At least it isn’t sticking. After 4 beautiful spring like days, today is a return to winter. It was supposed to be rain and perhaps will turn to rain before it ends, but not more snow.
Mountaingdad is on the road with Daughter, so hopefully the roads aren’t getting messy.
The roads were fine a couple of hours ago when I went out to lunch with a friend. In fact, it hadn’t started then, we watched the snow showers start while we ate. We enjoyed some social time for a hour or so, then home as today begins nearly two weeks of full time grand parenting while daughter and her husband pack up their house that they sold in Florida. I’m glad we had a couple of months of them living here before they had to be left in our care. We will do fine.
Another beautiful day. It was supposed to rain according to yesterday’s forecast, but this morning, it had changed and was a mostly sunny day with only the lightest of sprinkles. I grabbed half a dozen raspberry canes and put them in water as Son #2 would like some of the ones we pulled up. As soon as I can find some cheap pots, I will put them in soil and prune them to give them a chance to establish roots before I can deliver them in April. That was done early when the chicken chores were being completed.
Before Daughter and Mountaingdad got up, I had made two new soap recipes, one with Oatmeal, Lavender buds, and Black Walnut powder. This will be a great body scrub soap once it cures. The other is a Jasmine Green Tea soap. Neither of these soaps have any essential oils or dyes, so they will be good for those with sensitive skin.
After lunch, we experimented with a recipe for Beard Oils for my Etsy shop. Daughter’s husband uses Beard Oil and we thought they might make a good addition to the shop. The lotion bar molds arrived yesterday, so a new batch of Hand Butter bars were also made to add to the shop. The lotion bars, Hand Butter bars and Beard Oils can all be personalized with a customer’s favorite scent or scents or made unscented.
Daughter and I planted the Lacinato Kale, Purple Top Turnips and a 4 X 4′ bed of Daikon Radishes for kimchi this afternoon. They are the last early spring seed.
Though we are still 6 to 8 weeks from our last frost, some garden tasks and a few vegetables can be planted now. For the past two days, we have had dry warm spring like days. As there are more mouths to feed in our household now, we decided to expand the garden, nearly double in size. To facilitate doing this, we first decided to move the grapevines from the north edge of the garden to the north edge of the orchard. The Raspberry canes that I had planted several years ago in the row near the south edge of the garden had become overwhelming, so we moved 6 plants along the chicken run and dug out the remainder of the canes to discard.
Raspberries along chicken runGrapevines pruned and moved, needing new trellis.Two of our helpers throwing weeds to the chooks from the now empty Raspberry bed.
Our day was waning, dinner prep needed doing, so we planted 40-50 young onion starts and a half dozen kale plants, erected a row cover bubble over the kale to keep out the cabbage moths/worms,
Tomorrow if we can get it done before the rain starts, we will plant Daikon radishes, turnips, and Lacinato Kale seed. On our next dry stretch, we will deconstruct the 4 remaining compost bins, collect some rock, perhaps rent a tiller and finish the expansion. A good day of labor. After our dinner prep and clean up, we planted tomato and pepper seeds in the indoor flats, put them on the warming tray and set the grow light over them.
Once the last frost date passes, hopefully we will have beds ready for twice as many tomatoes and peppers as last year, the peas and beans, sunflowers, and herbs will be planted. The winter squash are going to be planted in the orchard this year and allowed to spread at will. I may have to extend the electric fence around the orchard again to keep the deer out.
Years ago, we laughed at episodes of the TV show Frazier, with “the chair.” The chair belonged to his father, a ratty, striped recliner with duct tape holding it together. In one episode, Frazier, bothered by the look of the chair in his very modern svelte apartment, removed it to the building’s storage room and replaced it with a new leather version. Dad was not happy and the episode revolved around the search for the taped up old chair to return to the apartment. The story line going much deeper, but for my purposes, we will leave it here.
About 16 or 17 years ago, while still living in Virginia Beach, Mountaingdad found a ginormous rocking recliner in Sam’s Club. Every time we went to shop, he went to see if the chair was still there, sitting in it and wishing. Daughter and I decided that it would make a great Christmas present for him, drove my minivan to Sam’s Club and purchased the last one, a hulking leather monstrosity and wheeled it out to the car. It wouldn’t fit in the van in the box. We unpacked it and with much Tetris like activity, got it into the van, but didn’t want to abandon the box in the parking lot as that went so totally against my hippy, you must recycle it mindset. I ended up leaving the box and my 16 year old daughter in the parking lot, drove the chair home and unloaded it in the garage, drove the few miles back and picked up daughter and box and drove to the recycle center to leave the box. Back home, we approached a neighbor about storing it in their garage until Christmas Eve. On Christmas Eve early in the day, we removed it back to our garage and covered it back in an area in front of my mini van, hoping that Mountaingdad would not spot it. That night, it was hauled into the house, set in place and a big bow taped to the back.
That chair has been his favorite. It moved from that house to the rental we took after selling the house to build this one. Moved again to two different apartments that he occupied after I moved up here to work and supervise the construction of our new home. It moved again to our log home upon his retirement and continued to be his favorite spot to use his laptop, watch TV and recuperate from surgery then a broken humerus. After all of the years and all of the moves, the chair’s leather began to split. We tried Frazier’s Dad’s approach and bought some dark brown duct tape to try to repair it. It held for a little while, but not for long. It became a place where Mountaingdad and Ranger shared time at night.
But alas, it was just falling apart. About a year ago, I started suggesting it was time to replace it, but he wasn’t ready. A week ago, I received a coupon for 20% off a furniture item from Grand Furnishings as we have bought several mattresses and the grandkids bunk bed from them in the past couple of years. The end of last week, he admitted that it was time.
The seat and arms of the chair as it awaits disposal.
Sunday, we used the coupon to buy him a new leather recliner. Large and comfy, but not quite as massive as The Chair. Today it arrived at the local Grand and was picked up.
I don’t know if Mountaingdad and Ranger will both fit in this one. I hope it provides at least Mountaingdad comfort for as long as The Chair did.
Have I been away? No, just focusing on other projects at the moment. Last month when I attended the Fiber Festival, I took 2 bars of homemade soap with 2 homemade lotion bars as my gift exchange and gave my roommate another bar of soap and lotion bar. They were well received and the conversation turned to whether I should be a vendor at the next Festival. The trouble with this is that several of the participants are sensitive to scents and the smell of raw fleece, so if you vend those items, they must be kept in your room, not in the Festival area. This prompted more discussion and I began toying with the idea of opening an Etsy shop through which to vend soap, lotion bars and handspun yarn.
After arriving back home, my daughter and I discussed it more and with her business knowledge, we began the process of setting this project in motion. A shop name had to be selected and my first choice was already taken. Labels had to be created and business cards designed and ordered.
As my supply of soap is limited right now to the last two batches that we made together about 6 weeks ago, we started making more cold process soaps as they must cure for about 4 to 6 weeks to dry enough to not dissolved too quickly in a bath. First we ordered 2 more loaf style soap molds and 2 molds that will make 2 1/4″ disc shaped soaps or can be used for the lotion bars that fit in a tin. We ventured down to the local Michael’s and used 2 coupons for 40% off to purchase 2 more loaf style molds. That will give us 5 to work with. Yesterday, I experimented with a batch of hot process soap as they can be used right away, but benefit from a curing period to harden as well. When cutting the soap from the loaf molds, there are always ends that are too small to sell and some of them we use at home or grate to use in our homemade laundry detergent. The rest of these slivers and small bars collect in a jar and this afternoon, we played with two different recipes of rebatched soap to create Oatmeal and spice scrubbing muffins and flower imprinted bars of Lavender scented guest soaps. These will be usable immediately and will be packaged creatively to add to the shop.
Last evening and this morning, photos were taken of the soaps and hand-spun yarns that are ready for listing. A learning curve as I set up a business Paypal account and began to populate the shop. A spreadsheet was developed to track the supply purchases and the sales when they happen. Many more batches of soap will be made. Lotion bars will follow as soon as the molds arrive. As yarn that I am not planning on using myself or making for my daughter is spun, it will be added to the shop.
Late last night, my shop went live. This will help me indulge my love of the old homestead crafts and hopefully earn a little money that can help me continue making more. If you want to check it out, it is http://www.etsy.com/shop/CabinCrafted.
The storm of yesterday has passed, again creating a snow covered swathe diagonally up across Virginia and to the north east. Today the sun is brilliant and the day so far is frigid. Yesterday afternoon, the chickens were huddled underneath the coop as the snow fell, they were soaked and I was worried about frostbite. Have you ever tried to herd chickens? Not an easy task, but one by one they were prodded out from under the coop to a small patch that I cleared right by their ladder and most willingly went inside. A few had to be picked up and placed inside, the pop door closed and a couple of extra scoops of whole grain feed tossed down to both entertain and warm them as I hoped they would dry before the single digit cold arrived and arrive it did. We plunged from the mid 30’s yesterday morning to 6f (-14.5c) early this morning.
The brilliant sun is causing the ice coated trees and shrubs to sparkle and glitter, the snow blindingly white. Our total on this storm was only about 6″, but it is on ice. The muddy ruts that had formed in our driveway are now frozen ruts but the next week is going to be spring like with a few periods of rain, so the ruts will return.
The chickens pen was cleared of enough snow to toss down their grain and coax them out to feed.
School has been cancelled for the second day in a row, the 14th day this school year. Only one of those days has been made up and only 4 more make up days are currently in the schedule. Their options are to extend the school day or add more days on to the end of the year. They don’t really haven’t any vacation days built in to take that haven’t already been taken. Spring break is only the Friday and Monday bracketing Easter Sunday.
The day is beautiful and the scenery is photo worthy, we didn’t lose power, but I am ready for winter to exit.
Spring is just around the corner, I know it is. The calendar shows First Day Of Spring in just a couple of weeks. I know that we will have continued periods of cold, even snow flurries well into April and can’t put most things into the garden until mid May, but winter needs to stop already. We had a reprieve for a day or two and last week’s snow mostly melted, but between the melt, the roof drip off and the rain, the county is now under a flood watch. This isn’t a problem for us as we are high on the side of the mountain and our creek flows into a sink hole that when flooded, rushes down the west side of our property, still well below the house.
The roadsides that are steep from blasting to put the 4 lane main road through the valley are seeing minor mudslides, but the ground is totally saturated and pudding soft, so the fear of a more major mudslide that could block our ingress to town is possible.
Yesterday it rained, then sleeted, then rained and sleeted again and this is ongoing today. The high for the day, right at freezing and headed down about 30 degrees by midnight is turning the rain to more freezing rain and sleet with another 5 inches of snow due by nightfall.
The trees and shrubs are ice coated and if we really get a few inches of wet snow, there will be branches breaking and threats of loss of power. We have enough firewood to get us through a couple of days, but that is all. The grill’s propane tank is about half full and we have plenty of beans, rice, and frozen foods to make meals.
When I went over for chicken chores this morning, I realized that a small 5 year old dogwood near the side of the house has been seriously gnawed, probably by hungry deer. It was sleeting out and the ground is still too hard to try to pound in stakes to put a piece of fence around it, but I was able to force a couple of fiberglass poles around it and drape a piece of row cover fabric over it to thwart more chewing until I can get a fence around it to try to protect it. Perhaps I should check my fruit trees as well.
Today was cold and rainy. It was supposed to get up in the low 50’s, but it barely made it above freezing. The time was spent indoors for the most part so I spent it spinning and doing a little knitting. I had spun 4 ounces of Dorset lamb roving at the spinning retreat last weekend and began on the other 4 ounces when I got home. So far about an ounce has been done. It is going to take a jumbo flyer and a large bobbin to ply it and I don’t have one. I may set them aside until I save enough money to buy the flyer and jumbo bobbin for my wheel.
After I finished this last week, I had a few yards of one ply left and Navajo plied it wondering what to do with such a small amount.
At the retreat last weekend, I decided that I needed a small bag or basket to hang on my wheel to hold the spinning oil, WPI tool and repair items, so I used the scraps to knit this little bag for my spinning notions and tools and hung it on my wheel.
This is the roving that I purchased to make myself a sweater from my own handspun. It really is darker than it appears in this photo. It was put away in a plastic bag to keep the stink bugs out until I get the Dorset spun and spin the roving that I bought for my daughter.
A warm sunny day! Yay. Much of last week’s snow melted today, though the driveway is a muddy mess developing deep ruts in several places. The chooks are happy to have more than a few square feet to move about. We are happy because they had school for the first time in two full weeks and grandson returned. The extended weather forecast is looking generally more positive with milder temperatures during the days, but still a lot of nights that are very cold and will freeze then thaw cycle. We still have a treacherous path to the house both the front door and the garage doors as the areas that were “cleared” by the tractor developed ice several inches thick.
The beast, our 210 lb English Mastiff is finding the walk in and out of the house scary as he has slipped a few times. The German Shepherd and the Golden Retriever both bound over it like it isn’t there. I tried to break it up today, but even when the chunks were manageable, they pulled up the sparse grass just off the front stoop.
We fear at least a late start for school tomorrow as we are expecting frozen rain and sleet tonight. We are ready for spring, dry yards and driveways and a garden that can be worked.
On Thursday morning, after another night of snow and little sleep fretting about whether I would be able to leave, I put my little CRV in low and crept up the drive and road in about 6 inches of new snow, not knowing what the paved road down the mountain would reveal. I left more than an hour before I was to pick up my friend who was riding with me, just in case I had trouble.
The paved road was covered in snow with only tracks from a couple of vehicles but it was drive-able and when I safely reached the main road into town, they had pretreated it the day before and it was wet but not covered. Since I had time, I stopped at a local coffee shop and bought a bagel sandwich and a cup of coffee to go and made my way to her house. Though my friend’s address is a town address and she lives on a street with suburban type lots lining both sides, the lots are large and the street surrounded by farm fields, so the road to her was similar to ours snow covered, but flatter. Friend was retrieved, suitcases, her product to vend and spinning wheels loaded and off we went to the retreat that is in a lodge in a state park near the New River Gorge in West Virginia. We had stopped and lunched at Tamarack, a cafe run by the Greenbrier Hotel in a large ring shaped building around snow covered gardens with hand made crafts and food items displayed throughout. A great place to eat and browse for gifts and crafts. As I had walked out and left my tea mug on the counter at home, I indulged in the purchase of a pottery mug to take with me.
Our room on the 4th floor looked down on the frozen snow coated section of the New River. The retreat is held in the Lodge conference room and lobby. It is a gathering of fiber artists, spinners, knitters, weavers, and crocheters. Many are vendors as well as participants with displays of fibers to buy, jams and jellies, jewelry, and hand made woven or knitted articles for sale.
Spinners, weavers and knitters, socializing and making yarn.Roving from an abandoned flock of sheep, rescued and 20% of the price of the sale goes back to the rescuer to help her feed and have them sheered. This one in daughter preferred colors, so purchased to spin into yarn for her to knit.Felted wool dryer balls from one vendor at a good price, so added to our collection.
The Lodge provides us with a complimentary breakfast, specials at a good price for lunch and dinner and even made Red Velvet cupcakes and coffee as a mid day snack at a low price.
We visit, watch each other spin for new techniques, shop at the vendors, chat, eat and have a nightly cocktail party catered by delicious food offerings from each retreat participant. As many folks leave on Saturday, the door prizes, donated by the vendors and some participants and a gift exchange drawing occur around check out time. I won two bags of coordinated roving to spin and received two skeins of beautiful sock weight yarn to knit. Wonderful prizes and gifts. Some folks come for a day, others for a couple and some for the three days.
I have made new friends at the two retreats I have attended, come home with new recipes, fiber to spin that came from the farms of some of the participants or from the door prize drawing. My big purchase at this retreat was a pound and a half of Coopsworth over dyed roving, enough for me to spin into yarn to make myself a sweater, the first time I will have enough to make a significant project spun and knit by me. I will share photos of it when I have daylight and begin to spin it. It took me both days there to fill a bobbin with 4 ounces of fine Dorset Lamb that I bought last retreat and now home, I will spin the other half to ply. It is natural creamy white and may become my first dyeing project.
I miss my family when away, but the retreat refreshes and rejuvenates me so I come back relaxed and renewed to them. As a treat, I also returned to a clean refrigerator and a vacuumed and dusted house and clean kitchen, thanks to my daughter. Glad I bought her the gift.
My friend and I reserved our room for the fall retreat before we left today.
Cabin Crafted 