Heat wave

Posted in Farming, Fun with fiber, Gardening by 4theloveoffiber

Hi there *wipes sweat off brow* Fall has taken off on us, decided it wasn’t ready to be here just yet.

Which has really not worked out too well when it comes to harvesting food, my basement is abnormally warm thanks to the high temperatures in our indoor green house, which has resulted in most of our pumpkins turning to mush faster than we can process them. We still have several in the garden that I refuse to pick until this heat wave ends.

Late September is usually time for Apple picking and sweaters and hot mulled cider, Sunday we picked 50lbs of apples over at Apple Acres Farm in 95 degree heat, while wearing shorts and tshirts and replaced that hot mulled cider with milkshakes.

I have every intention of heading back to this orchard when the temperatures return to normal and we can pick apples in the proper attire and enjoy that delicious cider.

I have some very exciting news to share with you, it seemed like this would never happen. I’ve dreamt and dreamt about it but never truly thought it would occur. Toph is taking classes for agriculture management and handed me a pamphlet the other day, I am going to a conference in two weeks to learn everything I can possible learn about sheep. Which of course means there are sheep in my very near future and which most likely means no one will ever see me again after I get these sheep, because I won’t be leaving my house 😂

This week at quilting we made pot holders, I finished one set and have a second set that I brought home with me that is also finished. I am also working on a huge fall project that I am hoping to share with you within a month. Unfortunately because it is a present, I cannot yet post it here.

During the last few weeks when yarn was bearable to touch, I’ve made several items, some are already on my Etsy page and some are headed that way. A couple are presents.

As much as I hate to leave this cool area of my house, I have to go brave the heat and working in my garden. Have a great week folks!

12Nov2014

Crafty

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

Meet Kevin

Sure, he is in need of clothes, and more hair, and the more hair he needs will need to be trimmed, but he’s finished and the procrastination was what made making him take so long.

Unfortunately, Leif has been too under the weather to play with Kevin, but he had provided some comfort

Sadly Leif picked up a bug at preschool which caused us to have to cancel his birthday celebration. He is quickly mending and has only a runny nose and a cough left!

Lorelai has has been working on a couple of her own craft projects.

Here is a scarf/headband creation she made this morning.

We are co-knitting a gingerbread house together! Im very excited for the turn out!

Have a great day folks!

30Sep2014

Hello Autumn <3

Posted in Adventure's in homeschooling, Fun with fiber, Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

I just love the Fall, everything about it just speaks to my soul. The crisp air, the smells, the leaves falling from the trees. I love apple picking and cider, hot cocoa, and when I could eat them, donuts (I will find a way!!!!).

The last month has flown by so fast with homeschooling and dance class, the flu made it’s way to our house, I was down and out for over a week and Leif followed suit. Toph and Lorelai managed to escape without so much as a sniffle, Leif was better with in a matter of days, but I still have this lingering cough that is more annoying than anything.

I was hoping to knit during my downtime, I got a few things done, but mostly I had to restart a mitten twice. The first time I lost track of how many rows I had done, and the second I used the wrong size knitting needles, making the mitten an entire size smaller than the first.

When I was able to finally move about and do other things, I made spaghetti sauce and salsa out of the 54lbs of tomatoes I purchased the day before I started to feel horrible.

During my second round of what I like to call my failing immune system, I was able to working on another project, as I only had a sinus infection, and so my hands worked just fine.

a friends little boy just turned two and I thought being a fall baby, that a pumpkin hat was appropriate.

I also had the chance to make two wildflower crowns for a friend and myself, using the lovely pattern from Tiny Owl Knits

Now for some furry news

My husband happened to snap a picture of this brand new highland calf, some friends of ours up the road have a whole herd of highland cattle and they are just some of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen, I just fell in love with this little fella.

We’ve been working in several things for homeschooling, including our attempts at paper mâché for a social studies project on ancient China

As well as crocheting a scarf. I now understand crocheting a little better and may even attempt to do more crocheting because of it.

We’ve been learning about the five sense and how to play the recorder. Lorelai and I can down play a recorder and guitar duet of a Mary had a little lamb.

As I said Autumn has arrived, one day we had several leaves on the ground and the next we woke up to this

We have been preparing for the cold winter months, which includes and new hutch for Carrick, thanks to our neighbors. They raise rabbits and offered this hutch to us.

Well folks I will leave you with a picture of the lovely sunset I took in my backyard last night, have a great day!!

18Mar2014

Lots of knitting going on around here

Posted in Fun with fiber, kids by 4theloveoffiber

These are the projects that I am currently working on in rotation…I am about to get a little crazy and add one more.

I realized that 3 out of 4 family members have sweaters started (and one may even get finished this year!), so I had Lorelai snuggle up next to me and we looked at patterns over at ravelry. She quickly decided on this cupcake sweater, and as she didn’t want to look at anymore patterns, well it was settled.

Maybe I can do a daily sweater rotation:

Toph’s Aran on Mondays

Leif’s sweater on Tuesdays

(Pretend I started the cupcake sweater)
Lorelai’s sweater on Wednesdays

My bartók on Thursdays

My mother in laws Min Ulla on Fridays

Hmmm that leaves two more days…..I am currently browsing ideas.

Have a nice night folks!

P.S.

Sorry for the whiplash with the color schemes, Lorelai
convinced me that I should change things up a bit…

13Nov2013

Surrender

Posted in Uncategorized by 4theloveoffiber

Well my friends, I am sad that I have to write this, but we’ve decided to butcher some of our birds and re-home the rest. In the last week we’ve had issues with foxes, a fisher cat, one of our neighbors saw a bobcat nearby, and another shot a coyote. As we only rent our house, we are not in a position to further enhance the the area in which our chickens roam to keep them safer from predators…they are walking meals for all the wild critters.

It’s not fair to the birds that we weren’t ready to butcher and it isn’t fair to us that we are losing birds that we spent a lot of money on. We will try again when we own a home and can do with the land what we like. Until then, it will just be Ailey, Moose, & Carrick.

I suppose that is the downside of living on a farm, losing animals….this has just been too much.

To leave on a brighter note, here is one of the Christmas presents I started the other day.

Have a nice night folks.