Life With The Crew

Scavenger Hunt - September

Joining in with Greenthumb over at Made with Love for the monthly scavenger hunt.  It's a lot of fun and people come up with some great interpretations of the clues.

S is for - Sewing supplies scattered across the floor.

2pm - The little babe's naptime, my quiet time - on a good day.

Car Park - Okay, so not technically a parking lot, but it is where we park our car.  This is what happens in the driveway when Mom is not around.  Note the pajamas.

Hat - I made this hat for myself out of some Malabrigo Rios yarn that I had used for a sweater for the little babe.  I knew it was going to be close, but I thought I had enough.  I was wrong.  I had bought the yarn in Maine back in May and was actually knitting this hat on the way back up to Maine for vacation in July.  I went to the shop where I bought it, but they didn't have the same colorway.  So now I have a hat that I can't bring myself to unravel because I really like it.  My creative idea was to leave it as is and it can be my Ponytail Hat - I'll wear it when I go running and put my ponytail through the top.  Not sure if I am hip enough to pull that off though.

In the mirror - Me, in my unfinished hat.  See above for explanation.

Garden - Gourds in the garden.

Lock - Old fashioned lock on our old farmhouse door.

Nails - A box of nails in our unfinished bathroom.  After I took the picture, I realized they are actually screws, so just squint your eyes slightly and they'll look like nails.

Lamp - The stained glass lamp that I moved into a new spot in our kitchen.  I really like the warm glow it makes at night.

Street sign - Okay, so I am totally cheating on this one because I took this picture years ago.  But I was running low on time and as I was trying to think of an interesting street sign (we don't have any bear or moose crossing signs here in PA), I remembered this one.  When we were on a road trip in California, on the Olympic Peninsula, we saw this sign.  Being young and still slightly immature, we thought it was hilarious and needed to document it.  I would love to know the story behind the name!

Game - Our two favorite games - Blokus (my husband normally wins) and Bananagrams (I normally win).

Out your window - The little babe watching her Dad climb a tree to trim some branches.

 

Thankful Tuesday - 9.30.14

Today I am thankful for...

A fun weekend with my husband and little babe.  There was just so much family goodness and perfect Autumn weather.  After a bit of a rough patch with the little babe (I think due to her teeth), she seems to have leveled out a bit.  Not so many tantrums in the past week.

-Saturday morning family painting project.  I had grand plans of pressing painted leaves onto burlap, to make an Autumn banner to display.  It did not go as planned, but the little babe had fun painting herself, the husband had fun not thinking about school for a couple minutes, and I actually did smile when I dipped my hand in the wet paint.  

-A trip to the local winery to take some photos for their Fall Harvest photo contest.  The little babe had a good time wandering through the vines and eating grapes.  (Don't know if the grape eating was allowed, but it kept her quiet.)

-There was also some foraging for free apples.  My husband knew of several apple trees around town, so we headed out with the picker, hoped that no one cared, and picked until the little babe got tired.  There is still another full tree there, so we have more picking to do.  Then there was some cider pressing with family.  What amazes us is how people in this country don't even think about picking the apples on the trees right outside their workplace, yet they will pay money to buy apples in the store.  Apples that are shipped from thousands of miles away, sprayed with chemicals, and are of the same 4 varieties that you find in the grocery store all year long.  I don't know what variety we picked, but they are from old trees that were planted years ago when the land was a farm.  Now it is an industrial area.  Just because these trees are on the side of a road instead of in a scenic orchard doesn't mean the apples are not good.  What a shame to think that these apples would just fall to the ground and rot.  Yes, they have a couple of worm holes, but for cider pressing and apple sauce making, they are perfect!  And the little babe thought they were delicious.   

What are you thankful for today?  

I welcome other bloggers to leave a link to their Thankful Tuesday post and I encourage everyone to share what they are thankful for.

Happy Knitting Fingers

With the change in the weather, the cooler mornings and the evenings getting dark earlier, my body is feeling the pull to settle down on the sofa with a cup of tea and some yarn.  I have completed two vests recently for the little babe.

The purple one is the February Toddler Tunic.  I was really excited to make it; I thought it would be perfect for my little babe.  I actually cast on back at the end of July on our way home from vacation in Maine, but with the little babe being a busy little babe, I was only able to knit 4 rows at a time so it took me a while to finish.  I used JaggerSpun Super Lamb, which I bought at KnitWit Yarn Shop in Portland and it is made in Maine.  It is soft and squishy - I love it!  I bought two skeins, thinking that it would be just enough.  Well, it was just NOT enough.  The body was supposed to be 12 1/2 inches long and I stopped short because I knew I was running low on yarn.  Then I followed the pattern instructions for the shoulders, but for some reason they turned out too small for my little babe.  I didn't even have enough yarn left over to eek out a couple more rows, so I had to improvise and sew on the decorative trim to make it fit.  I am not happy about it, but I didn't know what else to do.  I love the Gull pattern - it feels so nice to the touch.  The tunic has some heft to it, it is not delicate, despite the open design.  (Which is good, because two year olds don't do delicate well!)

The second vest actually started as a sweater for the little babe's doll, but when I realized it was too big, I decided to continue and turn it into a vest for her.  I wanted to use up some small balls of yarn that I had, so that is why it is crazy striped.  Once I got to the chest, I just followed the instructions for the February Tunic, but added several more rows to the shoulder pieces and decreased the width of the straps.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  It is a fun and low fuss vest for the little babe.

I am currently working on a hat for myself with yarn that I bought earlier in the Spring.  I decided to do a simple knit two rows, purl two rows pattern to showcase the gradual color change in the yarn.  

Then I have several other projects in the que.  I promised my husband that I would make him a cowl for biking to school, so I have to make that soon since Autumn is officially here!  He choose a thick grey yarn from Quince & Co.  I was thinking of using this pattern.

The fantastic rainbow colored yarn is a corespun spiral wool that I bought at a local fiber festival.  I don't know what that means, but I love the bumpy texture and thought it would make a cheery sweater for the little babe.

Then I also have all of the yellow yarn that I dyed with goldenrod.  I have several projects in mind for that, but I don't have enough time!  This stay-at-home Mom can't knit all day - there is cooking, cleaning, dog walking, (blogging), and little babe entertaining to do!

What are you knitting?  Anyone starting Christmas gifts yet?

Cheese Made By Me - September - Ricotta Salata Part 2

Welcome to part two of my adventure making ricotta salata.  Last month I shared the first step in the process, which was actually making the ricotta cheese.  You can check that out HERE.  I left off with the fresh ricotta.  

The next step is to put the ricotta in a ricotta mold, which of couse I did not have because I never plan these things ahead of time.  I found a random plastic container with no lid that we don't use anymore and I used the sharp tip of a wine bottle opener to punch a bunch of holes in it.  I do not recommend this approach.  I think a cylindrical container would work better and I would punch larger holes in it - maybe the size of a pencil.  A Google search comes up with something like this.  That being said, my homemade mold did the trick.  

1.  So I took the fresh ricotta and placed it in the mold.  Then I filled a quart sized mason jar with water and placed it on top of the cheese to press the water out.  After one hour I turned the cheese over, put it back in the mold and pressed it for 12 more hours.  (The recipe said 12 hours; I actually let mine sit over night.)

I have it sitting in a bowl to catch any moisture that is pressed out.

The cheese after being pressed over night.  The edge separated when I removed it from the mold.

2.  I then wrapped the cheese loosely in a large holed cheese cloth to help keep the cheese off the plastic and prevent it from sitting in any moisture that forms.  I place it back in the mold and put it in the refrigerator.

3.  Once a day for the next week, I removed the cheese from the mold and rubbed it all over with a generous amount of cheese salt.  Cheese salt is a coarse, non-iodized salt.  It helps to draw out the moisture and prevent unwanted bacteria.  If there was any extra moisture on the cheese, I patted it dry with a paper towel (you could use a tea towel, but mine normally have dog hair on them!)  I flipped the cheese every time I put it back in the mold.  

4.  If you see any unwanted mold, you are supposed to wipe it off with a damp cloth.  And apparently not panic.

5.  After a week of daily salting, you are then supposed to let it age for 2-4 weeks.  I got a bit nervous about the whole mold thing and couldn't tell if I was seeing orange specks or if I was just imagining them.  After the one week of salting, I only aged it another week and a half and during that time I actually continued to salt it.  I wanted to keep those bad bacteria away!  The salt made me feel better about it.  It was excreting moisture, so I would pat it dry, pat on more salt and rub it over the entire block of cheese, then wrap it loosely in the cheese cloth again and replace in the mold.  

After the one week of salting and the week and a half of aging, we had ricotta salata!  It was pretty salty, but I enjoyed it.  It actually grated like a real hard cheese and we have enjoyed it on tomato salads, a pesto quinoa dish, and on top of grits with grilled veggies.  It was a fun learning experience and it makes me better appreciate the time and effort that goes into making the cheese that I buy at the store.  

Shared at Our Simple Life SC for The HomeAcre Hop.

 

Reconnecting With Nature - Home Pressed Goodness

I am joining Chrisy at Living A Good North Coast Life for her "Reconnecting With Nature" series.  As we bloggers sit around connected to our computers, it is a great way to force us to step outside and maybe notice something new in the natural world or just appreciate something that we see every day.  Read more about the Reconnect with Nature - one photograph at a time idea here.  

This past week we reconnected with nature in our own backyard by enjoying the bounty that she provided for us.  Several years ago we made a somewhat impractical purchase and bought a cider press.  We love apple cider, we have two apple trees on our property, and we were trying to be more self sufficient.  I know, I know, we can't exactly survive on apple cider, but it has been fun and satisfying to make our own.  Most of the cider in the store is pastuerized and tastes more like juice than cider.  We did not make any cider the last two years.  The little babe's birthday is in early October and so we had more pressing (ha-ha, get it - pressing apple cider?) matters to attend to the year of her birth and then last year we barely had any apples on our tree.  This year we trimmed the smaller tree hard in Spring and it seems to have paid off.  We had more apples and they were larger than before.  I don't know what type of apples they are, besides being red.  We also have a very large old apple tree that only produced apples on the tippy top this year and there is no way for us to harvest them.  So when they finally drop later in Fall, the dogs will get them.  At this time of year, they are constantly snacking on apples in the yard (and so is the little babe).

We had great weather this past weekend and decided to pick the red apples and press them while we had the time.  The next day we dragged the press out of the shed, wiped off all of the spider webs, dust, and dirt, and washed it down.  Then we were ready to make some cider!  

Someone did a lot of apple eating and was a big girl helper with her Dad.

 The apples go in the top bin, someone with strong arm muscles turns the wheel, the apples are crushed and drop into the barrel.  Some cider starts to run out at this point.  When the barrel is full, the lid is placed on the crushed apples and the crank on top is turned to lower the press.  Then the cider really flows!

 The little babe's first taste and she loved it.  We had to ask nicely to get some sips for ourselves!

 We give the crushed apple pomace to the chickens.

 Yummy, home grown, home pressed Autumn goodness.  From our one tree we got about 2 1/2 gallons of cider.  As the days get colder, hot apple cider might start replacing my post-run iced maple coffee.  

 

Shared on Our Simple Life SC for The HomeAcre Hop. 

 

Thankful Tuesday - 9.23.14

Today I am thankful for...

-A little babe that loves her animals.  She is really good with them, most of the time.  I hope to raise a child who is respectful of all living creatures.

-The unexpected surprises that we see in the natural world.  My husband spotted a Bald Eagle flying along the river.  It was really magnificent!  My little babe pointed out a hawk, perched high up in a dead tree, creating a striking silhouettte.  I'm thankful that these birds of prey have made a comeback and are no longer endangered.  

-The pretty pieces of nature, which signify another season coming to an end.  Not that I want life to speed by, but I am ready for Autumn.  Every day on our walks we see more leaves on the ground.  I am enjoying the rustling and crunching underfoot.

 What are you thankful for today?

I welcome other bloggers to leave a link to their Thankful Tuesday posts and I am always happy to have anyone share what they are thankful for.

 

Natural Dyeing with Goldenrod

I was inspired by two blog posts that I saw recently about dyeing yarn with goldenrod.  Sarah at Our Island Home and Robin on Radical Farmwives each shared pictures of bright yellow yarn.  I couldn't believe that such a vivid color could come from a humble plant - a weed that makes people miserable!  Since goldenrod is in full bloom around here right now, I decided to try it myself.  I followed the instructions on this website with successful results!

I started with two different types of yarn.  The longer skein is a mohair blend and I have no idea what the other one is.  I've had them in my stash for several years.  I had already wound the mystery skein into a ball at some point, so I had to unwind it into two skeins.

I soaked them in water with dish detergent while the little babe and I went on an adventure to collect the goldenrod.  The soaking removes the oil from the wool so that it can better absorb the dye.  One of our local parks has a TON of goldenrod - I didn't think anyone would miss the bunch that I cut.  However, I did acknowledge that I was cutting down insect habitat.  We saw ladybugs and inchworms, along with other insects and insect galls on the plants.

When we got home with our bounty, I removed the yarn from the soapy water, gave it a quick rinse, and set it aside.  Then I put the goldenrod flowers in the large pot and brought the water to a boil.  When it started boiling, I lowered the heat, covered it, and let it simmer for 1 hour.  I had to run out to the store to get alum, so then the goldenrod sat in the pot for another hour.

I was then supposed to strain the goldenrod from the water, but I couldn't figure out how to strain 4 heavy gallons of water.  I just scooped out as much of the plant material as I could.  I think next time I will secure the goldenrod in a loose cheesecloth pouch and heat it in that.  I then added 4 tablespoons of alum to the dark yellow water and heated it for 15 minutes.  I always thought alum was some mystery powder, but you can buy it in the grocery store in the spice section next to the allspice!  Luckily the little jar I bought just happened to be 4 tablespoons.  The alum is the mordant - it fixes the plant dye to the yarn.  There are different materials that can be used as mordants and they will all create a different color. 

As soon as I added the alum to the dyed water, the color jumped from a murky yellow to a bright yellow.  After heating the alum for 15 minutes on medium heat, I added all of my yarn, being careful not to tangle the skeins.  It was amazing to see the dye take affect immediately - my white yarn turned yellow as soon as it hit the water!  I reduced the heat to a simmer and left the yarn for one hour.  Then I was supposed to remove the yarn and rinse it until the water runs clear.  I had a sink full of dinner dishes, so the yarn sat in the water for another hour.  It is a good thing my husband fixed the broken burner last weekend, otherwise I wouldn't have had room on the stove to cook dinner!

After dinner, I put the skeins in another large pot and rinsed them about 5 times and the water still wasn't running clear.  Since I was using wool, I had to be careful not to agitate the yarn too much and couldn't wring it out.  So lots of swishing, pressing, and gently squeezing.  This is the yarn right after I removed it from the dye, before rinsing.  Look at that sunny yellow!

When I was tired of rinsing and the water was "clear enough" in my opinion, I left it to hang over night on the edge of the pot in the sink.  Ideally, you should start the dyeing process first thing in the morning and then hang your wet yarn outside to dry, though don't hang it in direct sunlight.  The next morning I moved mine outside.  It was still a bit damp that evening - wet wool takes a while to dry!

I had almost 4 gallons of yellow dye left over!  According to the website I was following, you can keep the dye in a cool place for several weeks and reuse it.  I only kept about half of it.  I'm thinking about sunny yellow mittens, a scarf, and sweater for the little babe.  Maybe some yellow cotton dish clothes for Christmas gifts...

Reconnecting With Nature - Mushroom Walk

I am joining Chrisy at Living A Good North Coast Life for her "Reconnecting With Nature" series.  As we bloggers sit around connected to our computers, it is a great way to force us to step outside and maybe notice something new in the natural world or just appreciate something that we see every day.  Read more about the Reconnect with Nature - one photograph at a time idea here.

Over the weekend we took a woods walk and saw a ton of fungus - mushrooms of all different shapes, sizes, and colors.  I had the little babe in the front carrier and so couldn't get as many close-up photos as I would have liked.  We did not see any this crazy though!

This one reminds me of an eyeball.  It is a sphere that was just sitting on the ground.  I'm not even sure if it WAS a mushroom, but I don't know what else it would be.  I couldn't find anything on-line that looks like it.  If anybody knows, do tell!

Lots of tiny fluorescent orange ones.

And this bizzare gelatinous orange fungus that looked like it had exploded.

The turkey tails were nice, neat, and dry.  They are rumored to have cancer fighting properties.

We also saw a paper wasp nest - luckily we walked by undetected.

And some pretty flowers to make up for all of those interesting, yet unattractive, fungi.

 

Thankful Tuesday - 9.16.14

Today I am thankful for...

-Silly dogs that make me laugh.  I don't have "cows in the corn", but I do have Corgis in the sunberries!

-Lots of good food, though not all of it is the healthiest!

Homemade bread and butter.

A moment of quiet yummy joy during nap time.  (chocolate mousse)

Summer gazpacho.  First time I've ever made it and I really enjoyed it - so simple!

-More surprises in the garden - peas!  Not that we are going to get any actual peas this late in the season, but just seeing the tendrils made me smile.

-A driveway full of wood, though we try not to start up the woodstove until October.  My husband has a degree in Wood Stacking.

What are you thankful for today?  

I invite other bloggers to leave a link to their Thankful Tuesday post in the comment section and I always welcome everybody to share what they are thankful for.

 

Blank Slates and Scary Spiders

This weekend I noticed that there were 5 different spider webs in my perennial flower bed.  Five!  My first reaction was, "Ew, gross, that is a lot of spiders!"  Then I thought, "Wow, that is pretty cool."  When we were hiking in the woods last week and saw the giant millipede (it looked huge, but I don't think it is technically called a giant millipede - okay, I just Googled it and apparently there is a Giant African Millipede - this was definitely not it though), my first reaction was to step back in horror as my husband was picking it up.  The little babe walked towards it and then looked up at me.  I quickly rearranged my face from one of disgust to one of curiosity and said, "Wow, that is really neat!"

Children are blank slates.  They are sponges.  I don't mean that they don't have any original thoughts in their cute little heads, because I am amazed at what my little babe puts together on her own.  However, they don't know that society assigns certain emotions, attitudes, and stigmas to certain things.  A creepy crawly spider that sucks the innards out of other bugs and can descend onto your head when you least expect it - yeah, they totally give me the heebie jeebies.  But they can also have beautiful markings, they are beneficial because they eat other nuisance bugs like flies, and the fact that they can create intricate webs is really one of nature's miracles.  I need to make sure that I portray the sense of awe and wonder instead of the disgust and fear. 

I don't want my attitudes and fears to pass onto her.  So I am going to do my best to not freak out when I see a spider - which is every day in our home.  However, my husband is still the on-call spider catcher.  I just cover them with a glass and wait for him to get home.