just a few.........
the barn doors are almost complete!
Here's the little greenhouse where our winter greens are growing. I've been posting about it so much lately and realized I never showed it to you! It's just a very simple structure built off the south face of our barn. We built it mostly out of scrap lumber, so it was pretty inexpensive.
Every evening I go out and tuck in the new sprouts!
So there you have it! I hope you have a nice Friday!
Remember that roving I dyed the other day (or should I say messed up on the other day?) It coulda (shoulda) been so pretty! Well, here's the color it ended up:
Yup.....that's what happens when all the colors run together and become one color! But I started spinning it today........it's not so bad.....just not what I wanted.
Here' the silvery bright full moon shining through our big greenhouse tonight.........
happy full moon to you!
This morning I sent Isaac out to do chores, and he quickly returned to the house to proclaim (excitedly!) that the winter greens we planted last week have sprouted! Then the whole family ran out to admire the new life in the greenhouse. Hooray......we shall have winter greens to eat after all!
I have to admit.......I was a little unsure whether the seeds would sprout! It is December after all, and we have seen lows of 11 degrees F. throughout the week! And an unheated greenhouse? How's that for permaculture? So far only the Maruba (a yummy Asian green) has sprouted, but I kinda dug around (just a little!) and the spinach and radishes have sprouted too!
Now.... on a much less exciting note, I finally got around to the fall cleaning in the chicken house. Ila sat in her stroller and watched load after load of chicken manure be hauled off to the compost pile. So hooray for another chore checked off of my ever growing list!
The chickens are free ranging at this time of year (causing all sorts of ruckuses.....naughty birds!) So once the cleaning duties were complete, I sat in the grass with Ila so she could say hello to her feathered friends.
Well, that's all I have for you today my friends! Thanks for stopping by to visit the farm!
I was determined this weekend to finish spinning some yarn that I had dyed with walnut husks a couple weeks back. So I spun.....and spun...and spun for many, many long hours! I spun up five skeins of double ply yarn!!....I really didn't think I would be able to finish it in one weekend....!! My wheel was a little creaky after all that! I'm not going to share that yarn with you today though......(it's a surprise!).....that I will share when the knittings done! So after all of that spinning I needed to do something else! After spilling blue dye all over my kitchen(!!!!) I decided to set up a "dye studio" in the greenhouse on my planting workbench. Enough words.....I will let the photos speak!
(okay....just a few little words!) Funny how long a bucket of dirt & a spoon can keep a baby smiling!
I finally figured out how to download the color formula chart.....now I can make specific colors without all the guess work!
Once the color is painted on you wrap the wool up in plastic wrap...like a burrito!
Then steam it so the dye will set! Well......if you remember to add the vinegar the dye will set! Yup.....I forgot the vinegar.....and I learned that if you forget something as important as the vinegar.....then all your beautiful colors run together and you end up with a rather barfy looking colored roving! Well......on the bright side.....it was good fun, with good buddies, and good music too! ...... and I will never again forget to add the vinegar......lesson learned!!
I hope you had some fun this weekend!
This weeks assignment was to photograph people through the objects of their lives....including a self portrait. We were to do five portraits....here are mine:
"Farmer Lyla"
I visited my neighbor Farmer Lyla and found her at her work bench planning all the many crops she will grow next season.
"Tom"
My husband Tom's most useful tools.
"Benny Black"
Now how could I leave Benny Black out of this assignment? And this being the only thing that he owns....he was easy!
"Brit"
Our master barn door builder friend!
"Me"
Some of my most cherished tools.
Here is a list of other folks who are participating in this assignment:
BloomJust in case you want to see some more environmental profiles!
After what seemed like a lot of research I decided to get the Fancy Kitty drum carder. I chose it because it's hand made from solid oak right here in America by a nice fellow named Ron Anderson, who is proud of his quality craftsmanship (as he should be for this really is a quality product!) When I was researching and inquiring about which carder to get many people recommended the Louet carder, but recently the design changed and they are no longer making it out of wood, (it's laminate now.) I like the idea of solid oak better! Another deciding factor was that the Fancy Kitty has a really affordable motorized kit that I can save up for.
and here it is!
We've already made a big stack of beautiful batts!
You must have clean wool to begin so the drum carder doesn't get all greasy. I found great instructions for scouring in the washing machine here. As recommended by Pennie I used dish soap and soda ash, which worked very well....thanks Pennie! (While you're over at Pennie's check out her awesome give away!!)
Here's some clean fiber that I dyed:
I tease it just a little bit before feeding it through (someday I hope to get a picker to help with this!) I feed it through the carder twice which leaves me with a beautiful ready to spin batt!
And here you can see the fiber before carding and the batt fresh off the carder.
I chose the fine 90/120 carding cloth as Recommended by Ron, for my fine Corriedale wool.
Here's the Fancy Kitty in action.
And here's a finished batt coming off the drum.
I have a lot of work to do.....good thing I have a good helper!
Just a little scenery for you today.....(my drum carder came this afternoon so I have work to do!....(good kinda fun work to do!!))
Outside scenery:
And inside:
This was our only Cinderella pumpkin this season! I've been saving it.....but Thursday it will become pies! Yummy Cinderella pumpkin pies.....(I think Cinderella pumpkins make the very best pies!)
Tomorrow I will have some drum carder goodness to share with you!
We finally.....(finally!) got around to planting our little greenhouse today! It's awful late to be planting greens....but we're keeping our fingers crossed!
Yuri's face lit up when I asked him if he wanted to plant with me! The meaning of his name is "farmer, or worker of the earth"......and he is.....there's nothing that makes him happier than farming!
He gathered all the necessary tools and got right to work. As we worked side by side he informed me of all the proper steps in making the soil ready for new seed life. And everything this wise soul said was so right on.... he completely knows what he's talking about!
We planted lettuce and spinach, escarole, and many varieties of Asian greens, also mustard greens and some radishes and Red Russian kale. This greenhouse is unheated so we chose crops that we know can handle extreme cold.
Miss Ila is now standing!!....not walking....(no, not yet!) She looked so sweet with dirt all over her tights and pretty dress..... a tough little farm girl for sure!
I'm still in awe of these little seeds of life that will grow and feed us! I hope that when I'm 90 I'll still be in awe of this beautiful transformation.
Last years wool harvest is slowly but surely being dyed and spun into colorful yarn skeins. Experimenting with the Greener Shades dyes is going well! Last week I shared with you some hand painted roving. This week I tried the hot pour method which produces more subtle colors. After some research I have learned: if colors that are far away from each other on the color wheel are mixed together, the final color result will be "earthier". Earthy sounded good to me! So here's the result of my hot pour dye session:
It was a nice sunny day today, so I parked my spinning wheel in the greenhouse and got to work on the roving.
Photo by Isaac
Photos by Isaac
At times the boys would take a break from their play to visit Ila, and to check the progress of the "earth yarn".
How exciting it is to spin up this multi-colored yarn!
After a few hours of spinning and plying here it is.......
I like the subdued colors!
How do you like it?
Here's my color quilt that was Inspired by Camilla
and Carolyn.
From top left:
"Cold pepper remnant", "Yuri's trailer truck", "evergreen"
"Water from the well"
"Hopi Blue", "Soon to be pie",
"Seed stash", "Tennessee dancing gourd"
Thanks ladies, this was fun! When it comes to photography I have lots to learn! So thanks for the inspiration!
