I have been inspired by some amazing bloggers, many of them moms, like me, who have followed a similar path from university training to work/stay-at-home motherhood.  They take all of their intelligence and creativity and put it all where it matters most, into their homes.

Here are some of the sites, including some of the local places I shop/have fiber processed.  They are roughly classified, but some are hard to put in just one category.

Fiber processing and knitting:

Knttinghelp.com (This was how I learned how to knit, FYI)

Knitty (Free online user submitted knitting magazine)

Ravelry (Online fiber discussion group)

Mason Dixon Knitting (Hysterical knitting blog)

Schoolhouse Press (Knitting publishing house started by Elizabeth Zimmerman)

Still River Mill (Our local fiber mill, also sells eco-friendly dyes)

Fibers 4 Ewe (Another great local fiber mill)

General Homecrafts

Soule Mama (one of my daily must-read blogs)

angry chicken (another must-read blog, lots of sewing and craft ideas)

Sewing and Fabric:

Heather Ross (Amazing fiber artist and designer, plus very funny story teller)

Denyse Schmidt (Another great fabric designer)

Kaffe Fasset (Designer of fabrics, quilts, and knitting patterns)

Amy Butler (Fabric designer and maker of lovely patterns)

Anna Maria Horner (See above, plus a mom of six!!!)

Free Spirit Fabrics (Producer of most of the artists listed above)

Westminster Fabrics (Another fabric production house)

Sew Mama Sew (Great site for fabric and patterns, etc)

Fresh Squeezed Fabrics (Blog and great fabric store online)

Film in the Fridge (Beautiful quilting blog)

Crazy Mom Quilts (Another amazing quilting momma’s blog)

Colchester Mill Fabrics (My local fabric shop, love them!)

I also buy fabric and fiber related items online on sites like ebay and etsy.  I also like fatquartershop.com and quiltshops.com.

You can see some of my completed projects on flickr.  I hope to post more soon, lots of things are currently in process around here including a reversible flannel quilt, dress for my girl, naturally dyed wool and felt, and always dishrags and socks galore!!

Fast forward a bit…this weekend was the scheduled check of our honeybees.  The honey “supers” weren’t all full, but two frames were full enough to be pulled out.  Normally, we’d want to wait until all the frames were “capped” (where the honeycomb is drawn out all the way, the cells are full of honey and a cap of wax is closing the tops of the cells), but we were obviously very interested in tasting the first of our honey.  We processed the two frames very simply: I scraped the honey and wax out of the fames into a bowl and ran it through a sieve to separate the honey from the wax.  We got 1 quart and 1 half-pint, which we gave to our neighbor who has bad allergies (local honey is supposed to prime your defenses against local allergens).  All told, we netted about 3 pounds of honey.  Very tasty indeed.

Also, we’ve posted some updated pictures of our animals (pigs, goat, sheep, geese, etc) at our Flickr page.  Check it out.

I tanned the pelts using the instructions found in this Mother Earth News article.  I tanned five pelts after the first butchering this September as a test batch, then froze the rest of the pelts.  I tanned the rest of the pelts this January using a solution of kosher salt and aluminum alum (purchased from Van Dykes Taxidermy).

The key to getting the pelts really soft was to work with them about twice a day for a good week.  This included stretching, brushing, and crunching them.  Zsaka destroyed one pelt and I used one to try to do some rabbit fur knitting (with no success).  Of the rest, I picked out the best six to make hats and outwear, the next best sixteen were chosen to make a rabbit fur quilt (my next big project), and the rest were used as testers for trying out different patterns and techniques.  I blocked each set by dampening the pelts and tacking them in a stretched out shape onto some plywood.

I made the first hat out of the “test” pelts.  I used three pelts, cutting two same-ish sized rectangles from two of the pelts, making them as large as possible.  From the third, I cut out a circle for the top of the hat.  I stitched it up and learned a few things in the process.  What I was aiming for was a tight fitting hat with a double-sided fur band and a single-sided fur circular top.

The hat fit Jackson really well and I had a good idea of how to improve upon the design for a hat for Mike.  Here are the basic instructions:

Take two measurements; one of the head circumference and one of the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the ears.  For Mike these turned out to be 23″ and 9″ respectively.  I cut out two templates; one rectangle to make the two sides of the hat, adding in a 1/4 ” seam allowance on all sides (the piece ended up being 10″ x 12″); and one circle with a diameter of 7.75″ which included a 1/4″ seam allowance.

I cut out the pieces from the pelts using an exacto knife and cutting on the leather side.  I cut VERY carefully to avoid cutting any of the fur.  It was easy to find a pelt to cut the circle from, but the rectangles required some careful placement, and even then they were not perfect.

One of the problems when working with fur is that there is no elasticity like with wool or even fleece.  After I made the test hat, Mike and I decided it would be better to work in some elastic into one of the seams so that the hat had a little bit of give.  I cut out eight 1.5″ pieces of elastic.  I laid my two fur rectangles fur-side down, so that the fur was all going in the same direction (meaning putting them “head-to-tail”).  I stitched the elastic as close to the edge of the piece on the right as possible.  Then I measured where the other end of the elastic should be to make the two joined rectangles the correct length (plus seam allowance).  I stitched down the other side of the elastic to the second rectangle.

The problem was that although you couldn’t see the overlap from the outside because of the fur, stitching it in this way left a flap.  So, I stitched the elastic to the far edge of the left rectangle so that all of the “pull” would occur on that side of the fur, with the other side acting as an anchor.  The hat had the give we were looking for and looked great from the outside.

The next step was to section the circle so that it was in four triangular pieces that were held together by just a tiny bit of leather at the bottom.   The goal was to stitch the top of the hat into the seam of the band of the hat.  The end result is that the fur is double-sided around the band with one layer of fur on the top.  I pinned the sectioned circle along the top of what would be the outside of the hat, fur-sides together.

I then folded up the bottom side of the rectangle to meet the top, making it fur-side to leather-side with the section circle.  If you were to take a cross-section of the tube, it would have been (from left to right) leather-side of the outside of the band, fur-side of the band, fur-side of the top, leather-side of the top, fur-side of the inside of the band, leather side of the inside of the band.

I hand stitched along the length of the tube using a blanket stitch, a quilting needle, and extra-strong quilting thread.  I used a 1/4″ seam allowance and worked slowly to make sure that each stitch made it through all three layers.  When I was finished, I turned the tub right side out.  It looked like a band of double-sided fur with four fur triangles pointing out the top.

Two steps were left; closing the tube, making it a band, and then stitching together the seams of the triangle to close the top of the hat.  Working carefully, I used a blanket stitch to close the outside band of the hat stitching fur sides together, therefore making the seam invisible under the fur.  On the inside of the band, I used a blanket stitch as well, again trying to stitch fur sides together.  I was trying to make the stitching invisible and yet make the seam strong.  It is hard to describe in words, but basically I worked slowly and carefully to accomplish those two goals.

With the band closed, I turned the hat inside out.  Starting at the center (or tips of each triangle) and working toward the band, I stitched the four seams together again using a blanket stitch to close the top of the hat.

That was it!  Of course, now the weather has been “warm” in the 30s-40s and Mike says the hat is almost too warm when he goes out to take care of the animals.  However, it will be perfect for any more cold days this winter, and can be used for years to come!  I plan to make a few more hats and also maybe some fingerless mittens, with the fur on the inside and wool felt on the outside.

I hope these basic instructions help, here is a very simple summary:

1. Take head measurements and make templates.
2. Cut out two rectangles for the band and a circle for the top, being careful not to cut the fur.
3. Stitch together two short sides of the rectangles with some elastic for give.
4. Cut the top into wedges and pin it inside the band.
5. Stitch the band closed using a blanket stitch.
6. Turn right-side out and stitch the band closed working carefully to hide stitches while making a strong seam.
7. Turn inside out and working from the center to the band, close the four seams of the triangle using a blanket stitch.
8. Turn right-side out and enjoy!

I finished my log cabin quilt.  I am very happy with the way it came out, one side is a bit wonky, but I love the way to colors look together and it is very soft and warm.

I finished the pair of socks I had been working on.  I knit socks from the toe-up using the “magic loop” technique.  It is a great way to do socks (and also hats from the top down) as you can try them on as you go and get the sizing exactly right.

I tanned all of my rabbit pelts.  I have a total of 28 tanned pelts, one was “sacrificed” to try knitting with fur last summer, and Zsaka ripped the other one up.  I will use 16 to make a quilt/pad for the baby.  I need to block all of the pelts to take the wrinkles out and then decide if I want to make a free form quilt and try to maximize each pelt, or cut them all in a uniform fashion.  I will use cotton batting and a silk backing to finish it.  I need to get a walking foot for my sewing machine to stitch the fur and then do the quilting.  I have several books coming soon on sewing with fur and leather, surprisingly little on the internet about the topic.  I will use the rest of the pekts to make a few hats and maybe glove cuffs and maybe a really nice wrist rester for Mike while he is working on his computer.

Most exciting of all is that I got my spinning wheel, a Lendrum that a new farm friend was looking to sell.  She dropped it off almost two weeks ago, but with the quilt and pelts already in progress and Mike traveling, I wasn’t really able to sit down and spin until this weekend.  The kids helped me clean one of our sheep fleece this week and I carded 4 oz of Leicester Longwool and also mohair from our female Angora goat into rolags.  I tried spinning those, but had much more luck with some mohair that was processed into roving at a local mill (the roving was bought form the same woman we bought our goats from, so in all likelihood, our two goats fleece was spun by me today).  I actually did better than I thought I would, but the yarn is a completely typical newbie spinner yarn, full of thick and thin spots, bumps and slumps.  BUT, I did it and am happy to finally be spinning!  I plied the blue mohair that I spun with a grey yarn that was left on one of the bobbins, presumably from one of my friend’s Blue-faced Leicesters.  As I type, I am “setting the twist” having wound the yarn into a skein and soaked it in warm water.  It is now hanging with a weight and hopefully tomorrow I can take a few pictures, and maybe even knit it into something.  Both kids are VERY into the spinning wheel, so I think once I am good enough, I will try to get them involved in some way as well.

Food

The freezer and pantry are fully stocked.  We won’t be adding any new meat or veggies until next summer.  I have been making weekly batch-meals.  What works for me to is make four of whatever is on my list for that week, eat one the night it is made and freeze the other three.  So far I have made Turkey Pot Pie, Shepherd’s Pie, and Lasagna.  Next week I will make Chicken Enchiladas, and then either a Split Pea or Bean Soup with ham.  I have several large bags of dried beans in my pantry and I may also try to pressure can our own black beans and baked beans.  The idea of just opening up a jar of something and warming it up is quite heavenly.  The goal is that by the time the baby is born in mid-to-late April, we will have about a months supply of heat and serve meals made from the meats and veggies we grew on the farm last season.

Fiber

On Friday the kids and I mailed off the salted and dried sheep hide to Bucks County Fur Inc. in PA.  In a few months we will get back our finished, washable rug.  I have 33 rabbit hides tanning in a salt and alum mixture.  I hope to make a large blanket with their pelts and line it with satin.  I can’t imagine a warmer, softer blanket to have the baby lay down on.  I have finished cleaning Flora’s (our female angora goat) fleece and will be working on cleaning the other goat fleece and the two sheep fleece in the coming weeks.  I should be getting my spinning wheel by the end of the month, and I might even get a few skeins of yarn spun before the baby arrives.  I am finishing up a quilt that I started after Charlotte was born; all that is needed is to machine quilt the three layers together and sew on the binding, maybe a couple of hours of work in total.  I have several small knitting projects going (socks, hats, etc) and I would like to make some new felted wool slippers for Mike and myself as ours are beginning to get holes in the soles.

Future

Each time we add to our family, I go into big time nesting mode.  I am already a huge purger when it comes to the house, but adding a new person means that I want our living space to be completely streamlined.  We are in the process of going through each room in the house (and then the outside spaces, barn, shed, etc) and cleaning them out from top to bottom, addressing any problems, and making our “for the future list”.  This includes any short term or long term plans for the space.  For example, we really want to get a desk for Jackson in the dormer of the kids’ room so he has his own private space to build with legos (short term) but we also want to eventually replace the tub in the kids’ bathroom with a bigger model than the one installed currently (long term).  We are also in the process of making a yearly calendar for the different livestock tasks and also for the garden and the orchard.  Now that we have lived here for over a year and gone through every season, we have a relatively good idea of what needs to happen when.  Having it all written down makes life so much easier.  Mike makes amazing computer programs that allow up to manage many aspects of farm life so that the information we need is always easily accessible.

Fun

The kids and I (and Mike when he can) are trying to have as much fun as possible.  We have been having daily soccer matches on the frozen pond with the goats.  We have been playing in the grow tunnel on sunny days.  We have been taking weekly trips to museums and play spaces.  We have been visiting with friends.  We built a play kitchen for Charlotte and have been making our own toys.  For a while after the baby comes, I won’t be as available to do all of these amazing and active things with them.  It will be a time of snuggling and reading books and watching movies.  Luckily, the weather will be warming up and the kids will be able to play outside.  Thankfully, we have lots of friends who like to come “visit the farm” and can keep the kids happy and entertained.  But, while the two of them still have me all to themselves, we are going to enjoy every minute and spend as much time as possible having adventures and playing together.

Enjoy the season, make some rituals for yourself and your family and don’t forget to have fun!

The reason we decided to take the plunge to start this farm was that we really love to eat good food and feed our children the best we can.  Please understand that we are by no means saints or food purists, we are busy parents and head through the drive-thru on occasion just like everyone else.  Also, we respect other people’s decisions and don’t judge them for their food choices, we understand everyone has different values and priorities.  But, we try to eat as much as we can from local sources where the meat and produce have been raised organically and sustainably and we try to focus on eating what is in season in our area.  This food tastes better and is better for our bodies and our local community. Unfortunately, this can also be very expensive, and growing your own is a way we found to be able to consistently eat a higher quality of food than we might otherwise be able to.  Plus, it gives us access to foods we would not even be able to buy in any store unless we grew it ourselves.  

Okay, coming off my soap-box.

A few months ago, we bough a share of a pig from our very good friends and neighbors at Hurricane Farm.  When the pork was dropped off, we were also offered a large portion of fat.  I put a slab in the freezer for future sausage making and rendered the rest into lard.  You can see instructions on how to do this here and here.  Basically, you take the fat, cut it in to chunks and on either the stove-top or in the oven, slowly boil it over several hours until you are left with a vast quantity of liquid fat (the rendered lard) and a bit of solids (the cracklin) which you can eat as well.  Then you strain the lard into jars and put it in the fridge or freezer.  I think we had about 16 pounds of fat and made about 16 pints of lard.  Once the lard cools it is lovely and white and you can use it in tons of recipes as a substitute for butter or shortening.  You can also use it in soap-making, which we do as well.  I know the idea of lard sounds gross, and I can tell you without a doubt that I would NEVER, EVER consider eating commercial lard.  Not only are the pigs fed a horrendous diet, but the lard is full of weird stabilizers and preservatives to keep it shelf stable.

A post on a blog I frequent explained how the family had made butter.  It sounded pretty easy and straightforward, so we decided to give it a try.  We are very lucky to have a farm in our town that sells raw milk commercially at our grocery store, food co-op, and the amazingly cute general store in our town.  When I have purchased the milk in the past, I have always noticed the “cream line” as this milk is not homogenized and comes in a glass bottle, so after a few days the cream rises to the top and you can see it.  I thought this would be the perfect thing for making butter as I happen to know these cows have the loveliest bit of land to graze on during the warm months and eat hay made right from their own fields in the winter.  I bought two gallons and poured them together.  Then I let them sit for a day so the cream could rise.  I skimmed it off and then following the directions found here, proceeded to make butter.  What I made was a HUGE MESS.  Instead of skimming off about two cups of heavy cream, I probably took off two cups of half-and -half.  When I tried to whip the butter in the food processor, I had too little cream and too much milk and all of the milk began streaming out of everywhere after it had volumized from the air being whipped into it.  I did make about two tablespoons of butter and it was DELICIOUS.  The next day I had Mike pick up a few pints of heavy cream from the grocery store and I tried again.  This time, the butter did exactly what it was supposed to do and after filling our butter bell, we made the rest into honey butter and ate it on toast with that nights dinner (rotiseried pork roast with corn, green beans, and peaches we had canned this summer).

If you have ever made whipped cream, you know if you go to long, it will turn into butter when the fat solids seize, and the “buttermilk” separates out.  In addition to a half pound of butter, we also had about two cups of buttermilk from the two days experiments.  This is not the same as buttermilk you buy in the store which has been cultured, but it is still great for baking.  

Whole-wheat East Texas tortillas

We decided to use it to make some East Texas tortillas, recipe found here, and some buttermilk biscuits.  We also used the rest of the raw milk to whip up a batch of 30-minute mozzarella.  Finally, I sauteed some shrimp in butter and garlic and we had a delicious, if not a bit strange dinner last night.  Here is the recipe for the biscuits.  I highly recommend that you try making butter and use the leftover milk to make these biscuits, they were SO good.

Buttermilk Biscuits

adapted from The Cooks Country Cookbook by America’s Test Kitchen

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 tbsp unsalted butter but into 1/2 inch chunks and chilled
• 4 tbsp lard (or shortening) cut into 1/2 inch chunks and chilled
• 1 1/4 cups buttermilk from butter making plus 1 tbsp lemon juice OR 1 1/4 cups commercial buttermilk

1. Add the lemon juice to the buttermilk and allow to sit at room temp for at least 10 minutes.
2. Heat oven to 450F.  Use either a 10 inch cast iron skillet or line a baking sheet with parchment paper (I prefer cast iron)
3. Mix together all ingredients EXCEPT buttermilk by hand or in the food processor until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.  Transfer to a bowl and slowly add the buttermilk, mix until well combined.
4. On a lightly floured surface, knead 8 or 10 times until the dough is smooth.  Pat into a circle about 3/4 inch thick.  Using a 3 inch cutter, cut biscuits and place in pan. You should have 9-12 biscuits.   Lightly press the center of each biscuit with your thumb, this helps it rise properly.
5. Bake for 5 minutes then reduce oven temp to 400F.  Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown.  Cool and eat.  These can be stored for up to two days if they last that long!

I was still able to butcher the six chickens, assembly line style, in the sleet and snow. That was not fun. But, now I have six more chickens for the freezer. Jackson is a great helper with butchering. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about having him as a helper, but he seems fine with it. He asks so many interesting questions, our conversations end up somewhere between a biology lesson and a philosophical discussion about life and death. He is extremely interested in “the guts”. Last night as we were cleaning the chickens, we dissected all of the organs so he could see what is inside. Then, he asked about which parts we eat and which we don’t. He wanted to eat the hearts, so after cleaning two of the birds, we sliced the hearts and fried them in butter. He loving brought one of up to his sister. After he finished eating them he asked me if he had two hearts now, or if that heart had simply melted into his.

Amazing.

I was also able to make a batch of soap, here is the recipe:

• 36 oz (1020 g) coconut oil
• 36 oz (1020 g) vegetable shortening
• 24 oz (396 g) olive oil OR sunflower oil
• 15 oz (426 g) lye
• 33 oz (936 g) well water
• 3 tbsp essential oil

1. Add water to lye, allow to cool.
2. Melt coconut oil and vegetable shortening over low heat, shut off once melted.
3. Measure olive oil and essential oils into one container, set aside.
4. Once lye is clear and less than 140F, add to melted oils and olive oil mix.
5. Use stick blender to trace, about 45 seconds.
6. Pour into greased molds-fills five 1lb molds.
7. Remove after about 12-16 hours, cut, cure for one month.

The only problem was in my choice of essential oil. I used sweet orange oil and clove bud oil, but the clove oil made the soap trace VERY quickly and it was a race to get it into the molds. The soap will be fine, just a little bumpy.

Today was a beautiful March day, so we moved the pigs to their new home. They had been in a 16′ x 16′ paddock in our backyard. That was fine during the winter and when they were little, but now that they are bigger they need more space. We moved them to a 32′ x 48′ space over where we plan to put the garden. They will eat all of the grass off, turn the soil, and fertilize. In one month, we will move them again, then one more time, so that at the end of three months they will have turned our entire 50′ x 100′ garden and converted all of that grass into lovely ham and bacon. Then we will get more pigs to live next to our garden eating all of the weeds and such and the cycle will start again. The pigs are one of the best farm animals, converting inedible foodstuffs and grass into the most lovely meat. We let them roam around while we were moving their paddock and they had a blast exploring and playing with the kids. It will be hard to take them to the butcher this summer, but no one ever said that farm life was easy.