Fall is already in the air...

Just look at all the leaves on the ground here. It already looks and feels like fall and we still have a few more weeks of summer.

Freja is so pretty. I am only milking once a day now and just getting a little over a quart. I have 2 people who get a half gallon each a week, so it takes 2 days to get that. The rest is ours. And it's so good. I am making lots of goat milk soap now too. I'll milk her as long as she has milk.

I'll be getting the buck Odin back the end of September, so will start the breeding then. I'll just breed Freja and Olga this year. Inga and Alva are too young and small right now.

I think I have talked myself out of breeding the sheep this year again. I just don't want to have to separate the ewe lambs, wethers and alpacas. That would mean 2 round bales of hay for each of those groups and we just can't afford it right now. So I will wait til next year when I can just breed all of the ewes. That's 10 ewes. I keep thinking of all the lams they had last year. 20 of them from just 8 or 9 ewes. And I have nightmares of a lot of bottle babies. I don't want to do that! So we will wait.

Had a little scare this morning.

And I don't really remember putting the tea pot on the stove or turning it on. I remember thinking about a cup of tea. But then thought I better wait till after I come back in from milking the goat.

Then my mom called. I was standing outside and told her I smelled smoke and that I hoped it wasn't a brish fire somewhere close by. It's been really dry here.

Then went inside and saw the tea pot on the stove with smoke pouring up and some flames. Then realized I had put the almost empty tea pot on the stove and turned it on.

This is what it looked like.

Bottom melted off the pot and on the eye.

And my husband sitting in the living room in his recliner, watching tv. He said he didn't smell anything but heard the tea pot whistling.

Yeah, house could have burned down all around the husband and he would have just sat there. And the house was just about full of smoke.

And while I was outside, I heard the smoke detector go off. For like 5 minutes. When I came back in, he was trying to make it stop.

I'm going to have to be more careful. That was scary. That's how my sister's house burned down a year ago. She left something on the stove and forgot about it.  Pretty scary for sure.

Tie dye fun.

 These are my 2 oldest grand daughters, Chloe and Coryn. They stay with us sometimes on the weekends. Last Sunday we went to the Chattanooga Market and they saw a few booths with tie dye tee shirts and wanted one. I said we could make them a whole lot cheaper.

So I got a few white tees and some Rit dye. And today, we had a tie dye party! I was also inspired by Soulmomma's blog a few weeks ago.

                                                          Their shirts turned out so cute!

                                                                            This is mine.

I had so much fun that I started going through the house looking for more white things to dye. I found this white material and made these 3. Don't really know what I'll do with them. But I think I see a few skirts and another shirt in there somewhere.

Just something fun to do on a Saturday. I think we might go on up to Cloudland park tomorrow and go down to the falls. I haven't been there in a few years.

I hope you all have a nice little holiday yourself!

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.

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.

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.

Butterflies on flowers...

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?

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.

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.

A good cuppa tea...

Since I quit drinking coffee back in March, I am drinking a lot of hot tea. My favorite is dandelion tea, picked right out of the yard and gardens. It's so good. Then next would have to be peppermint, also picked out of the garden. But, since the dandelions are no longer blooming, I've been picking loys of peppermint. And it's almost all gone now. This morning, I was out back and found some wild mints, 2 different kinds! Yay! So I am going to go pick all I can find and dry them. Plus I just might go and rob Mrs. T of all her mint too!

I was at Whole Foods the other day, looking for a good tea, when I found a green dandelion tea. And it tastes just like I went out and picked fresh dandelion flowers! It is so good. So I am drinking at least 3 cups of this each day.

I also like cranberry tea too. And ginger. And lemongrass. I drink a lot of tea. With honey. Which is not going to last long y'all. I just had to open the 2nd gallon of my honey awhile ago. I am worried. I may have to go rob the hive one more time before fall.

Anyway, this got me thinking. Are there any other hot tea drinkers out there? Can you share your favorite tea? And how do you make it? What's your best ever cup of tea? And your favorite cup? I picked this one up at Tybee. I like it, but it's small. It does make a good cuppa tea though.

I also like to drink tea while knitting. Makes me feel, I don't know, like a cool knitter. Hot tea and knitting. 2 really cool things!

Little baby sweater.

 I think I'm going to rip out the first arm. It's SO big! I could tell after a little knitting on the other arm that I had knit really loose. It's not that much more work and it'll look so much better when finished. I am loving this little sweater. I hope there'll be enough yarn left over to make a little baby bonnet to match it.

Now to find some cute little buttons. I think I'll see if Taryn at Wooly Moss Roots has some little wooden buttons with honey bees on them. That would look cute. Then I need to find a cute little baby to wear it!

When I am done with this sweater, I want to start on a big sweater for me, using my sheep's wool. I've been hearing we're in for a really cold winter!

Long day.

It's been raining here the past few days. I mean, really raining. Like a lot of rain. I am so glad to see it too. It's been so dry and I was worried I might have to start feeding hay already. And it's supposed to rain all week! I know all the grass and trees and so thankful. The sun is shining right now, but that could change in a few minutes.

I spent the day with my hubby. My Trooper broke down and I've been borrowing Mrs. T's car. Her daughter is coming this weekend, so that means she'll need the car. That means we'll need to get a tow truck out here to tow the Trooper to the transmission shop to get checked out. It broke down the day before we left for Savannah. And of course my husband had towing insurance dropped on all our vehicles. One guy wants $75. I'm waiting on another guy to call for his price. Just seems like a lot for 16 miles. And I hope it's not the whole transmission that's messed up. I drove it down the driveway and onto the road when I heard the loud scraping noise, then turned around and went back home. Last time the transmission died, it just stopped right in the road. So this makes me think it's not completely dead yet. And last time, the check transmission light was on. It's not now. So I hope we caught it before it was too far gone.

So I went with my hubby to his doctor appt. after we dropped Mrs. T's car off. That takes forever at doctor's offices. Almost 3 hours. I just don't like going. Then we had lunch.  Stopped at my mom's to get my tea I had bought yesterday and left at her house. Then I had to go back to the yarn shop to get my knitting friend to fix my baby sweater sleeve mistake. I sure wish I could figure things out myself. Then we came home. I am tired.

This is the rest of that beautiful Romney fleece I bought last year. I had washed half of it and got it spun up and I love it. I think I'll make the Barn Sweater out of this wool. It's so soft and so many pretty colors all mixed up together. I just want to sleep on this wool!