Waiting on spring…..still

I’ve been working on a lot of the same things lately.  Making more dryer balls, felting more soap, knitting more wrist warmers, crocheting more flowers for hat pins.  Not much that you haven’t already seen.  So I haven’t taken any pictures.

I went to Shepherd’s Harvest and it was fabulous.  I had a great time, met lots of old friends, made new friends, and talked a LOT!   It was wonderful.  But I didn’t take a single photo – so nothing to show you. 

I’ve started the Becker Farmer’s Market on Fridays from 3 – 6 PM.  The weather has not been very friendly, and traffic has been a bit slow.  There is not much to photograph – so again, nothing to show you. 

But yesterday, I helped Darryl finish the fence around our veggie garden.

The main garden

We now have a permanent fence of chicken netting.  Before we only had the nylon deer netting around the garden. 

Inside the main area

Several rows of plants are already up, but the bad weather and rain had prevented us from working on the fence. 

Peas in the side area

 The netting did work pretty well to keep the deer out, but raccoons would tear it to shreds and the old stuff was in rough shape.   We are hoping this will last a long time.  

And since we are talking gardening….

Phaleanopsis

…how about this beauty?  The buds were just setting last fall when I brought it in and it didn’t grow a bit most of the winter.  Slowly as it got more light this spring, the buds started swelling and today, May 28, it looks like this!  I believe this is an orchid Darryl got for me in the spring of 2011.   This is the first time to re-bloom.

What is it?

My farmer’s markets have ended.   But on my last day at the Becker Farmer’s Market I got these.  Don’t you love the colors!  

There are 10.

I had ordered them from another vendor at the Market – Beth of Willo Rain Pottery.  Do you know what they are?

Design on the inside

Do you recognize the yarn balls inside each one?  But they are not for yarn.  No, they are very small.

Now you know!

Yes, that gave it away!  They are tiny bowls to hold used tea bags.  I’ve been looking for these for a long time.  The yarn ball imprints are so fitting for me!  Check out Beth’s site for all the neat things she has made.   She makes cool rings to slide around the ends of your scarf – a perfect mate for an alpaca scarf that you can wear all day.

Getting back to normal

Things are slowly returning to normal – or at least a ‘workable’ normal.  All the drying / dehumidifying equipment is gone.  Wednesday is bread-baking day.

Freshly baked

I am able to get around my kitchen again – the baseboard has not been replaced yet, but that is only a minor inconvenience as the baseboard that was pulled off the walls is now outside awaiting the arrival of a dumpster!

Newly felted

I was also able to get these 10 bars of soap felted.  Five are vanilla, five are simple spice.  But in order to felt more soap, I’ll have to pull my table and carder out of the ‘room behind the plastic wall’!  That is on the agenda for this weekend.

Day #2 for the hired hand!

Well, today actually started last night!  Regular readers may remember this:

Skeins of yarn

This pile of yarn is destined to be wrist warmers, but first…

Winding into balls

The skeins must be wound into balls.  On the left, the skein winder is whirling so fast you can’t even see the black yarn on it.  But on the ball winder in front of Adam, you can see the ball taking shape. 

Balls of yarn

Soon Adam had wound all 22 skeins into 22 neat balls.  He said I could save this job for him to do whenever I needed to.   This morning started another work day.

Feeding the alpacas

Morning chores included feeding the cucumber peelings to the alpacas.  They like their veggies!

Washing windows

Next was a big job!  Washing windows – and we have a lot in our house.  Darryl did inside and the high ones.  Adam did the low ones. 

Cleaning screens

Even the screens got a cleaning.  As fast as Darryl could take them out and put them back, Adam had them all vacuumed clean.  What a great team they were today.   Adam is honing is felting skills.

Felting Soap

Here he is working on the last bar of today’s batch of soap.   Yesterday the scent was Stud Suds, today was Patchouli.  Though it may look the same, each day’s scent is different. 

Completed soap

And here is the finished product for today – drying outside.  Adam did the 3 bars felted with brown fiber.   He’s got the skill and nearly the speed to go pro!   After lunch, it was back to the garden.

Tomatoes and cucumbers

I found another bucket of tomatoes and three cucumbers on the floor.   I saw Adam coming from the garden with….

A sack of potatoes

this sack of potatoes he and Darryl had dug.   Soon we were off to the Becker Farmer’s Market.

Farmer's Market

Adam helped me set up for the market and hung out with me for a couple hours.  Then Darryl came into town and brought him home where he mowed the back lawn.   When I got home Adam was busy at the carder.

Carding fiber

Adam had set a goal to card 2 more batts of brown fiber and 2 batts of black.  We needed more black for the soap we will felt in the morning.  And that is it for Day #2.  Whew!  I’m tired.  Adam is still going!

Soap is done!

The last of my order of soap is compelted.  Felted, dried, labeled, photographed, listed online, blogged about!  Fini!

Lavender soap

This Lavender Soap is a big seller – favored by many.  This has a medium to strong scent of lavender.   However, lavender is not a favorite scent of mine. 

Almond Oatmeal

But this!  This is one of my favorite scents.  Almond Oatmeal has a fresh sweet scent of almonds – like the aroma of a shot of a nice amaretto liquer.   (Did I say that out loud?   Well, I’m way past 21.  Besides, I only smell it!)   Great for a relaxing bath or a soothing shower.  I’m talking about the soap, not the liquer.  You can’t drink in the shower, uless you have a sippy cup (not that I have ever done that!)  

All this soap and much more will be coming to a Farmer’s Market near you or online.   It makes a great gift for Dad!

Felting Soap

A few weeks back I got my order of soap from Caroldon Soap Company.   I am completely out of felted soap from last year and need to get some done for me (the last batch I felted was for Twisted Suri Alpaca Ranch).  I have 8 scents, 7 bars of each.  Today I finished the first two.

Vanilla

First up is vanilla.   It smells just like you would expect it to.  Yummy.  Look for it here on my shopping page. 

Stud Suds

This is a mixture of bay rum, sweet orange and clove scents.   Clean and crisp but not too manly for a gal.  Look for it here.  If I can stay on task, I hope to have all the soap ready for the Becker Market on Friday.

First market

The Becker Farmer’s Market started on Friday the 13th.  It was scary cold and dark clouds loomed most of the afternoon, but still we had quite a few visitors for our first day.

My canopy

We are located at Hancock and Second in downtown Becker.  Same location as last year, but we switched to Fridays from 3 PM to 7 PM.

Musicians

We had a great little band playing some lively music.  They will be coming back on future Fridays.

Other vendors

Even though the veggie farmers are still waiting for their crops to grow, we had a nice variety of vendors.  We had beef, chicken, eggs, honey, syrup, bread, baked goods, jewelry, jelly and more.  So if you are in the area, stop by and see us on Fridays.  More vendors will be coming each week.

All in a day

Today  the Mom’s (Embrace and Annie) went out for lunch together and left the boys back at the barn in the care of the other gals.  Guess they needed a little ‘me’ time! 

Out in the pasture

But when they came back to the barn, it was lunch time for the little boys.

Embrace and her boy

Annie and her boy

With tummies satisfied, it was play time.  

Neck wrestling

Camille looks on

I’m always amazed that boys start acting like males from such a young age.   Seven and nine days old.  And already they play rough and want to fight. 

For those near to Becker, I’ll be at the new market downtown on Saturday mornings.  The market will be around the intersection of Hancock and Second Streets.

Betty Botter’s batter

Tomorrow is the first day of the Elk River Farmer’s Market.  So today, I started baking Amish Cinnamon Bread.  I’ve had one starter growing for 10 days.  I started the starter for next week two days ago.  It is quite the schedule to keep up with.

Just out of the oven

These are the first 2 batches.  In the batch of smaller loaves I used a ‘brick’ of the eggs I froze earlier.   They were a little thicker than fresh eggs, but the batter tasted fine.  (I always get to lick the bowl before washing it for the next batch!)  The bread baked just fine and looks perfect.  If they seem a little dark on the bottom, that is because the pans are dusted with cinnamon sugar.   Another batch in the oven, and the fourth yet to be mixed.   Come and get your fresh bread at the Market!

Anticipation

Our neighbor has a small flock of bantam chickens who seem to be out producing themselves.   We are the fortunate recipient of part of this windfall.   We don’t eat nearly as many eggs now, as I will need when I start baking Amish Cinnamon bread for the Farmer’s Market  in May.   The bread recipe calls for 3 large eggs per batch.  I make 4 or 5 batches each week.  That’s a lot of large eggs – and even more bantam eggs. 

4 eggs

Aren’t they pretty.  I use 4 or 5 of these little eggs per batch of bread.    I stirred up that many eggs in little plastic containers.

3 containers of eggs

I freeze those for a day and pop out my frozen ‘egg-cube’.

Eggs for 6 batches of bread

Then I keep my bag of eggs frozen until needed in May or June!

Baby News!!!   Yesterday I’m sure I saw Annie’s baby moving inside her.  Her fiber is so long, I was quite surprised to see movement.   Lots of exciting things going on here!