Wooly Wednesday, What is Dude up to, All Veggie Wednesday Dinner and more!

Wooly Wednesday … I worked on my first wool scene by felting. Hmm not sure if I have totally figured it out yet. 

A little mountain scene.

Hmmm did I over felt it? I will wash it by hand see if it calmed down. ugh

My mom needs newborn caps to go with the layette sets she is making. So, I got to work making hats. 

We are having turkey egg omelets for dinner. They are the speckled eggs. 

My sister gifted me this wee container plant. Seeing her container garden this past weekend inspired me to plant a few containers. 

I hope they do well.  Excited to plant more in small cups. 

Dude has been working in the greenhouse. He says he doesn't have to pay to go to the gym to get a steam room effect. 

A few carrots left and then we will plant again ...yum!

The spring mix continues to take off. The more we trim the more it grows. 

Beets are full of joy and yummy goodness. 

Tomatoes!

Our first year growing celery. Go, go, grow!

Pickles, okay cucs and zucchini beginning to grow after the third time being hailed out! (yes, we only planted this much so we didn't jinx ourselves with more hail - smile)

I picked a few beets for dinner. 

Dude also got started on splitting wood for the winter. I made him stop and come in from the 98* heat. I will help tomorrow... I like doing this. 

Of course, he had help today. 

The guinea hen got off her eggs for a bit. I prayed she was not abandoning them. 

Twenty minutes later she wearily came back to continue sitting on them. Poor thing, I only raised four not 21!  Hopefully they will hatch soon. 

Her family is always close by keeping an eye out for predators. 

Dinner from the garden. We used the whole beet for dinner , tops and all. 

Spinach and onions for the omelets. 

Sautéed beet tops with onions, garlic in olive oil with salt and pepper.  At the end drizzled balsamic vinegar and lemon juice. 

Then we cracked our turkey eggs. They are large and the membrane inside was thick. Turkeys only lay eggs 4 months out of the year and our little visitor is going to town giving us eggs in exchange for free room and board. 

Cooked them up, topped with our spinach plus onions and tomatoes and cheese.

The turkey eggs turned out super fluffy with a mild taste. 

I cooked up a bunch of edamame noodles(they have 24 grams of protein) and topped with the sautéed beet tops - the lemon juice really helped. The beet tops were strong before that. 

Roasted beets with the last of the broccoli and onion. Added olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Roast 400* for 25 minutes. 

Dude ate and like everything except the edamame noodles... yay, we didn't grow those. 

I am finishing the hat during tv time(movies from the library), start another  and I did get more fabric cut out today. Yippee for days off work.

peace

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

Canoeing, avocados and carding wool

We got out a few things from the pantry today...salsa for our tacos, sunrise marmalade for our breakfast and grape juice we can each year from my mom's grapes.  We made a soda with the juice, ice and club soda...good stuff!

While Dude fed the animals I quickly cut up more apples to dry.  Yes, the others are already gone...fun to each while watching television. 

Then it was out to the lake to canoe. I love to canoe. It was a gorgeous morning and I knew I wanted to get out before the afternoon rains.  You would think with each storm we had it would be tropical here. It's not, it is dry and the storms are quick and angry with lightning, hail and thunder. But our morning was beautiful. We spent two hours just enjoying the water.

These guys were cool to watch , fishing with their bows!

This guy is so good to me. I was raised near the water and always love it. Dude was raised in the mountains and says only fish belong on and in the water but he humors me with going canoeing. 

This dog was great riding the boat, he is only a year old. 

Pelicans were fun to watch. 

Another calm dog...springer spaniel 7 years old that loves to paddle board.

The new hay bales at the park... so creative!

We got home, put everything away and took a nap while it lightly rained and loudly thundered. 

Then time to make dinner using these huge avocados I traded lettuce for yesterday.

They were amazing! I only used half of one!

Lettuce from the garden. 

Made a salad for work tomorrow. 

Clean the kitchen and got my wool out to card.  I am spinning with my sister on Sunday and I will need something to spin.  Since I am a beginner still I carded a bunch of different stuff. The gray variegated I from my lamb, a CVM Romeldale. The white is from a merino and the brown is alpaca.  

Time to settle in .  Dude is working with Norman our dog and time for me to read.

peace