Thursday, September 3, 2015

This is not Logan's Roadhouse y'all...

 Yeah, this is what I came home to awhile ago. Looks like Logan's Roadhouse, where my mom and I went for lunch yesterday. I brought back a bag of roasted peanuts. This is where they ended up. On the living room floor.



So this is what husbands and dogs do when the wife is gone. Yep, the dogs ate them too. They're even on his rear end.



I just had to take pictures and write a blog post about this. It was too funny! I love my husband and my dogs. I told him I was going to put these pictures on my blog and he wanted to know if I got a picture of him bending over. He'll never know.



Tuesday, September 1, 2015

It's September y'all!

 I've been making soap lately. I finally learned how to make hot process soap and love it. It's SO much easier than cold process. No worries about temps being the same. And it can be used right away after a few days of curing. I love it. And I can make it with goat milk. I have never been able to make it with goat milk before hot process. Now I'm cranking out the goat milk soap.

I had made some peppermint and some lemon-lime last month, plus some lavender.

Yesterday, I made a bastille soap with vanilla-rosewood EO. I love that scent.

Today I made an almond biscotti and the studio smells amazing! Can't wait to try this soap. I added the ground up almonds while cooking it and it sort of made the soap a gray color. Then added almond biscotti fragrance oil.









                                                           Also made another lavender.

My niece made me a few wooden soap molds too. I needed them for sure. Now I can actually make 4 batches of soap!



Here's the other soaps on the rack curing. I love seeing all the progress I've been making.

On the 3rd shelf is a plain goat milk with honey and oatmeal I made last Thursday when my niece came to learn to make soap. She made lavender. It's so fun to teach people to make soap. She is so excited to be able to make it now.



This is the bastille soap. I really like this soap. It's real lathery. It has shea butter, coconut and olive oils and caster oil. There was a little bit of the EO left in the bottle so I sprinkled it on top. Don't do this again!

I'm making all this soap for the fall shows coming up. I have one Sept. 26th at the Middle school to help raise money for their rec dept. It's an all day thing, with food and music and contests. Should be fun.




And the little baby sweater and bonnet are finished. Just need buttons now. I have a particular baby in mind for this too. My friend who milks for me while I;m gone is pregnant with her 5th baby, due in Nov. This will be perfect. They never find out ahead what they're having, but I think this will be fine for a boy or a girl. And you know this poor child will be wearing all kinds of hand me downs. So something new and specially made just for them with so fun.

I've got enough of this yarn to make another little hat.



I am starting a sweater for myself next. Already picked out a pattern that looked really east, a little like the baby sweater. I chose some brown yarn, in the Vintage line. It's wool-acrylic blend. Very soft and east to work with. I think I can do this.

Also got the garden all planted for fall. I planted kale, collards, turnips, radishes, lettuce, squash, zucchini and green beans. And did several little beds of buckwheat for the bees. I hope it all comes up. I've had to water because no rain. And it's supposed to be in the 90's all weeks.


Thursday, August 27, 2015

Some chickens...

 Yes, I still have my rooster. Black Bart has been really good. No more attacks. I've been carrying a big stick with me to the coop but haven't had to use it. Now the chickens are are in lock-down til my seeds start growing. I planted the buckwheat last night and will get the kale, lettuce and collards planted later today or Saturday.


Here's the 2 momma hens with their little chick. That chick stays really close to her mommas.





My clean-up crew. They are right there when I'm mowing and tilling.




These are the 2 chicks that hatched last time. A rooster and a little hen. The roo will need to go soon. I do not want 2 roos.



Some of the last of the garden right here. Although the peppers are still going strong. But tomatoes are no more.



Had a really long day yesterday. My husband had an appointment at 12:30 at the wound care center. We were there 4 hours. They finally got him back in a room about an hour and a half later. Then the doctor came in, cut the wound on his foot twice as big as it was, and left the room. It was bleeding so bad, they couldn't get it to stop til about 4. It was pretty bad. They finally got it stopped and we left. I still had to go to the bank, feed store, grocery store, pay some bills. I was stressing out big time. So next time, I'm dropping him off at the door and doing my errands, then come back for him.

Today, my niece came from Tn. to learn to make soap. We made some hot process goat milk soap. I made plain with oatmeal and honey. She made lavender with oats. She made me some soap molds, so that was a good exchange. Now I have 4 good wooden molds. I need to make a bunch more.

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

In the garden.

 I've been working out in the garden the past few days. It's been just beautiful here! No humidity at all. I love it and just want to be outside right now. I can feel a change in the air. It's cleaner and fresher and lots cooler. Leaves are falling too.

The garden needs so much work. I really do not like summer gardening at all. Well, I love the tomatoes. But that's about all. I like fall gardening so much better. Not near as many bugs and it's so much cooler.

So here are some more before and after shots of the garden.



I left these mexican sunflowers. Butterflies are all over them, as well as the zinnias.



I started mowing the corn stalks down, then decided to just push them over with the mower for now.





And I just got finished tilling where I want to plant. This is my clean-up crew. They are all over the plowed ground, looking for bugs and worms. I'll have to put the electric net fence up around this longer garden area. I plan to plant kale and collards, beans, squash, okra and lettuce.

I also would like to plant buckwheat in front of the bee hive. I hope there's still time to do this. My friends planted their whole garden in buckwheat and bees are all over it.




So still a lot of good planting weather here. What's going on in your gardens these days?

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Before and after...

This is the way my husband's end of the table has looked since he's been home, almost 2 years now. It drives me crazy!! And this is just some of his stuff.




So this morning I just all of a sudden thought of this old stainless steel bread box out in the laundry room. It's perfect to fit most of his stuff into. Even the bread! I hope it stay like this now.





Doesn't this look so much better? And cleaner? I even washed the windows where Bubba slobbers all over them, trying to kill flies and barking at nothing outside. We could hardly see through the window. Plus the used-to-be white window seat is cleaned too. And I went out and picked fresh zinnias. I love them.




One of my favorite bloggers, Jon Katz, does a windowsill gallery post every now and then. So I thought I'd show mine. I love blue bottles with zinnias in them.

I hope you all have a great weekend! I am working out in the garden today. I've already taken up all the tomato cages and stakes and picked the sunflower heads for the chickens. I'll be mowing the whole garden down when it's dry enough. I also will cut down all the dried corn stalks for the goats. The sheep didn't like them. Then I need to figure out where to plant collards and kale. I am craving collards right now. But will have to go get them at a store for now. And the whole farm needs mowed. It rained most of the week here so it's tall now. Lookin' snakey out there.

I also finished the baby sweater. I'll post when I have the buttons on. Then I need to finish a cowel-shawl I've been working on.

Friday, August 21, 2015

These sheep.

My husband asked me the other day if the sheep tell me when they need to be moved. I said pretty much. If they've eaten all they can in one pasture, they stand at the gate and wait for me to come move them to another pasture. Pretty smart sheep right?

So yesterday, I put them out back with the goats. They did pretty good. First time they've been together since I got the little doe kids. The goats stayed together most of the time.

Then this morning, the sheep were ready to go back to the bigger pasture.