Baby Binky Bunny

Been meaning to make this cute pattern from mmmcrafts for quite a while and had the perfect excuse this week--a baby shower. I made the bunny and a matching blanket for the gift. I decided to try it in denim, lifting my years old ban of denim in my sewing room after a frustrating round of broken needles way back when I tried to sew a skirt for myself as a young teenager. I think it turned out very cute, and it got a lot of "I want ones" at the shower. My mom walked Holly out of the room while the gift was opened because she immediately claimed the bunny as hers when I brought it out of the sewing room yesterday. It took about 3-4 hours for me to sew up, so I didn't have time to run back into the sewing room to make her one.

The pattern is even on sale thru April 3 for 20% bringing the price to $8.00. Visit mmmcrafts Etsy shop to check out this and other cute patterns.

And not to hog the whole post to myself, I've been meaning to share this stained glass picture that I recently had "commissioned" for my kitchen. It's the first big picture that Paul has made from a design picked specifically by me and for me, and I think it turned out rather nice!

Making Goat Milk Soap

Paul and I turned his shop into a soap factory today. We've been preparing for making soap for ages. We have had the equipment and the lye for months and months. The book we used for a how-to said to allow three hours for your first batch, so we kept putting it off. It's not always easy to find three hours of time when you don't have to worry about kids. Finally we just decided to let Ivy babysit while we ran between the house and shop to check occasionally. But when it came to it, it didn't take anywhere near three hours! Even with setup and cleanup. It wasn't terribly hard or scary or anything like that. We felt terribly accomplished when it seemed to come together like it should, but now the next six weeks or so that the soap has to cure is really stretching out in front of us...

First, you have to melt your fats. We used shortening, canola oil, safflower oil, and olive oil. The shortening is obviously the only oil that needs to be melted since the others are already liquid at room temperature. So you melt the shortening and add the other oils and leave them sitting while you move to the next step which is adding the lye to the milk. You have to put the milk in a cold water bath in the sink and add the lye very slowly so it doesn't heat the milk too rapidly and scorch it. The book recommends taking 15 minutes to add 12 ounces of lye to the milk. Paul added the lye while I stirred.

Then you heat the oils up slightly again and add a little sugar, glycerin, and Borax and get all that stirred up. The lye/milk mixture gets added to the oils now and the stirring begins. And the stirring continues and continues and continues until you blow the breaker, and your stick blender explodes in your hand. Actually, that part was just a little something we added for a little extra excitement that wasn't in the book. Thankfully, it conked out right as the mixture came to trace. We're hoping it doesn't cost us a blender every time we make a batch of soap.

After the mixture has come to trace and looks about like this, you put it into your molds and then leave it for about 24 hours. Then you unmold it and cut it into bars while it is still soft enough to slice up easily, but hard enough to hold its shape. Then you can begin your waiting in earnest as it takes about 4-6 weeks for it to mellow out and cure so it can be used.

We used a square mold that cuts into eight bars and says Goat's Milk on the bars and a long piece of plastic that comes packaged with new windows for the molds.

As it takes such a long time for the soap to cure, we're looking into doing a batch of hot process soap which follows the same basic process as cold process, but is cooked before molding and is ready to use in just a couple days. Better for when you're eager to test your new creations!

Bowling until it hurts!

Girl: I'd like a triple vanilla ice cream sundae with chocolate syrup, nuts, whipped cream, topped off with a slice of cucumber. Waiter: Did I hear you right? Did you say top it off with a slice of cucumber? Girl: Good heavens, you're right! forget the cucumber – I'm on a diet.

This year we are taking some more steps towards being healthier. First, we are trying to lose some weight. To that end, I have started back up with Weight Watchers again. Paul isn't attending the meetings with me, but he is attempting to follow the program along with me so that we can both take some pounds off. Back when Ivy was a toddler, I managed to lose about 25 pounds and reach my goal weight and become a lifetime member of Weight Watchers. Over the years, that and more has crept back on. Recently, it seemed to do more than creep and a recent step onto the scale after a period of neglect shocked me completely. I vowed immediately that I needed to lose some weight and was back at Weight Watchers within a fortnight. It seems like paying somebody else money so that I can stay motivated is the only way for me to take the pounds off. But I reasoned that my health was worth the expenditure. I've been following the program for a little over two weeks and the scale is moving in the right direction, so I'm feeling happy. I can actually feel it in the most recent jeans that I bought. I was a bit depressed when I got them because they were the largest size I ever bought, but hopefully I won't be wearing them much longer!

One thing that Weight Watchers stresses besides healthier eating habits is activity. Apparently the word "exercise" has negative connotations to many (myself included.) So they have decided the word "activity" is more user friendly. A couple months back, I told Paul that I wanted to get a Wii with our tax return money--specifically a Wii Fit. At the first WW meeting that I attended, the Wii was actually mentioned as a way to get more active. Ours was on order at that point, but not actually in hand. All during the holidays, I kept looking to see if Wii's were available because I figured that would be a time for them not to be in the store. However, they always seemed to be there, so I figured I wouldn't have any problem when I had the money to get mine in January or February. Boy, was I wrong! Amazon got some in stock and I ordered quickly. Getting a Wii Fit Plus was another story. Couldn't find it anywhere locally and every place online seemed to be sold out. Finally at the end of last week, Walmart got it in stock and I ordered as soon as I saw it. Glad I moved quickly on it because it was out of stock again within a day or two. The Wii Fit Plus arrived today (ahead of schedule, no less) and we've been getting familiar with it this afternoon and evening. It's fun and certainly does promote activity. It keeps track of how many minutes you have put in and how many calories you have burned. It takes your little Mii character and calculates your BMI and then chunks you up accordingly. Paul and I both had quite pudgy Mii's.

Speaking of Paul, he wasn't really excited about getting another game system in the house. However, even he was impressed how it actually isn't another couch potato system, and he has become a rather large fan of the bowling game that came with the Wii. Which of course leads us to the title of my post. After an evening of intense bowling, I was in pain with every movement the next day. I was not to be outdone by the game, though, (and besides it's fun!) and kept at it the next night. The next day I hurt less, and now I can indulge in an evening of bowling with Paul and be good to go the next day!

There is a giveaway currently going on over at Jolly Mom for EA SPORTS Active Personal Trainer which is another Wii exercise program that features a 30 day challenge with 20 minute daily workouts. I was considering getting this if the Wii Fit Plus hadn't become available when it did. It still sounds like a great exercise program and I'd love to have it. Plus I've read some great reviews of the follow up to this one--EA SPORTS Active More Workouts. If your interested in finding out more, head over to Jolly Mom for the giveaway and check out EA Sports for more info specific to the program.

Night-time chicken wrangling, baby showers and other doins'

The temperatures have dropped off here this week. We had one day that was really windy. I didn't think about it until the daylight was fading, and I heard the chickens and guineas making more noise than usual. As anyone who has had guineas knows, they are noisy by nature. So at first it didn't really register, but after a bit I started wondering why they weren't in the coop since they like to head in when it starts getting a bit dusky. I realized the wind must have blown the door of the coop shut and sent Ivy out to open the coop for the chickens. Since it was still fairly light out, I figured they would all go in the coop. However, a little while later, Paul tells me that one of the chickens is out on the porch. So I went to get her and found another chicken perched on the steps to the porch and two on the porch. I grabbed the one from the steps and took her up the hill. The next one put up a bit of a chase, but I eventually nabbed her and her friend. During trips to the coop, I took a roll call of who was in the coop. It seemed there were at least four more not in the coop. I checked the goat barn because they hang out there a bunch during the day, I figured some might have decided to bunk there, but no luck. I walked all around the yard, flashlight in hand since it was all the way dark by now. Finally, I looked under the chicken coop and there were five chickens under there. I managed to get them all out with a bit of coaxing and poking and pulling and crawling on hands and knees. Thought I had them all safely in the coop and closed things up for the night. There is one chicken that likes to follow us around the yard and Finn has claimed her as his and named her Ticklish (don't ask--he is three.) I specifically checked to make sure she was in there, but I guess I mistook another for her in the dim light. She greeted me first thing in the morning when I went to feed the goats. Don't know where she spent the night, but thankfully she was okay and seemed to be fairly pleased with herself for being the only chicken up and about so early. Needless to say, the chicken coop door now gets propped every day to avoid a repeat.

On a completely different note, two friends recently had babies and another friend threw them a combined shower this week. It was kind of last minute for notice, but I managed to throw them together a few items from flannel in my stash. I have such a large collection of flannel because I have such low impulse control when Joann's has it marked down to under $2/yard on their Black Friday sales and through the year on clearance. So happily, I was able to find a couple girl prints and a couple boy prints and make some blankets and burp cloths. I tried following the directions for a receiving blanket that is supposed to be self-binding, but somehow I messed it up. It's still a little frustrating to think about because I wasn't able to figure out what I really did wrong. I just know the corners came out completely wrong, but because I had followed the directions which said to snip the excess fabric away, I had big chunks cut out of the corners when I ripped the wrong stitching out. I managed to fix the blanket in a bit of a different manner than the original blanket was supposed to be arranged. But I have a policy that I don't point out my mistakes. (At least I try not to.) I generally figure that I'm probably the only one who is going to realize that something is off. So I didn't tell anyone at the shower that I goofed and nobody is any the wiser. I'm counting on you guys to keep the trust. For the second gift, I just made two simple receiving blankets serged around the edges. Much quicker and easier and store bought receiving blankets are never really big enough for a decent swaddle.

I also made dolls from a Bit of Whimsy pattern that I've had a while, but not had the chance to make up. This pattern was so simple I could hardly believe it. Those dolls went together as quick as could be! And they were cute, and well received. Holly loved them at home, so I think I'm going to make her one next week when I can get into the sewing room for a few minutes. Thankfully, she slept through almost the whole shower, because I was a bit afraid that she might try to reclaim them when she saw them. Especially as each of the babies had big sisters just a little older than her and they both grabbed the babies and toted them around for quite a while. It was the Little Peanut pattern in case anyone is interested.

Paul has been working on our living room addition and is hoping to have it opened up to the house very soon. It will double the size of our living room area and the extra space will be very much appreciated as our family has grown considerably since we moved in here. It's further along than in these pictures, but I thought I'd share them anyhow. The windows are going to have a window seat in them, and the wall is no longer blank, but filled with floor to ceiling shelving. The pictures aren't great since I took them from inside the current living room window, but they show a bit of the work being done.

And lastly, I watched "Julie & Julia" this afternoon and really liked it. Some of the reviews were a bit hard on the Julie side of the story, but I liked both sides of the story. I haven't read the book, but I think I'll pick it up now and read it over. I actually think it's usually better that way anyhow since movies frequently disappoint if you've read the book first. But honestly, the book I most wanted after reading this was Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I stuck it on my wishlist on Amazon so I can get to it sometime. It's a two volume set and a bit pricey, but I think it would be kind of fun to have. Not that I'm going to cook my way through them in a year or anything. And I learned something from the movie about Julia Child. I always assumed she was French, but she's actually American. When she moved to France, she didn't even know how to speak French.

A ride in the country...

So as I had posted earlier, we had a little snag when I called about getting our pigs processed. Mainly that the butcher shop closest to us and recommended by the folks we bought our pigs from was backed up until January! And I called at the very beginning of November! So I got some more names and did some more calling around. I was ready to drive these pigs across the country if it meant getting rid of them! In reality, I was feeling a bit panicky because we had only planned to have them through the fall and had no set up for the water to prevent freezing and the pen is so far from the house there is no way I wanted to lug water up there every day, aside from the matter of slogging food through snow and mud twice a day up to them. More than one place was booked through January. I guess deer season really gets these places hopping. Who knew that it was necessary to plan things like this so far ahead? Not I...

Happily, I found a place that could take care of the pigs for us at the end of November and only a mere two hour drive from us. So on Friday, Paul borrowed a trailer, built higher sides for it and with my dad's help loaded the pigs up. I had envisioned this going totally wrong with escaped pigs and that sort of thing, but with some prodding from Paul and the promise of a meal on the trailer, they walked right up the ramp. So I didn't get any even mildly funny pictures or stories to tell. Since we had to make an early start Saturday morning, we had the pigs stay in the trailer for the night. I had visions of escaped pigs and trying to round them up in the morning, but thankfully, Paul's construction was up to the task and the pigs were still in the trailer in the morning. With the kiddos at the grandparents', Paul and I took the drive to Weston to get rid of the pigs. Again, I had visions of the pigs escaping when they were unloaded from the trailer, but they went ever so compliantly into the livestock herding gates at the butcher shop. Reading this over, I can see that the one time we dealt with getting an escaped pig back to the pen must have made a traumatic impression on me that I didn't want to repeat in any way, shape or form.

They slapped some big tags on the pigs to mark them as ours, and then we went into the office to fill out our cut sheets. It's how you tell what cuts of meat you'd like from your animals. Since it was the first time we'd ever done it, I felt like we were just calling shots in the dark. We figured next time it'd be easier to know what to ask for because we'd figure it out and go from what we get this time around. I get the idea we're going to be eating lots of pork this coming year, and that's fine with us. It's just hard deciding whether to turn shoulders into roasts or sausage and if you don't turn them into sausage, how much sausage will you come out with. Conversely, if you decide to turn the shoulders into sausage, how much sausage are you going to have to put away during the next year? And will the kids be willing to eat the hot sausage or complain about it being "too hot"? Plus add in the factor that half of one of the pigs was for my parents and trying to figure out what they'd like... You get the idea, I think.

Anyhow, the meat is supposed to be ready for picking up sometime this week ready for pickup now. (While I was writing this all out, they called to say we could pickup anytime.) All except for the bacon and hams that they have to send out for curing and really couldn't give us an idea of how quickly they'd be back because it depended on how busy the place that cures is. So that's a total of three trips to get rid of these pigs. That converts to roughly 12 hours of driving--but it feels so great not have to hike up the hill for feedings twice a day now. In fact, I think one of us still comments on it every time feeding time rolls around. Will we do this again? I think so, especially with the time and effort put into building the pig pen and shelter. We do have a bit of fixing up to do with the pen before more can go in because we didn't put electric fencing into their house area, so they rooted big holes under the back of it. They were too big to get out by the time they figured that out, but it wouldn't hold little piggies as is. The solar charger on the electric fencing worked very well at keeping them from tearing up the edges of the pen, except for the week that Paul turned it off and they went to town along the back edge. The final jury is still out until we can actually count (and taste) the dividends.

And to finish the post up, here's a couple pictures of the old Weston State Hospital which was constructed in the 1800's to house the mentally ill. It is the largest cut stone building in the United States, and might be the second largest in the world. Closed in 1994, the grounds of the buildings are impressive, and old pictures show a rather attractive setting. The building is huge and there are two similar sized buildings of brick also on the grounds.

Playtime at the Park

Over the weekend, we took a little drive to a goat show. Although the camera was tucked in my pocket the whole time, I completely forgot to take it out and get any goat pictures. So I didn't get any shots of the goats with amazing udders! I think I was so busy ogling the size of their udders that I just got distracted, actually. I knew Bella wasn't milking anything to brag about at around 3 cups a day, but I didn't fully appreciate how lacking she was until I saw these girls with udders so full I'm not sure how they walked without dislocating their hips! So now I know what a real dairy goat looks like. Can't wait for Betty Bob and Bambi to kid this month so I can see how they measure up. This being their first freshening, they won't be at full production potential yet, but I am definitely expecting better things out of them than I'm getting from Bella currently.

I did remember to pull the camera out a little later when we stopped at Cedar Creek State park for lunch and play.

Finn didn't want to leave the goat show and cried when we put him back into the car. But after we picked up lunch and told him we were going to a park, he perked back up. He chattered excitedly almost nonstop until we got to the park, which we took as a sign that he was looking forward to it.

Getting Holly to look at the camera proved to be almost impossible, and when she finally looked at me, Ivy was looking somewhere else.

Holly and Finn both had fun sliding with Paul, but neither really got the concept of taking turns.

The swings were another favorite. Finn had to make several visits to them.

We had a tiny visitor join us for lunch. After trying to get a decent shot of him, he hopped onto my arm and seemed content to climb around on my sleeve.

Where'd the week go?

This week seems to have slipped past in a blur. Wednesday was a busy day. Paul had to have minor surgery, but all is well. I advertised Heckle for sale this week and on Wednesday, when the Trader's Guide come out, someone called about him. It turned out to be one of our neighbors and now Heckle lives next door to us. Bella wasn't happy about losing her baby and spent a good amount of time crying for him that day. Since he was only next door, they could hear each other still. She's looked for him every morning since then when I let her out, but I haven't heard them "talking" back and forth anymore. Wednesday we also took Ivy up to stay with her grandparents in Ohio for a few days. So on Wednesday, I was up at 5 am and didn't get in until after 10 pm. I was exhausted--especially since Paul couldn't drive that day because of the anesthesia.

On Friday, Paul wanted to go check out a glass factory in Paden City, Wissmach Glass, that sells hobby glass by the pound. It was a dollar/pound, so he gloated the rest of the day over his good fortune. He's setting his shop up to have different work areas and has been working on getting his stained glass work area set up. So he was pleased to add to his stash of glass for such a bargain price. We also stopped at this antique/junk shop that I used to drive past years ago when I had a delivery route for work. I told him that I'd always wanted to stop there and check it out, so we did on the way back. It is a small house that is completely packed to the gills with old stuff. We dug through it as best we could while keeping two curious and squirmy toddlers in hand. Paul found a little oil lamp that he brought home and cleaned up and it actually works. I found some old linens and a casserole dish. I want to make some bags for my bread along the lines of this.

Since Heckle has been gone, I've started milking Bella twice a day. I had hoped to get twice the amount from her, but I have to admit to being a little disappointed. Before I was getting three cups a day, which was slightly disappointing as it was because a good milk goat can give around a gallon a day. But I kept telling myself, this will pick up when Heckle isn't with her. But since Heckle has been gone, I have only been getting about 2 cups more per day. Totalling close to 5 cups per day. I know the most accurate way of measuring how much milk you get is to weigh it, but I don't have a scale to use, so I'm just using my measuring cup to check it. And five cups is barly over a quart. We're still buying chocolate milk since Finn loves it, but I've been mixing it with half goat milk. And we haven't had to buy any regular milk since last week. So I guess that isn't terrible. I did have enough to make a quart of yogurt the other day, too. I almost thought the yogurt was going to be a waste because it turned out my thermometer had been compromised. (I noticed when I tilted the thermometer the numbers were sliding all over the place because they were only attached with staples to the thermometer part.) I left the yogurt in longer than usual to let it get to the right temperature, and it did set up. When I was making it this time, I used some gelatin in it to see if it would set firmer, and it really worked well.

This is on my list to buy next. I've been making some simple cheese with lemon juice and buttermilk that turns out like ricotta cheese. But this kit will give me the cultures I need to make mozarella, and I think I will be able to use the whey from the mozarella to make real ricotta cheese. I read several places that chickens love whey and if you have leftovers, they will gobble it up. So I took my leftover whey up to the chickens and they wouldn't have a thing to do with it!

Speaking of the chicks, they are growing like crazy. I haven't put them all together because it still seems like such a difference in size. Amazing what a difference a week makes! The littlest banties are about the size of the chicks we hatched out, but the full-sized chicks are about 2.5 times as big. These pictures are a few days old now and they are bigger yet!

You can see the comparisons in this picture where I put two of the older chicks in with the younger ones that we hatched out. The big black one is one of the barred rocks and the little black one is the Japanese banty. Those two are the same age, but such different sizes due to breeds. The other chicks are a week younger. They eat like crazy and grow like crazy at this age.

And finally, look who pulled into the station at the end of last week. James! If you remember Finn's reaction to seeing the trains when they were first out there, his response was, "Where's James?" So his Nanny and Auntie couldn't leave without adding James and then since they were going to be adding to it, they decided to also paint Sir Toppenhat and Diesel. And Paul had a chance to hang the chalkboard also. (This is on the back of Paul's workshop which is just his place to putter around with the different things he enjoys like woodworking and stained glass.)

Make Something Monday #15

Here's another installment around the homestead from my handy hubby:


Our rabbit shelter.

This is where the bunnies are going to live. We have the cages, but have to put them together with a zillion little wire clamp thingies which require a special tool. We have the tool now, but on the day when I actually had time to go out and work on the cages, we didn't. So I haven't had another chance to get them together. Once the cages are together, Paul is going to make some kind of supports so they don't have to have legs under them and will be easier to clean under. Also, before next winter, we will put some kind of doors on the front that can be used to close up for really cold days.

Holly tested out the shelter and gave it her approval. Finn has also discovered the fun of throwing great handfuls of sawdust into the air and rolling in the sawdust until it covers every square inch of his body. Didn't get any pictures of that, though. Fresh barns are so much fun to play in until you put the animals in!

So hopefully, we will have rabbits coming soon. But at least they have somewhere to live when they come!