Seed Starting Time

First i need to apologize for not blogging about my seeds this year. After last years disastrous results I guess it wasn't that important, but then it is since I haven't given up and have started my seeds this year and got lots of new ones back in January.

Something that I learned last year was to start not only the cool weather veggies yearly, but also start the perennial and herb seeds early. Last year some of them didn't even germinate and the rest were small when I planted them out side and didn't even survive. If there are any that don't come up then I can start them again and see if I can get them to germinate. If not then I just can't grow that stubborn plant, so it the plants lose any way.

Some new seeds that I got this year are asparagus, artichokes, rhubarb, scaly bark watermelon, melon, peanuts, some new dye herbs. I got milk weed, because I found out that you can use it to spin flax. I know what your thinking the seed fluff, nope that is to brittle and will break down of time. But it has been used for stuffing in life jackets so they will float. I'm told the fiber are hallow and that is the reason they work. The part that you use in spinning is the stem, you don't have to rett the stem after they are dry. You can bend the dry stems to realise the outer casing and expose the inner fiber, then you hackle it like flax.

I'm also going to try Jerusalem artichokes, they are not here yet since I could only get they tubers. I would suspect that the will arrive just in time for planting. We shall wait and see.

I also got a soil test kit just to make sure the soil at the farm is alive. Not so much alive because there are plenty of worms in it in the spring when I plant. I guess I just want to make sure everything is in the ranges they are supposed to be at. Since they farm was turned in to a nursery there are a lot of full grown trees and bushes. They may have taken a lot of the nutrients out of the soil. I can't do any tests though since the mountain is still covered in about six inches of snow. They are saying that its going up into the fifties this weekend I hope so then I can get some soil sample and plan out the garden this year.

I've been stalling on the planning out, until I know how many plants and what soil amendment I may have to do. Amending the is the problem so much as knowing how many plant I will have.

Farm Show

I was able to make it to the PA Farm Show last week. Had a blast like I always do, for the first time I finally was able to find the sheep barn. Which was totally cool while I was petting one of the sheep there buddy came over to me. So they checked me out by reaching there head up to sniff my face and for about a minute we were nose to nose. That was so cool (sorry I don’t have a picture my husband wasn’t thinking). I wanted to take home and Angora bunny I just couldn’t figure out how to sneak it out of the place. I do believe that there where more Alpacas this year they are always fun. No fiber goats though, so may be next year.



I was able to sit through two demo’s, one on honey and the other maple syrup. They where both good demos, the one on honey was more informative. Such as did you know that one hive holds ninety pounds honey and you are able to eat the wax your body is able to digest it. That was all so cool. The maple syrup demo was shorter but informative. Maple sap has about 2 to 2.3 percent sugar in it, when its reduced to syrup it has between 60 and 70 percent sugar. You can harvest the sap for about six weeks and you need to remove about eighty percent of the water from the sap to get the syrup. I thought that was all cool as well.

I did make it to the Sheep to Shawl competition when it was over. I got there a little after five and they were done with the weaving. Rat’s I don’t sit fir the whole think but I do like to watch some of it. A disappointing thing there where only five groups competing this year. I wasn’t able to get all the names of the groups but I did get final prices of the shawls as they where sold. The prices are below, I’m busy busy busy so I will talk later.




Sheep to Shawl

First place - $800.00
Second Place - $500.00 scholarship and another $400.00
Third Place - $1300.00
Fourth Place - $300.00
Fifth Place - $400.00

Fleece to Shawl

First place - $300.00
Second Place - $400.00
Third Place - $300.00
Fourth Place - $475.00
Fifth Place - $175.00

Fleece Auction

Now one of the main reasons, O who am I kidding the main reason I go to the farm show is for the fleece auction. This immediately follows the shawl auction. This year I was able to save up a little money to purchase may be four fleeces depending on the price. This is instead of my normal one or two which I usually get. Well just say I went a little crazy and got seven fleeces, O’ boy that’s a lot of fleece. I always wanted to work with a black fleece and gray fleece. This year I was able to get a black fleece but no gray, on the other hand I did get a cow fleece (a sheep’s fleece that is spotted like a cow). So if nothing else I have a lot of work to do. I have provided picture of the fleeces below for your drooling enjoyment.

Cow fleece.

The purple ribbon fleece is the Grand Champion of the colored fleeces and it's also the black fleece.

Washing Fleece

I have decided to show how I wash my fleece, since a couple of previous tries the wool felted. So this is my way of helping someone who may need help with cleaning there fleece. I will start off that my way does take a while and everyone does do it differently. There is no right or wrong way to do it just the way that best fits you and keeps the wool from felting.

The first think you need to do is skirt the fleece, which means to remove any vegetable matter and dung tags. If there are any second cuts or breakage you want to remove them as well. If you have a dryer you can use that for this step with no heat and on air fluff. If not then you have to do it by hand, I also give the fleece a little shake which helps and you may want to do this out side since it is a dirty job.

This is the first step that I do in washing fleece. I let it soak in cold water with nothing added. Some people say that there is a lot of sweat and silt that only will come out this way. Others say it will come out in the detergent wash. I doo it this way because I feel it gets cleaner and you don't use that much soap since your onlly removeing the lanolin and not the dirt as well. If you feel you don't need to do this step then don't or maybe you have never done this step and should give it a try. While the fleece is in the water cold or hot I never agitate it in any way, all I do is let it soak. This is how I keep it from felting.

Here the fleece is draing from the clear water bath.

Here I have the fleece soaking in hot soapy water. I use hot tap water that is 140 degrees to that I add a tablespoon of Borax and Laundry detergent. I decrease the amount of Borax and detergent each time I change the water. I never agitate the fleece I remove it from the water and let the water drain out, the fleece stays in the water for twenty minutes. This batch of fleece took four baths to get all the lanolin out of it. You keep changing the water till you have soap bubbles left. Then I rinse the fleece in the same manner in clear water and I decrease the temperature of the water to cool the fleece down and the water come out clear. This took about four water changes as well.

This is the nice clean fleece before I placed it in the trays I gently squeezed out the excess water. The goal is to have the fleece to look them same as when you started but clean.

This is the fleece drying to the left is the heat vent not shown. I got these crates a while back from a plant auction you typically see them at Easter time with Tulips and Lily's in them.

This is how I was my fleece if there is any thing that can help you out use it. If you see any improvements let me know. But all in all just have fun with it.

Cheese

We made are first hard cheeses, a wheel of Monterey Jack and Gouda. The process from milk to pressing curd takes about three hours. Once its pressed in the mold it really becomes sold the Monterey Jack has three pounds of weight four fifteen minute on the first round. That was just enough of weight to make it a sold mass that didn’t crumble when handled for the next weight. Both cheeses take about three months to age so we won’t be eating and until Easter. The next ones we are going to try are a couple of Cheddars, cheese making is so fun.

New Year 2010

A very Happy New Year to everyone. One year ago today I started this blog, I wasn’t able to blog as much as I would have liked to this past year. So this year I will have to work on that.
I really never talked about the garden last year because it was a flop. It was so cold last summer that nothing really grew. So I just left it alone for the year and I’m starting to plan out this years garden. The way the winter has been thus far I am hopeful that this summer will be normal for this area.

I never got all my weaving done that I wanted to last year so I will be working on that this year as well. I do know that when I have the veggie stand open in the summer it will be much harder. Maybe I will have something figured out so that I can weave while I’m working the stand. We shall see how that works out.

I am also hopeful on getting out a little more on small adventures and blogging about them as well. I don’t have any thing planned but then the spontaneity is usually the best method. I really don’t have any idea of what the adventures maybe so we’ll wait and see.

One last thing we are working on getting some chickens. These will be for egg production and not meat. There hasn’t been any decision on what type of chicken or the total number as of yet. We are working on that as well as getting a chicken coop put together. So as that gets going you’ll here about that.

So again a Happy New Year to everyone, and may this year be fun filled, healthy and prosperous for every one.

Basket of Fiber

A couple of weeks ago a friend had contacted me to stop by her place to pick up something she had gotten me at an auction. Since schedules where not working out she had dropped what she had for me at my in-laws and I picked it up there. What it turned out to be was a large basket of fiber. She was telling me about it and wasn’t sure what all was there. Her thinking was wool, linen and maybe some cotton singles. Since she doesn’t spin she didn’t really know the difference or how to figure it all out or at least try to.

When I got the basket home and was able to go through it I found what I hoped to be some really cool treasures. The first think that kind of sucked though was nothing was marked. So I have to do some testing and research to figure out what I had. More testing though which I will explain.

I found a lot of wool some very soft and other not good for wearable’s. All of it but one small amount was cleaned and some was even dyed. What it was dyed with I’ll never know at a guess I would say a synthetic dye. Yet it could have been natural who knows. The natural colors were white, charcoal grey and dark brown. The last one I thought may have been Bison since we do have a farm in the valley but examining it closer I believe it to be wool. The last time I had some Bison in my had, there wasn’t any crimp to it and this does, so will go with wool.

Then I found a bag of mixed bags with small amounts of fiber in them. With in that bag I found what I thought to be silk, angora (bunny), and cotton I found some curly locks that I really don’t know what it is and some more wool. The more testing came at this point I wanted to test some of the fiber to make sure they where natural. So to do that I did the burn test, you take a small amount of fiber and burn it. If it smells like burning hair then there is a good chance it is natural. I say good chance because it could be mixed with a synthetic, so a second test it to place it in a strong alkaline. The reason you do this is all the protein fibers will be dissolved by the alkaline in this case bleach. If there is any synthetic fibers in the mix they would not be touch by the bleach. So after letting the fibers set in the bleach I determined that they where real.

So what I believe to have is a lot of wool of different types, some silk since it is a gold color I will guess and say tussah silk, a small amount of cotton. Some angora and I’m stumped on the curly locks, there not very soft so I really not sure where they came from. The final think that was in the basket was a hand made Lazy Kate. Which also had four home made spools, a cone of rug wool and some hand spun yarn. So all in all it was a really cool gift.