Ice,Ice,Baby......

Yesterday it rained all day,which was great for getting rid of some of the snow we have. Of course,we still have 2-3 feet,but it's a start!

This morning we have freezing rain. I am surprised that there wasn't at least a two hour delay for school,but it started on time. Our local channel is calling for some ice accumulation. All I have to do look outside-no one had to tell me that!

Ice hanging off the branches:

The deck is a wee bit slippery:

Ice everywhere!

You can hear the freezing rain hitting the roof and deck outside.The salt truck has been going back and forth. It's a good day to look over my seed stock and make some more laundry soap. Guess I will wait until tomorrow to go grocery shopping!

Buy Hay While The Sun Shines

Since we don't have a hay field,we have to buy feed hay and bedding hay for the sheep. It's a far cry from the chapters in the "Little House" books where Pa is out in the sunshine cutting his hay and putting it up for the animals for the winter,and in the case of "The Long Winter," used as a heating source to keep them from freezing to death.

We called one of our local farm,Top of The Hill Farm, in Wolfboro. We got their contact from Colonial Acres Farm,where we purchased the sheep.Admittedly,we had been buying our hay from our small local hardware/farming store where we buy our chicks and chicken feed,but a few weeks ago they ran out of feed hay,and we needed some,so we pulled out Top of Hill's business card and gave the Frederickson's a call.

Thankfully,they did have some feed hay left,so we made arrangements to go over and get some bales. Rick hitched our trailer to the truck,and Zach,Richie,and I piled in to the truck. It was a family excursion,which made it really cool.

The first thing you notice about Top of the Hill is....it's on top of quite a hill. I would liken it to more like a small mountain. I loved their set up-greenhouse,barns,lots of acreage,and a gorgeous view of the lakes and mountains. Rick noticed the farm equipment first (of course!) The second thing you noticed was how cold it was! Being that high up,there is usually a good breeze blowing,and that day it was pretty bitter,coming off the lakes. It must be nice in the summer,though,to keep the black flies and mosquitoes at bay.

Alan (Dad),Erik(son) and Anna (daughter) were all outside doing various chores. The chickens were walking around the yard,the cattle were talking amongst themselves,and there must've been a hundred songbirds in chorus.  We chatted with Alan a bit,then drove the truck over to the barn to load up the hay. Erik went up into the hayloft and threw down the 20 bales we wanted. Rick and Zach loaded them into our trailer. Alan was apologetic-he had had surgery recently and couldn't lift anything heavy for a while. Anna was busy with the cows. Alan proudly told us that Anna's steer won Grand Champion Market Steer last year at the Fryeburg Fair in ME,and her Spring heifer had won in 2012 in as well. I stood by,chatted with Alan,and just took everything in. 

Once we were loaded up,we asked Alan about his beef (they sell grass-fed beef and pork!) and we went into his garage to look over various cuts of meat. We bought  a slab of bacon and a London broil.( Both wound up being the best we have ever tasted).

The hay was a dollar cheaper a bale and better than the ones we had been buying.Plus,we it felt better helping out a local farmer!

When we got home,it was time to unload the trailer:

The Ladies were waiting:

The chickens have begun laying again,and lately we have been averaging four- five eggs a day. Hopefully we will be able to start selling eggs again soon.


We are still buried in snow. Thankfully a snowstorm that is hitting MA today is staying to the south of us. This March has been much colder than normal,and I think everyone is ready for some warmer days. We have been getting some sap,but nothing like we should be. I doubt we will even get half a gallon of syrup this year.

 I needed some cheerful color,so I bought a handful of daffodils to bring some Spring into the house:

I enjoy watching the birds out my kitchen window. So far I have seen Robins,Cardinals,Chickadees,Mourning Doves,Slate Colored Juncos. We have also had White Breasted Nuthatches,like this little guy:

Today Zach is home recovering from the flu. He was very sick on Monday night into yesterday,and spent most of the day sleeping. Today he feels better,but is very tired and is still running a fever,so we kept him home again. Rick was just outside walking the dogs,and The Ladies were calling to him. It's so cool to hear them bleat. They chat with us every day! Time to go feed them and the chickens.

Stay warm!

Sap Is Running! No Wait,It's Not.....

It has been a couple of years since we tapped our trees,and this year we decided to give it a go again.

We sure picked a year with mighty strange weather for it.

If you are not familiar with making maple syrup,let me enlighten you! Maple trees,as you know,carry sap,which when it's boiled down,creates maple syrup. However,the weather dictates when and how long the sap runs. Usually sap season is about 6 weeks long,and tends to begin near the end of February-early March. Ideal weather is sunny,with daytime temps at  40-45 degrees and night time temps below freezing,though we have had sap run in the past with temps in the upper 30s during the day.This time of year, upper 30's-mid 40's daytime temps is fairly typical. However,this year is anything but.

The weather forecast at the end of last week seemed to predict pretty consistent day time temps of upper 30's to  low 40's,and the day we decided to tap the trees was balmy for this time of year in NH( it was in the upper 50's in the sun by our thermometer) so we knew the sap would be running.

We washed all our buckets and spouts with boiling hot water-you don't want to use any soap. Rick got his drill and trusty old 7/16 bit drill with a 3/8 shank,and I carried the buckets and spouts (oh,and the camera!)

We only have Red and Silver Maples on our property,but you can still tap them. The syrup is lighter than what you would get from a Sugar Maple,but we still find it quite delicious. We had to make sure that we we kept a ways from the old holes from previous sap collection years ( at least 6 or so inches)so we had to find the old hole areas first. Trees 18"- 20" in diameter can take one tap;anything over can take 2. Some folks say to use no more than two taps per tree.

The hole should be about 2 feet from the ground. It was a bit tricky figuring that out,since we still have 3 feet of snow in some areas,but we did the best we could. The south side of the tree is best,but if you have more than one tap you should put move it to another area of the tree. 

Here is Rick drilling a hole. It should be slanted upwards,to help the sap flow. It's also good to do over a root,if you can see the root! Not in our yard. We could walk across it in some spots,in others we sank down almost to our knees.

See the sap pouring out of the hole? The sap is running!

Tap your spout into the tree with a hammer. You can tell if you have seated it in the hole enough if the sap runs down the spout. If not,the sap will run on the sides of the tap. Sometimes,the sap will not run,and you have to seat the spout a bit more to get it going.

Place your hook on the spout,then hang the bucket on the hook. I tried to get a photo of the sap dripping into the bucket,but couldn't. It was great to hear the tap-tap-tap sound of the sap landing in the metal pails around the yard.

Place a cover over the bucket. This will keep rain,snow,and assorted debris out.

Ta Da!

It certainly was a gorgeous day!

Unfortunately,the weather turned and we got a day with strong winds that made temps go below freezing,which stopped the sap flow,then a warmer day came,and the sap started to run again. Maple syrup producers have been less than happy with our colder than normal temperatures.It is making the season shorter. Sap season ends when buds start coming out on the trees-usually the end of March-beginning of April. When the buds come out,the sap will turn bitter.

We have 12 buckets going. We will see what happens!

Teaching An Old Dog A New Trick

I love to learn. I love to read about history,and how to do things that I have never done before. I am more of a cerebral learner,though,meaning that I am all about reading and thinking about what I have learned,but doing things hands on that I have never tired before really intimidate me. I tend to think about something for a long time before I can bring myself to attempt it. It doesn't matter what it is. I have to be mentally prepped for it. Strange,I know,but I is who I is!

I finally decided to buy a sewing machine. Zach and Rick both needed  new scout shirts,so all their patches need to be transferred over from their old shirts. I can do a bit of hand sewing-I can sew patches on a shirt,but it takes a long time and I usually wind up with the shirt sewn to my pants.I can sew a button back on,but I usually cross my fingers to will it  because I never know if it's going to stay put. Rick is an excellent sewer,and faster than I,but he has enough on his plate.It's something I have wanted to learn,because I would love to make my curtains,quilts,etc.

I bought the machine a couple weeks ago. I took it out of the box,and read the manual and found what was what and what goes where. That was enough for me for one day.

I figured out what thread I needed to buy,and that was an experience in it's self. Who know there was different threads for different projects! I thought thread was thread!!

Yesterday,I finally worked up the gumption to work the machine. I had my instruction book,and the red thread for the first patch. Was I actually going to sew the patches? No way! All I was ready to do was operate it and practice a simple stitch.

I put it on the table and eyed it for a couple of minutes. It sat there,mocking me. What? You afraid of me?? Wimp! !Come on,thread me,I dare you!!! 

I breathed deep,read the instructions for threading a bobbin,and began.

I did mess up starting the bobbin at first. I didn't thread it correctly,but I figured out my error and started over.

What do you know??? I actually began sewing. I had an old t shirt that I used to practice the basic stitch with. Lennon decided to get in on the action:

I was so excited by the simplicity of it,that I tried a few other stitch patterns-ones I didn't have change the foot for.

Take that,Brother CS6000i!! You did not defeat me!! Your mocking tone and Mean Girl vibe did not put me off!

Turn Your Scraps Into Black Gold-Compost!!

It has been many a moon since I posted last.It seems like life got in the way,and that happens to us all.

However,I am back,and am going to chat about one of my loves-compost!

If you garden,compost is your best friend. It's even better when you create it with items from your yard,your kitchen,and the poo from from some farm animals. It saves lots of money-you don't have to buy it,and,depending on the size of your garden,that can get mighty expensive. Who needs that?

Our compost pile started with a huge pile of leaves and pine needles that we raked up. When we got chickens,their poo and straw were added. Then,we started adding kitchen scraps. We went from one pile to this:

Pile to the left is pure composted soil. The other two are in the process of being broken down. We now actually have one more section that we have added for soil,and of course,we now have sheep poo to add to the mix.

Composting kitchen scraps is very easy,and you would be surprised at what you can compost. At first,we used a 5 gallon bucket,but it start smelling after a bit. We then went to a counter top container:

 This is a one gallon container that has a filter in the lid to help keep unwanted odors at bay. Some of the items that you can compost from the kitchen are:
-egg shells
-coffee grounds
-veggie and fruit scraps
-paper towel and toilet paper cardboard rolls(ripped up)
-used paper towels (nothing with a cleaner on them,and you have to rip them up)
-dryer lint
-tea leaves

Of course,being in a one gallon container,it will have to be emptied on a regular basis.

Outdoor items to compost:
-Leaves,pine needles
-grass clippings
-plants from your garden
-straw,hay
-flowers,cuttings
-farm animal poo ( bear in mind that how long the poo needs to compost depends on the animal. You need to read up what animal you have. Sheep,goats,and chickens don't take long to break down).

You pile all this together,and turn it on occasion. We started using a shovel,but our piles got so big that Rick now uses his tractor. If you see steam rising from the pile when you turn it,that is a good thing-it means that everything is working and breaking down. The first time Rick saw the steam,he didn't know what it meant-he thought it was going to combust!

After a few months,you will get lovely soil. It's even better if you see worms all through it-that means it's perfect!! We do still sift our soil,because sometimes something will get in there that doesn't belong. However,the soil is black gold goodness!!

Homemade Furniture Polish

I am always on the look out for new homemade cleaning ideas. 

We have this old Singer sewing machine:

The photo comes from the web. Ours is missing the knob on the upper right drawer and the wood is not so nice looking. I keep our cable box and DVD player on it.It serves as a great table. I would love to use it as a display piece because the sewing machine is so lovely,but I don't have the space for a display item that big.

I was looking at it the other day,and I wanted to give it some love in the form of polish.

There were very dry areas on the wood,as you can see,and some spots were cracked and coming up. Regular furniture polish wouldn't do,since it doesn't have a varnish on it. I looked around on the internet and found several of the same recipes. I tried it out  on this section:

It made quite a difference,so I tried it out on the front.This is before:

And this is after. The photos really don't do it justice.

Here is what i used...white vinegar and olive oil. Yep.That's it.

I didn't want to make a lot of it in case I didn't like the way it worked,so I only made a bit. The recipe is 3 olive oil to 1 vinegar,so I used three tablespoons oil to one tablespoon vinegar,shook it the combo,and rubbed it on the sewing machine with a cloth. I was able to polish the whole sewing machine with less than what I made. It absorbed nicely into the wood,and going on four days later it still looks fabulous!

Furniture polish for pennies on the dollar!!

Home Organization Binders

I had a home organizer binder for a few years now. It was a 3" binder,that was getting so very full that I had no room to put any more pages in it. It was also quite heavy. I had not only household organizing in it,but gardening and chicken info too. Well, now that we are expanding,I had to separate the home from the farm. My old binder was very boring. I perused various websites and found some nice ideas at http://strangersandpilgrimsonearth.blogspot.com/2013/03/keepers-at-home-home-management-binder.html. I liked the idea of photos and quotes,so I scoured the internet and made some pages of my own,thanks to her ideas. A great website for information pages ishttp://blog.worldlabel.com/2012/organizing-planner-the-harmonized-house-project.html. It has some info pages that you can download and just type the information right onto the pages! 

My home binder:

Here is an example of the beginning of the section for contact information:

In the home binder, I have the following sections:

-Contacts and Reference Information
 *Emergency Numbers
 *Family and Friends Contact Info
 *School Info
 *Medical Information
 *Website passwords
 *Utility,Insurance Info

-Homemaking Info
 * Daily,Weekly,Monthly and Seasonal To do lists
 * Homemade Cleaning Recipes 
 * Laundry Soap records ( how much I spend and how often I make it to see how much     money I save)
 *Essential Oil Information

-Blogging 
 *Ideas
 *Stats

I save ideas from magazines and incorporate them into the binder as well.



Farm information:

-Gardening

 *What is planted and dates

 *Square foot garden maps

 *Weights of harvests

 * What I sell and how much is earned ( New for this year!)

-Chickens

 *Number of chickens 

 *Egg records-gathered,sold,and how much earned

 * Feed records 

-Sheep

 *Health records,when it's time to trim hooves,etc

 * Record of feed hay and bedding hay,when bought and how much spent

 * Shearing Records-when sheared,how much collected

 * Yarn Records-weight and number of skeins spun, plants used for coloring,color records ( New for this year!)

-Goats ( new in Spring!)

 * Health records

 * Feed records

 *Birth records (2015)

 * Milk weight (2015)

 * Products produced ( milk,cheese,soap.etc) how much made,sold,and earned (2015)

Each binder is different for each person. What you want to keep track of depends on you! You will need:

-2" or 3" binders

-plastic paper protectors

-tabbed dividers ( if you wish to break down the main subjects more)

-stick on file tabs

To decided what subjects I wished to put in the organizers,I wrote everything I wanted to include  on a piece of paper. I chose the main topics,and then decided what information that I wanted to include in each one.

I have also made a binder for all the instruction booklets,warranties,and manuals for things  around the house,such as the computer,TVs,DVD player,fridge,oven,etc. I got tired of them slipping and sliding in the file cabinet. Now everything is in a page protector and is not going anywhere. I also made a binder for my knitting and crocheting patterns,and am working on one ( or more) for my family tree information. Right now I have several notebooks and folders that are jammed into the bottom drawer of the file cabinet,and I really need to free up the space.

A quick thank you to everyone who responded to my last post. You have no idea how comforting it is to read such wonderful,heartfelt support!