Making and doing around the farm...

Just a few things I've been doing the past week.

I made some fresh plantain salve. It'd been awhile since I'd made any. And I'll be heading back to the farmers market this Saturday. So I thought I better have fresh stuff to take. I need more jars. I still have some in the pot. I made a dozen. So I'll get a few more boxes, because I have calendula salve to make too.

Yesterday, I made feta cheese. I am getting well over a half gallon of milk from Freja each day and we can't drink it fast enough. So I decided to make some feta. I love making feta. Then I marinade it in olive oil with garlic and herbs. SO good! This will be ready Saturday. Already have some sold.

This is the calendula petals infusing in olive oil. I really like this salve. I've been using it on my face the past few months and I like the results. Better than plantain. Calendula takes care of the dryness. And it's a lot gentler to use in sensitive places. Great for babies too.

I am almost finished with my Sunburst Granny square bed spread. I'll take a pic when I'm all done. I take it with me to Mrs. T's, on my days to stay with her. I have made most of it at her house. And some more at the eye doctor with my mom. And in the motel when I went to the fiber show in Townsend. So it's been around.

I have a lot of the cotton yarn left, so I decided to try to make a blouse for myself. I started yesterday. Maybe by the time I'm finished, I'll have lost more weight and can wear it. I really have no idea how to make a blouse. Just guessing at it. It'll probably be like a tank top. And very colorful!

Speaking of weight, a friend was asking me about my weight loss journey the other day. She said I should blog about it. I told her I sort of do here. But not enough. So I might just start another blog, dedicated to this new way of eating and living. Will have to think more about it though.

So here is my favorite salad. I went to 2 farmers markets Saturday. I got some fresh salad greens, romaine lettuce and spinach from one farm. Then some really nice looking beets with pretty greens. So mixed all those up with the beet greens. Then I add dried cranberries, chopped walnuts and either Gorgonzola or Blue cheese. I love Superberry fruit vinaigrette, but the store where I shop didn't have any. I got a raspberry instead. Pretty good, but too sweet for me. So this is either my lunch or dinner several times a week. I love it. Very filling too.

I need to take my new bike back to the store where I bought it. I went for a ride a few days ago and it was torture! It took forever to get up a little hill and I was exhausted. When I got home, I aired up the tires, thinking they might have been low. Then decided to check the brakes. My friend who I ride with, said last time we rode that she kept hearing my bike scraping, like the back brake pads were rubbing the rim. Well, it is. Very tightly too. No wonder it's so darn hard to ride! And I should have lost 15 pounds.

And this mess. Oh my. I don't know if I'll just have to cut it. But I was spinning, or have been spinning, this very fine Merino roving I had bought. For hours. And it broke a few times. I would always find the end. But not this time. It is nowhere to be found. I posted on the fiber art forum for help. So I tried tape, a toothbrush and a vacuum. Nothing. Someone else suggested some Tequila, which I would have drank if I'd had some. Or poured it over this and lit it on fire. VERY frustrating for sure! Has this happened to anyone else? What do you do?

I don't know if anyone else watched the Duggers on TLC. But it was one of my favorite shows. I am so bummed right now about what's happened. And the fact that it happened over 12 years ago makes it even worse. Because to me, it's in the past, Why bring up the past? They got counseling and went to the police, although a few years after the fact. But still did. I just hate that anyone in the public eye is subject to all kinds of  talk and gossip and people making assumptions about them. Like Paula Deen last year for something she said 30 something years ago. Good grief already! I am not condoning child molestation at all. It is bad. But he was 15 for crying out loud! And he got help. So did his family. Anyway, enough of this. I'm just upset about the whole thing and what people are saying about them. Just makes it worse for people who are trying to live right and be good people.

I hope you all have a wonderful day. Memorial day. Makes me think of all the men and women who fought and gave their lives for us to have the freedom we have today. Thank you all so much!

Birds

 I kept seeing birds flying into the milk room yesterday. Then saw this. A pair of barn swallows is building a nest. I love it! Now I can't wait to hear little babies soon.

These little chicks are being bad. I let them in the coop this morning because I was bringing the 4 legged creatures over. Now I guess they don't like being penned up. Mommas are not happy anout this situation at all.

In the garden this week...

I am amazed at these tomato plants! Already have little green tomatoes! And the smell so good. I love how tomato plants smell. I just go out there and rub a leaf all over my hands so I can smell it all day. They should make tomato perfume. How cool would that be? Then in the middle of a cold winter, you could spray some tomato smell on you and it would remind you of summer and a big red ripe juicy tomato! Oh my, that sounds so good!

So, my husband came out to the garden a few evenings ago, to check it out. I put him to work, like all good wives should do when their husbands wander out to the garden, right? It was cool, he had nothing else to do obviously. So I made him stake the rest of the tomatoes. He's gonna be eating these soon, so why not work a little? He did good. Now I just need to tie them up. They are growing so fast!

This is a Rutger tomato plant. I have 10 of these. I think there are 40 plants, 5 different varieties.

This is a Black Cherry plant, with little green tomatoes! I can't wait til these are ripe. They are an heirloom cherry.

This is the yellow squash, zucchini, cabbage and pepper row. The squash and zucchini just grew like weeds the past week or so. I've lost 2 hot pepper plants. Don't know why.

And the corn looks pretty good so far. I need to get some more to plant where lots didn't come up.  But haven't grown corn in a few years.So excited to get some good fresh "roastin' ears", as my husband calls them.

Looks like all the sunflower seeds I planted down the middle of the crowder peas row are coming up. That should be pretty.

It was so cold today here. I don't know what's going on, but I'm glad. Because the shearer has yet again put us off til NEXT weekend, if nothing happens. This has been going on since March. The lady up the road who has 15 Finn sheep didn't even get hers sheared at all last year. She's supposed to get her sheared by the lady doing mine. So no wool for her for 2 years. I sure hope my sheep's wool is going to be ok, waiting this long. I know I will be much better when they do finally get sheared. I have been stressing out about this for too long now. I think I will be looking for another shearing person for next year.

Good morning!

Freja and Olga, at my studio door this morning. Good morning, girls! Have a nice day. It's only supposed to be about 71 today. Isn't that nice? I need to go ride my bike. I'm down to 218 right now! So need to really start exercising. I hate exercising. Really hate it. I'd rather walk or ride my bike. But need to work on my mid section bad.

I've had a few animal escapes this week. I think it was Sunday, I looked out at the sheep in the South pasture and saw Clack, the wether, on the road. Yes, he was on the road. He'd climbed through the barbed wore and over the laid down chain link fence, right onto the road. My neighbor saw him and ran him back in through the far gate. So I had to put them all over in the North pasture, with the chickens. And the 2 momma hens and 3 chicks. Who are outside of the coop. And sleep in the corner of the middle stall. Where the sheep go into at night.So later that night, I peeked outside to check on everyone. And heard loud chickie chirping going on. Ran out there to see what was going on and where the chicks were. They were on the other side of the coop, with the mommas. So I got the sheep back over to the studio yard, and the mommas and chicks went back to bed. All was well again. I guess I can't let the sheep back over there til the chicks get bigger and can roost.

Then yesterday, driving up the driveway, I thought I saw Bubba. But it wasn't Bubba. It was Freja. In the yard. Olga was at the gate, looking at her.  So I jumped out and caught her. I have to leave the leash on her because she is hard to catch sometimes. So I'll just step on the leash to catch her.  Got her back in. And husband comes out to see if  I'd gotten her. He said she'd been out about an hour. All my fig bushes and blueberry bushes were still ok. The maples still had leaves. He said she just stayed right near Olga the whole time.  So we had to fix more fences. Darn goats and sheep!

Wednesday wool...

This is some of the Cormo roving I bought up in Townsend last month. I bought 2 of this color and 2 white. Then a yellow and pinky-orange. I did not enjoy spinning this pencil roving at all! I havd to hold on so tight to keep it from breaking, my fingers hurt. And then it broke anyway. Many times. It was not fun. The white roving was lots thicker, so much easier. I don't know if it was the wool, or the roving size, but I didn't like it. First time spinning Cormo though. It's really soft.

So I decided to ply these 2 together. I had much more of the white. So still have a lot left of it.

                                                     It's really pretty. Peaches-n-Cream.

I love my porch since I cleaned it up. I sit here and spin and listen to the sounds of the country and my farm.

                                   This is the skein of the Peaches-n-Cream. 95 yards and 8 oz.

This is the yellow and pink roving, all spun and plied. I used my Adalaide's wool that I've been hand combing with my new combs. It was just enough to make 54 yards of yarn. I kept thinking it reminded me of something. I thought maybe that coconut candy? Then maybe the board game Candyland? At first, I wasn't sure of the colors together. Now I love it and wish I had more. 

So what could someone make out of just 54 yards? Or could these 2 skeins be combines? I think they would would make a pretty baby blanket or hat and sweater.

I still have a bag of Merino roving to spin. And the brown, I think it's Jacob, I will finish hand combing the Wensleydale that's the same color, and ply them together. Should be really nice.

I am so hoping my shearer comes Friday. Haven't heard anything from her yet. 2 more days. I hope the wool isn't too messy to work with now.

And here is Olga.

 So poor Freja has been very vocal since I got her last week. Her Nubian is coming out really nicely, I must say. So I figured she needed a goat friend, as the sheep just weren't her type. She did ok with them, but they'd just all get up and leave and not bother to tell her where they were going or how long they'd be gone. So it just wasn't working for her. And she let me know. All day. And night. She needed a goat friend.

So my friend Kendra, who I got Freja from, had a friend who has Lamancha does and wanted to sell a few. I went to see them Monday. She had a really friendly smaller black doe that I just loved. But not for sale. The other one was 5 years old, never been bred, half Nubian and Lamancha. Looked like Freja but with elf ears. Really nice looking doe. Already had nice formed udder and teats. But 5 years old. And half Nubian. Which is great. But Nubians are LOUD animals.

So I chose this girl. When I first saw her, I thought for sure she was part or mostly Toggenburg. But no, full Lamancha. Just some of her line has long hair. She had the sire on site and he's huge and black. And not hairy. And they had 2 sisters. One had hair but not as long. The other had short hair. She comes from a really good line of dairy goats and the sire throws some really nice does with great udders. So She came home with me.

And she didn't have a name either. I'd been looking at old Norse Viking names. Not a lot of pretty names. But Olga kept popping up. And she just looks like an Olga, doesn't she? Her and Freja hit it off great. No head butting at all. It started raining right after I got home, so they went into the shelter. I have a hay rack with fresh hay back there for them in the back yard.

Isn't she pretty? Just 2 years old, by the way. She'll be more than ready to breed in November. My friend Sarah, who got Sandy and Woody, said I can use Woody to breed them. He is John Henry's buck kid from last year. Really handsome buck. And the same color as these 2.

I went ahead and started getting her used to the stanchion. Just a little feed in hers. I have to pick her up to get her on the stanchion now. But pretty soon, she'll be jumping right up. Freja is finally jumping up by herself now!! She's heavy!

Olga saying hello. I love her already. This is just enough for me right now. Just 2. And I'll sell the kids soon after they're born. I just don't want to have as many as I've always had. 2 is a great number to have.

Freja is giving a little over a half gallon of milk a day now. Total, twice a day. Pretty good for a first freshener. And the milk is SO good! And her udder is amazing! Great teat size and good orifices, so the milk just flows right out with no problem. I love udders like hers. Now, I just hope Olga has a good udder.

Around the farm...

   I finally found some flowers for the tire planters at Lowe's for $1 each. They sure suck up the water though.

This is one of my spirea bushes, in bloom.

                          And my Stella d'Oro day lilies are blooming now too. They're so pretty.

This is the elderberry bush that popped up at the bird bath. It's starting to get flowers. I sure hope I get some berries this year. I need to fill up the hummingbird feeder.

These 2 mommas have been hard at work the past week, scratching up all the old hay and sheep poop for me. I've already put several wagon loads on the garden, mulching with it. Good girls! I love when my animals do things for me!

                                     This is some really good compost too. Really dark and rich.

                                                Little apples on the early June apple tree.

    Which one is different here? Freja is staying with the sheep during the day, til I milk her. Then I put her in the back yard. I got her a friend today. More about her later.

Just look at all this wool! I will be busy soon. I hope my shearing lady comes Friday. 12 sheep to shear. 12 fleeces to play with! Oh, what fun to be had!


But poor Darla is just miserable. She has at least 6" of wool on her. I keep telling her just a few more days now and all that wool will come off. She will be the 1st sheep to be sheared.

And my poor apple trees. They keep getting more yellow. It's cedar apple rust. I went ahead and fertilized the 4 smaller trees with fish emulsion this morning, then mulched real good around them with that manure compost. And now it's pouring rain, so I hope all that good stuff gets washed down to the roots. I'll give them more fish fertilizer in a few days again.

              I cut some of the bottom branches off the bigger tree and gave the branches to Freja.

This little guy, Clack, is a mess. All his back wool is stuck to the barbed wire fence at the front of the pasture. He gets through it and eats the honeysuckle vines that have weighed the chain link fence down. We've been working on trying to pull that fence back up, but those vines are heavy. After him and his brother Click, get sheared, they will be going to the butcher. So I won't have to worry about them getting over the fence then.

Been working in the garden. Planting more and mulching. Will share later this week. We got a good all night soaking rain a few nights ago. And now it's pouring rain again!! I just cannot water like the Lord can. The plants do so much better with rain water.

Have a great week, y'all!