Officially a farm?

What? When did that happen anyway. Could this be the reason behind the nagging fatigue, random moments of vague anxiety, my obsession with weather and the feeling that someone somewhere has change the 24 hr day to 12 which causes the place to look like the aftermath of the Apocalypse??? Okay, so I've always been obsessed with weather and at the last head count there were still only 5 progeny running around so I know another one hasn't snuck in without my knowledge.
Justin ran a list of the various animals running around about the place and it kind of took me back. Here's the list:

Bovine for eating
Bovine for milking
Poultry, including one duck (because Lars has held fast since he was 3, it's not a farm unless there's a duck)
Caprine for eating
Caprine for milking
Equine
Porcine for eating and a possible for breeding
Feline for catching the Mus musculus
Okay so in English this time:

Cows, chickens and duck, goats, horses, pigs, outside cat for catching mice. Check. Huh. Guess that explains a few things. I think the Apocalypse tryout is simply the result of having 5 very active children running around. Feed 10 cats, 1 gallon of pure caffeine each, put them in a 10x10 room filled with feather pillows and string one small fish from the ceiling, leave for 30 minutes.
You know that when you return, there will be nothing to allude to the existence of anything remotely resembling a pillow, there will be feathers in places Albert Einstein couldn't reason out how they got there, the fish and all evidence of it will be gone (including the string) and all 10 cats will be calmly sitting there, looking innocently at you with that "What?!" look on their face.

Don't forget the garden, at least I think it's a garden. I have a faint recollection of planting corn in there with Lars. I can get back to you on that, right now the weeds are winning.

This year was my trial year for the pea variety "Wando". Always makes me think of the Where's Waldo cartoons. Touted as heat and cold tolerant, heat was my main concern. They win. Surviving a late frost and pulling through high 90's heat that would have made my other varieties wail in agony and die, they got a little droopy but after a good evening watering bounced back and are still spitting out peas. Nice and sweet, even after the peak pick time. I would suggest not picking them early, the early peas taste great, but at maturity they have a wonderful flavor. They've run the gammit of weather this area offers with flying colors. Definitely a keeper.

Cantaloupes, Burpee's Ambrosia. These were the first that I planted and plant no other. Their flavor is beyond compare. Mine are flowing at the moment and it's going to be hard to be patient while they ripen on the vine.
Everything else, I'm still trialing. I have decent cukes for the first time in 3 yrs, time will tell if they do well for pickles. The new beds are doing wonderfully! That's the spot for growing the veggies. The boys don't disagree, it means less yard to mow. ;)

This years flock, Speckled Sussex, is growing well! I've been noticing some early sparring, and iridescent tail feathers are starting to show. Their size and growth have been impressive. They'll reach a nice size by butchering time. Something I really like seeing is their personality, very friendly without being obnoxious, accepting of other breeds. They're also turning out to be fairly hand tame, not adverse to being picked up and snuggled. If I can't find the girls, they're usually to be found out in the chicken yard with 2 or 3 chickens roosting on legs and shoulders while the rest mill around looking for a spot.

Well that's the news for now. Enjoying what's left of the maintenance time of year. Soon the produce will start flying and it will be time to start preserving. Ugh. Love eating it, but does harvest have to come at the hottest time of the year??? ........... Don't answer that, it's a rhetorical complaint. Ah well, such is this life. One guarantee though, no one will bug me while I'm in the kitchen and canning. Of course I don't want to be in there with myself either.....but I'll let someone with a degree figure that one out.

Little Pig, Little Pig

Here they are in all their porcine glory! Finally, finally found someone with weaners. They were over by Spokane so my mom graciously brought them over for us (thanks Mom!). I usually like to have them earlier in the year, but this is what this year had to offer. Oh, I know...so cute! Wait, just wait. They get big, very big. Then they start to stink, then they'll figure out how to get out. They're smart, very, very smart. I'm not sure why calling someone a pig is an insult really. Pigs are by nature (unless defective and yes, we've had one of those) relatively clean animals, interactive and highly intelligent. Example, if you have the feed bucket and said pig is outside their enclosure, they will deduce that you plan on putting them back in there and will go the opposite direction....preferably in the direction of the nearest heavy traffic roadway. Downside. Upside, if you have a pasture containing horses and those horses have already tried to kill said pig, chances are said pig will not try to go into the pasture again. So of the two choices, the one they'll most likely choose, playing pig pong with high speed vehicles.

Picked up a new skill

As I was browsing through a forum at Homesteading Today the other day, a thread title caught my eye. It was about "Toothbrush Rugs".
.........................

Huh?? Never heard of such a thing, so off to the web I go. Google is my friend. I love Google. Google reminds me of Tony Curtis's character in "Operation Peticoat", you need it, it will find it. It will find things you didn't know about, things you'd probably rather not know about.......rabbit trail, but they're fun.
Anyway, 3 minutes later I'm watching videos and reading up. Cool! I found a site with pictures of a lady named Maymee (I'm a poet and don't know it. I've got feet and they're longfellows.....and my childhood out in Bayne strikes again.) and how she makes hers. Looks like fun, looks useful, I love braided/rag rugs, looks like a good way to spend the hot, hot hours of summer when breathing sucks your will to live. Now is the time for that internal dialog:

"You need to learn a new pastime like you need hole in your head.."
"Sure, but I've always wanted to learn to make braided rugs."
"Again, repeat the last thing I said. You're already running an hours of the day deficeit."
"It's not a pastime, it's a skill! If I can make them, I won't have to buy them and they'll be the style and color I want. It's affordable, I can start by using up all that fabric we've been packing across the country for the last decade or so."
"................dang it."

Ha! I just won, or lost depending on how you look at it. That gets too confusing and my brain starts hurting, so I don't think about it too deeply.
The battle has been fought and I'm off to find an old toothbrush and fabric. Found both, defiled Justin's tools to craft my "needle". The kids told on me when he got home, little tattle tails. :)
So are you wondering what these things are?? Just what the name implies, you fashion a needle of sorts from an old toothbrush and use torn strips of material to make a sort of braided/knotted rug. I've included a link at the bottom to the page with instructions.

Here's my needle. I used a Dremel and a sander, finished off with sand paper. You can whittle it down then finish with sandpaper, but then you don't get to use power tools. ;) It took me about 20 minutes to make this way. I used an old child's toothbrush, but the traditional style would give you a larger/thinner needle. I'll make one of those next. This part was fun all by itself!

Here's the patterned material. I was never going to use this, so into strips it went.

I found a sage green knit fabric, bulkier, but hey I'm experimenting. Remember that nightmare dye job??? Can't find out new things unless you experiment. ;)

Here's what I have so far. This went very quickly! I worked on it during the heat of the day and again in the evening, a little this morning. I will say it took me almost 45 minutes to figure the directions out! I was ready to start talking to the walls (they're very good conversationalists though) and then it clicked. It reminded me of when I was learning to tat, couldn't figure it out, then it just clicked into place. I like the look of it! There's a hint of braided rug, without the worry of the braid sewing coming undone. The underside has a raised pattern, I'll need to get a picture of that later.

And the close up.

If you have some scraps, unused clothes, etc. I would give this a try! There are a couple of other methods out there, but I think this is my favorite.

Info site: http://thelibrary.springfield.missouri.org/lochist/periodicals/bittersweet/sp81g.html

There are also some tutorials on youtube, just run a search for "toothbrush rugs".

New Venture

Yeah, yeah, I need a new venture like I need a hole in the head (ever wonder how that saying came to be?? It's mistfied me since I was a kid....rabbit trail, but good scenery.) Anyway, these are something I've been thinking about making for a while. Beads, creativity, simple, fast....perfect. So here's the first set, my muse seems to be taking a holiday so they're pretty standard, nothing unusual really, I do like them though, very summery. :)

Kermit and more

As said, I finished plying "Kermit" up last night. Specs: Navajo 3 ply, 239+ yards, 14 wpi. There are another 3 batts waiting in the wings, so there should be a good amount of yardage when I'm finished.

Next that proverbial list comes the dyeing for winter warmness. I'm having the kids help in this process. They're helping to pick, dye and card. I'll do the spinning and knitting. :) I'm still doing the Wilton's and still learning at that. This is Lars's color choice, orange and royal blue. One thing about the food colorings is the blues tend to seperate and this batch has unfortunately. I think I'll move to commercial dyes for some colors.
The orange is a mixed color to gain a deeper hue. Now to see how they turn out.


Dye Ratios 1 part=1/4 tea Wilton's food coloring

Kermit: 2:0 Kelly Green

Orange: 2 no-taste Red: 1 Golden Yellow: 1/2 Brown

Royal Blue: 1 Royal Blue: 1/4 Black

Summer has begun

The gardens are growing! This is the first year that I've had decent cucumbers since we've lived here. The tomatoes, watermelons and peppers are all blooming, the berries are forming up nicely. Unfortunately, the corn is turning out to be sporadic. Oh well, it will all come together one of these years! Maybe I should dig up some more lawn for the corn patch since it seems to be working so well for everything else. :)

A sure sign of summer is a tent in the back yard. They've all been sleeping out at night, with a dog or two. :) Of course the night's outside have begun a new pastime for the children, "Night Games". How are they played, well much running, laughing and shrieking are involved. They're great for getting the heart going. A firm must to is to try to raise your siblings fright level above your own, without making them so scared that they don't want to sleep in the tent. That of course would mean that you would have to sleep out there all alone, which is "no fun" and won't be done...even if the dogs are willing. ;)

The highlight of my summer, the stay of the Hummingbirds. I haven't seen the variety this year and I have in the past. My favorite is the Calliope and I haven't had one. This year it's been Roufus and Ruby Throats. There were a couple of others, but I haven't seen them lately. I decided to give Fuscias a go again this year. They were a must for years, but they didn't do so well for a few years and I stopped buying them. The back patio has a nice amount of shade with a little sun. They seem to be doing better, one more so than the other. In years past, the Hummingbirds played with the fuscias, so I hung the feeders on the bottoms of the baskets. There has been a lot more activity with this than previous years! I'll keep doing this, even if it's not fuscias.

So the rest of life? Same kind of crazy! Amy is giving 2 1/2 gallons of milk steady. Now that the chicks are hitting pullet/cockeral stage they are doing a good job of eating up the excess milk. I'm letting it clabber and they really like it. Next on the list is using that clabber to make hard cheese.

I'm starting to dislike my list, never seems to get any shorter. The 80's weather is coming back again so more wool washing is on that dang list too. I have some dyeing ideas for more of this fleece I'm working on (it's on the list too). That California Red fleece is beckoning from the closet as well. I'm thinking a nice thick, comfy sweater is it somewhere. Oh and the filet crochet project that has to make it to the fair this year, I have 17 rows left on that.

The kids, aside from camping in the backyard, are enjoying their break....or so they tell me. ;) Lars has had a break from his irrigation job, 1st cutting just came in off the fields. We're settling into our routine finally, so it's calming just a bit.

Latest Fiber Fun

Kermit

I've had this dyed for some time, but finished the first bobbin today. There were so many ideas going through my head while I was spinning this! Beading yarn is something that I want to start playing with, in fact I beaded a small portion of this to see. I used light translucent beads, thinking of daffodils. Still, it just wasn't quite right. The thought that it reminded me of something kept running through my head. It hit me yesterday. Kermit the Frog! So, this will stay bead free and Kermit green.