Showing posts with label Weaving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Weaving. Show all posts

Sunday, July 8, 2018

Wooly Day, Canning Jam and What is Dude up to?

I headed toward the mountains early this morning to see my sister. She is a weaver.  We were meeting for breakfast in her garden and spinning wool. 


I loved that she had the coffee pot humming among the bees. 


Inside her tiny studio is her work. 





The painting was done by my grandfather and is sandwich by her weavings. 




She is a master at container growing. Yes, you can grow anywhere. 


I got my wheel out of the car. 


Breakfast was finished and very tasty. She has been a vegetarian most of her life and really knows how to create a great meal. 


My sister began to show me how to "felt" a landscape mini. 


She brought out her wheel. 


And carded some wool. 


I brought some of Romeldale CVM wool I had carded from Wilbur who was one of our rams. I love the variegation in it. 


That's me spinning. 



Heehee, not perfect or much but it's my first. 


I came home. It was so hot at 98*.  I took a nap and then filled a cup of coffee to get started on canning strawberry jalapeño jam.  Strawberries are at their peak of the season and very inexpensive right now. 


The recipe is pretty simple if you know how to make jam. I have posted it before but here it is again.

4 cups chopped strawberries (I use a food processor, it makes the job quick)
1 cup chopped and deveined jalapeño
7 cups of sugar 
1 pouch of liquid pectin. 

That's it. 




Getting ready for the bath. 


Coming out of the bath and pinging lids. 

  I always make a small jar for testing and tasting. 

I put a quick meal in the mini crockpot.  Meatballs and sauce for Dude's pasta night. I have leftover Greek salad, my favorite. 


The meatballs and sauce is quick, easy, and ready when he is. 


I will spend the evening cutting out chef hats for my grandsons. 


So where was Dude all day?  He was planning on going fishing and canoeing with kids today but barely got out of town before he turned around. He was tired. Homesteading does that to you sometimes. The ride was over 2 hours possibly 3 hours away with just him and the dog.  His elbows hurt from nonstop working on the homestead this week.  He came home, and for once, relaxed watching a movie.  He napped and then, true to form, he went out in the hot weather to work on the wood splitter. We are planning on getting our wood pile ready for the winter this week. (We work good together with the log splitter, one loads the splitter, the other splits.)  After puttering around he did manger to get it fixed and headed out to get gas to get it running. It works well.  Great job. 
Oh, and he did feed the dog(as he does every day).  He has a cup in the large bag of dogfood to scoop out the food. Today, when he scooped and went to put the food in the dog's bowl, there was a small gray field mouse perched inside the cup, with it's little paws holding on to the rim.  It startled Dude more than mouse and it escaped on the way to the dog's bowl.  The cats, who stay out during the summer, where invited back in. Everyone has a job to do. 

Time to cut out fabric and sip on ginger lavender tea.

peace

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Beet canning day

My goal this weekend was to learn the small tractor as I want to take it over as mine. Instead I learned to push it out of the way. The battery  was dead. Well, it is three years old. I did learn to check the oil as well. I hope to buy a new battery for it on pay day. (it wasn't figured into the budget and can dig into the savings)

The farmgirls met today.  Beets were coming in from the garden and canning was on the agenda!


Ohmy, I got so excited when we began to mix all the spices, salt and sugar.



Add the vinegar and the water and watch the magic happen. 


Ruby gems of beets.


I like to add onions. 


More beets and add the vinegar mixture. 


After the water bath... perfection.


Neighbors stopped by to visit...okay, really they came a courting. 


Sunny showed us her weavings. 


She spins her own alpaca wool, yes, from her own alpacas.



A finish product drying. Can you believe all her work? Amazing!


I need more fun days like today. 
peace

Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Homesteads past

Today we visited homesteads from the past. I was still counting my steps and needed to get out and about. The Lakewood Heritage Center is a great place to walk with many paths and a great place to learn.  My mom was born in Denver and raised it Lakewood. It was pretty neat to take her to Heritage Homesteads and have her tell me who had lived there or that they would go to one of their friends home near one of these places. Some of the displays she felt it was like looking into her mom's kitchen. 





She said this pump-house was common place on homesteads growing up. 



Beautiful cherry tree. 


A Victory Garden 





Then we stopped at the Washington Heights Arts Center to see those learning past arts to carry them into the future.




Ceramics and pottery.


Painting. 


All in all it was a great day learning and any day I can have with my mom is a great day. 
peace, health and happiness