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Away, No Not Really

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.

March 10, 2015
The Crystal Palace

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.

March 6, 2015
Go Away, Just Go Away

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.

March 5, 2015
Spinning and knitting away some time

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.

March 3, 2015
Welcome change

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.

March 2, 2015
Retreat. Refresh, Renew

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.

February 28, 2015
Tracks

One of the beauties of having snow is the reveal of wildlife that are either nocturnal or camouflaged enough to hide in the woods. With snow on the floor of the woods surrounding our land, we can see the deer and turkey as they move across the white background. Usually we don’t see the deer until they move out into the field, but with the grass covered, they can be seen grazing from the low branches of the smaller trees and shrubs that provide the under story growth.

After the heavy snow last week, the first tracks that I spotted other than the kids and dogs were a path leading from the woods, across the hay field, up diagonally across the upper field and disappearing into the thicket. An investigation to see if it was a deer or a coyote revealed that instead it was Jumper Jr., the young cow that belongs to our neighbor. She visits frequently to graze our field, leaving her herd and last fall, even her spring calf on the other side of the fence. She must have been disappointed to see that the grass was covered on our side of the fence as it was on her own side and she wandered back to eat the hay that had been provided at home. It amazed me that such a large animal could leave such a narrow path through the snow, but her hoof prints were clearly visible in the path.

The day after her track was found, I discovered canine prints coming from the north east woods, straight down, across the electric fence and right up to the chicken coop. Those tracks were not there the night before and our dogs are fearful of the electric fence, so it was probably a coyote or a fox looking for an easy meal. Fortunately the chooks were securely locked in their coop for the night. The tracks were somewhat degraded by the wind blown snow, so they were difficult to identify.

This morning in the light layer that fell yesterday, I found rabbit tracks and the tracks in the lower photo that I can not identify. Both sets came from the north east woods and visited the spoiled hay bales, the compost bin, and the old compost bin where the squash and pumpkins grew last summer.

The critters are out seeking food with the ground covered by the iced over snow. Perhaps I will spread some chicken scratch and birdseed on the snow surface for them.

February 25, 2015
It’s Got a Hold on Us

Late winter that is. We have Had weeks of well below normal temperatures. Last week we got a total of 19 inches of snow over two separate snow falls. School for Grandson hasn’t occurred in over a week. President’s Day in the US is typically a holiday for schools, but his school had scheduled a makeup day from a previously missed weather day and the makeup day was cancelled along with the rest of the week and Monday and today of this week. We weren’t quite sure why today was cancelled as the roads seemed to be mostly cleared, the forecast for a very cold night last night and normal cold day today. The Superintendent must have an inside track to the weatherman as we woke to more snow. The areas that had cleared on our one aberrant warm day are again lightly covered. I don’t think we will see much but even another inch or two is not welcomed. Most days are hovering just at or below freezing and nights about 10 to 15 degrees colder, but a few day ago, we thought spring had come, the thermometer said it got up to 50f (10c) a real heatwave. The snow started to melt, the driveway became a muddy mess as our farmer friend had been too over zealous in his scraping, piling huge mounds of snow 4 or more feet high in front of and beside the house. Then it got cold again and the melt became an ice slick. We haven’t had mail delivery in over a week though we have been able to get in and out all but a couple of days.

The freeze thaw freeze cycle has made chicken chores a challenge. One of the scrapes to a mound is just outside the garage door on the side of the house. The footprints from walking over have become crusty with ice under them and the walk over a slick tricky path. Trying to create a new path involves taking a step on unbroken snow and not knowing if it will hold or break through a couple of inches or knee deep. Water sloshes, feed scatters then the chooks don’t want to come out at all.

So what’s a girl to do, why order yarn to knit and spin fiber of course. I had been dallying on a spinning project of some roving that I ended up not liking very much. It was white through shades of pink to maroon then white to shades of gray to charcoal. I ended with one full bobbin, knowing if I plied it on itself, I wouldn’t have much yarn from it. In my fiber basket was a ball of maroon merino roving, so I spun a second solid single of it and used the two together to make yarn.

It isn’t really my color choice, but I ended up with almost 300 yards of DK/Light Worsted yarn. It may be sold, perhaps I will find a project for it.

Earlier this winter, I knit a yoked sweater of Brown Sheep yarn to go with my Hitchhiker scarf.

I ended up realizing that after years of knitting Raglan sleeve sweaters, that I much prefer the Yoke style. I love the pattern that I made and love the sweater, but hate the yarn. It is soft and pills terribly. Another sweater of the same style seemed in order and I had made a sweater a couple of years ago from Bovidae sport weight yarn that I had purchased at the SAFF festival and though that yarn isn’t soft, it is warm, holds up beautifully and doesn’t pill. An order was placed for more of that yarn in a color similar to the Brown Sheep and a new yoke sweater has been cast on.

Last night as I was about to do the second increase row, I realized there was an error about an inch back, so about a third of my progress was ripped out, stitches picked up and today I will progress on. My last knitting project prior to the current sweater is a gradient moebius cowl of sport weight yarn. I have decided that sport weight is my preferred knitting yarn.

Modeled by my beautiful daughter. Hmmm, do you see a color preference here?

In two days, I will abandon Mountaingdad, Daughter and the two grands for a few days at a spinning retreat in West Virginia. A couple of days of socialization and no responsibilities. A mini vacation and time to unwind and recharge.

February 24, 2015
Cave Hill Olympics Vol. 4

Last winter Olympics we had a couple of back to back snows and grandkids coming. We bought a couple of plastic toboggans in anticipation. Once our friendly farmer neighbor with the behemoth tractor with a heated cab plowed us out, we drove to town, resupplied and parked the 4 wheel drive SUV at the top of the driveway. With the toboggans in the back, we loaded the groceries onto the toboggans and before Mountaingdad could turn around, I hopped into one with the groceries and started sliding down the driveway of packed snow and ice. He quickly caught on and hopped in the other one to race me. Each time we had to go out for supplies, we dragged one of them to the top of the drive (2/10 mile) and hauled the supplies back down to the house. When the kids arrived, the fun really began and we took many photos of kids and adults, us included, sledding down the various hills on the property. The biggest kid was our son in law, the one still in Florida trying to sell their house, but he is flying in today for the weekend and some snow fun.

The day after our foot of snow this week, we dragged the sleds out and bundled everyone up for some snow play.

Once we struggled uphill to the top of the drive, sledding down hills as we went and hauling the 3 year old on one sled, we discovered that the road had been plowed by a pickup truck with a front blade and it as it is downhill from the paved road to the bottom of Cave Hill (the hill beyond our house), it made a great toboggan run. All of us, from the youngest, with an adult to the most senior of us, took turns sliding down the slick packed hill, laughing and getting snow covered.

So much fun to be “young.”

Last night after 8 p.m., the neighbor farmer and his behemoth with enough lights to light up our house, plowed us out. We had gotten an additional couple of inches of snow yesterday, it was 13f (-10.5c) with strong wind blowing snow in whiteouts.

We woke to -1f (-18.3c) with a high today of only 4f (-15.5c) and a low tonight of -14f (-25.5c) and light snow falling. We have fires in the wood stove and fireplace and will hunker down except for a trip out to pick up son-in-law by one or two of us when his plane arrives.

Tomorrow is supposed to be somewhat warmer and I expect a great deal of snowplay will occur, lots of dryer time as we dry out layers for more play. Saturday, we are expecting another 5″ of snow and ice before a thaw begins on Sunday. We will enjoy it while it lasts and hope that spring is on its way.

February 19, 2015
All closed up

Our entire region is shut down. No school, many businesses, and community services are closed today. The region doesn’t handle more than a couple of inches of snow, especially when they can’t pretreat the roads. Our 4 wheel drive SUV would probably be able to get up our gravel driveway and our gravel road but the paved road is likely an ice and snow covered downhill slick.
The sun is trying to come out, broken clouds still flurrying, the wind is howling and blowing the snow we got everywhere. The official count for our community was 9″ but going over to do chicken chores, the snow in the yard is over my barn boots and they are 11″ high.

Because the chickens have been cooped up for three days, I attempted to get them outside. Spoiled hay was spread in the run and food put outside in a pan so it wouldn’t disappear 11″ down.

Yesterday they fouled their water pan I used so I could knock the ice out of it each time I went to give them more, so today I hung a waterer inside and spread a new foot of straw in the coop. Between scratching for feed and kicking it out when the coop door is open, the foot thick layer from last week was only a couple inches deep of finely broken straw.
In spite of my efforts, they would go out the return immediately to the coop. They are still laying, we are getting 6 top 8 a day.
The grands want to go play in the snow, but with it in the teens and the wind blowing, it is a bit too cold for much time outside.
We have had our good snow, now I’m ready for spring. I can’t even imagine being in Boston this winter.

February 17, 2015