Kids' unisex Viking hat. By Postmodern Milkmaid, available at the
Lincoln Winter Market, November 24th. ;)
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Knitting Project: Viking Hat (Unisex)
Just finished this, and I'm about to start another. Pattern forthcoming!
The Mixed Blessings of Fall on a Farm
Brought to you in the form of a list, because, well, that seems to be all I'm capable of today.
Goats:
Our two does in milk are "drying off".
Yay!-
* No more milking in the cold & dark!
Boo!-
* No more milk until Spring.
* The girls will soon be coming back into heat, and so goat "interludes" must be arranged, which involves staring at goat lady-parts daily. Jealous, are you?
* The goaties will soon be on a all hay/grain diet, as the pasture grasses and plants die back. Translation - $$$.
Chickens:
With the decrease in light and the chickens starting their molt, we're getting only one egg every other day now.
Yay! -
* I got nothin'.
Boo! -
* The chickens actually eat a little more than normal at this time of year, with less forage available and higher caloric needs to generate additional body heat and grow new feathers. It's all work and no omelettes over here!
Garden/Trees/Plants:
The weather is quite wet, everything is about done fruiting and the deciduous trees are dropping their leaves like crazy.
Yay! -
* I can be done processing apples for a while! 200 pounds of fruit is a lot of fruit. Now I can focus on canning it up.
* We had a good harvest from our orchard, and managed to forage a good bit as well.
* No more watering necessary!
* The chanterelles and other edible 'shrooms should be popping up soon.
Boo! -
* We are going to have to rake up literally tons of wet leaves from our orchard trees and the big-leaf maples on the south side of our property. Hooboy!
Daily Life:
Daylight savings time ending, plus La Nina/El Nino, and good ol' Western Washington geography means at least 5 more months of daily prevailing conditions tending toward being either wet, grey or wetandgrey.
Yay! -
* I'm fully justified in sitting on my duff by the wood stove, knitting like a woman possessed.
* I like soup.
* I get to drink coffee 24/7 (more than I already do)
* Pumpkin flavored everything is available everywhere.
Boo! -
* Our farm's bottomland is going to be mud soup for the next 6 months.
* Seasonal Affective Disorder on top of Post-Concussion Syndrome. Oy.
Saturday, November 3, 2012
Homemade Carpet Shampoo
Having light colored carpets in a farmhouse is giant pain. I've accepted that my carpet is somewhat of a lost cause as far as it ever being truly clean and free of stains, and really, I'm ok with that. But, in spite of the fact that I've made peace with the sorry state of my carpet, I still like to give it a shampoo now and then, just to liberate some of the yuckier muck that has collected down deep. Our foster dog, sweet Cici, sort of accelerated my cleaning schedule by having a couple of "whoopsies" during her first few days here.
I borrowed my sister's carpet shampooer, but needed cleaner. You can buy a bottle of the cleaner that they sell for use with Rug Doctors wherever they rent the shampooers, but that stuff is spendy, and I prefer gentle, non-toxic cleaning alternatives anyway, so I decided to skip the store and see if I could make a comparable, effective, and non-scary alternative. This is the recipe that I cobbled together from several that I came across.
*1 quart hot tap water (not boiling!)
*1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide*
*1 tablespoon white vinegar
That's it! Other recipes suggested maybe adding some dish soap or essential oils to the mix, but I think that soap and oil on/in your carpet leaves a bit of sticky residue behind that can actually make your carpets more likely to grab and hold on to dirt and gunk.
A sample of my results-
I took the "after" shot immediately after cleaning, so I expect that the carpet will lighten up further upon drying completely. So far, I'm really pleased with the results.
*A word of caution with regard to the use of hydrogen peroxide - it has the potential to have a bleaching effect if used directly, in too large an amount or on deeply colored fibers that aren't terribly colorfast. Obviously, I'm not worried about my carpet getting too white (that's never gonna happen!), but if you are, test the cleaner on a small, hidden area first, and/or reduce the amount of peroxide in your solution.
I borrowed my sister's carpet shampooer, but needed cleaner. You can buy a bottle of the cleaner that they sell for use with Rug Doctors wherever they rent the shampooers, but that stuff is spendy, and I prefer gentle, non-toxic cleaning alternatives anyway, so I decided to skip the store and see if I could make a comparable, effective, and non-scary alternative. This is the recipe that I cobbled together from several that I came across.
*1 quart hot tap water (not boiling!)
*1/4 cup hydrogen peroxide*
*1 tablespoon white vinegar
That's it! Other recipes suggested maybe adding some dish soap or essential oils to the mix, but I think that soap and oil on/in your carpet leaves a bit of sticky residue behind that can actually make your carpets more likely to grab and hold on to dirt and gunk.
A sample of my results-
A puppy accident that we did not find immediately. It was there long enough to dry completely, but still came up nicely with just a few passes of the shampooer and no pre-treatment.
I took the "after" shot immediately after cleaning, so I expect that the carpet will lighten up further upon drying completely. So far, I'm really pleased with the results.
*A word of caution with regard to the use of hydrogen peroxide - it has the potential to have a bleaching effect if used directly, in too large an amount or on deeply colored fibers that aren't terribly colorfast. Obviously, I'm not worried about my carpet getting too white (that's never gonna happen!), but if you are, test the cleaner on a small, hidden area first, and/or reduce the amount of peroxide in your solution.
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Naked Bird Blues
The hennies and roos have undertaken their annual molt in earnest, and man are they looking ROUGH these days.
Beyond the sorry look of them, chickens in molt are also non-layers. It has been over a week since we've had an egg from them. My Fall weather-induced baking binge will have to wait until the gals are feeling more forthcoming, because the idea of buying eggs has become downright, well...
... inconceivable!
And the irony of feeling thusly about the lack of a good egg is not lost on me.
One sad-looking Polish hennie, our Gracie-girl, mid-molt.
Beyond the sorry look of them, chickens in molt are also non-layers. It has been over a week since we've had an egg from them. My Fall weather-induced baking binge will have to wait until the gals are feeling more forthcoming, because the idea of buying eggs has become downright, well...
... inconceivable!
And the irony of feeling thusly about the lack of a good egg is not lost on me.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Homegrown Lavender Soap
Bill and I made our second batch of soap yesterday, we're calling it Homegrown Lavender.
The soap is still caustic, so I can't poke and prod it like I'd like to, but I can smell it and take its picture, so viola.
As you can see, the color is not perfect. We chose to use all-natural scents and tints in our soaps, so they tend not to be the technicolor explosion that synthetically colored soaps are. I'd rather err on the side of boring at this point. Trying to imagine myself standing behind a product made with laboratory-designed scents and colors makes me squirm. Our beautiful goat milk deserves better than that!
As much as I'm not crazy in love with this color, I have to concede that it has improved drastically overnight. When we first poured it into the mold (a fancy term for a cardboard box lined with visqueen), it was the brownish-grey of elderly oatmeal.
It's a little weird that my Postmodern Milkmaid ventures have taken a toiletry-esque turn, after having been pretty much all about apparel last year. Hopefully, using the lessons learned from last year's sales, and the unique resources that are available to us through our little farm (goat milk, homegrown botanicals) we'll get a little leg up this year, and set ourselves apart from some of the other makers and crafters.
Six weeks until we know for sure if any of this worked, let alone whether or not people find it appealing. That niggling little worry should be great for my insomnia!
Back to knitting my face off in the meantime. ;)
The soap is still caustic, so I can't poke and prod it like I'd like to, but I can smell it and take its picture, so viola.
It looks like most of the poppy seeds have floated to the top, so there'll be a scrubby side and a non-scrubby side to this soap. Interesting...
As you can see, the color is not perfect. We chose to use all-natural scents and tints in our soaps, so they tend not to be the technicolor explosion that synthetically colored soaps are. I'd rather err on the side of boring at this point. Trying to imagine myself standing behind a product made with laboratory-designed scents and colors makes me squirm. Our beautiful goat milk deserves better than that!
As much as I'm not crazy in love with this color, I have to concede that it has improved drastically overnight. When we first poured it into the mold (a fancy term for a cardboard box lined with visqueen), it was the brownish-grey of elderly oatmeal.
Six more weeks until it's ready to use and sell. We'll be right down to the wire as far as selling this at our bazaars. I'm going to buy some pH strips at the homebrew store so that I can make doubly sure that this is completely saponified and 100% safe and gentle before offering it for sale. And while I'm at the homebrew store I might pick up a little citric acid, so I can give these homemade bath bombs a go too. They use a lot of the same ingredients that we already have on hand for soap making, and I think they'd be a neat complimentary product to offer alongside the soap and knitted washcloths and scrubbies.
It's a little weird that my Postmodern Milkmaid ventures have taken a toiletry-esque turn, after having been pretty much all about apparel last year. Hopefully, using the lessons learned from last year's sales, and the unique resources that are available to us through our little farm (goat milk, homegrown botanicals) we'll get a little leg up this year, and set ourselves apart from some of the other makers and crafters.
Six weeks until we know for sure if any of this worked, let alone whether or not people find it appealing. That niggling little worry should be great for my insomnia!
Back to knitting my face off in the meantime. ;)
Monday, October 15, 2012
Can-o-rama, the Second Act
My homegirls and I started an informal monthly food preservation-fest last Fall that we dubbed The Bitchin' Kitchen Collective. I think we met maybe three times last year, before scheduling conflicts, Holidays and general chaos tore our little gathering asunder.
I'm bringingsexy jammin' back.
Yesterday, my girl Kristin and I had a little fiesta de salsa. The 25 pounds of free tomatillos that I was able to get via Craigslist were our launching point. She and I both hunted around for a good salsa verde recipe that could be made with the hot water bath canning method, and settled on this one, with just a few minor tweaks. Our bounty of tomatillos meant that we had enough veg to make eleven batches worth of salsa. Dios mio! Times like these are when it is especially handy to have a hubby who is into home brewing and willing to share his giant brewpot and propane burner with you. I also owe my guy some serious props for being willing to shuttle jars back and forth from the kitchen to the water bath canner bubbling away on the covered porch because a) it was raining, and b) he had to bob and weave past two very excited and curious Great Pyrenees both ways. Canning is not for sissies!
Our efforts yielded 10 pints and 36 half pints of salsa, over the course of a 7 hour-long, mellow Sunday spent with one of my bestest girls, drinking wine and shooting the breeze. Life is pretty darn good. :)
Next up - more jam and jelly and probably a little wine as well, made with apples, pears, rose hips, hawthorn, rowan berries, and whatever else we might forage or stumble upon.
I'm bringing
Yesterday, my girl Kristin and I had a little fiesta de salsa. The 25 pounds of free tomatillos that I was able to get via Craigslist were our launching point. She and I both hunted around for a good salsa verde recipe that could be made with the hot water bath canning method, and settled on this one, with just a few minor tweaks. Our bounty of tomatillos meant that we had enough veg to make eleven batches worth of salsa. Dios mio! Times like these are when it is especially handy to have a hubby who is into home brewing and willing to share his giant brewpot and propane burner with you. I also owe my guy some serious props for being willing to shuttle jars back and forth from the kitchen to the water bath canner bubbling away on the covered porch because a) it was raining, and b) he had to bob and weave past two very excited and curious Great Pyrenees both ways. Canning is not for sissies!
Our efforts yielded 10 pints and 36 half pints of salsa, over the course of a 7 hour-long, mellow Sunday spent with one of my bestest girls, drinking wine and shooting the breeze. Life is pretty darn good. :)
Next up - more jam and jelly and probably a little wine as well, made with apples, pears, rose hips, hawthorn, rowan berries, and whatever else we might forage or stumble upon.
Friday, October 12, 2012
The Weekend Loometh
Maybe loometh is too dark a word? The weekend... cometh aggressively(eth)? Let's just say we're packing a whole bunch of homesteady-type activities into the next 48 hours.
On Saturday - We're trying our first batch of homemade goats milk soap. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect recipe. I'm leaning toward something creamsicle-ish with sweet orange oil and vanilla beans. We'll see if chemistry is my friend!
Also on Saturday, we'll be planting a few trees and medicinal perennials - Beaked Hazel (nut), Echinacea, Yarrow and a few others. I scored big at a closeout sale on water-wise plants. Not that a shortage of water has ever been a problem here (this is Boggy Hollow), but plants that don't mind a little accidental neglect on my part will most definitely do better in the long run.
Lastly, we plan to list 3 or 4 of our goats for sale this weekend, which could translate to the unparallelled joy that is wrangling disgruntled goats during an epic downpour. Yay?
Sunday, it's salsa-jam 2012. My girl Kristin and I scored 25 pounds of free, perfectly ripe tomatillos via craigslist, so we're going to devote the day to making enough salsa verde to feed a small army.
Spending the day chopping, stirring and jarring up salsa may not sound like hard work, but after 8 or 10 hours of salsa fest, me and my good friend, giant jug o' red wine, would beg to differ.
Here's to a rainy, drainy, productive weekend!
On Saturday - We're trying our first batch of homemade goats milk soap. I'm still on the hunt for the perfect recipe. I'm leaning toward something creamsicle-ish with sweet orange oil and vanilla beans. We'll see if chemistry is my friend!
Also on Saturday, we'll be planting a few trees and medicinal perennials - Beaked Hazel (nut), Echinacea, Yarrow and a few others. I scored big at a closeout sale on water-wise plants. Not that a shortage of water has ever been a problem here (this is Boggy Hollow), but plants that don't mind a little accidental neglect on my part will most definitely do better in the long run.
Lastly, we plan to list 3 or 4 of our goats for sale this weekend, which could translate to the unparallelled joy that is wrangling disgruntled goats during an epic downpour. Yay?
Sunday, it's salsa-jam 2012. My girl Kristin and I scored 25 pounds of free, perfectly ripe tomatillos via craigslist, so we're going to devote the day to making enough salsa verde to feed a small army.
Free tomatillos. Thanks, Kathy!
Spending the day chopping, stirring and jarring up salsa may not sound like hard work, but after 8 or 10 hours of salsa fest, me and my good friend, giant jug o' red wine, would beg to differ.
Here's to a rainy, drainy, productive weekend!
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