Thursday ramblings...

 This is my little harvest yesterday for market. Lots of nice young tender kale, radishes and okra. Those apple are from my new trees. They are so good and crunchy and juicy. I think they are Golden Delicious. I love them. And so sweet.

I just don't sell a lot of produce at the Wed. market. I don't know why. I did sell some kale and okra, but that was it. There's a church that comes at the end and gets any left over stuff people will give them. So I gave them some. But took a lot to my mom and some for her friend. It could be that people are just used to me selling soap and wool stuff. I just don't know. I'll try a few more weeks and see.

I called my friend Susie last night to see if she wanted to come out today to learn to make soap. So she came this morning. I also had my bee friend coming to check on my bees. But he couldn't come this morning like he was going to, so came later this afternoon. Which worked out perfect. Bees are doing good, but no honey is being built up in the upper box for winter. So I have to start pumping the sugar water to them Darn it. I didn't want to have to do that. But the hive out back was already eating what honey they did have stored. Poor bees. So I did start the sugar water.

Anyway, Susie came and we went to the studio to make some soap. She picked out a nice Cedar-Saffron EO and we got to soaping. I'm not the best teacher, and she had been doing some reading and watching videos, so knew a little. But had never had any hands-on learning. So I showed her how to pour the lye and let her do some. Then did the oils. I let her stir and do the stick blender. It was fun. Got the soap in the mold. Now have to wait the horribly long 2 days to unmold it.

 This is her soap. I had to peek and take a picture a little later. We added some paprika for color. I was hoping it would be a little red. I guess I need to add a whole lot more next time. I put about 2 T. in. But who knows what the soap will look like in 2 days. It sure does smell good.












I went back over after my bee friend left. I wanted to try the wine soap next. I had already simmered the wine earlier. Had it cooling in the freezer. Got all my oils melted already. Then got the wine and added the lye to it. It started bubbling up so fast. This happened with the room temp kombucha and I lost all of that. So I started to stir and stir. It came right to the top of the container but I kept stirring. I also started filling the sink with cold water and ice too. It finally calmed down and stopped. I never lost any of it. Isn't that a pretty color? Almost like butterscotch. It's a citrus wine so I added orange and lemon EO's.













This is the wine soap in the mold. Looks orange-brownish now. Again, it will look totally different in 2 days, and even a week later. I love making soap.

I have 3  more soaps I want to make next. One with some grape juice I had canned last year. Another with muscadines I canned last year too. And another with apple spiced Chai tea and spiced apples I had canned too. Yum! But for some reason, I just don't want to make any more today.

My husband had a foot appt. today. He had gone to a doctor that specializes in circulation, whatever that's called, last week and again a few days ago. They were wanting to do a test where they'll go down in his artery in his right leg to check for a blockage. If they can, they will bust it up. If not, they'll do a stint. So he called awhile ago and said they're wanting to do it in the morning at 10. Good thing I have someone to stay with Mrs. T. tomorrow already.

And this weekend is a quilting class I want to go to. It starts at 5 Friday til 9. Then all day Saturday. I already know how to quilt. I just want to get familiar with my new sewing machine. And make a quilted banner for my market booth. I looked through my fabric stash and found some that'll work just fine. I am excited now to finally have a farm banner.

Here's my 2 dirty alpaca boys. They sure love to be hosed down. And it's been really hot here. And awfully dry. In the high 80's yesterday and today. AC is back on here. But that all changes after tonight!!! Cooler days and nights! And lots of rain coming too.

So if you don't hear any more from me here til next week, it's because I'll be busy. I hope you all have a great weekend!

It's looking like fall!

This is my market booth last Saturday. I had a little help, Autumn, from the next booth. Her and her little sister and mom came out to the farm several months ago. She calls me Farmer Kris. I love it! She likes to hang out with me in my booth. So I let her set out my little needle felted critters. She loved it.

Here is my Basil and Peaches-n-Cream soaps I made last week. They really turned out pretty. The basil smells amazing. And I love the peach soap.

Yesterday, I went over to the studio and made a bunch of dryer balls. I made a lot of plain white one and 12 of these cuter ones. I really have fun making these. I never know how they'll turn out. Wool kind of has a mind of it's own.

Here they are, all wrapped into the hose and ready to be dunked in the hot water in the washer. Then they get tossed into the dryer for awhile til they are felted really good. Then into a cute basket and taken to market to sell. Don't know if I already mentioned this, but last week a sweet lady came by my booth and just fell in love with all my woolie things. She ended up buying most all of my decorated wool balls and several felted pumpkins and the cute ewe and lamb that I had made the week before. And she was not going to use the dryer balls in the dryer. She said they were just too pretty to be hidden in the dark dryer. That made me feel so good.

This is the Peaches-n-Cream soap a few days later. I took it outside and am very pleased with how these turned out. I love the sunbeams in this one.

And this one has the old milk room in the back ground. And all the leaves.

And this is the raw milk yogurt with clay soap I made the same day as the other day. It was just a little 2 pound recipe, so not many bars.

And here's my poor momma. She fell Saturday, right on her left side. She's a mess. Broke her left thumb pretty good. Her knee is a whole lot better. Her eye is really a cool color now. She really is so fortunate to only have broken her thumb. She will be looking better in a few weeks. She would have been pretty scary for Halloween, don't ya think? She's so sweet.

And we're hoping my sister will be able to just get the front of her house redone. Still talking to insurance people. Just takes a long time to get anything started. But she will be fine. And have a new house soon.

I'm going to have produce to take to market tomorrow! I have really nice looking baby kale and radishes. Plus dandelion greens and maybe some apples. Seems like there's something else I'm not remembering. I had to borrow another table from mom so I'll have a place to put all that. Plus some eggs too. I need to make more money to pay for my spinning class in November.

What a weekend!

Well, actually started Friday. I have all day on Friday with Mrs. T. who is 97 now. And can hardly walk. I let her go to the bathroom by herself and stayed on the couch, knitting. The bathroom is only around the corner from her chair in the little tv room. I can hear everything from the couch. But it sometimes takes her 10 minutes to get there. I was on the 2nd half of my hat I'm knitting and was on the 4th or 5th cast off on the knit section, when I heard a kerplunk coming from the bedroom.  Got up and looked around the corner and saw feet and legs. Yep, Mrs. T had fallen going into the bathroom. She was right outside the bathroom door, up against the wall, sitting on the grate with both legs straight out. She was ok, thank the Lord. But a little shaken up. Got her up and in the bathroom. And she was in the wheel chair the rest of the day if she needed to go anywhere. I was not taking any chances. I felt horrible for not going with her. I will from now on. And all the other caretakers will too. She cannot be left alone for a minute anymore.

Then Saturday, I went to the farmer's market. Had a great time. Had a missed call from my niece. Then my mom called. My sister Heidi had burned her house down earlier that morning. Heating up some coffee on the stove. Left the kitchen and forgot about it. Went back in and the stove is on fire. She grabs a towel and starts trying to put it out and gets burned. Her daughter calls 911 and they get out with the dogs but she's burned and having trouble breathing. So ambulance comes and takes her to the hospital. Her arm is burned real bad and her hair. But she'll be fine. I think it's mainly the kitchen and dining room. Plus all her brand new windows busted out and everything has smoke damage, so a loss of everything. Meeting with insurance people today and will find out more later. Please pray for her.

Then, on the way home through Ft. O where mom lives, mom calls and said she needed help, she'd just fallen.  So I was at her house in a few minutes. Oh my good Lord! She had the biggest knot on her left eyebrow I had ever seen. Her left thumb was totally bent backwards. Her knee was 3 times as big as it should have been. She was standing at the door when I got there. In nice clean clothes like she was ready to go somewhere. And she had just been mowing the back yard. She was taking some trash out the back door and had the leash n the dog. The leash got stuck in the corner of the door, the dog kept going and mom tripped right over that darn leash. Right on her face. Her deck is wooden so thankful it wasn't the concrete walk. 

So off to the ER we go. Which is just a few blocks away. Mom volunteers there a few days a week. They took her right back in and a doctor came right in. Looked her over. Gave her several shots in her thumb and put it back in place. Took her back for x-rays of hand and knee and CT scan of her face. Came back later and said there was no internal bleeding in head or knee. No breaks or fractures there. But the thumb was broken. Doctor said someone needed to stay with her a few days just in case. 

So I stayed the night. She did great. She's a strong healthy woman. I did some things Sunday to make it a little safer. Did some house cleaning. There will be no more leashes on the dog if in the back yard. Ever again! It's just too dangerous. That was only for training purposes anyway. 

Yesterday, her eye kept getting redder and redder, til now her whole eye, all around it, is red. I told her she needs to color the other eye to look the same now. It would have looked great for Halloween. Her knee is much better and swelling is down. Some blue color but not too bad. It's her thumb that is really hurting now. And she's really sore. Kind of like a car wreck I guess. The few days after is the worse. She hit the deck pretty darn hard.

So, not the weekend I had planned. Chattanooga and Walker Co hosted an Ironman Triathlon and the race went right past my house. I kinda sorta wanted to see it. But missed the whole thing. My husband stood out by the road for about 30 minutes, waving at the bikers as they raced past. They all waved and thanked him for coming out to support them. It was really cool. They had to swim first, in the Tn. River in Chatt. Someone found a dead body. Then later, right before out house, someone had poured out about 50 gallons of motor oil and tacks on the Southbound side of the road, where the bikers would be. About 30 bikers had flat tires before they got it all cleaned up. Some people are just sick. 

So all the excitement out this way is over for awhile now. We had the fair, then the race. Hope that's all. Now back to normal?

I sure hope your weekend was less eventful.