So that was fun!

 I had to spend the day with Mrs, T. today. So I brought all my wool I had just washed, along with my carder, so I could work on that while I was there. It took me all day to hand pick and get just that one pink tote ready to card. I got 4 batts done later. I'll start making wool dryer balls with this wool.

I found a lady to come tomorrow to meet Mrs. T and check things out there. She'll stay all day and then get to meet Mary, who will be there at 5, so she can tell her about night time stuff. So hopefully she can fill in or take a few days a week.  Had a call from Betty, who was really shaky and her daughter was coming to take her to the ER, Which she has not been to yet. Really frustrated with her. So she can't come to work tomorrow. Which I want her to be well before she comes back. Or get on some kind of wellness plan and take a few weeks to get it all worked out. She may not be able to come back at all. So this lady will be a fill in for her. Emily still has this awful migraine going on too. So enough of that already. Between me and Mary, we'll get through the week. And I love Mrs. T and love hanging out with her.

So got home and got all my ingredients together to make this charcoal facial soap. I was so excited to make it because I have never swirled before. Like had 2 different colors and all. I have watched a lot of videos and kind of had the procedure down. SO I was ready for it.

Got my lye and water mixed up and in the sink. Got all my oils measured and in the pot on the stove. Measured my EO's. I used rosemary and peppermint. Got the charcoal measured up. Then re read the instructions real good again, just for good measure. Got the lye and oils to 100. Got them stirred up together. Added the EO's. Then stick blended a bit. Got the soap separated into 2 containers. Added charcoal to one and French clay to the other.

Then the fun part: layering the 2 soaps! I wish I had just left it like this now. But there will be more later on.

It ended up like this. Too much black. I should have had the lighter color on top.

  '
And this is what it ended up looking like. Now I have to wait til when I get home tomorrow evening to check on it and unmold it and cut it up. I can hardly wait to see what the swirls look like. You know I will take pictures and show it off. It was really fun. And not at all as hard as I was thinking. Or complicated. Thank you, Youtube video soap people! I am so much a visual person so it helps to actually SEE something being done first.

And had to get my little soap drying rack over to the studio to put all these new soaps on to dry. The top is the pumpkin spice, then patchouli, then the chamomile, then the peppermint and then on the bottom is the coffee-oatmeal.

The re milled soap I made is still soft. So IF it ever gets hard enough to take out of the mold, it could take months to get hard enough to use.

More soaps being made

  This morning, I went over to the studio. I got 2 more soaps made. A coffee-oatmeal for taking odors off hands. Good for the kitchen. And a peppermint. I love this recipe. It only takes a few hours to harden and can be taken out of the mold and cut. I used an ounce of peppermint EO and dried crushed mint leaves. It's really pretty. The other soap recipe has to stay in the mold 2 days.

  I also got all the ingredients to make an activated charcoal-clay facial soap. I am so excited to try this soap. I get to do swirls! I've been watching videos on how to do this. So hopefully either Wed. when I get back from Mrs. T's or Thursday, I can make it.

  I am also hand picking all the wool I got washed the other day to get it ready for carding. I'll make wool dryer balls with it. I need to start getting some needle felting started too. So much to do and not so much time to do it all!

Change of plans

Well, today did not start the way I had planned. I got a call from Betty, one of the caretakers for Mrs. T. She's not feeling too good. She'd only been there a few hours and felt like she needed to go home, then go to her doctor. I normally stay home all day on Mondays. I was going to be in my studio all day making wool dryer balls and  doing some needle felting. But had to go sit with Mrs. T til 5. I like to bring my bag of yarns with me and work on knitting or crocheting while I'm there.

So had to find someone to come in for tonight and tomorrow. Betty stays Monday morning til Tuesday night. Then Emily comes in Tuesday night til Thursday morning, then Betty comes back til Friday morning, then I come for the day til 5. Then Mary comes in Friday at 5 and works til Monday morning.  This works great most of the time. Til someone gets sick. But when 2 of the caretakers are sick? UGH!

I had sent a text to Emily but she never got back to me til later. Mary came in at 5 for me. Emily has had a migraine since Sunday and was going to the doctor tomorrow and isn't even sure if she'll be there tomorrow night. So I need to find someone for her now. I have another lady who comes in on Sat. (Darlene) to give Mrs. T a bath and do her nails. (And she said she's going out of town this weekend, so won't be coming this Sat. SEE?) She's so sweet. So she said she could come in tomorrow night but has to leave at 7 AM because she has another job during the day. Can this get more complicated? Why yes, I think it can.

So I called Mary back and she said she'd get there at 7 Wed. morning and then I'll come as soon as I can get everything done here. I'll stay til 5 or so. And that's all I know so far. I am hoping Emily is better so she can work Wed. night at least. And then hopefully Betty will be better so she can work Thursday. And this is crazy!

Then Mary wanted the next 3 Friday nights off. Darlene said she could work for Mary but not THIS Friday. UGH again! How did I end up with this job??? I don't know! And then, the MOST complicated part of the whole thing, when it's crazy like this, is paying everyone. UGH! I hate math! I have everyone's NORMAL pay week already written down, so all I have to do is look at my check register. But now, I have to figure all their hours. And they all make a different amount, which is crazy. Oh, this is not fun at all. It's a good thing I am taking a few weeks off from markets.

So this will help me writing all this down so I can see it. I have also written down everything so far, on paper, as far as who worked when and for how long. Otherwise, I would be a basket case for sure.

 I got a lot of knitting done today. Mrs. T. reads some articles from the paper out loud. She reads the same story, over and over. When it comes to having to turn the page to continue reading one story, she forgets and starts all over again. It gets to where I can read along with her. I'll tell her she just read that part and she says no, she just started. So I start saying everything she's saying as she's reading. It's kind of fun. Keeps my brain working. And the day went by pretty fast. Had a call from Linda this afternoon. I met her from Mary Jane's Farm forum and we talk about once a month. I really like talking with her. She can't post comments here for some reason, but she lets me know she reads my blog. Thank you Linda! And hope you feel better soon.

I got home and got the husband to get his gun and come out to the chicken yard with me. I wanted to hook the nester up to the mower and drag it out of the stall and he could shoot that darn snake when it came out. But we never saw it. And only got 1 egg. It was up under the dog crate in the driveway. I keep seeing the chickens come out of my flower jungle. They may be laying in there. We WILL get that darn snake! One day. And I melted his brand new nylon strap. It got wrapped up on the back wheel and on a pipe. Melted the end off. I told him I hoped he wouldn't get mad at me and call me stupid or something. He said "no, you're just a woman." Ouch. I thought that was pretty darn funny! I'll get him! But I love him anyway.

So I just finished up the mowing. Looked like rain. But it never did. A long day tomorrow too. So going to bed now. Have a good Tuesday y'all!

Making progress, a little at a time.

Yesterday, I got up wanting to do something. Didn't really have a plan. I just grabbed a bag of wool out of the cat room. Took it to the studio and started washing it. It was Annabelle's wool. Some was really good but most was 2nds. Which is fine, because I need to make lots more dryer balls. So did this most of the day. It rained off and on all day too, so had to bring the drying racks inside. I had both of them filled with clean pretty wool.

This is Annabelle. She's probably 95% Finn. Her mother, Lucinda, was full Finn and so beautiful. I miss that ewe. Had the prettiest black wool. Annabelle was a single lamb. And she has only had one ewe lamb, Buttercup. Buttercup was sheared this year and has some really nice wool.

The finished wool, drying. I also had another full one like this when I was done. I started carding it today. I'll be doing that for a long time. And this was just 1 paper grocery bag full. I still have big garbage bags full of sheep and alpaca to wash.

This is the soap I made a few weeks ago. On the left is ginger-coconut. With fresh grated ginger and ginger EO, with coconut on top. In the middle is the lemongrass made with lard. I love this lard soap. I used a yellow vegetable dyt for some color. Smells so good. On the left is the lavender-oatmeal I found in an on-line magazine, I think. I need to make some more because I only got 8 bars.

Also yesterday, in between washing wool, I made 4 batches of soap. In the blanket is my pumpkin spice soap. I had gotten a small pumpkin from one of the farmers at the market last week. Cut it up, put it in the food processor and added cinnamon, fresh grated nutmeg and some pure maple syrup and pureed it. This recipe has castor oil in it too. Then I sprinkled cinnamon and fresh nutmeg on top. Also used cinnamon and clove EO. The uncovered soap is Patchouli. I love this one. And also made a chamomile soap. I used Roman chamomile and Bergamot EO plus paprika for color.  Got these all cut today and are drying on the racks.

I also re milled some soap I had made last fall that just didn't smell. Grated 3 pounds and added Spiced Mahogany FO. Tried to make some swirls too. But I don't know if it's going to get hard. It was still soft today.

It's been quite hot here this month. The alpacas do not like this heat and humidity at all. I try to go out every day and spray them with the hose. They LOVE it! But apparently Misha was a little impatient and got in the water trough to cool off. I have a small kiddie pool in this yard, but it's a tadpole nursery right now. Plus my honey bees use it to drink from too. So I hate to move it. Might have to get another one just for the alpacas.

Today, I went to the studio and made calendula lip balm. I had ordered 30 lip balm tubes a few weeks ago. And I had gotten some flowers from my garden and dried them. Then infused them in olive oil for several weeks. Also had some bees wax from my garden hive that I had to take out. It was burr comb. And really clean. So got 25 tubes of calendula lip balm. Plus made 11 small jars of calendula salve. That's a pretty good seller at markets.

So I feel like I was pretty productive this weekend. It feels good to know I actually made some progress in the studio. I'll be making wool dryer balls this week. Plus some needle felting too. And probably more soap too.

I also have had a run-in with a snake in my chicken nesters this weekend. D*** snake! Caught it in the act too. Eating my eggs. That's just not going to happen here! I got a shovel and take it with me when I check. I saw it yesterday with an egg in it's mouth. I got as close as I could make myself get to it and tried my darnedest to kill it. It got away.It's staying behind the wire nester, under all that hay. It was in the far right nest box when I saw it with the eggs. So I took a green feeder box and shoved it in the nest box to keep hens out. And while the snake was in that one, eating eggs, a hen was in the nest box at the other end. So I guess the hens don't mind snakes?

So I have been going out every hour or so to check on the eggs. I saw the snake a few times today, too. It was going to the nest box on the other side. I saw it's head sticking out. It went back behind the nester when it saw me. I saw it later, but it didn't come all the way out. It got all the eggs. There's a dog crate that's been on the side of the driveway for awhile now. A hen lays an eggs every day in it. Well, today, there were 3 eggs! I guess maybe the hens were not liking the snake after all. Smart girls! My husband went out this afternoon with his rifle. He waited about a half hour and never saw it. Darn snake. We will get it. One way or another, we will get it. I still hate snakes. Especially snakes that eat my eggs.

So what's been going on at your house lately? Care to share?

Ok, it's official...

I AM A SLACKER!

There's just no other word for it. Well, maybe LAZY! I cannot get motivated to do a thing around here. It's because I have so much time. Not a good thing for me to have. I need help! I need a kick in the a** bad.


Ok, that's enough of that. Here's something growing behind the wood shed. It's really pretty. Some kind of morning glory I think.

And did y'all see my new metal antique lawn furniture? I just love them. The 2 round tables came with the house when we bought it. They need painted too. But they go perfect with the chair and glider. One day I'll sit in them and watch the garden grow stuff.

And here's Louise, outstanding in her field. She's doing great here so far. It's still funny when the sheep see her, how they freak out! But the alpacas are crazy when she even moves. They make this horrible loud high pitched noise like one of those big birds that fans their tail feathers. LOUD! And then they run. They are terrified of this poor big cow. Who does nothing but ambles around the pasture. Wondering what all the fuss is about. Maybe she thinks she should run and hide too? It's so funny. But she already had more solid poop than when she first came. It was nasty. It's lots better now, as far as cow poop goes.

So maybe I might do something tomorrow. I know I have to make zucchini bread for my friend to take to market Saturday. And pick okra again. Geeze, this is bad y'all.

I should know by now...

 to be careful what I post on this here computer.

  A few days ago, I posted pictures of Louise, the new cow. Of course, a few people stated that she was awfully thin and I should be grain feeding her to get her conditioned for winter. Well, good grief, for one thing, she's a huge Jersey. They are thin! And she came from a pretty small pasture with no grass. She just got hay and grain when milked. Then we think she had a miscarriage not too long ago. And is a little depressed. She didn't eat for awhile after that. So we thought this would do her good to be here, eating all this grass and helping me out.

  Then I posted the pics of Bubba eating grapes. Oh my, you'd think I was trying to kill my dog, the way some people reacted! Grapes are SO poisonous to dogs! Do not give dogs grapes! It could kill them! And, also onions and garlic too? I have given my dogs raw garlic in their raw dog food for years now. They are still alive.

  That's another thing to not mention. That I actually give my dogs RAW meat! People just about go ballistic. RAW meat? You feed your dogs RAW meat? How could you? They're DOGS! They need vegetables and fruits and grains and wheat germ and and and... Good grief people. Dogs eat raw meat all the time. And have for years. SHoot, they've even gone out back and brought a deer leg or two home to munch on.  My dogs are pretty healthy. I also give them raw bones. But please don't tell anyone.

  And Heaven forbid I should ask advice on anything farm animal related. Or honey bees either. I can ask 50 people the same question and get 50 totally different responses.

  I will learn some day to not say anything about sheep and worms. Or sheep and castrating. Or anything sheep. Just post happy sheep, munching on grass in the beautiful  lush green pastures. Happy animals are what people want to see, right?

  And while I am saying all this, I'll say that people who kiss chickens and let them sleep with them are CRAZY! My chickens are not pets! I don't even really like chickens. I like eggs. That's about it on the chicken liking. Well, I like eating chicken too. But chickens are nasty. They stink. They carry all kinds of nasty things around on them. And have you ever butchered one? Yuck! They are gross! That's all.

  And I hate bottle feeding lambs and goat kids too. I like it fine for the first few days, then that's all. I've had enough. That's why I am not going to breed my sheep this year.

  Oh goodness, this internet. It's gotten a little out of hand, don't ya think? It's made people think they can say or do anything now. So I will have to be careful what I post. But I do like to stir things up, just a little. It's kind of fun to see what happens! Some people are funny.

Rainy Monday...

 It's just a wet day today. We sure do need it. I sure wish I had found some kale seeds though. I'll just have to wait awhile now to get anything planted. A late fall garden, I guess.

  Went out to check on the animals. Saw the sheep and alpacas, but no cow. I thought maybe she was over in the little barn across the field. Some of the sheep were under the shelter on the garden shed. And some were under the eave of the studio. So walked over and peeked inside the barn stall. There was Louise, laying down. She just about took up that whole stall! She's pretty big. It's probably 20x20 and she was in the middle.

  The 3 lambs look so much better today. Cara has just a little bit of puffiness under her jaw. The other 2 don;t have any. I'll not use any more worm meds and see what happens. But to me, they look good. And have more energy.

  Hubby got back last night from going to Indiana to get the grands. They had spent about 2 weeks with cousins in Wisconsin. They met husband in Indiana and they spent the night with his son and kids. On the way back home, they stopped off in Knob Lick, Kentucky, to pick up my antique lawn furniture from Miss Wilma. It's raining or I'd get a picture. It's a metal chair and a glider. Painted yellow and white. I'll put them out in the garden, in front of the garden shed. So I can sit and rest after working in the garden.

  It's just a nice day to stay inside and do nothing. But I need to go take my oldest grand, Chloe, to her school to see why she hasn't gotten her report card yet. I think she said she owed some lunch money. Then I want to go to get some activated charcoal so I can make a facial soap. Can't wait to make some. Also want to make some pumpkin spice. I got a little pumpkin from the farmer's market Sat. to use.

  I was making some chicken salad the other day. The dogs are right there in the kitchen every time I am. Waiting for something to fall or land in their mouths. I was cutting grapes and gave one to Bubba to see what he'd do. He ate it. So gave him some more. He likes to catch food too. He's good at it. Stella didn't like the grapes. I was cutting up some cantaloupe yesterday and he ate some of that too. Silly dog!

Happy Monday, y'all!!