Not over yet!

Posted in Farming, Fun with fiber, Sew what, What's cooking?! by 4theloveoffiber

Well once again we have a couple of more storms rolling in this week, the first being tomorrow with talks of 17 – 24 inches of snow during the day and well into Wednesday, followed by another 7″ of snow on Saturday, though I’m going dress shopping with my best friend for her wedding & we are both crossing our fingers that it holds off until night fall, as she is flying in from Illinois and will only be here for the weekend.
Well the chickens are back full force with the egg laying! We have been getting nearly three dozen eggs a day for the last several days.

It has Toph’s hopes raised up so much so that he has considered buying an additional 60 chickens on top of the 50 we already have coming.

We already see our eggs to a local natural food store, however we are hoping to set up at a farmers market mid-late summer, by that time we should have plenty of chicken and duck eggs to go around.

Last fall we took my niece to the Sandwich fair, where she fell in love with one of those blow up doughnuts, it was a prize for one of the games, you know…the games no one ever wins. Well we didn’t even attempt to win it, but I made sure to make a mental note to find a pattern to see if I could somehow make one for her, for her birthday!

Behold, the doughnut pillow. I used THIS pattern and it took me about six days to make. She was a happy camper, she had foot surgery the day after she had it, so it made for a comfy foot rest on the way home.

This past weekend we had tempatatures ranging from -5 to 15. We spent our days indoors trying to stay warm and keep busy. I spent my day in the kitchen sitting by the fire while dinner cooked

We have been cooking a lot in the hearth lately, so it has become a favorite spot in the house.

Spending my day at the kitchen table next to the warm fire, I worked on many…still unfinished projects. Unfinished mainly because I would start working on one thing & think about how nice it would be to work on something else.

At one point I had three projects next to each other and I would work on them like they were part of an assembly line

Then I got the spinning wheel out, however the wool was so warm that my hands began to get uncomfortably warm and so that lasted about twenty minutes.

Followed by the fabric

At this point I gained a whole new level of respect for the ladies who cut out the kits at our quilting guild. These are only 55 of the 678 flower centers, petals, and leaves that I need to cut out. Of course I found that I am short on fabric and I can only hope that this fabric is still available when I go back into town on Thursday.

Last Monday I finished two quilt tops that I had started awhile back

The quilt on the right I started last June before I had to take a break for summer vacation. I started on my old crappy sewing machine and had just barely gotten the yellow and red piece sewn together to make 60 rectangles. I started in on it again and within two Mondays on my amazing machine, I was able to complete the top.
As I feel I’m getting repetitive when it comes to talking about the snow, (as I am type it out I think in my head “Your reader’s get it, it’s winter and it snows”), I was thinking that I’d would like to do a Q&A for my next post if anyone is interested. I will answer questions next week or if no one has any questions to ask, I will just write a regular post. My blog isn’t as exciting as most bloggers, but I’m willing to try a Q & A!

I hope you all have an amazing week! Have a great day folks!

29Nov2016

Baby it’s cold and wet outside

Posted in Fun on the farm, Uncategorized, What's cooking?! by 4theloveoffiber

Hello folks! I hope you all had a good weekend, we had a nice Thanksgiving with a little snowfall ambiance outside, followed by freezing rain on Gilmore Girl Friday, sun for a couple of days and here we are back at freezing rain.

Thanksgiving went very well, we had only three guests but that was enough for us because we have a small table and we all just barely fit!

Our very first thanksgiving turkey was about 13lbs dressed…which was slightly smaller than my friends 47lb bird. Though we had plenty of leftover so I think our bird…Pickles, as Leif had named him, was just the right size.

He was cooked on the grill, which has turned out to be our favorite way of cooking birds. He was very filling and tasty. Thank you Pickles.

I wrote before about falling off the Pinterest wagon, well I had found these two pies I wanted to try out…the following two pictures are NOT my pies

I think I did alright… at least on the pumpkin pie lol. The following pictures are mine, pre-oven for the Apple and middle of cooking for the pumpkin

I didn’t nail it but that’s okay, they were both delicious, I was just happy to have a chance to wear my new apron which I purchased at the holiday craft fair from my quilting guild

We finally have all the parts of the greenhouse finished! Plastic is on, doors are built, nesting boxes are ready. We just need to clear the excess wood and get the chickens inside.

It’s hard to tell but we have deer mesh separating the chicken area and the area with the feed and atv

Friday as I said we had our Gilmore Girls day! We don’t participate in Black Friday shopping, I live next to a super tourist town and a long time ago I worked at two different clothing stores in said town, I’ve dealt with a lot of chaos and rude customers, so I try to avoid shopping in town on Holidays & weekends.

Instead Lorelai and I went to my in laws and had our day with my mother in law

Unhealthy food was involved, though it was mainly the vegetables as we were all too full from the previous night.

Now if you haven’t watched the new episodes yet never fear, I won’t give a thing away except to say this, I probably should not have allowed my almost ten year old to watch it. There was language in there that had no previously been in the series. We ended up taking a break to watch a Disney movie instead and gave in when she asked to go play a game on the computer.

Well folks, I’m off to finish a couple of orders that will be heading out this week and next, I hope you are staying warm and safe wherever you are.
Have a great day folks!

6Apr2014

Cream of buckwheat

Posted in Fun with fiber, What's cooking?! by 4theloveoffiber

Today my friends, I share with you something delicious! I REALLY love cream of wheat, so when I found out about my little gluten problem I was bummed, I’m not bummed so much now as it appears that my carpal tunnel has taken a hike but still…bread, cream of wheat, anything to do with wheat sigh I miss it all.

Last week I ran across a box of Cream of Buckwheat, I was tempted to buy the box, and after checking the ingredients, I put it back on the shelf. “Why oh why if you love cream of wheat would you put it back?!” Well folks, the one and only ingredient in the cream of buckwheat was…buckwheat. Folks, I have buckwheat at home

You know what else I have?! A food mill, so I am able to make my own buckwheat flour. So after a week of eating this delicious discovery for breakfast, I decided to share this concoction with you.

First I take half a cup of milk and put it in a pan and cook it on low, you will need no more then half a cup unless you are planning on making a huge batch.

Next add a splash of vanilla, have I ever mentioned that I don’t like to do measuring spoons?! Sometimes I will, but for the most part…I hate doing dishes and will avoid making them.

A dash of sea salt, any salt is fine, and actually that salt shaker isn’t even holding it’s original contents. Reduce, reuse, recycle.

I then add 1/4 cup buckwheat flour. It will seem runny at first, just turn up the heat a little and it will thicken right up

Stir it up for a good three to four minutes.

At this moment it will taste yummy, however I like to add a little heavy cream

And because I already eat 1/2 cup of yogurt everyday

I add that in, along with some frozen berries. These are dew berries that I had never heard of until last year. They grow in our backyard and are delicious!!

So there have it:
1/2 cup of milk
Splash of vanilla
Dash of salt
1/4 cup buckwheat flour
I’d say two tablespoons cream
1/2 yogurt
Berries.

I have finished knitting my first Moonkoosa and have started the second. I haven’t add the fringe yet, I am waiting until they are both finished.

They are pretty warm on their own, can’t wait to felt them and to see the finished project!!

Have a nice night folks!!

18Feb2014

The silver lining

Posted in Fun with fiber, Sew what, What's cooking?! by 4theloveoffiber

Today was the day, I had planned to finish my regency dress so I could move on to the next dress. All I had left to do was to cut out the lining for the front and back skirt, and stitch everything together.

Well….it’s half finished har har har, I ran out of lining so I was only able to finish cutting out the lining for the skirt front, I decided to pin the top and skirt together to make myself feel better. Oh well, I will have to make a trip to Joann fabrics in-between snowstorms.

Lorelai and I decided to make gluten free chocolate chip cookies, I have had pretty good luck with the oatmeal flour…until today

Batch #1 not enough flour and I’m sure I could have used half the butter

The outcome was interesting.

Batch #2 they looked alright

Then fell apart as I moved them. They were still tasty however and were enjoyed by all.

I shall not give up!!

Have a nice night folks!