Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Pecans




This is my pecan tree. To the left of the fence. I didn't know we had one for a long time. I started seeing pecans all over and wondered where they came from. Then I realized we had one pecan tree in the garden.

Sometimes we'll get nuts with pecans in them, but usually they are hollow or dried. But this year, there are SO many pecans on this tree and all over the ground. And they are GOOD!





When we first moved to this house, there were a lot of things that the family of the couple who built this place didn't want. One of them was this handy little tool. Don't know if this is what it's actually for, but it is now my pecan picker upper. It rolls along the ground and picks up the nuts. How cool is that? Who ever came up with this idea was a genius!



Here you can see pecans inside the little wire thing. I love this tool and am so glad no one wanted it. Because it is going to be used this year. I have already gathered several pounds so far and the tree is still full of pecans.

Monday, October 22, 2012

Making soap with tea and wild mint



I had seen somewhere to use tea in place of plain water to make soap. So I brewed some mint tea a few days ago and put it in the fridge so it would be nice and cold. I read that the colder the tea, the lighter the soap will be. And that it's best to use slushy tea for a real light tea. So I stuck it in the freezer and went to gather some wild mint to throw in too.




Darla had to follow me across the pasture on the way to the mint place. The rest were taking their mid-morning siesta under the shed in the shade.

This is a really old house next door across the field where the wild mint is. I love this house. Been abandoned for a LONG time. It's going to just fall in one day. A family dispute, I have heard. So sad. So the mint grows along these flowers in the front and along the fence line.


                           Of course I have to show my most favorite old oak tree behind my house.
 Didn't mean to show it twice, but it's worth a second view. And I can't figure out how to take it off once I've already gotten it on here, without deleting the whole post and starting over. So you'll have to enjoy it twice!


                                      This is the tea in the lye. VERY dark. Like a burnt goat milk.

Here is the mint and some ground up waiting to be added to the soap. It smells amazing! I love mint.

And here is the soap being stick blended. It almost looks like pumpkin puree. I had also read that the more you stir, the lighter it gets. Well, mine did not get lighter. I then added the mint. It looks horrible now!
  I sure hope it lightens up as it dries. It sure did not so far. I will see in a day or so. This is a veggie based soap, with coconut and olive oil and shortening. It is supposed to stay in the mold 48 hours. I can hardly wait that long for most of them. Too suspenseful!

      Ready to be wrapped up now. And still very brown. But I don't mind dark soap. Most people like the white or lighter colored soap though.

Back Valley Rd.

Just look at this! Is there anywhere else on God's green earth more beautiful than this right now? I don't think so. This is just a few miles from where I live. Just awesome. And someone owns all this right here. Acres and acres of pure beautiness.





                                 You can just see the house in this shot. And some vicious dogs.





This tree has got the best shape, even naked. With the mountain barely showing through the branches. And the lake just below to the right.



If you click on this picture, you can see a few horses way in the background. What lucky horses to live right there. Can you imagine?


                 Here is that amazing tree to the right. And another horse in the shadows of the hill.

                                                                  Wow. Just wow.


Just a little more color here. I love how we can see the actual shapes of the tree's branches and trunks when there are no leaves to hide them.

I LOVE this time of year. And this past weekend seemed to be the peak for us here. Amazing colors, so vibrant against the beautiful bright blue sky. Each minute brings some new color and each turn in the road, something more spectacular. I can not get enough of this right now.

Beautiful day. And hang gliders.

Yesterday was amazing. So beautiful. Bright blue sunny sky. Warm with just the right breeze blowing. We went up on Lookout Mt. to  take one of the grand kids home. She lives just a few miles from the hang gliding place. This is where a world-wide competition took place several years ago. It was about 5 in the afternoon and people were still lined up to go off and others were just getting their gliders set up to go.




                                                                 This guy is ready to go.





I love looking up into the blue sky and seeing all these people up there just circling around, so quietly.

                              And I love all the colors of the gliders too. These are rainbow colored.


I would love to do this, but this is the part I just could not do. Standing here on this big concrete pad, with the wind blowing, waiting on just the right moment to jump off. I know it is amazing to just float around up there, all by yourself. With the birds. But I don't know.


It looks so fun. And there were 2 really little planes taking off below with hang gliders attached. They would take them way up higher than we were, then let them go. I might could do that. Maybe.

And there was this guy there with this thing. A para glider? Anyway, he was standing on the platform with this thing spread out. When some wind would come along, he'd lift it up. It looked like he was going to get carried away one too many times, I had to stop watching him. Then as we were leaving, I saw him back up there, with his gear on and hooked up to this thing, ready to jump off. Oh my! I hope he made it ok.


I love this view here. That is Sand Mt. in Alabama, that he's headed toward. We can see Tn, Ga. and Al. from this spot. I love it here.



This is the place they all land. The one in the middle. There are also lots of little cabins where people stay when they come from out of town. Down in this little valley. Beautiful place.

                                  Here are my 2 grands, sitting on a ledge. So close to the edge.

                                                          Beautiful day on Lookout Mt.

Saturday, October 20, 2012

Homemade



I pulled a carrot the other day to see if they were getting big enough to eat and sell at the market. I gave it to my grand daughter, Kansas, to try. She said that was the best homemade carrot she ever ate! So this morning, on my sign, I wrote "homemade" carrots. I had to explain to several people what homemade carrots were. They all got a kick out of that.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Soap, soap and more soap. It's everywhere!


I have been a soap making maniac lately. Getting ready for this holiday market in December. I still have more this to make and so much to do.


This is a Spiced Mahogany soap I poured in big cupcake papers. It smells so good, like a man's aftershave.


I have soap drying and curing all over the house right now.  This is some Orange-Clove on the top shelf.
Then to the left is a Woodsmen's soap with cedar, lavender, citronella and something else I can't recall at the moment. But it's supposed to keep those nasty pesky bugs away while hiking or working outside.
To the right is a plain soap with cucumbers in it. I thought it might have a nice cucumbery scent but it doesn't. It's pretty though.


This is my Pumpkin Spice on both sides of the double rack. Smells like a pumpkin pie. And the ones in the middle are Clarey Sage-Rosemary and plain goat milk soaps I made using  Pringles cans.




Top soap is a Spiced Pear. Very dark soap because of the cinnamon and cloves. It does smell like a spiced pear though.
Then a Peppermint-Sage. Love that one.
And a Peppermint, lemongrass and a tea tree oil castille.





Cedar-Safron "manly" soap.
A Lavender-Orange.
And oatmeal-honey goat milk.






I made a Lavender-Lemongrass with bees wax yesterday. It's so pretty and the color of the bees wax and smells so good too. I put lavender flowers in it. I will cut it in a few minutes when I find a place to put it to cure. I'm running out of room here!


Here are the soaps I haul to market in little cute thrift store baskets. I am making more soap today. Just made a lard based soap with Patchouli-Indian Sandalwood. That smells amazing! Patchouli is my favorite scent.


Monday, October 15, 2012

Apple pickin' time









This is Kansas. She's my apple picker helper today. A friend of mine will be doing apple cider this week, so I decided to go ahead and pick all the rest of my apples off the trees. The green ones are Granny Smith and the red ones are Yates. I love the Yates. It's a very old apple tree variety. So crispy and crunchy and juicy. Also makes great apple cider. Kansas is so tall she can almost reach up and just pick them off the tree.







I have about a bushel of the Yates apples in the fridge outside too. So I have a good 2 1/2 bushels to make cider. I'll go get a few more boxes from the apple orchard in Tn.



This is a huge apple that we are going to just EAT! You can see Kansas out the window reaching way up high for another apple.
And here she is getting down out of the Granny Smith tree.I love apples and picking them and making cider. And I love my little apple pickin' helper, Kansas, too. She will enjoy all this good cider this winter, along with her 2 older sister's Chloe and Coryn.

I hope y'all are able to get some nice apples this fall. I'd love to hear what y'all make or do with them. I want to dry some of these. They are SO good dried with some cinnamon sprinkled on them. Chloe loves them.

Happy apple pickin', y'all!