Figs

So every day, I've been gathering the figs that are just about ripe, before the ants and gnats get them, and cut them up to put in the freezer. Last week, I had 2 gallons and a qt baggie full. So I made fig preserves. I just added organic sugar and simmered for several hours. I got 14 little jelly jars.

My 3 pear trees are full of pears right now too. I think sometime in the next week or so, I need to get the pears and get them canned. I want to make a syrup using honey, cinnamon sticks and whole cloves. I love pears like this.

I am still milking Freya and olga twice a day. I tried to go to once a day Monday. I skipped 2 nights. But they were both so full I decided to wait a little longer. I bought some alfalfa hay today. Maybe that will keep them going a bit longer. I just hate to not have fresh good goat milk. I want them to go as long as they can.

This is my view in the morning while I milk. It's so beautiful here. And so peaceful. I can imagine all the crazy chaos going on in the world, but not here in my little world. I'm still milking outside. It's in the low 90's here still. Can hardly believe it'll be Sept. 1st tomorrow. And fall is right around the corner. So much needs to be done. We still need more fire wood. And I want to plant a fall garden. Maybe. Still thinking about that. I really want to plant buckwheat for the bees. I'll see how it goes.

And here's another one...

This morning, after I let the chickens out, one of the hens ran as fast as she could over to the little rock garden in the yard. I followed her. Do you see what I see?

Yes, 16 eggs. I got this bowl and started reaching under the hen and pulled out 16 eggs. She never even moved.

So looks like some egg hunts in my future!

Found 'em!

I was mowing in the chicken yard this afternoon and found a nest of eggs in the 10' tall pig weed that's over taken their yard. Cracked 1 when I ran over them with the mower but the rest are good. I haven't been getting eggs lately from the nest boxes. This is why.

SO fun!

Ok, the colors are not good in these pictures like they are in person.

On the left is Merino dyed with cosmos flowers. On the right is dried hibiscus flowers. These are the first in the dye pots.

                                     This is the 2nd dye with hibiscus. a little lighter, but still pretty.

 

                                                      And the 2nd dye with the cosmos.

I was a little disappointed in the hibiscus. When I was simmering the dried flowers, the color was a beautiful deep red color. I was hoping to get red yarn. Or at least pink. But they turned out a light lavender color. Which is fine. But pink or red would have been nice.

I am having so much fun doing this! Wish I had started sooner. Next I will be using rosemary.

More dying going on here today...

Went out this morning and picked another bucket of cosmos for dying some Merino ( probably not spelled right)  today.

Just look at all the color on my fingers! Can't wait to get the wool in the pot now! I'm simmering in mordant right now, then into the dye pot. More beautiful bright orangey-yellow coming up!

Almond Joy

Ok, so I had this idea to make a soap like an Almond Joy candy bar, one of my favorites. But I can't eat them anymore.  I had a few bars of some coconut soap and some Almond Biscotti soap that I cut up. I also ground some almonds and grated a few squares of organic baking cocoa. And this is what I got. Isn't it yummy looking? I will for sure have to watch the guys now! Men usually think my soap is fudge.

It smells amazing! I used some already last night, just to see how it lathers. I can still smell it on me this morning. I used a white washcloth too. It had some light brown on the cloth, but it washed out. Lots of bubbles too! So I am pleased with how this turned out. And I have enough to make another batch later if this sells well.

I asked my husband to smell it before I told him what it was. He smelled coconut first, then chocolate. I had to tell him it had almonds too. But he liked it.

So here ya go, a soap that smells like Almond Joy! I wish you could smell it through the internet!

dying wool

Yesterday, I decided to try to dye some of my hand spun yarn. I went out and gathered all the cosmos flowers I had, plus some marigolds. Simmered them for a little while.

While the flowers were simmering, I got the yarn ready in the mordant bath. It had to simmer an hour.

Strained the flowers and got a beautiful orange color. Added the yarn and simmered another hour.

                                                            And this is what I got. I just love it!

Then today, I put 2 more skeins in that same dye pot. They are so much lighter, but still really pretty. I think I might really like doing this. I can see how it can be quite addictive.

I found some gentian violet the other day at Walmart. I saw someone's post on FB where they dyed some wool using this stuff. It's what people use for thrush. It is a beautiful purple-violet color. I want to dye some alpaca next. I'm washing more white alpaca so should have enough to dye soon.

1st dyed hand spun!

This is the first dyed skein of hand spun yarn. I couldn't get it on the other post.

Making bread again...

I quit making bread when I stopped eating flour and sugar back last year in March. I have been making this bread for a very long time. I think about 18 years.

A few weeks ago, I thought I might start making bread and rolls for the market. When I quit I sold all my wheat to a friend, so I didn't have anything. I had to start all over basically. Wheat berries are expensive too. And yeast. And olive oil. I have my own milk and eggs and honey, so that helps. But now I think I would like to get 50 pound bags of wheat.

The bread and rolls are selling good. I only make 3 loaves or 3 dozen rolls. I sell the rolls in bags of 6. They really are good.

So here is my grinder. It's very loud and sounds like a jet in my kitchen!

Then I mix up all the ingredients: milk, eggs, honey, olive oil, wheat, then yeast and more wheat. Then sea salt. It gets kneaded in this DLX for 12 minutes. Then I put it on the back porch, where it's warm, til it rises to the top.

Next, I either make loaves or rolls. Then they go back to the porch til doubled. Then to the oven.

Nice big loaves of good whole wheat bread.

Tonight I'll make rolls for the Tuesday market. It takes SO long to make this bread. I'll also make zucchini bread in the morning.

Bath salts, sugar scrubs and new soap.

I dropped my camera on the floor in my studio. It was a pretty hard drop on the wooden floor. I do believe my focus got messed up. So I apologize for the fuzzy pictures, because my eyes are not that good either.

I have been making some bath salts and sugar scrubs this week. These are lemon and lavender bath salts.

And these are lemongrass sugar scrubs. I also made some orange-lemon-lime sugar scrubs.

Then I made soap. This is not my idea. I saw it on face book . But I have been wanting to use some of my old soap somehow and this was a perfect way to use them. I just cut up the older soap into chucks. Then I add them to the new soap. So cool!

So yesterday I made Spiced Mahogany and Patchouli

Isn't this pretty soap? I just love it. I hope they stay different colors so the chunks will show up. I have no idea what they will look like in a week though.

Spiced Mahogany on the left and Patchouli on the right, on the drying racks. So pretty.

And another shot of the sugar scrubs. I can't seem to figure out how to take this off.

I am making zucchini bread and whole wheat rolls to take to market this afternoon. Supposed to be another hot day, in the low 90's. I haven't been to a market since last Friday. I need to make some money today!

Have a great weekend y'all!

Beans and tomatoes...

Last weekend, I got a lot of green beans from my niece. I canned 14 qts and did 2 qts of dilly beans. Then we have eaten green beans every day since. They are SO good!

Then a few days later, I made tomato sauce. It looks so good. I used my basil, thyme and rosemary with some garlic. There's probably more tomatoes that need to be canned again. I have a lot of orange tomatoes I need to do something with too. I might try roasting some.

Men and women. And the difference between.

 We got this huge truck load of wood chips dumped here a few days ago. I did ask and told them where to put them, since they couldn't get the truck into the garden. But it kind of went across the driveway. I couldn't get our truck into the yard at all. I did see where the truck that dumped it had to go over the part that was across the driveway.


So me and my husband started shoveling the part that was on the driveway, so I could get the truck into the yard.  I told my husband that I'd like to start putting some along the fence, in the garden, so I can plant stuff there. I even took a few wheel barrow loads over to the place I was going to start it.

Here's where I wanted to put the mulch. In the garden. On this side of the fence. So I can plant stuff. In the garden.

When I got back home yesterday, I see this. He has started putting the mulch here. In the driveway. Away from the garden. And on the other side of the tree. Hmmm...

Just some more pottery...

I worked on some more pottery last week. But this clay is was too soft. These mugs are still not totally dry enough. The 2 flower bowls were from some clay I had left over from the last bag. They were starting to get all wonky at the tops so I made the scallops. And I made 4 pretty good sized mugs and 2 more yarn bowls. Going to take them to get fired later today.

These are some I had done a few weeks ago. They are ready to glaze now I hope. The power was off to the kilns at the studio. Right in mid fire too. But they all turned out good. I hope all my things are ready to glaze now. I had made some soap dishes. Can't wait to see them.

Back up again!

Last night, when I got home, there was a note on the door. The parents of the boy who landed on my sign last week had come to get the sign to fix it. They said they would be back today to put it up.

And they did. I went down to talk to them when I saw their truck. They said their own truck had broke down. The transmission went out on it. They would have been back sooner if not for that. They were using someone else's truck.

So I asked about their son, since I didn't see him with them. He was still pretty sore. Also hurt his back. He has leukemia and is in remission. He did pass out because he was dehydrated. I feel bad now for saying he was probably playing Pokemon Go. Sorry.

They also had a really pretty pot of black-eyed-Susans and a bag of soil to plant in the metal pot. I told them that was really nice and the flowers were so pretty, but I hadn't planted anything in the pot because it's just too hard to keep it watered. I need something that doesn't need a lot of water. The guy said maybe a cactus would work. We all got a laugh over that!

Anyway, they did a good job and my sign is back up again. I feel better now.

And it's been really raining for a long time now!

A happy Friday.

As I sit here this morning, there is a huge bucket truck out in the sheep yard, right outside my studio. They are trimming (well, actually, cutting half of) the maple tree off the power lines. And a little bit of the apple tree under it. I have given some of the limbs full of leaves to the goats.

Last night I was out in the garden and saw these 2 beautiful butterflies flying around the Mexican sunflower. They are so pretty.

Then they both landed on this flower! Isn't this cool? I love it!

And still just 1 sunflower open. It was a busy place last night, with bees on it.

I saw a lot of ripe elderberries, so decided to go ahead and gather them. I got a baggie full. The rest will be ripe in a few weeks.

It's time for another Sherrill family reunion this weekend! I love spending time with family. It's at a church camp up in Ozone, Tn. It's got a lake so people can fish and swim. And a nice cool building where we all gather to eat. It's a fun day.

And the sign is still laying out there. I hope the boy is ok.

Have a happy fun weekend y'all!

A wreck.

My husband called me while I was at the farmers market Tuesday afternoon. He said we had a little excitement out here. My first thought was that the sheep had gotten out on the road and caused a wreck. But he said a car had lost control and ended up on the big metal pot under my farm sign. Broke the posts right in two and knocked the sign down.

If you can see that red mail box beyond the tree, that's where the car started . You can see the tracks in the grass.

Then I guess he flew over this stump and up onto the other stump, then the metal pot and the sign.

The stump in the last picture is to the left of the metal pot. I'm just glad the boy didn't go through the fence.

A teenager was driving. He said he just lost control of the car. His parents think he might have blacked out. He was ok but they went ahead and took him to get checked out. I think he was playing Pokemon Go.

They said they would be back yesterday to put the sign back up. It's still laying on the ground this morning.