I am such a sadist! I keep looking at homes with land enough to farm knowing that they are out of my financial means. I really need to stop looking and find that homesteading supporting job first. Or just save enough money to buy out right ... like that'll happen in any reasonable amount of time.

Goals:
Acquire homestead-able property

Steps:
Homestead supportable and loan acquiring income
Pay off car
Get farm!
Livestock shop!

I'm already saving so that step was removed. Once that car's paid off my savings will increase dramatically.

I just gotta keep my spirits up!

It was just wee Evelyn and me today. We did a walk about the park, learning which plants were edible and which aren't.

Creepy...

Right in the middle of the woods

Good quote

No idea. For as fragile as this looks it withstood Evelyn tromping over them.

Looks poisonous.

I've got so many things going on ... per usual. I'm working hard at becoming self-sufficient, and boy is it hard. Working two jobs, heading to mothers to work my garden, job hunting, and most importantly (for me at least) house hunting. To say the least about selling my crafts. If I can get my farm I'll be one step closer so homesteading.

I'll have less travel time because my garden will be right outside my home. Watering will be so much easier and I can do it in the morning to reduce the chance of mold. When I get home I can weed while I unwind from social over exposure! Quick canning/fermenting/smoking ets. Though bringing everything home isn't really a big deal. (unless I'm riding the bike and I find a lot of ripe goodies)

I'll have more room for organizing.  As my garden supplies will be in the garden shed ... or the garage. Either way out of my craft room! Plants (aside from a few house plants) will be outside growing strong. I may even move my crafts to the barn. A small office as it were, not a dusty stall. In case anyone's unfamiliar with clean barns. Oh, and a full sized kitchen! Even a small kitchen will have plenty of room for a pressure caner and my cooking supplies.

I'm super excited about my lemoncello. I only started it last month, so I have 2 months to go but it's already looking good. I need to rain in my
impatience.

I mentioned yesterday that my niece loved her new dress. The effort and attention to details makes me very proud of myself. I lined the antique rose bodice with a pale pink cotton. The skirt is a dark mahogany which is pleated. There's a pocket made from scrap pieces that I hand stitched. I also hand stitched the front neck with an uneven blanket stitch. I even stitched around the arms.


Photo curtisy my sister

Chain stitch/crochet button loops

Detailed stitches

Pocket actually works

French seams and narrow hem

Side note:  Queen Anne's Lace! I thought the heart was only purple, but last evening I found one that was red. A deep red to be sure. Makes a more accurate legend. Apparently she loved making lace and one day she pricked her finger and a single drop of blood landed on the flower. Now, I know purple is the royal color but I'm sure they still bleed red.

End note:  What does a white caterpillar mean again? Bad snows? While working in my garden last night I found this little cutie hanging out with the sunflowers. I moved him to the bushes!

Random-ness ... Speedway surprizingly has good lunches!

Wee dress for my niece. She loves it!

I'M BACK! Did ANYONE miss me?!

 

I participated in the Old Northwest Territory Primitive Rendezvous, this year known as the Old North Wet! For there was never a lack of rain! Taking advantage of a most wonderful thunderstorm I did some rain dancing. I was quickly soaked and it was good fortune I was wearing a bodice as chemise become transparent when wet. The rain wasn't good for most people though. Were all the people who came early set up; flooded out! The staff had to get a pontoon to move the camps I heard. Even moved a lot of people had creeks flowing through their tents after that thunderstorm. We were fortunate that ours was dry ... ish!

 

It was just my uncle and me as my cousin and brother both worked. In fact my girlfriends couldn't come wither due to work. Makes me begin to like my job again ...

 

We made interesting new friends and caught up with old ones!

 

Wolfy! I think the only person to hit the squirrel!



Showing off his fancy duds!

I got a fancy tent. When we were setting up camp uncle Greg offered a rug for my floor. So couldn't pass it up. I got a woven blanket due to my skin not liking the wool, a fleece sleeping bag, and I put the wool blanket at my feet over the woven one ... and I was still cold! Oh and I had an air mattress! Woot! I then went out and got another woven blanket and a cast iron skillet! Which I can season with beeswax! I'm so trying this now that I'm home.

My fancy tent!

I took first place in archery. It wasn't too hard considering everyone was having a bad time of it. However I spent most of my time working on a bow! Two Knives helped me start with a log, split it and whittle it down to a bow! I'm still stoked about it! I can't wait to see it after he takes it home and twists the limbs for me. When he brings it to the Eastern he's gonna tell me how to finish it!

Sanding the bow

Bowyers Apprentice

Working hard!



I consider myself to have a weak immune system for I get sick a lot. I hate doctors (they're just out to get paid) and the poisons they press upon me. SO! I self medicate.

Click image to go to Good Food Matters!

Recently I came across this lovely cure of yee olden days. Local Honey, Cayenne, Vinegar and ginger. I whipped up a batch and to my surprise I was without my cold in under 2 weeks, were as normally I'd be sick for 4 or more. It even had a pleasant taste. Not thinking it would work, I furthered my research and came across 'Thieves Oil'. I didn't have all the ingredients however, I diffused the few I had. So I conclude that the tincture helped cure my cold and the diffused oil kept Daniel from getting it. On that knowledge I shall add both recipes to my book and make some proper 'Thieves Oil' to diffuse on a regular basis!

Yet another accomplishment. Last night at about 9pm I finished my rustic repurposed trellis. Small trees and branches taken from a pile someone left in mom's front yard atop our old tree. I technically still need twigs to connect the horizontal branches for easier climbing. 

On another note yesterday I went to my first fiber festival. There were pretty yarns everywhere and whining sheeps! I ended the day with about 2k yarns of yarn. 2 aliens of hand painted beauties.

    As promised I'm posting my newest completed project. As you can tell my checkbook cover, as old as it is has finally fallen apart. I thought about fixing it however I opted to just make a fabric one in stead. Came out pretty well I think. Hand embroidered with my shoppe name and a fancy fleur de lis. The inside has a wee pocket for my business card and two large pockets for reciepts and cash. If you haven't guessed yet I use this for keeping track of all transactions for my hobby. If I hope to ture it into a business then I'll need good record keeping!

 

 

    I've also made good progress on my garden. Looks like I'll have a lot of weeding ahead of me. After all those hours spent pulling weeds when I came back to plant the beds were full again. Go figure. So yesterday I spent 3 more hours pulling weeds and transplanting some way ward plants. I even set up some twigs for my trellis. I can't wait to put it all together tonight.

 

After having found multiple potatoes that didn't agree with the winter's hard freeze I was surprised to find a sproutling today when pulling some of those determined weeds! That's very exciting considering that my potato seed that I planted the other day didn't agree with the transplant. Found it dead today. Probably too dry.

Besides that I've been reading extra books on getting a home. I feel like most of the information doesn't apply to me and the type of home I'm looking for but I recon it just shouldn't be taken literally. Still working my budget and saving gobs of pennies! I got one debt paid off and now I'm working on the larger one. The SI! I thought about having the bank pull out the extra cash automatically but figured if I over estimate it then I'm fucked. So I'll just call the bank and be like okay put an extra payment on my loan of x amount. Just gotta remember to do that!

Off to add more items to my ebay account! Have a good 80 degree day!

Awkward Blogger

I've come to realize that I'm not very good at this blog thing. I can't seem to keep up with myself nor are my words as eloquent as I'd prefer. I do wish to improve these skills:  goal one is to blog more. Perhaps after each of my endeavors are complete. Second goal is to work on my vocabulary and witty repitware! Wish me luck!

I got my garden all done! Sort of. I got two raised beds done and mostly filled. I could use 3 more wheel barrels full of aged horse manure. The rest of the 15'x18' bed filled and 2 barrels full of manure filled in. It's crazy how quickly the grass and weeds grew Back. As I was tilling I had to beat gobs of root balls against the shovel head and tossed them into the field. Hours of hard work. Makes a person feel good about one's self. Oh. I also have this old tire turned into a pot, filled with sand and manure and ready for potatoes.

Double Bloom

It turns out that the hostas plant makes a good house plant. I've not got a second bloom on my baby. It's so exciting! Between the hostas and all my little seedlings popping up I know it's spring!

On a side note:  After work today I'm heading to the craft store to get some supplies. An oval form and perhaps a soap starting kit. Coupons are my kryptonite! I've got a friend who's gonna get some of the ingredients from Sam's Club for me so I can't start now but I should have it by my first day off. The goal is to get some lotion bars made. With the ingredients being pet friendly I'm gonna make a little one for the dog!

Spring has Sprung ... or So I Thought!

It's a good thing i started planting when I did because now it's snowing again! What crazy Ohio weather!

Yesterday, with our lovely 65° temperature I took my lemon tree outside and transplanted her into a larger pot. I even added a cute decorative stone scape to the top. Lucky me this time the roots weren't bound or rotting but rather looked mighty healthy. I'm hoping for flowers this year but I'm pretty sure that wont happen until at the least next year when she's 4. I think anyways. I planted the seed in February of 2010 ... I think.


Then upcycling all my k-cups as planters I started some seeds. It turns out that off all my seed collecting last year I somehow forgot the Roma tomatoes. I mean really, how badly can I mess up! I'm going to dig through ALL my seed stores and see if I just miss placed them. In the mean time I've got a yellow heirloom (one of those gourd shaped tiny ones), a grape, and 2 vine tomatoes. That leaves 6 pots for Roma. I also started strawberries again (hopefully they do better this year), a poblano pepper, and a jalapeno plant. The jalapenos last year were deadly!

My rosemary died over the winter and after reading that it's not cold hardy I don't plan to get another one until I have a green house. The lavender seedlings did fine all winter but are now starting to show signs of stress. The crumpling leaves make me think it's lacking water but the dirt is nice and damp virtually on a constant basis. I transplanted some of the seedlings into the castoff pot of the lemon tree and the rest into an upcycled cup then moved both of them into a tiny green house I purchased for my seeds. The new soil and warmer weather I hope helps. I'm going to give half of them away this year if they perk back up.

That was all yesterday. Today, I took our largish tree outside in the 31° and wet weather ... After the rain had stopped and transplanted him into a bigger pot I'd gotten for him yesterday. The roots were starting to bind so I cut them back a bit with very nervous hands and loaded on the new dirt. I even had to go out and get more, the new pot was so big. It was really the only option I had outside of ceramic which at a size bigger than the pot the tree was already in would have been too heavy for me to have carried comfortably. As it was the dirt, tree and new pot made my numbing fingers hurt. I'd guess it to weight about 40lbs. It's got a whole bag of dirt after all.

Some bad news in my farm hunt. ... It's not going to happen for at lest another year. The banks don't seem to want to give me the loan. However, mother wants to travel and can,t manage it in the way she wants with the horse being around. So she's thrown around the idea of making me the care taker. She'll get a condo to move her stuff to and use as a home base then gallivant around the world while I happily move back into the old farm house. A few things will need some fixing, it's over 200 years old after all, but in the all it'll be perfect. I've got grand plans for it!

My sister doesn't think I'll have to worry about having to move out due to the farm selling (that's mom's goal for the farm) anytime soon so I can get my money out of a garage and chicken coop. Those are the two main things I'd build first. The coop would be the easiest as I'd just convert the old ice house. The garage would be built from the ground up. I've got 2 locations to consider for it. 1 I would need to build an access point for the septic system the other would just be at the edge of the drive.

It's probably all just wishful thinking!

I should get back to knitting more booties. They are moving pretty quickly through the store.

Buckeye Booties



The hostus blooms again!

My how my lemon seedling is growing. She's not 2yrs old.

A succulent leave I'm attempting to propagate in my wee greenhouse.

New Knitting

    I finally got my new Weldon's Practical Knitter pattern in the mail. A little disappointed in IvaRose but at least I can understand the writing style from the original publication since all she did was copy the pages and reprint them.

    My assumption from the photo was slightly incorrect. It's not a Norwegian fur pattern but some sort of coral according to the text but I was correct about the weight. The pattern I'm excited about is the Lady's Hug-me-tight. Originally it was a friend who liked the pattern though the more we searched for it online and in the Weldon's reprinted articles the more I as well began to like it. I plan to knit two. One in a gray for said friend and one in wine for myself.

    I'm working hard on a pair of lace gloves for Daniel's grandmother. I hope she likes them. When I began I so didn't think I'd ever want to make a second pair. The itty bitty needles hurt my fingers and the cotton thread was so slippery, but now that I've got the second glove just about complete I'm changing my mind and thinking of making a pair for myself. They would be awesome with my Rendezvous ensemble.

    I've also completed a new hat and a headband for this arctic weather Ohio's been having of late!

City Stocking Cap

Church Gloves

Horseshoe Cable Headband

2014 Garden Plans

So the plans begin again for my lovely garden. I'm down to my last bag of frozen tomato sauce so this year I might want to work on my preserving skills and save more! This year I'm going to make raised beds within the parameters of what I cleaned up last year. My plan is to re-purpose skids to make the individual beds, dig out a bit to nestle them into, fill them up with seasoned manure, and lastly cover with a bit of the dirt acquired from digging the shallow hole. Should be fun ... since I plan to do all this digging in frozen ground! I still want to grow spinach but I need to find a shady spot for it this year. It seems that all the sun they got last year and the year before was just too much for them. Damn bolters! Perhaps under the old maple tree. Corn is going back in but I'm going to rotate the garden so it's going on the other side this year. I'm hoping it doesn't shade the rest of the garden too much. I doubt really that I'll have a problem since the plot gets sun all day long. Well as long as it's sunny! I'm NOT planting beans anywhere near them. It seemed like beans strangled the corn last year. The tomatoes will be going on that side of the garden as well. I'm not sure what to do about the potatoes I didn't dig up. Did the freeze kill them or will they sprout on their own this year. I plant to leave that spot empty just in case. Though I'm planting another one on the other side of the garden. I've got a plan to protect my carrots and beets better so they don't get eaten as wee seeds. Create a wee green house over their bed. It'll make them grow faster too. I don't worry about rabbits thanks to the cat. You'd think I wouldn't have to worry about birds either so maybe something else prevented my carrots from growing. We'll see how well it goes this year. Cross your fingers for me! Oh side note: I just planted a sycamore seed!