The Reluctant Farmer just said:
"I'm gonna have to try playing with a piece of dirt someday."
... pause...
"Well, the cats get so much enjoyment out of it, I must be missing something."
07 July 2008
Socks for The Reluctant Farmer
I finally finished a new pair of socks for The Reluctant Farmer. 
They are made from handspun wool: the brown strand is naturally brown Corriedale, from a fleece I bought online, and the white is Columbia/Hampshire. The wool spun up into a nice thin sock yarn, and I knit these up on the lovely wooden needles that The Boy got me for Christmas.
I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's "afterthought heels" , since I have never yet met anyone who is as hard on socks as The Reluctant Farmer and there is no doubt that I'll be replacing heels in these socks in the future. The afterthought heel can be pulled out and redone, so it's made for mending.
I don't think I like them quite so much as the socks made the usual way (with traditionally turned heel) but they have the advantage of being flexible and easy to work on: you can knit the whole sock then figure out where the heel should go, and put it in afterwards, and they'll be easy to repair.
I'm just happy that I got them finished before the next round of cold weather arrives. I'm terribly slow at finishing socks!
They are made from handspun wool: the brown strand is naturally brown Corriedale, from a fleece I bought online, and the white is Columbia/Hampshire. The wool spun up into a nice thin sock yarn, and I knit these up on the lovely wooden needles that The Boy got me for Christmas.
I used Elizabeth Zimmerman's "afterthought heels" , since I have never yet met anyone who is as hard on socks as The Reluctant Farmer and there is no doubt that I'll be replacing heels in these socks in the future. The afterthought heel can be pulled out and redone, so it's made for mending.
I don't think I like them quite so much as the socks made the usual way (with traditionally turned heel) but they have the advantage of being flexible and easy to work on: you can knit the whole sock then figure out where the heel should go, and put it in afterwards, and they'll be easy to repair.
I'm just happy that I got them finished before the next round of cold weather arrives. I'm terribly slow at finishing socks!
02 July 2008
Independence Days, addendum
I forgot a category, and I have something to add to it, too!
Work on Local Food Systems
We picked up more beef from our 4-H beef leaders, who sell from the farm. Nothing quite like Alberta Beef raised by your friends!
The Reluctant Farmer discovered that we can get bison meat from the beef family's neighbour, and the neighbour happens to be the person who purchased The Boy's market lamb at Achievement Day (and then gave it back to him in an act of amazing generosity!). We are happy to support his business, that's for sure!
And last but not least, I finalized the sale of our first two lambs that are going from the packers directly to a customer. Now that's exciting!
Work on Local Food Systems
We picked up more beef from our 4-H beef leaders, who sell from the farm. Nothing quite like Alberta Beef raised by your friends!
The Reluctant Farmer discovered that we can get bison meat from the beef family's neighbour, and the neighbour happens to be the person who purchased The Boy's market lamb at Achievement Day (and then gave it back to him in an act of amazing generosity!). We are happy to support his business, that's for sure!
And last but not least, I finalized the sale of our first two lambs that are going from the packers directly to a customer. Now that's exciting!
01 July 2008
Independence Days update
Wow, it's time for an update already! Let's see what we have done:
Planted
Didn't plant anything new, as I have no empty spaces in the garden! :) I did make a start on supports for the pea and bean plants, but I have more to do there. I have done some weeding, added mulch (the bunny bedding makes great mulch) and I hooked up another hose to make watering simpler.
Harvested
Not yet ... although the potatoes and beets are looking like they might be about ready!
Preserved
Hmm ... nope.
Prepped
I will classify 'infrastructure work' under preparation this week, as we are trying hard to get our infrastructure solidly in place now, while we can afford to do things the way we would like. We put in posts for the third pasture, and today we put in more posts and ran wire and installed a gate to the main winter pasture in preparation for winter. Looking out the window just now, however, I see that the sheep are eating the grass outside the pasture ... so apparently we need to do a bit more work there.
Managed Reserves
I purchased several boxes of cereal that I found at a good price, so we won't need any of that for awhile.
Cooked something new
Nope, it's been a pretty hectic week.
Reduced Waste
We are reusing fence posts and fence wire in our infrastructure work, and today I gave away a tent trailer that we have no need of anymore to a friend who can make use of it. It was just taking up space here and selling it was going to be a headache ... so when he said he'd take it, I was thrilled!
Learned a new skill
I was the judge for a cattle costume competition at Focus on 4-H this weekend, does that count? It was certainly something completely new!
Planted
Didn't plant anything new, as I have no empty spaces in the garden! :) I did make a start on supports for the pea and bean plants, but I have more to do there. I have done some weeding, added mulch (the bunny bedding makes great mulch) and I hooked up another hose to make watering simpler.
Harvested
Not yet ... although the potatoes and beets are looking like they might be about ready!
Preserved
Hmm ... nope.
Prepped
I will classify 'infrastructure work' under preparation this week, as we are trying hard to get our infrastructure solidly in place now, while we can afford to do things the way we would like. We put in posts for the third pasture, and today we put in more posts and ran wire and installed a gate to the main winter pasture in preparation for winter. Looking out the window just now, however, I see that the sheep are eating the grass outside the pasture ... so apparently we need to do a bit more work there.
Managed Reserves
I purchased several boxes of cereal that I found at a good price, so we won't need any of that for awhile.
Cooked something new
Nope, it's been a pretty hectic week.
Reduced Waste
We are reusing fence posts and fence wire in our infrastructure work, and today I gave away a tent trailer that we have no need of anymore to a friend who can make use of it. It was just taking up space here and selling it was going to be a headache ... so when he said he'd take it, I was thrilled!
Learned a new skill
I was the judge for a cattle costume competition at Focus on 4-H this weekend, does that count? It was certainly something completely new!
26 June 2008
Honours for The Boy
Today was the last day of school for The Boy. We went to the awards ceremony, and were pleased to see that he received the Award of Excellence with Distinction, meaning he had grades of over 80% in all his core subjects. We are proud of him!
The surprise of the day was the results of the Royal Canadian Legion Poetry Contest. Not only did his poem win at the Branch level, but he got second place at the Area level too!
He wrote this back in the fall, with no help whatsoever from anyone.
I Miss You
I sit here in the rain
as I write to you,
remembering the things
we used to do.
In this freezing world
my feet are ice cold,
my body wet.
There are bombs expliding
a big threat.
The enemy planes overhead,
searching for the dead.
but I feel a bit safer
in this fox hole I made,
with two of my buddies with me,
the rest are all gone.
I'd like to see our baby girl
and hold her in my arms.
Tell her that I love her,
I miss our peaceful farm.
This is a very lonely night,
now I have to go back
and join the fight.
The surprise of the day was the results of the Royal Canadian Legion Poetry Contest. Not only did his poem win at the Branch level, but he got second place at the Area level too!
He wrote this back in the fall, with no help whatsoever from anyone.
I Miss You
I sit here in the rain
as I write to you,
remembering the things
we used to do.
In this freezing world
my feet are ice cold,
my body wet.
There are bombs expliding
a big threat.
The enemy planes overhead,
searching for the dead.
but I feel a bit safer
in this fox hole I made,
with two of my buddies with me,
the rest are all gone.
I'd like to see our baby girl
and hold her in my arms.
Tell her that I love her,
I miss our peaceful farm.
This is a very lonely night,
now I have to go back
and join the fight.
24 June 2008
Independence Days Update
My updates are unfortunately rather haphazard ... but we are done travelling now and home for the rest of the summer (insh'allah) so perhaps we'll get a bit more organized.
Hey, there is always hope.
So, what have we done lately?
Planted Definitely we've had activity in this category! The garden is now fenced in and it's clear which seedlings or transplants didn't take, so there are 'known empty spaces' to be filled. Some seeds were replanted (I had no luck with several of my herbs and a couple of pumpkins and tomatoes succumbed to one disaster or another). More carrots were put in, some wheat (that's an experiment ... if it grows, it'll be good winter chicken food), and I tried again with some of the herbs. We'll see if they take.
Harvested Today I harvested the first things from our garden! I got enough tiny radishes to have them with dinner. See below for what I did with them. :)
Preserved Hmm ... nope, no preserving. That'll come a bit later.
Prepped One of the people at work had a bag of clothes for a girl a fair bit older than Princess Girl, but thought I might be able to make use of these clothes. Absolutely! There are coats and shirts and tights and skirts ... mostly they won't fit for several years, but there's a jacket that will probably fit this winter and a purple satin cap that's already been worn. :) The rest will live happily in the Bin downstairs until there is need for it.
Managed Reserves I have been terribly remiss in handling the reserves this past while. The pantry is just ... there. At the start of July I'll make a special grocery trip on the sale Tuesday to stock up on some of the things that are getting low.
Cooked something new I tried something new with the radishes! I had no idea you could eat radish greens. I sliced the radishes, sauteed them in butter until they were golden (okay a bit more than golden, I was distracted) and then tossed in the greens and sauteed them too. It wasn't exactly a big hit, but it's highly nutritious, I mostly liked it, and nobody had a big problem with it. I'll keep trying, I saw a recipe for making soup from the radish tops, with onions and potatoes. Given the way the potatoes are growing, we should have lots of those!
Reduced waste I think I have finally gotten my family trained to use the reusable shopping bags. On our vacation, we stopped at a grocery store to get some bread and fruit - the kids and The Reluctant Farmer went inside and I was getting lunch ready. I realized after they'd gone that the reusable bags were all still hanging by the door! Oh brother, I thought, he'll come back with plastic bags. Just as I thought this, I looked out and saw each person carrying something ... and not a bag in sight! The Reluctant Farmer said the cashier offered a bag and he said no, she'll throw a fit if I come out with plastic! I have lots of helpers, we'll just carry it as it is. Yay!
Learned a new skill While we were on Vancouver Island, we realized that The Boy had forgotten his belt. He's very skinny and any jeans that are long enough to fit are too big in the waist, so this is a problem. His grandfather offered him rope, but he declined. I had just purchased a book on various needlework and fibre techniques, so I used some of my wool to make a five strand braided belt. I'd never done five strand braiding before, so that was new. The belt worked, mostly, although it was too narrow to be ideal, but it was a good experiment. I saw instructions for 8 strand braiding too ... now that'd be neat.
I think this next bit might fall under 'prepped' ... or maybe 'practice runs for times when things don't work'. Our hot water heater controller has bitten the dust - the thing was buzzing disconcertingly when we returned from vacation, and eventually stopped working altogether. Our hot water is heated by the boiler, but the tank has electronics that control the heating ... so no electronics, no hot water out of the tap. We will be able to replace the controller widget, but it takes time to order one in. We've been washing dishes with water heated on the stove, and bathing in the swimming pool (heated by the amazing solar heater - thank goodness it is summer).
Just this morning, The Reluctant Farmer said "You know, we do have a hot water tank. It's in the motorhome." So, tonight we showered in our home away from home ... at home. It's a backup of sorts, and my goodness am I glad to have it!
The Reluctant Farmer has been investigating passive solar water heating systems. We think we'll add one of those to our list of 'good things'. :)
Hey, there is always hope.
So, what have we done lately?
Planted Definitely we've had activity in this category! The garden is now fenced in and it's clear which seedlings or transplants didn't take, so there are 'known empty spaces' to be filled. Some seeds were replanted (I had no luck with several of my herbs and a couple of pumpkins and tomatoes succumbed to one disaster or another). More carrots were put in, some wheat (that's an experiment ... if it grows, it'll be good winter chicken food), and I tried again with some of the herbs. We'll see if they take.
Harvested Today I harvested the first things from our garden! I got enough tiny radishes to have them with dinner. See below for what I did with them. :)
Preserved Hmm ... nope, no preserving. That'll come a bit later.
Prepped One of the people at work had a bag of clothes for a girl a fair bit older than Princess Girl, but thought I might be able to make use of these clothes. Absolutely! There are coats and shirts and tights and skirts ... mostly they won't fit for several years, but there's a jacket that will probably fit this winter and a purple satin cap that's already been worn. :) The rest will live happily in the Bin downstairs until there is need for it.
Managed Reserves I have been terribly remiss in handling the reserves this past while. The pantry is just ... there. At the start of July I'll make a special grocery trip on the sale Tuesday to stock up on some of the things that are getting low.
Cooked something new I tried something new with the radishes! I had no idea you could eat radish greens. I sliced the radishes, sauteed them in butter until they were golden (okay a bit more than golden, I was distracted) and then tossed in the greens and sauteed them too. It wasn't exactly a big hit, but it's highly nutritious, I mostly liked it, and nobody had a big problem with it. I'll keep trying, I saw a recipe for making soup from the radish tops, with onions and potatoes. Given the way the potatoes are growing, we should have lots of those!
Reduced waste I think I have finally gotten my family trained to use the reusable shopping bags. On our vacation, we stopped at a grocery store to get some bread and fruit - the kids and The Reluctant Farmer went inside and I was getting lunch ready. I realized after they'd gone that the reusable bags were all still hanging by the door! Oh brother, I thought, he'll come back with plastic bags. Just as I thought this, I looked out and saw each person carrying something ... and not a bag in sight! The Reluctant Farmer said the cashier offered a bag and he said no, she'll throw a fit if I come out with plastic! I have lots of helpers, we'll just carry it as it is. Yay!
Learned a new skill While we were on Vancouver Island, we realized that The Boy had forgotten his belt. He's very skinny and any jeans that are long enough to fit are too big in the waist, so this is a problem. His grandfather offered him rope, but he declined. I had just purchased a book on various needlework and fibre techniques, so I used some of my wool to make a five strand braided belt. I'd never done five strand braiding before, so that was new. The belt worked, mostly, although it was too narrow to be ideal, but it was a good experiment. I saw instructions for 8 strand braiding too ... now that'd be neat.
I think this next bit might fall under 'prepped' ... or maybe 'practice runs for times when things don't work'. Our hot water heater controller has bitten the dust - the thing was buzzing disconcertingly when we returned from vacation, and eventually stopped working altogether. Our hot water is heated by the boiler, but the tank has electronics that control the heating ... so no electronics, no hot water out of the tap. We will be able to replace the controller widget, but it takes time to order one in. We've been washing dishes with water heated on the stove, and bathing in the swimming pool (heated by the amazing solar heater - thank goodness it is summer).
Just this morning, The Reluctant Farmer said "You know, we do have a hot water tank. It's in the motorhome." So, tonight we showered in our home away from home ... at home. It's a backup of sorts, and my goodness am I glad to have it!
The Reluctant Farmer has been investigating passive solar water heating systems. We think we'll add one of those to our list of 'good things'. :)
A really super cool birthday gift
A couple of days ago, I recieved a parcel in the mail from my sister, who lives in Lithuania. Inside was a plastic bag filled with raw sheep's wool, and a postcard from Ireland, inscribed very simply "Happy Birthday".
Surely something was missing.
Where was the story?
I mean ... I knew she and her husband had gone back to Lithuania from Canada via Ireland ... and I knew there were sheep in Ireland ... but ... that's just not enough pieces to build a cohesive narrative.
Today, I got an email from my sister with the rest of the tale:
My sister is a stunningly talented writer. She is also stubborn and determined to accomplish what she sets her mind to ... and how lucky for me that this time, she set her mind to acquiring European fleece for me to spin!
I have already washed, carded and spun some of the wool. It's delightfully crimpy, and is working up into a lovely midweight yarn. I think I'll make it into something with Aran cables. After all, it's Irish wool!
Suggestions...?
Surely something was missing.
Where was the story?
I mean ... I knew she and her husband had gone back to Lithuania from Canada via Ireland ... and I knew there were sheep in Ireland ... but ... that's just not enough pieces to build a cohesive narrative.
Today, I got an email from my sister with the rest of the tale:
Now isn't that quite the story?Yup, there's a story! It was supposed to be accompanied by pictures, but we have searched all of our memory cards and can't find the photos from our stop. I was really* hoping we'd find them, but it looks like something went wrong (like, just maybe there wasn't a memory card in the camera at the time - oops!).
So...I had really really wanted to bring you some Lithuanian fleece for your birthday when we came to Canada. I hunted and hunted (and hunted), but couldn't find any, or anyone who could tell me where to find some. Most of the sheep places are further to the east, and without a car and a grip on Lithuanian agricultural language, it was impossible to work something out. Anyway, my second option was to find some fleece in Ireland. This seemed at least linguistically manageable, so as soon as we were off the plane, I started looking for places. I did some asking around, and a nice lady at a woolens shop suggested that I ask a sheep farmer.
While we were driving around the winding back roads of Ireland, we passed a big sheep farm, and I made Nathan turn the car around and go back (not easy on those one-lane, skinny roads!). It looked like the kind of place that raises sheep for a living - lots of big sheds, and tons of pasture. I went up to the front door and knocked, waited, and knocked some more, but no one came. I was sooooo disappointed, but I think Nathan was relieved. "Are you seriously going to ring their doorbell and ask them for fleece?" Hey - I was on a mission.
The next evening, while we were headed out for supper from the castle tower, we drove around yet another bend in the road, and lo-and-behold...there were two kids and two guys out wrangling sheep and doing the shearing! There was a small dip at the edge of the road, so I told Nathan to quickly pull over. We got out of the car, and I ran across the road to the fence where the guys were working. The older guy, who I think was the owner, was directing sheep traffic and watching as the other guy wrestled the sheep and sheared them. They were inside a small fenced area, and he had the electric clippers hooked up to a tall metal rigging. The owner guy was super friendly, and said "hello" even while I was on my way over. I said "hi" and asked how the shearing was going. They had just gotten started, and the worker guy was fighting to keep the sheep he was shearing on it's back. I told the owner guy that I had a weird question, and wanted to know if he had any fleece for sale. I told him that my sister in Canada has a few sheep and does her own carding and spinning. He hardly even blinked, and just said "oh, sure" and walked over to the fleece that was piling up as it came off the sheep the shearing guy was holding. He scooped up a handful, then wrapped it around a few times until he had a bunch, came back to me and said, "is that good?" It was *fresh* off the sheep - I saw those bits come off! I asked him how much, but he just said "bah" and waved me away. We watched the sheaing for a few more minutes, and they smiled for the camera (man, I wish those had worked out!). The sheaing guy had a big grin on his face the whole time - I think he was getting a kick out of it, and he was super nice to us. The owner guy told me they were Suffolk sheep, and the farm was just outside of Navan, Ireland. The area was beautiful, with rolling green hills, and lush trees bending in archways over the road. I'm pretty sure those were some very happy sheep!
Anyway, that is what I was determined to get you for your birthday, and I am sooooo glad that it made it to you! We mailed it from a little post office on the edge of Dublin (also no easy feat - traffic in Ireland is crazy!). I saw the post office, and yelled "stop!" I had my Tim Horton's cup in my hand (did I tell you we found a Tim Horton's coffee-from-a-machine place at a gas station outside Dublin? Too cool!), we parked illegally at the gas station, ran across the road, stole a box from the stack of unpacking that the lady at the convenience store was doing (well, I think she was tossing them anyway), bought a role of tape, and packed it up on the floor of this little convenience store/post-office place. We smelled like sheep, but it was worth it!
Hope you enjoy your fleece - we had fun getting it!
D&N
My sister is a stunningly talented writer. She is also stubborn and determined to accomplish what she sets her mind to ... and how lucky for me that this time, she set her mind to acquiring European fleece for me to spin!
I have already washed, carded and spun some of the wool. It's delightfully crimpy, and is working up into a lovely midweight yarn. I think I'll make it into something with Aran cables. After all, it's Irish wool!
Suggestions...?
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