Winter Fun - The Inside Kind!

Making Raw Milk Cheese & Yarn

These are the things that take up my time in the winter, cheese making, spinning yarn, weaving, and so much more!!

This morning I started another batch of chevre, I'm going to make a 2gal batch of Dill & Onion as the last batch was delicious!! Here you see the ladel and the thermometer so I can keep stirring and keep an eye on the temp as it cools down after low-heat pasturizing, it has to be about 80F before I add the culture and rennet. Then I cover the pot and put it in the cubbord for 12hrs before cutting and then hanging the curds. While I like the raw milk chevre I've been making for years I realize that I've got to practice making chevre with pasturized milk so when I get to the point where the dairy is producing cheese for sale I'll be able to make it and sell it. All raw milk cheeses have to age for 2 months before it's legal to sell, which is fine for hard and some soft cheeses, but chevre is a fresh cheese product and cannot last that long in the fridge so it has to be pasturized in order to be legal to sell at markets. Federal regulations.

There are two baskets full of yarn that Lindsey has spun up, and an inkle loom with my learning piece of card weaving on it. the pattern is little sheep - at least that is what it's supposed to look like!! I've taken it out 3 times already as I found mistakes in my cards, and just now found another one on cart 7 that has the colors in the wrong order...grrrr! I'll take it out one more time and then that's it!!!

OK, this is cool! It's a Home Spinning Machine from 1946, it wasn't working at first but John, the valiant hubby, fixed it and you can see the first bit of spinning on the spindle (it's the red/orange stuff inside that bell shape). At this point I'm not sure if it's faster than my normal wheel, but I do think my spinning is much better as this is turning out to be lace weight!! We'll see what happens when I start to ply it.

Winter at the farm, Blue Passed Over The Rainbow Bridge

Update, Blue was 18 1/2 years old when he suffered a stroke last week and passed over the rainbow bridge. He was greeted by his old friends Sandy and Twila who passed over earlier last year. He was my ambasador on the farm, he was always ready to greet new animals to the farm and assure them they had indeed arived at their forever home where they would be happy and well cared for.

Here is Blue the cat catching a snooze in a sunbeam, he was not yet aware that it moved and he hadn't! This was a favorite spot for blue and is where I found him the morning he passed on. I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted! It's been really busy here, even though it's the end of the season for the dairy and I have fewer milk chores to do. Starting just before Thanksgiving I dried up all the does except Melody who is still giving about a quart a day now so I can still keep the house in milk. But it won't last long as I have to dry her up by the middle of December so she has 2+ months to devote to growing her babies for next spring.

This is a wonderful sign made by some dear friends who brought it over as a complete suprise!!

Here is Chief, he's keeping an eye on the herd while also catching a snooze on the fence!

Here is another reason I've been busy, I've been makign soap for the holidays in many different molds, I love the cat of course, but also really like the new snowflake ones I just got.

I finally got my twining loom finished and warped it up last August. You can see I've got about 7 inches of weaving done on both ends. I will use another color sheet to do another two sections and then repete going back and forth with the different colors. For now this is being stored in the knitting room as I've got to get going with my Christmas knitting and this is just in the way.

New To Me Loom

Counter Balance Loom

This was one of three looms a friend was gifted when her neighbor passed away. She didn't have room for all of them so she decided to let some of the things go and I purchased this one from her. It's a lovely counterbalance loom that was part of a productionworkshop about 30 years ago. Even though no one had used them in years the looms were in nice condition.

I'd like to know more about this loom and who the maker is, see the logo in two pictues below. It' s by someone named Ross, can't make out the first name but looks like it starts with an L. If you know about these looms please get in touch with me.

More photos below....

From the back:

You can see from the back of the loom here, the piece the original owner had on it was just cut with fabric left on the front beam and warp on the back.

I've got to figure out how to set the sheds right, they kind of came apart in the move but it shouldn't bee too hard with some help from my friends.

Here is the front of the loom, it's got a nice bench attached, and the beater is hung from above so it will be nice on my arms.

Here you can see some notes taped on the bench, this was a production loom so I'm sure it's for a particular pattern.

Point No Point Lighthouse - play day!

A trip to the beach at Point No Point Lighthouse.

This is a favorite place of ours to take a break from the farm, it's a nice sandy beach and you can easily see the Straights of Juan De Fuca with all the ships that go in and out of Puget Sound. It was cold but it was also a lot of fun! We took Chief for a walk down the beach twice so he got some exercise and was a perfect gentleman the whole time! He is so good with other dogs, actually he ignores them so it's great! Here our wwoofers Emma & Mallory are sitting on a log with Lindsey while Chief tries to get as many pets as he can!!

Chief and I are taking a little rest from our walk, he likes to snuggle - he loves to be near us and spend time with us, but he especially likes to snuggle!! John thought it was a great idea and decided to take a load off too!

The Dairy

Well the dairy is almost done!!! Above is the milking parlor, we still have a little left to do on the walls, like paint them, but it's ready to use and I'm so happy to finally be in out of the weather again!















Above is the new handwashing station next to the door that we put in about a week ago, and below you can see the large 3 compartment sink we put in to clean and sanitize the equipment. And I know it's boring but there is the equipment rack beyond the fridge, with the ice bath cooler and the glass jugs with their strainers on them waiting to be filled with milk! Inspector is coming on Friday to see what we've done and let us know what else needs to be acomplished...whew! it's almost done!!!

Fall Football - The Twins

Here are the twin grandsons in their new football gear for their team, they are just toooooooooooo cute!!!!

Bunny Hat

Here is Lindsey with our friend Salix, she is wearing the bunny hat her mom made from Lindsey's handspun angora/wool yarn.

Late September on the Farm

Everyone works on the farm!!! Weve got milking to do, hoofs to trim, building to paint, plants to harvest and seeds to plant!














I'm busy seed saving spinach here, earlier it was kale and char I was saving. Now that bed is ready to be replanted...except for those two little green pepper plants that are still producing lucious green peppers for our stirfrys!














Our WWOOFers are really happy to be here and really enjoy the varied tasks as well as the oportunity to do things they wouldn't normall get the chance to do!!















WWOOF stands for World Wide Organic Opportunity Farming...check it out on the web.

Plus we get to enjoy the fruits of our harvest such as the cherries canned in mid summer turned into a lucious cherry pie!!!

Mother Hen and her chicks

IT's been an interesting summer! One of the hens not only laid eggs but she hatched 3 of them and they are just adorable!

Lavender Harvest

The Lavender Harvest
Here you can see a basket of lavender bundles ready to go to market, these are the five dollar bundles and are about the size of a 50 cent piece.

If you would like to order some fresh lavender bundles contact me at my email address K2P2SSK @ CENTURYTEL . NET (delete the spaces) with the number of bundles you would like to order, We send a little more than double the size you see in the picture above in each bundle, these all weigh out at 5oz each and the ones we send are all 12oz when fresh. I will then send you a request for money from paypal or you can ask for my address to send the check to. WARNING: Lavender harvest is only 2 weeks so we will run out of fresh lavender bundles in another week or so. If you are sending acheck for fresh you need to send it yesterday!!

Here is a the beginning of the lavender harvest with the larger bundles which are as big around as our fingers can reach. We later weigh them all to be sure the count is correct and then arrange in nice neat bundles so we can mail them out wrapped in tissue the same day they are picked.

Use lavender to help ward off moths from your fiber stash. If you soak thestems, leaves, and buds in vinegar in a glass jar for 2 weeks and thenstrain and put in a spray bottle you'll have a wonderful cleaner that willrepel bugs (ants hate lavender) as well as clean your counters and help makeyour kitchen or studio smell wonderful!

One Bundle125+ StemsFresh Little Rascals Farm Lavender$17.95(Prices include Priority Shipping!)

Two Bundles250+ stems totalFresh Little Rascals Farm Lavendershipped to the same address$29.95(Prices include Priority Shipping!)

I prefer PayPal, but checks or money orders are acceptable too - REMEMBERit's a 2 week window for harvesting the lavender so you need to act quicklyto be sure we don't sell it all before your check arrives!!

Washing Mohair Fleeces

So here is the patio and my fleece washing station (until DH finds me a new spot). You can see I've got buckets for sinks and a planting flat to pour the fleeces/water into that serves as a strainer (see behind blue bucket on right). On the banister is Cinnamon's fleece, see Thursdays April 30th to see pics of me shearing him, he's so big I had to divide it up into two and use two 5gal buckets to wash it in.

Here you can see the cascading curls....each one is at least 8" long and some are double that. I didn't shear him for a year so I could see if I could use the longer curls in something like a fleece woven rug or perhaps in core spun yarn that I can weave or knit into a vest or what ever.

The one problem I've got with his fleece is that it's hard to dis-entangle the curls, I'm sure given an evening alone with my spinning wheel I'll figure something out.

Large Curd Cottage Cheese

Well, today I tried to make large curd cottage cheese. I used fresh goats milk, used about 7 drops of that calcium cloride stuff to help make the curd harder, and followed instructions to the letter.......















As you can see the curds didn't hold their shape but it still tastes great!! So its' not a total success but at least it's eadible!! I think next time I'll add more of the calcium cloride and see if it makes a difference. Perhaps I'll make vegi lasgna tonight for dinner and use this as one would use ricotta, could be good.