. 

First off our Texas kids are all fine and stayed dry during Tropical Storm Harvey.  It was close for our son and his family with the water flooding their street and starting to creep up the driveway a bit, but it receded before any damage was done...whew!

I quilted a quilt that a friend pieced together and donates to an auction, I donated my quilting services.  This is the third one she's done and the second one I've quilted for her.  I've also been working on a quilt I was asked to make for a friend who wanted a quilt for their cabin here in Wisconsin, that top is finally finished and will go on the frame soon, I will post a photo of that one when it's all done.

I've been eying up this barn sweater to make and finally I'm starting it.  The yarn is actually a mocha color but doesn't look like it in this photo.

I've been trying to keep busy with my hobbies that I love to do, and with the cooler weather we have been having, I'm enjoying cuddling up underneath my quilt in the evening and just knitting.

Wow, two posts in one week, hopefully I can keep it up.

I am so loving the cooler weather we have been having of late, the whole summer has been absolutely awesome.  I skipped out for a weekend getaway to do some sewing with a friend last month.

This cute table runner was just one of the projects I finished and sitting out on the porch with a cup of coffee was totally relaxing.

I started these socks last January and finally am getting them done.  We planted some Minnesota Midget melons and I just couldn't resist a melon break when Mr. brought a melon in to try.

I've had this quilt in the back of my mind when I saw the panel in the quilt shop I frequent.  I plan to donate this quilt for a Gala/Dinner held in South Dakota.

I am working on another quilt right now but it's really in the early stages to post about.  Though I've not been blogging I have been keeping busy sewing and knitting.

I'm still having a hard time believing that school has started and summer is almost over.  I do love fall though and can't wait to get apples from the orchard and make applesauce.

Even though I live in beautiful Wisconsin, I will always be a Cubs fan as well as a Blackhawks fan, and when KnitCircus came out with their limited edition of their Chicago-Pride yarn when the Cubs won the World Series, I just had to get it.  I've never made a pair of socks at the same time and it's actually pretty nice, they will be done at the same time :)  

After last weeks football game with the Green Bay Packers pulling off a win, KnitCircus also had Packer yarn. No, I'm not really a Packers fan but living in Wisconsin you kind of get the Packer fever. I just hope that I didn't jinx them for the next game by buying the yarn. :)

Seems like I've been knitting up a storm lately.  I've been knitting while watching the Cubs make a run to get to the World Series since 1908 and they made it...YAY!!!! Tuesday is game one, and hopefully will finish this hat that I'm knitting, which is the same as the cancer hat in the previous post. My friend wanted me to make her a second hat. 

We had some little people for the night and we kept them pretty busy.  We went to the park and along came an Amish family to have a picnic lunch at the park.  

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These two were a bit nervous to go up on the natural rock bridge so I stayed down on the ground while Mr and the older two explored and picked pinecones.

The time went by too quickly with the little people. Oh and, GO CUBS!!!

That ugly word...cancer.

A friend of mine is battling breast cancer and with the colder weather coming I wanted to make her a warm hat to wear when she goes out.

This hat can actually be worn even after her hair grows back.  

I delivered the hat tonight and she loved it.  I'm so glad she did, it's not your typical "cancer" hat and she loved that idea.  

Cancer, it is such an ugly word. 

Edited to add...Cami asked for the pattern for this hat, HERE is the link to the free Ravelry pattern. If you are not on Ravelry e-mail me and I will send it to you in PDF form. 

I've got a little bit of this and a little bit of that in this post.  Tho I've not been blogging regularly I have been busy and all these photos are from my cell phone.

From my walk the other day.  Did I say before that we are green and lush? Well we are and as you can see the vegetation almost covered this fence post.

Our pumpkin harvest was really good this year.

Over the summer I joined a Mystery Block of the Week and made a picnic quilt.  I went outside the box a bit and added the flying geese and the 4 patch strip on the ends to make it just a tad bigger.

This Missouri Star tumbler quilt went to Alaska.

Another pattern from Missouri Star, the Everything Bag.

One of my daughters wanted me to make this for her, so before I mailed it out I had to model it.

This is just a little bit of what I've been doing and I'll leave you with a photo of some visitors that we had come by the other day.  Our neighbors cows got loose and they meandered over to our place (LOL).