FAF: Spin in Your PJs Day

Happy Friday! I hope your Thanksgiving was a happy one!

How are you spending your day after Thanksgiving? Did you brave the dark and stand in line for great deals? Did you sleep in and do your shopping online? Or did you skip the post holiday shopping altogether?

I did a little shopping online yesterday after the big meal and was able to score the couple of "doorbuster" deals I wanted. I really liked the fact that most retailers were offering their sales online yesterday instead of waiting for today.

So today I am celebrating a day that I have officially declared "Spin in Your PJs Day". It's a simple concept. Just spend the day relaxing in your jammies and do something you love. In this case, spinning.

I started a thread on Ravelry so people can gather together and it's taking off. At least I'm not celebrating it alone! I've even offered a prize drawing for anyone that posts pictures of themselves spinning in their jammies.

 I was a good girl and posted this picture taken of me this morning spinning in my Christmas pjs.

Today will be a day of relaxing. I needed one and I suppose it's a little sad that I had to declare my own holiday to get it. I'll enjoy every second of it though and hope to get some yummy silk yarn spun. Maybe I'll even get a few more rows of my Georgiana shawl done.

Have a great one!

May 5, 1930

This is the date on the newspapers that we found in the floor this week.


The youngest is getting a room makeover with new carpet and while working on the floor we found these papers. They're really fun to read. I always think of the 1930s as rather modern, but it just hit me that these papers are more than 80 years old!

How about these medical ads.... $8 for a set of teeth.

Laxative anyone?

Even back then they were worried about the number of motor vehicle deaths.

These sale ads were my favorite.

And of course we always have to keep up with what's in fashion. :o)

I hope you have enjoyed our 300th post!!

Crafty Friday 10/15 - Laundry Detergent

Hello Friday!! How did you get here so fast? Doesn't matter, I'm just glad you're here!

This week I wanted to share with you something sorta crafty and very near to my frugally green heart....homemade laundry detergent.

I shared this post about a year ago, but that was before I met many of you. With everyone still having economic struggles and no real end in sight, this seemed like a good thing to share with you again.

The post is rather long so I am going to place it after the Crafty Friday Linky for those of you who would like to link up.

So what have you been up to this week?

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I get such weird looks when I talk about making my own laundry detergent. I guess most people just don't understand, but it's easy, cheap, always on hand, and cleans well. It really doesn't take much work either. Just a few ingredients, a pot and a bucket. The best part is that it's practically impossible to screw up. It's not like baking, you don't have to be perfect.

It helps to have a few empty detergent bottles to fill with your new homemade detergent. Other plastic containers can work too, but I've found that the old detergent bottles hold up best to repeated use. If you don't have some, check with family or your local freecycle (that's where I got mine). You will need 3-4 bottles.

Laundry Detergent

1/2 of a bar of Fels Naptha Soap, grated
1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda
1/2 cup 20 Mule Team Borax
Water

That's it and it will make about 3 gallons.

The Borax is pretty easy to find. Wal-mart, Meijer or just about any place that sells laundry items usually has it. At my local Wal-mart it sells for $2.98. The washing soda can be harder to find. I buy mine at my local Meijer. I found it on the very top shelf as far away from the commercial detergents as you could get in the laundry aisle. It was next to the Bluing if that helps. I think I paid $2.99.
The Fels Naptha can be the hardest to find. I have found it in most local grocery stores, but not with the laundry products. Most times it is with the bath bar soaps. It's normally priced around $1.40. If you are still having a tough time finding it, here is a site I have bought from. Quick shipping and reasonably priced, Soaps Gone Buy.


Now the instructions....

Start by grating your bar of soap. I will warn you, not the easiest job. This stuff is hard. I have an old food processor I use. Works great. You can use a cheese grater, but be prepared to use some elbow grease. Grate the entire bar at once and then divide it in half. I put one half in a ziploc baggy and save it for next time.

Now, get a large pot (8-quart is good) and a wooden spoon. This will need to be a pot and spoon you can use exclusively for soap. You are NOT going to want to use them to cook with after this. I found an old enameled pot at goodwill for less than a dollar and the spoon I got from my grandma.

Place the pot on the stove and add 4 quarts of water. Heat over medium heat until water starts to simmer. Add the Fels Naptha, Borax and washing soda.

Continue heating over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the soap has dissolved.

There is no need for perfection here. If you have a few stray pieces of soap floating around don't worry about it. Take the pot off the heat and set aside to cool; about 1 hour.

Now, you'll need a 5 gallon pail or other similar container. I have a HUGE pot (I think it was for water bath canning originally) that I got from my father-in-law. Too big for anything I do, so it's my soap pot now.

Fill the bucket with 2 to 2 1/2 gallons of HOT water. It has to be hot. If you have a big pot like me, you can heat it on the stove and save yourself transporting it to the bucket. Add the cooled soap mixture to the hot water. Stir well to mix it all together. You now have your detergent!

You'll want to let it cool a bit before filling your bottles.

I found a large funnel in the automotive section (for transmission fluid?). It works great for transferring the soap to the bottle. It's the perfect size for fitting into the top. You will want to do this either outside or in your bathtub. It's messy.

Carefully pour your soap into each bottle. Dry them off with a towel and set aside to finish cooling. When cool replace lid. You are now ready to use your laundry detergent. I use about 1/2 cup per load.

I'm not sure what the price per load is, but I do know that I spent about $10 on my initial ingredients. 1 box Borax, 1 box washing soda, and 3 bars fels naptha. They lasted me almost exactly a year to the day. No matter how you do the math, that is a significant savings. Each batch lasts about 2 months with our family of 5.

Micaela's excema had also nearly disappeared. I don't know if that is a coincidence or not, but I'll keep using my homemade laundry detergent.

Oh, and this can be used in HE washers.

Our Newest Baby Alpaca - Wendy

We had one more little alpaca cria (baby) we were waiting for this month and although momma wasn't due for a couple weeks I was hoping she would decide to have her little one during this warm stretch of weather we've been having.

Well, as luck would have it, she choose this last Friday to introduce her wee one to the world. I couldn't have asked for better weather than 80's in October! This little one would have a super weekend to get used to the world.

I had barely gone back to the house after feeding the critters when the hubs yelled for me to come back. She must have waited until I wasn't looking because when I came back there was a head and legs sticking out. All of the other mommas knew what was happening, but they still had to check it out.


Within minutes there was the darkest alpaca I have ever seen! A complete solid black from the nose to the toes! A lot of times when a black alpaca is born, their fiber can look brown on the tips, but there is no brownish tints anywhere on this little one.

Oh, the best part of all......it's a girl!!! After having all boys last year and the first baby this year was a boy, 2 girls in a row is like a breath of fresh air.

A lot of times the babies don't get names for a few days because you want something that really fits them, but her name was a piece of cake. She's all black and born in the month of October. She's got to have a Halloweeny name, right?

Officially her name is Tomorrow's Bewitched, but to us she is Wendy (like the good witch). She is a spunky little thing and is already learning some independence from mom.

I tried to get a video of her walking around the first hour, but another one of babies decided he needed some air time too!



I did finally get a cute little video of Wendy so you can see just how adorable she is!!

Not Your Momma's Canning

I recently read a blog post where the writer was berating all things home canned and felt that home canning was vomit worthy because her mother canned and she thought it tasted gross. It got me thinking. I know this reaction is pretty common, but let me say that the canning of today is not your momma's canning.

There are few things that I suppose would make home-canned food less than appetizing. The first being that our society is way too dependent on processed foods. These are full of salt, preservatives, and things that even a highly educated person can't pronounce. If you can't say it why eat it! If this is what you are used to eating than yes, that home canned food is not going to taste right.

Did you know that most of the food grown in the US these days has been genetically modified or hybridized to grow bigger and more perfect with longer shelf lives so that industry can get more bang for it's buck? While they've accomplished their goals, they left out one important thing. Along the way they modified the nutrients right out of the plant. Have you ever compared those hot house tomatoes in the store with an heirloom tomato straight from your backyard? You'll taste the difference right away.

Canning has found a resurgence in population these last few years and because of it there are many, many new and updated recipes to can. We are no longer just canning stewed tomatoes or cut green beans. We are canning soups, chilies, salsa, kiwi jelly, syrups and even caramel sauce! Wouldn't you love to know EXACTLY what you are eating and where it came from?

A lot of you express fear of pressure canners, but these are not your mother's pressure canners. These are updated with more safety features and safe fails. Trust me...the way mine locks down there is no way that lid is coming off. It'll blow the pressure release valve first. You have to take some precautions, but it's not scary.

Now there are a few things you can do to insure that your home canned foods taste great.

1. Use the freshest produce possible! I can not stress this enough. If you put in mediocre food that's a week old, it's going to taste like mediocre week old food when you eat it. That is not appetizing to anyone.
2. Follow a published canning recipe. These recipes have been developed to specifically work for canning. Remember that these foods will sit and blend on your shelf. What may not taste exceptional when going in could taste phenomenal coming out. My spaghetti sauce is a perfect example. On the day it's made I could eat for dinner, but it usually tastes like it needs more salt or seasoning. It's a little bland, but after a couple weeks on the shelf the flavors have all blended and I think it would be worthy of the pickiest Italian housewife. :o)
3. Follow the processing instructions. When it says 10lbs. of pressure for 20 minutes don't assume 20 lbs. for 10 minutes would work faster. This will make your canned foods, well, just not good.

I'm pretty picky about what I feed my family. We raise a lot of our own meat, have a huge garden and preserve these things to eat when they can't be had fresh. The things we can't make on our own I buy from sources I can trust preferably local when I can. That's not to say that we don't eat the occasional box of mac & cheese or hot dogs, but these things are treats not the norm. In fact, when given the choice my kids will almost always pick fresh fruit or veggies over chips and ice cream. They understand the healthy eating and find joy in munching on food that they've had a help with.

Anyway, my point is, if you'd like to have that garden fresh taste all year long or to know for sure what you are eating try canning....again if necessary. Here are some of my fave books.

Now I'm on my way to make some of that spaghetti sauce and if I have time left today I'll also be making up some Praline syrup and canning that. Yum!

Oh and for those of you keeping track....these are the new summer preserving totals:

• 12 dill pickles
• 13 Bread & Butter pickles
• 14 Sweet pickles
• 5 peas
  
• 41 corn
• 47 green beans
• 25 pizza sauce
• 5 gallon bags of frozen corn (not sure how many quarts or such that might be)

That's 157 plus the frozen corn. Wow! Those shelves are filling fast. The kids are already begging for the pickles, but I told them they need just another week or 2 to taste really yummy.

Night #2 of the Great Power Outage of 2010

I am writing this to you tonight in the darkness of my living room. Well, not completely dark since this computer screen is giving off a bit of light. (Thank you laptop and neighbor's wireless internet!).

Now the title may be a bit of an exaggeration, but we are past the 24 hour mark of our power loss with no end in sight. I called the electric company and they are saying that our power should be restored Monday afternoon. Today is Saturday....that's another 48 hours. Grrrr.

It's amazing what you miss when the power is out (flushing toilets) and what you don't (TV). In fact the power went out last night just as I was thinking of taking a shower. Missed that opportunity so I've spent today all stinky and gross. (I know, not an image you really want).

I'm also completely annoyed that I can't get all the things done that I need to get done because I can't use the printer! Maybe this is somebody's cruel way of telling me I need to take a break once in awhile. To that someone....I hear you. Now turn it back on!!

{sigh}

I guess I did have some fun today. I brought the spinning wheel outside where the light was better and spun up some of my new Patriotic batts. They turned out AWESOME!! So pretty! I've also been catching up on the library books I checked out. When I checked those books out, I wasn't sure I'd ever actually read them.

Our neighbors were kind enough to invite us over for dinner and showers. They had a generator running and we grilled out. Oh, did I mention our neighbors are my parents? LOL! Aren't they sweet?

Now I'm sitting here in the dark thinking about what tomorrow may bring and how the heck I'm going to keep the kids from driving me crazy. They think being Amish is boring (their words not mine). I told them I enjoy being a prairie girl, but I still wish I could get some work done.

Lazy Day Bargain Hunting

I woke up today for the first time in weeks with absolutely no set plans. It was kind of a weird feeling since we have had so much going on these last few weeks. What to do?

After a quick trip to the mill, chores were completed and we just kind of looked at each other and said, let's go find some garage sales.

We haven't stopped at a garage sale in ages. I don't really see the point most of the time since I'm not looking for anything specific. It was a lot more fun when the kids were little and we were looking for baby items and toys. Back then we'd scour the paper and make a plan of attack. We'd take the stroller and make a day of it. Not so much any more.

We found a couple neighborhood sales and stuck with those. After 3 hours I was tired and ready to go home. We did find some bargains though.

Nearly new shoes for Micaela $.50








Group of very awesome science books for school $4








Cute little ice bucket at an estate sale $1








Cross-Stitch Magazines $.25 a piece








And the bargain of the day was a huge bucket of Geotrax train pieces. These are made by Fisher-Price so you know that they are not cheap in the stores. The whole bucket was $10.






That included 2 working trains with controllers. As you can imagine Nick is ecstatic!

Happy Birthday to Two of My Beautiful Daughters!

One amazing daughter by marriage, one by birth. Both share the same birthday. Happy Birthday to both of you. May your day be great and filled with joy!

Fiber Fun Friday -- How To Read a Knitting Chart

I feel like I'm playing catch-up this morning. Normally I have my posts done ahead of time, but not this week. I had the most horrible earache yesterday. It actually had kept me up most of the night before. It felt like someone had stuck a red hot poker in my ear and wiggled it around. The whole side of my face was on fire.

Went to the doc yesterday morning and he said I have swimmers ear. What?!?! I don't swim! Apparently that just means that the ear canal has lost it's nice protective lining so it's inflamed and irritated. I've got ear drops now and the pain is down to a dull roar, but it kept me from concentrating on anything yesterday. Now I'm trying to get this post up this morning before I head out to do chores in the rain.

Have you ever come across a pattern that you loved, but choose not to knit because the instructions were in a chart instead of written out? I've passed by many in my knitting career because they just looked terrifying.Well.....I finally found a pattern that I couldn't pass up. It's the cutest baby bonnet. I know lots of expectant mothers in my ring of friends so I'm sure one of them will get it as a gift, but it just seemed like the perfect pattern to use some of my handspun alpaca. Unfortunately it has a chart for the repeated wave pattern. Yuck! I spent 2 days agonizing over this. I read instructions, called my mom, read more online and even then was not sure I was reading it right. (and my chart was a tiny repeat)

I finally decided I needed to dive right in and I would figure out fast enough if I was reading the chart right or not. Amazingly enough the pattern came out perfect so I must have finally deciphered that stupid chart right.


I thought for this Friday I'd pass along what I learned about chart reading to you in the hopes that you won't agonize over it as long as I did.

Knitting charts begin at the lower right-hand corner. The bottom row indicates the first row of knitting, and as your work your way up, each row of the chart shows the next row of knitting.

This seems totally foreign since we've had the left to right, top to bottom drilled into us since Kindergarten, but it makes sense when you think about it. If you hold you work in front of you, as if you were going to start knitting it. Were is your first stitch? On the right side of the piece. The next row would be above that so...it's sort of makes sense when you think about it.

Instead of working each row as you see it from right to left, though, you start the second row with the first stitch on the far left side and work from left to right. Continue working from right to left, left to right, right to left from the bottom to the top of the chart. When you reach the top and knit the last row, you're done.

Some patterns are simple color patterns, while others are more complicated, requiring keys to different stitches to help you decipher them. Some knitting charts show the full width of the pattern, while others indicate where a pattern repeats over the course of a knitted blanket or shawl, for example. Color knitting charts indicate where the colors change in a pattern, while pattern charts show which stitches are made at which point in the project.

If you're having trouble making sense of a knitting chart or keeping track of where you should be, it might help to write out the instructions in words. Some people are more visual (not me) and take to knitting from a chart very easily, while for others it is more difficult and takes some practice (me!).

I wrote on my chart indicating right side and wrong side because my chart symbols were instructions like P on WS, K on RS for one symbol and K on WS, P on RS for another. Would it have been to hard to just make a purl symbol and a knit symbol!

Anyway, I made it through and the pattern turned out beautifully. Now I only have to finish the back of the bonnet and stitch the seams. Wonder who is going to get this lovely bonnet? {Evil grin} I know, but you'll have to wait to find out.

Oh, if you like the looks of the yarn, I do have another skein identical to this one in my Etsy store. It's called Jack's Crush.

For more Fiber Arts Fun visit Fiber Arts Friday.

Wordless Wednesday - Reading Lesson

What's In Your Yard?

I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden I had the "what's in your wallet?" commercial in my head, hence the title. :o)

Every year about this time we have snapping turtles. Big, huge, mean snapping turtles. They come out of the surrounding swamps to find a place to lay their eggs. We get 5-6 different ones every spring. Yesterday there was one in our neighbor's yard. Today one is in ours.

The alpacas are not very fond of these turtles. I think maybe it's because they can't really tell what they are. They can see them moving across the yard, but they don't stick up above the grass much.

It takes each turtle 2-3 hours to cross our yard depending on which way they are going. The entire time they are visible to the 'pacas, the 'pacas are screeching. If you've never heard an alpaca screech...well, I think I need to invest in a pair of ear plugs during turtle season.

This particular turtle's shell was around 12"x14". I'm only guessing though since I wasn't getting close enough to measure it.

I got a video of the turtle walking. It's so funny because it walks a couple feet then takes a 10 minute break before walking again. I also was able to get 1 video of my watch-girl Athena screeching at the turtle. I swear, the second they see the camera they shut up no matter what hazard they think they see.

Big Announcements!

As some of you have seen or heard we had one big announcement already this week. Our farm will soon be selling Spinolution wheels. These spinning wheel are AWESOME and I will let you know the second they arrive.

The second announcement is just as exciting, but also slightly terrifying.

We are now Full-Time farmers. That's right...Jim no longer works at Lowe's and I get to be his boss now (insert evil bad guy laugh).

As great as this is, it means we are now completely responsible for making the $$. Over the next few months you will see our fiber business expand and take off (fingers crossed since a lot of this is up to you guys). The veggies will also be a major player over the summer as we hit the farmers market with our tasty goodies.

Of course the 'pacas are always here and for sale to the right buyer. Babies are coming soon and we will eventually have to make some room by selling a few.

We just ask that even if you can't support us by buying our products, you can support us with your kind words, thoughts and encouragements. They mean a great deal to all of us.

The kids are absolutely ecstatic by this turn of events because Daddy's home all the time now. Mommy is happy, but not so ecstatic about the change of routines. We'll have some time to figure it out and I'll just have to become less of a control freak (ok, I'm not really that bad).

As always, we will keep you up to date on the farm happenings and look for Spinolution wheels to be arriving soon!

A Day in Our Life

I was in a picture mood today. Here is a little glimpse into our world:

I got a bit of sewing done today. While I was at it, the cat decided to keep me company in the window.

Of course we had to check on the chicks.

Lizzie wasn't exactly happy about being outside.

I found these little eyes in the barn.

Spent some time with the 'pacas.




Play time.