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A Week on the Farm – September 27, 2013

Getting yarn dyed especially for me to match a hat I designed, now I need to design the scarf to go with it.

Learning cold process soap making with a friend. Now I can do it myself, but it is much more fun making it with a friend.

Mowing the 30 acres for fall. There are still 4 or 5 to do and a gorgeous weekend to get it done.

An end of week harvest, more beans for dinner and the freezer, the first two heads of broccoli also for dinner and one for the freezer, tomatoes for the freezer. A dinner that came entirely from our garden except for the ground beef from the farmer’s market.

A daily 6 to 8 eggs from the flock, but oddly, they will line up to use the same nesting box when there are 6 from which to choose, occasionally one will use a different box, but not often.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 27, 2013
Homesteading Fun Day

We are in the midst of mowing our hay fields for winter. The summer rains have produced very thick grass and the mowing seems to be taking longer than usual.

The chicken project is yielding 6 to 8 eggs per day, with one pullet still not producing. I thought that number of birds would produce an excessive number of eggs, but find with the availability of fresh from the nest eggs, that we are using many more than when they came from the grocery or farmer’s market. One dozen is dedicated each week to one of our farmer neighbors who is always willing to help us when we need it and any other extras are gladly purchased by friends with whom I knit or spin. The meat chicks continue to grow at an alarming rate. The breed grows so quickly that some of them are already having difficulty supporting their own weight and they have 2 1/2 more weeks before they go to freezer camp. I have decided that I would rather grow a heritage breed, maybe a dual purpose breed that will produce eggs and later meat, even if they take longer to mature, but will have the sense to get up on perches out of the weather.

Today, one of those friends, invited me to have a cold process soap lesson. I made two six pound batches of soap under her supervision and now feel confident to make my next batch of soap by this process instead of the melt and pour process that I had originally learned. It is so great to know exactly what goes into the products that we use for our personal use and for the household cleansing. From these two batches, she sent me home with two molds of curing soap. The rest of the batches will go to her daughter for a craft fair or for her personal use.

The day ended, knitting with the group of friends that meet on Wednesday nights at a local coffee shop for some social time, dinner, and knitting.

Each newly learned skill brings us one step closer to independence.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 25, 2013
Farm and Fun

After our Horsemaster’s Club ride yesterday, we both arose sore, facing a 10 a.m. lesson. A biscuit and newspaper in town to fuel our bodies and minds, we arrived a bit early, knowing which horses we were riding today and mine being Daisy that I rode yesterday, in the top field, I dropped off hubby at the arena, grabbed a halter and rope and drove to the top field to get her. Yesterday, she was at the top edge of that very steep field, today since I was at the top, she was at the bottom, requiring a scramble down the slope to get her. The roan in the paddock with her wanted to be my friend today and tried to put her head in the halter, then followed me like a puppy as I led Daisy out. Our instructor arrived and we worked on some skills, both complaining of being sore, so she went and got a horse and tacked up and we took our first trail ride. Our first ride out of the confines of the huge enclosed and roofed arena. It was so much fun and once at the top of their property, realized that we could see the power tower that is closest to our house. As the crow flies, we couldn’t have been more than a mile from home.
A few errands to get chicken feed and we arrived home to farm work. As it is fall, the locals are either doing a fall haying, in some cases, their only haying this year due to the summer rain, or as we do, mowing the now very tall grass down for the winter. It will make better spring hay. Today was the day we began to mow our fields. This is always bitter sweet as we will now be able to walk our property, we will be able to see the deer and turkey, but the mowing takes out thousands of white Queen Anne’s Lace, Daisies, and clover; purple thistle and red clover; golden flowers of the hated stickweed and goldenrod; and the cornflower blue of Chickory. The tall seed heads of the grasses standing above the tops of the tall rear wheels of the tractor.
A dinner break of a homemade pizza with tomatoes, basil, peppers and onions from our garden, hot Italian sausage from the Farmer’s market and a couple of lumps of fresh mozarella. It was delicious.

After dinner, some more mowing as the sun deepened the shadows as the sun dropped below the west ridge, leaving the eastern ridges still glowing from the setting sun.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 23, 2013
Confidence Restored

One of my flaws is a reluctance to try new things. The anticipation of a new experience often causes several days of anxiety, loss of sleep and weird dreams for several days in advance of the experience. About 11 months ago, hubby convinced me to begin horseback riding lessons with him. He had taken one set of 4 lessons first to see if it was something he wanted to pursue. The only riding I had ever done was in a close ring or on a controlled trail ride where the horse follows the horse in front of it with the experienced guide being the only person in the group that really knew what they were doing and even then, I often chose to take a hike while hubby and a couple of the kids rode instead. I entered the lessons with some degree of anxiety and reluctance and was assigned a fat little paint that you practically had to put a mark in the ring to see if he was even moving. From him I moved on to a gray gelding that became my go to horse. I got comfortable with Doc. I advanced through the skills with a level of comfort in control and even with a bit of goading by hubby, started cantering. Each new skill brought anxiety and then exhilaration as it was accomplished.
We decided that maybe it was getting to be time to start looking for our own horses. We went to look at one Tennessee Walking Horse, who was a nice ride, but so very thin we were concerned about his health and as his shots were not up to date, he couldn’t be boarded where we ride. More looking found another Tennessee Walking Horse, a young mare, up to date on everything and reported to be a good ride, but a bit difficult to get out of the field to tack up. We were in the process of getting info on her and arranging a time to go look, taking our instructor with us, when we had last Monday’s lesson. I wanted to ride a different horse and chose an Arabian mare. She was friendly and easy to catch and tack, but by the end of the lesson, my confidence was shot and I was truly questioning even riding again. I wasn’t thrown, bucked, or ridden into the fence, but I just didn’t have control with her and constantly felt off balance. We even cancelled the visit to look at the mare.
One of the things we did upon starting to ride, was to join a local Horsemaster’s Club. This was to give us more riding time, a discount to ride without an instructor, and to learn more about the breeds, problems, and management of owning our own horses. The club hasn’t been too active, but it did have a scheduled mounted meeting tonight to work as a group on riding skills. We RSVP’s and got our horse assignment via email with instructions to have our horse tacked and ready to ride at 5:30 this evening. I was given one of two horses, depending on how one was after the Pony Club mounted meeting just prior to ours. I didn’t know either horse to catch them in the field or to ride and my anxiety kicked in big time. One of their horses is a young mare that is still in need of training and she threw the owner’s daughter a couple of months ago, seriously breaking her arm. My dreams, when I slept the past two nights have involved that horse. My confidence was shot and my anxiety level was high when we arrived today. The mare I was to ride was pointed out to me by the center owner and she was as far away from the riding arena as she could be and still be on their property. I walked up the hill, easily caught her and walked her back down the hill. She tacked up easily, but didn’t want to leave the stall for the arena. Again, my anxiety mounted. Once on her, she proved to be a comfortable ride with a lot of spirit, but other than getting her to stop, easy to control. She trotted fast and even that was good. My confidence has been restored, just in time for tomorrow’s lesson. I will again get to ride Daisy, but this time, it was suggested that I grab a halter and drive to the top to walk her down and ride her back up after the lesson. I can do that.

September 22, 2013
Girl’s Day Out

Today is totally abysmal. The windows on 3 sides of the house are getting rained on, as the wind can not decide which way to blow. Being retired, we find ourselves together nearly 24/7, unless I venture off to provide grandmom or mom support with one of our kids or grands and leave hubby to doggy and chicken sit. I belong to two groups, a knitting group and a spinning group and could, if other scheduling doesn’t get in the way, go out one evening and one afternoon each week solo. It doesn’t happen as often as I thought it would as we let other scheduling issues interfere, such as riding lessons together or sessions with the canine behaviorist that is helping us resocialize the big guy with other dogs that he doesn’t already know.
Several years ago, one of my two favorite indie dyers, accidentally created a colorway of yarn that she only had a few skeins. I fell in love with it at a trunk show. She was making a hat out of a skein of it and I bought the last one she had. With that yarn, I created a pattern for a hat that has become my favorite winter hat. It has a story that goes with it and as a result, a local restaurant is called the Mexican hat stealing place. I inadvertently left the hat on the seat when we checked out, realized it and returned immediately to retrieve it, to be told “No hat.” I asked the waiter, the busboy, and the manager and left devastated over it’s loss. Hubby offered to go in and I initially said no, but changed my mind. He approached someone and was given the same answer. Being a retired lawyer, he stated to them that it was one thing to keep something that was left in the restaurant, but it was another issue when the owner returned for it and was told it wasn’t there, that it then became a police matter. The hat reappeared almost instantly and was returned to me. Needless to say, I am much more careful with it now when I go out.
I have wanted to knit a scarf to go with the hat and preferred to knit it with yarn dyed again by Natasha at Unplanned Peacock ( http://www.unplannedpeacock.com). She has tried a couple of times and could not duplicate the color. Her hat had been destroyed by her puppy, so she only had a photo of mine to try to match and the photo showed the red, not true to its beautiful rich tone. This late summer, I asked her if she could just pick out a variegated yarn that picked up the color. She took the challenge to again try to recreate the original color. We have messaged back and forth with photos and discussions for several weeks and a few days ago, she let me know that she thought she had hit the color. We decided to have a girl’s day out, meet up at a restaurant part of the way between our houses that are almost 2 hours apart. After a delightful social time, good food and some visiting, we walked down the town street to The Wooly Jumper (woollyjumperyarns.com ), the yarn shop in that town and visited with the owner, Michelle, and had more social time. Natasha went and got the box with the yarn she had dyed for me and a selection of variegated yarns from her collection to try to match my hat, which I had taken with me.

I am excited that she hit it spot on and now I am challenged to design a scarf or shawlette to go with the Ruby Hat. It was a miserable drive in rain and fog home, but my enjoyment and excitment were not tempered.

September 21, 2013
A Week On the Farm – September 20, 2013

A Week On the Farm – September 20, 2013.

September 20, 2013
A Week On the Farm – September 20, 2013

Fall harvesting

Pasta sauce for the freezer

Free ranging and learning that my best layers are the Red Stars, not the heritage breeds. Hmmmm.

Doggie walks off the farm

Wild Asters

and Bee Balm

The week has been cool and gray with more rain tonight and tomorrow. A horseback ride on a different horse, just reminded me how little I know, I guess I had gotten comfortable or complacent riding the same well schooled gelding all the time. Some doggie walks and another session with the doggie behaviorist, still trying to get the big guy comfortable again with strange dogs. He loves people and cats, but not so much, new dogs.

Life continues to be good on our mountain farm.

September 20, 2013
Fall Bounty

Today dawned quite chilly, only 43f , gray and again foggy. The sun peeked out briefly and it had risen to the low 60’s with another 40 something night expected. We will awaken to a frost soon, within the next couple of weeks. The stinky young meat chicks seem to be handling the chilly nights, still benefitting from the heat lamp and partially covered chicken tractor. This breed will not go up on the perches, they huddle on the ground, so the partial cover will likely remain even after the heat lamp is removed, just to provide them some protection from wind and rain.

In spite of the very cool nights, the fall planting of bush beans is providing and still blooming and hopefully will continue to do so until the frost. The only remaining tomato plant is a volunteer of a heritage variety of plum tomato that I planted last year. It came up just outside the bed where they were planted, a bed that is now the grape bed. It is providing me with a couple of hefty sized plum tomatoes every couple of days, which I accumulate until there are sufficient numbers to peel and freeze.

Today’s harvest, beans, a few tomatoes and 7 eggs.

Tonight we will feast on fresh pasta from the farmer’s market, spicy Italian Sausages, also from the farmer’s market, and a big pot of homemade sauce, entirely from our garden harvest. The onions, garlic, peppers, tomatoes, and herbs picked right out the side of the yard in the farm garden or from herb pots on the back deck. There will be plenty to enjoy and enough to freeze at least a couple more meals worth for our enjoyment later in the season.

A handful of those fresh beans, sauteed with olive oil and garlic and we will feast like royalty.

Life is good on our mountain farm.

September 17, 2013
Fall is upon us

Though officially still a few days away, fall has come to the mountains. After a cool, rainy summer, we have had a dry spell of several weeks, today is chilly and foggy with a slight chance of afternoon showers as another front moves through. It is unlikely that the colors will be stunning this year. After two years of dry conditions and the stress of too much water this year, the trees that normally color first are browning and dropping their leaves instead

There are hints of color change, the emerald greens of summer are now dull, hints of rust and reds appearing.
The weather lore is that the morning fogs we have been experiencing for several weeks portend early and heavy snow. Last autumn, we had a school closing snow in October. Hopefully that won’t be the case this year since I went to the effort of putting in a fall garden. We have only lived in the mountains for 8 years and I have noticed that none of our farmer neighbors put in fall gardens. As I was pulling spent summer plants, weeding beds and dumping the weeds in the chicken pen, I wondered if by now, they are just tired of their gardens, or if by experience, they know that the weather will win. Most of them don’t work to keep the weeds at bay after their plants are established. They till it all in come spring, or they put down huge sheets of black plastic, punch holes in it and plant through the holes. I don’t want my food growing in beds that have plastic leeching into them. I will continue to weed, mulch and hope for the best. Perhaps, one of the huge round bales of hay should be spread around the trees in the orchard and over the fallow beds and aisles soon.

September 16, 2013
“Turtle on the Half Shell”

For my farm readers, this one is a craft post.
“TURTLE ON A HALF SHELL” HAT

Choose your turtle by the color of the mask. This hat was engineered after seeing a picture of a similar hat at the request of my Daughter in law as part of Halloween costumes for grandchildren. Now I just need a little girl or boy head to model it on instead of a doll.

Hat
Size 20” head and 22” head. Larger size is in parenthesis.
The hat is a knit beanie, the mask is crochet, both using Ella Rae Superwash or a similar worsted weight yarn. It can be knit on circular or double point needles.
CO= cast on
K= knit
K2tog= knit 2 together
Cast on 88 (100) stitches using a stretchy cast on such as long tail on a US 7 16” circular or double points. Join to knit in the round, placing a marker at the beginning of the row. Knit 2 X 2 rib for one inch, continue in stockinette stitch for 4 ½ (5 ½) inches. On the next round, place a marker after 11 (10)stitches and each multiple of 11 (10).
To complete the top of the hat, you will knit the following decrease pattern, switching to magic loop, two circs or double points when needed.
Row 1: *Knit 9 (8), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 2 and each subsequent even row: Knit
Row 3: *Knit 8 (7), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 5: *Knit 7 (6), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 7: *Knit 6 (5), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 9: *Knit 5 (4), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 11: *Knit 3 (1), K2tog* repeat to end of row
Row 13: *Knit 1, K2tog* repeat to end of row (skip for larger size)
Row 14: *K2tog* repeat to end of row (repeat this row for larger size)
Cut 6” tail and draw through remaining stitches. Secure tail on the inside of hat.
Mask
SC= single crochet
HDC= half double crochet
Make 2
With size G hook, chain 15 stitches, join with slip stitch. Chain 1 (does not count as stitch), 25 HDC in ring. Chain 2 and join to first HDC with slip stitch. HDC in next 10 stitches, 2 SC in each of the next 5 stitches, HDC in next 10 stitches. Join with slip stitch, cut off tail and pull through last stitch. Sew the two eyepieces together at the bridge connecting about 4 stitches.
For the ties: Pick up the first single crochet on the outside edge of the mask, chain 2, HDC in the next 4 stitches, chain 2, turn and HDC in the next 4 stitches. Repeat until tie is the length you desire. Repeat on the other side of the mask.
To assemble. Place the top of the mask, wrong side out, even with the bottom of the ribbing. Using coordinating thread, attach 3 or 4 stitches to the ribbing. The mask can be worn flipped up on the hat or down over the eyes.

Copywrite 2013 by Fran Stafford. Please feel free to use this pattern, to sell objects made from this pattern, but do not sell or share the pattern without permission.

September 14, 2013