Cabin Crafted

Blog

  • The Liebster Award

    Recently, one of my blog friends, A French Yummy Mummy in London nominated me for this award, to recognize and promote blogging and bloggers. I am very honored to have been nominated by her. The award requires you to answer 11 questions about yourself, ask 11 questions of bloggers you tag and tag 11 blogs you read and encourage those 11 people to tag 11 more bloggers with questions.  Here are the 11 questions that were asked of me.  I am thrilled to have new blogs to read and follow and hope that you enjoy some of the ones I tag.
    1.     Why do you blog?
             It started as an online journal, I type faster than I write and I had been encouraged to journal to relieve stress.
     
    2.     What makes you happy?
             Having my grandchildren visiting.
    3.     Where do you live?
            In the rural Southwest Virginia, but I grew up in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
    4.     What is your favourite food?
             Chocolate, dark and rich.
    5.     How do you relax?
             I knit, spin on an Australian made spinning wheel, organically garden, and watching my silly chickens when I let them out of their pen to free range, or take long walks with hubby and the dogs.
    6.     If you could jump in a plane right away, where would you go?
            There are many places I would like to see, I have never been outside of the USA except Canada and Mexico, so my list would include the UK, Greece, and Australia.
    7.     What helps you to write?
             I only write when I am moved to do so, but getting comments on my blog encourages me to continue. Often my blog revolves around a photo or several that I have taken related to our homestead farm or one of my crafts.
    8.     What was 2013 main highlight so far?
             Celebrating with most of my extended family for my Dad’s 90th birthday and the baptism of two of our grandchildren the same week in the same location.
    9.     What are your plans for 2014?
             Adding more critters to our homestead and traveling more, if we find someone who will house sit for us and deal with those critters.
     
    10. How do you see yourself in 10 years?
    In 10 years I will be a very senior citizen and hope that I am still active and independent then. 
    11. And finally, what would you do if you won the lottery tomorrow?

     

    Each of our children have incurred educational debt and I would give each of them enough to pay off their student debt and pay down or make a down payment on a house of their own.

    Now here are my questions for my nominees and though I read many blogs each day, several are so widely published that the authors would not participate and several are ones that French Yummy Mummy also tagged, so my list will not be 11 long.
    1. Why do you blog?

    2. If you craft, what is your favorite crafting, if you don’t, what might you like to learn?

    3. If you had the means to go anywhere in the world for dinner, where would you go?

    4. What would that meal be?

    5. What is the favorite book you have read?

    6. Where do you live?

    7. Are animals part of your life, if so what you do have?

    8. What is the highlight of 2013 for you so far?

    9. What do you hope to do in 2014?

    10. How do you relax?

    11. What is the best job you have ever had?

    Now for the blogs I read and wish to nominate for this award.
    http://sarahwilsondogexpert.com/
    http://smilingthroughtearz.com/
    http://cjtittle.blogspot.com/
    http://c-knit2gether.blogspot.com/
    http://rockthekasbahafrica.blogspot.com/
    http://shellysm.blogspot.com/
    http://bluedollarbill.blogspot.com/
    http://mommytarymadness.blogspot.com/?wref=bif

    If you have not previously read these blogs, I hope you enjoy them, and thank you Muriel for the nomination.

  • A week on the Farm – October 9, 2013

    This has been another slow week as far as farm chores go. My garlic for the garden still has not arrived, so the garden has been neglected. A few beans have been picked, just enough to eat, not to freeze. The broccoli is ready and needs to be harvested and frozen.

    image

    The meat chicks have mere days to gorge, and indeed that is what they do, before they all go to freezer camp this weekend.

    image

    image

    They don’t quite look like small turkeys this time, but several are substantial.

    image

    image

    The daily egg hunt continues to amuse me, especially when 1 is very round or very pointed or speckled, this girl had a faulty dyer yesterday.

    image

    My shawl is coming along.  I’m on the last lace panel and it will be done. I’m hoping is blocks out larger than it appears now. I’m considering adding a final border to make it a bit larger.

    Life is good on our mountain farm.

  • Autumn Sunset

    image

    Peach sky, crescent moon, crisp air.
    Beautiful Autumn night

  • The Storm

    20131007_103225
    Rain beating on a tin roof;
    Clouds scuttering along the mountain tops and valleys from west to east;
    Wind whipping the dry leaves from the trees;
    Blessed relief from the past couple of days of unseasonable heat;
    As the tropical storm from the Gulf of Mexico blows itself out across the mountains and plods toward the shore.

  • Alone Time

    Having been married for more than 33 years and being retired together, this couple is always together. So goes one, goes the other, especially when one car is unavailable. Occasionally, this couple tries some alone time adventures, and they have very different fun things to do. Mister half of this couple has become the more adventurous half and the most recent adventure is to learn to ride a motorcycle and eventually motor across the country. The area in which this couple lives is very conducive to riding with parkways and mountain roads to explore. Missus half of this couple has absolutely no desire to share this adventure on her own cycle or behind mister, so if the cross country trip ever happens, Missus will follow along solo in a car some time later, towing a trailer or renting one on the west coast and bringing Mister back home.
    Missus is more conservative in her senior years, preferring walks, hikes, the horseback riding if the stead is well broke or enjoying the knitting, spinning, gardening, soap making, and chicken raising.
    This state encourages new motorcycle riders to enroll in a 2 1/2 day long safety and learning to ride class and that is what Mister is doing this weekend.
    Missus elected to take a longish drive several counties over, along the Blue Ridge Parkway (a National Park area, closed except for the actually roadway, due to the government shutdown) to visit a friend, who owns Greenberry House, a yarn shop and to purchase local cabbage, winter squash, some corn meal and more Ashe County cheese. The drive was beautiful, the day is gorgeous, blue skies, light breeze, mild temperatures. The visit was very enjoyable, seeing her new shop, visiting with one of her dogs and her chickens, and having a very pleasant chat. The produce and other goods were purchased at the Poor Farmer’s Market, and included a couple extra heads of cabbage for a friend. Another delightful drive back with a stop at another friend’s yarn show, Green Dragon Yarn, see who was knitting there today and to visit with the owner and knitter friends and luckily deliver the cabbage just bought. She came out to the car to get her cabbage and said, “Oh, you bought grits, too, I love grits.” Oh no, Missus’ inattention in the very crowded market, had picked up the wrong product. She got a very welcome gift, half of the grits purchased, as Missus’ year’s supply was purchased about a month ago when sister-in-law was visiting.
    It feels good to share . . . even when it is unplanned.

  • It is football season, isn’t it?

    When we began our property search, we had no idea how much 10 acres really was. I had grown up in what is now the suburbs of Virginia Beach, on a couple of acres surrounded by other properties of several acres and a river on one edge of my families land. It was then a Burrough of a county, more of less rural. As I grew up in that home, many housing developments were built along the road back to our home and when I was in high school, the area consolidated to become the City of Virginia Beach.
    While looking for land, we started with the idea of about 10 acres and looked at a log home development in southwest Virginia where each lot was 5 to 10 acres. It was not what we had envisioned. The plot we ended up purchasing for our log retirement home ended up just a fraction under 30 acres.
    A year after the purchase, I moved to a university town near where we were building and took the lead counselor job at the high school in the adjacent town. After a year on that job, I was asked if I would consider taking on a counseling intern for a semester and after refusing the first time I was ask, I accepted the following year. My first intern was from the region I had moved from and he was a city kid and a football player at the university. He said he had no concept of how big 30 acres was. I could relate to that, as we had tried to visual it in suburban blocks in our neighborhood. By this time, I was living in our new home and had the idea to relate the size of our property to something that he could relate to, so I told him that our land was roughly 22 1/2 football fields with end zones. This amazed him and his reaction amused me.
    >Google house

  • A Week on the Farm – October 3, 2013

    This has been a rest week after last week’s marathon mowing of the 30 acres. The garden is waning, with only beans, broccoli being harvested and waiting for the cabbages to head and reach cutting size.
    20131003_100544
    It needs weeding and a fall cleanup, but I was hoping my garlic would arrive soon and I could plant it at the same time.
    20131003_100618
    The chickens are funny animals. Whenever they see me in the side yard, they gather under their coop then follow me to whatever end of their pen I am working near, yet they won’t let me touch them except as they exit their coop in the mornings.
    20131003_100824
    Cogburn and his harem getting some free range time, their favorite time of the day as they forage for bugs, seeds and fresh grass.
    20131003_101018
    They are consistently providing us with 3 plus dozen eggs each week, yes one of them is green. The last pullet to mature appears like she may add another to the 6 to 8 we get each day very soon.
    20131003_100110
    Yesterday’s soap making solo, seems to have been successful. The two molds, a simple mold from Michael’s Arts and Crafts and a silicone baking pan, produced a generous number of bars, now curing on a mat for use in 3 or 4 weeks.
    20131003_102516
    My needle crafting has been in a doldrum until this week. I was making my daughter a black lace sweater to replace one I made last year that was ruined. I’m not a fan of lace knitting, nor knitting with black yarn, so I procrastinated, knitting very little on it this summer, but it was finished, washed, blocked, dried and shipped off to her this week. No pictures taken. Perhaps, she will send me one of her in it. Once it was finished, I picked up the Traveler’s Companion Shawl that I had been working on and seem to be making pretty good progress on it. It is being knit to go with a long travelling skirt I own.

  • Soap Making Solo

    Last week was soap making 101, taught to a class of one by a friend who has been making her own soap for years. My interest began a little more than a year ago and not wanting to get too involved in equipment until I was sure it was a homecraft to be enjoyed and appreciated by the family, only a simple mold, a few pounds of melt and pour soap base and a small assortment of essential oils not already in my supply were purchased. Several batches of that soap were made, once with daughter here to assist and learn. That was fun, but it just wasn’t quite there. The ingredients of the melt and pour were still a bit sketchy, not fully revealing what it contained and certainly not satisfying the Obsessive Compulsive Disorder part of my personality. Making soap from 100% pure oils and fats, lye, water and essential oils for scent was exactly where my goals were taking me. It was enchanting fun to carefully measure the ingredients, mixing them at just the right temperature, stirring until it resembled pudding, then pouring into the molds, covering with lids and towels to cocoon them in for 24 hours while the chemistry magic of turning oils, fats and lye, saponifying into soap. Fancy craft fair soap. After a full day, it is removed from the molds, cut into bars, and placed on a mat that allows air to circulate around the bars until they are fully cured, in about a month. No, it isn’t instant gratification, but the process and the anticipation have me hooked.
    From my lesson, last week, I did get a couple pounds of soap. We did two different 6 pound batches, mostly dedicated for her daughter to sell at a fall craft fair. I understand now why it is so expensive at the fairs and at the Farmer’s Market, but the satisfaction just isn’t there when it is purchased. The morning lesson was fun, educational, and having someone with me both made it social and alleviated my anxiety about trying it myself. No one is perfect and my personality has it’s flaws, usually well hidden, but there. The OCD has abated or I’ve learned to control it more as I have aged, but the anxiety at trying new ventures has gotten worse. It is perhaps that I struggle with these issues that I do tackle new things, often on my own, having taught myself to knit, spin, make baskets, pressure can, make jam and now soap, and taking horseback riding lessons.
    Today was the solo attempt, making a special soap for eldest son and hubby.
    image

    image

    Tomorrow the two molds will be uncovered, unmolded and we’ll see how the solo venture turned out.

  • Where is the color?

    This is often a favored season. Cooling temperatures, vivid leaf changes, the start of the holiday season. This year just isn’t right. The temperatures are cooling, 40s and 50s at night, but still reaching mid to upper 70s during the day, but the foliage isn’t doing it’s part. Instead of vivid colors, the leaves are browning and dropping from the trees.

    The large maple that is usually the first to show bright gold and orange is barren without ever turning. This year was unusually wet after two years of dry conditions. Perhaps that stressed the trees. Hopefully it doesn’t mean that huge tree on the edge of our woods is dying. Under that tree is where we camped the first summer we owned the property. It provided shade for our brand new 9 week old grandson, our first. It sheltered our tents and picnic table as we met with a soil scientist for the perk test and interviewed several well drillers to get water for our planned home. We were sitting under that tree when we met our first neighbor as he and his son came down the tractor road to get his half of the hay that had been mowed with his equipment by his cousin. That tree has been the focus of many photographs from blogposts.
    20131001_155904
    In spite of the government shutdown, I will venture up on the Blue Ridge Parkway in route to Meadows of Dan on Saturday, to visit a friend and to purchase some corn meal, winter squash, and Ashe County cheese. As the elevation is slightly higher than here, perhaps, there will be at least a glimpse of fall color.

  • Sunday Thankfulness – September 29, 2013

    Image

     

    Image

     

    Image

     

    Image

     

    Image

     

         Almost 9 years ago, we began looking for retirement property.  I wanted a cabin in the woods and for Christmases, I received a picture of a cabin in the woods by a lake, a cabin birdhouse with a sign in it’s yard that read “Cabin in the Woods” as my wish list always started with Cabin in the woods as item 1.  We began internet searches for about 10 acres, originally looking in the Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, or upper Shenandoah areas of Virginia.  Those areas were getting much more per acre than we wanted to spend.  The summer before our search, we spent a 4 day weekend at Rocky Knob CCC cabins on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the south west part of the state and we loved the area.  Land was more reasonable and it seemed plentiful, but often in plots much larger than the 10 acres we sought.  We spent a December weekend, many, many hours being driven around several counties and nearly every plot was 30 or more acres.  This piece of heaven was one of the earlier plots we viewed and we fell in love, though it is 30 acres, not 10 and mostly hay fields, not woods.  We have large trees in the hay fields and woods surrounding us.  The 10 acre lots we saw, we realized put us closer to neighbors than we had envisioned.  It would have been plenty for the house, gardens, orchard, even a few farm animals if the area permitted.  That is not an issue here.  We are surrounded by mountains, woods, and farms.  Our fledgling homestead had no house on it, no well, no electricity, and had been perked for septic, but too many years prior to still be valid.  We made the purchase and started a new experience, building a house from 5 hours away.  You see, we still lived in the home that we had raised our children in, in Virginia Beach.  Our eldest son and his family moved to this area so that he could be the general contractor and he with a patched together crew, did all the finish carpentry, stone work, built all my kitchen cabinets, did all the tile work, and made all of our interior doors.  We sold the coastal home, moved into a rental for a year, then I moved to an apartment in the mountains and unretired for 3 1/2 years and hubby stayed in an apartment in Virginia Beach with youngest son and started a 3 year process of winding down and selling his law practice.

         It took a few years to work out the kinks of how to homestead.  Son had put in a large garden, that helped get me going.  I learned to can and bulk freeze produce.  We forage for berries to make jam.   This year, we added chickens for eggs and meat.  Feeling the need to start small and learn farm management and animal husbandry a bit at a time.  A year ago, we began horseback riding lessons and joined a Horsemaster’s club to gain more experience.  We chat up our farmer neighbors every chance we get regarding beef cattle.  We certainly have the space for horses and cows and the grazing will help reduce the area that must be mowed.  We will likely still have a neighbor hay for us for a hay split, as adding that much farm equipment seems unwise.  Each spring, it is hayed for us, each fall, we brush hog all 30 acres.  That process has been on going all week and was finally completed today for the season.  There may be one or two lawn mowings before the frost.

         I am ever thankful to my husband for making this life change possible and to our eldest son for his skills and ability to run the crew;  to his life partner for her work on our home and for mothering our firstborn grandchild; to our beautiful daughter and her family and our youngest son and his family for sharing their children with us and including us in their lives.

    Life is good on our mountain farm.