The weather has finally turned

Posted on September 25, 2016 by farm2011

We finally had two days without rain – can you believe it? 

And because the weather was so nice today, it was time to get some things done around the farm that we’ve been putting off. That meant putting in another large bale of hay for the cattle and working on the equipment was on Daryl’s list this morning.

And for me? Well I did a bunch of laundry and finished up Mom’s card that she wanted me to make. If you remember the other day she had asked for a glitzy card and well after I got it done, I think it’s one of my favorites. I don’t think that I can post a picture of it just yet – I want to wait until her friends birthday is over. You just never know who reads these posts and I don’t want to spoil the fun! 

The sun was still shining around 1:00 and we decided that it was way too nice for us to stay inside for the afternoon, so Daryl got the Chevelle out of the shed and we were off! 

The first stop was at the Rendezvous Days in Fort Atkinson. We knew that it was going to cut it close to being over, but we wanted to catch the melodrama that the Country Road Players were putting on. We were in luck and got there just about when it started. It’s always fun to see what show they’ve created from year to year and this year turned out great! In the picture below the stage is in the back with the burlap cloth as the background. Simple stages can be the best sometime! 

20160925_203414_resized

We walked around the Fort for awhile and honestly you just can’t go there and not buy some kettle corn can you? The smell of fresh popcorn popping can be smelt all around the Fort. It’s such a good selling tool don’t you think? With a big bag of kettle corn in our hands we were off to the next stop. This time is was Ma’s to deliver her card that I made for her and to stop and visit for awhile. 

And because it was now around 4:30 and we hadn’t had dinner yet,  so back to Fort we went and ordered a huge pizza at one of the restaurants there. We thought that we would plenty of extra pizza to eat as the week goes on, but honestly we mowed through it pretty good before we left! To our defense it was both dinner and supper for us. 

Finally when we got back home and the Chevelle is back in the shed,  we just hung out for the rest of the night. It was nice to finally see the sun today and to have a relaxing Sunday afternoon also. 

Posted in Places to visit | Comments Off on The weather has finally turned

Making soap for the next show

Posted on September 24, 2016 by farm2011

I’ve got a new schedule that I’m trying to meet and that’s a show coming up at the end of October. I was approached by the person who is organizing the show and it sounds really interesting and something that I would like to do. 

She will be having vendors with their booths at the show but then she’s also having a General Store that she wanted me to bring my soaps in for. I don’t even have to be there on the day of the show (good thing too because we have a wedding that day)

At first I was thinking of bringing the chicken coop to display the soap in her store,  but I have an even better idea. I’m bringing my new yellow cabinet for my soap! SCORE! I knew I’d find a reason just why I needed to buy it. 

So I’ve got a couple of the soaps that I had to make to replenish my stock and then today I had a chance to make some soap that was new to me and a new process also.  I couldn’t wait! The soap is a Pumpkin Spice soap and even though it’s not perfect, I’m pleased how it did turn out. The top layer is already starting to cure and it won’t take long until both the top and bottom layer will turn a darker brown. That will really make the colors pop!  20160925_205229_resized

Not what should I make next week? 

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on Making soap for the next show

My new Ninja blender

Posted on September 23, 2016 by farm2011

If you remember earlier this fall I broke my food processor and since then I haven’t replaced it. 

Well that is until now. 

My little blender also went on the fritz a week ago so while I was in town on Friday night, I decided to check out the blenders at a local discount store. 

I’ve been eye spying them on the web, so I pretty much new that I was going to be buying one, I just had to pick one out. 

And while I was checking them out, I found the one that I thought that I should buy and then guess what? It was on sale. It was $20 off to be exact. I thought SCORE! But as I was putting it in my cart I stopped and wondered why was it on sale? I mean it was the last one on the shelf and maybe they were junk or something? So then I put it back on the shelf after I convinced myself that it must be bad and started to look around again. 

But everything else was about $100 more so I was feeling pretty partial to the first one. I did a quick Google search on it again and found that some people really did like this little Ninja blender. OK I’m  going to buy it. 

And now that I have it home I have used it so many times I can’t even tell you. I’ve chopped ice for a party bowl that we needed to bring to a barn party, mixed some breakfast bars up in it, had some rock hard brown sugar that I pulverized and made nice again, and mixed up a smoothie or two. It’s always great when you get a new kitchen gadget isn’t it? 

I did find out something also the hard way though. You know that it can do tons of things because of it’s super sharp blades. Well I was putting the blade in the dishwasher and just as I was repositioning it on the shelf better – bam I cut myself. And when I say I cut myself – I mean I really cut a gash on my thumb. It was one of those times that you think that maybe it’s not that bad but then realize that the blood has gone all the way down your arm and dripping off your elbow. Yea, I really did a good job this time. So I quick grabbed some lavender essential oil and as I held my arm above my head to try to help stop the blood, I poured the lavender oil on the cut.  I mean it couldn’t hurt anything and it’s good to help heal cuts and wounds. 

It’s not the most user friendly walking around the kitchen with your arm above your head – just saying. But it did finally stop bleeding and hopefully it won’t give me too much trouble next week as it’s healing. So I guess I found out that hard way just why this little machine is so tough. And why I guess I’m not 🙂

Posted in In the kitchen | Comments Off on My new Ninja blender

Guess what?

Posted on September 22, 2016 by farm2011

Well if you guessed that it quit raining … you were wrong! 

The rain continues and we really need it to stop. Not only is it creating some terrible situations with the flooding all going on, but it’s also taking a toll on the crops and everyone’s disposition.

You know that we’ve had too much rain when someone asks you how much rain you got the night before and when you tell them that it wasn’t too bad and that you only got a couple of inches – well that’s crazy! 

So all the field work has pretty much stopped and what could have been a somewhat easy fall has turned into a fall that is pretty soggy and wet. 

We just need it to stop raining. 

I guess it could be worse. It could be snow!

Posted in Farming | Comments Off on Guess what?

Rain, Rain, go away

Posted on September 21, 2016 by farm2011

I made a quick dash to town tonight to pick up some things for some Bath Bomb Fizzys that I wanted to make and all the while my phone was going off for flash flood warnings for our area. Not again! 

They were predicting heavy rain and possibly severe weather and to be honest we are all getting pretty tired of it –

The farmers especially! 

This time of the year the farmers should be in the fields chopping corn for silage but this year some of the fields literally have water standing in them. If you want to see an unhappy farmer, you should see a farmer with his farm equipment stuck in the field. Yea, not pretty! 

So my mission tonight was to pick up some citric acid  for these bath bombs and of course where did I go? Well to the farm store of course! And while I was at the check out, we were talking about the weather and I mentioned that maybe the rain will miss us. Just like that and on cue – a huge thunder shook the building and we both gave kind of a smirky smile and said that it might?

This is how the sky looked as I was driving up to our farm. It’s pretty dark for only being around 5:30 at night! 20160921_172634_resizedAnd when I was in the kitchen making my bath fizzys, which is a very messy activity, 20160921_183311_resized it started to rain. And then it rained some more. I even heard later that one county not too far from where we live was 3/4 flooded! Now can you imagine that? A local county is kinda big and to have that much rain and to say on the news to stay out of the area- Holy Smokes that’s a lot of rain! 20160921_174122_resized

As we laid in bed tonight and could hear the rain hitting the side of the house, I guess we’ll just have to see what the morning brings. 

But for now my Bath Fizzys are done for a store delivery tomorrow.20160922_062052_resized

Posted in Farming, In the kitchen | Comments Off on Rain, Rain, go away

Good trade

Posted on September 18, 2016 by farm2011

I went to Ma’s on Sunday to drop off a few things and to see how’s she’s doing. 

Well we had a good visit and then she asked if I would make a card for one of her friends birthday that’s coming up. Sure, that’s easy right? 

Then she went on to say that she made homemade noodle soup on Saturday and that she was going to send a container home with me. 20160918_154517

SCORE!! 

I love homemade noodle soup and Ma’s soup is the best! 

So I told her that we’ll trade, I’ll make the card for her for the trade of the noodle soup. She laughed and thought it was a silly trade. But it was a very Good Trade if you ask me!

Well I gathered up some of the things that I’m planning on using and now I’ll see what kind of a card that I’m going to make for her friend. She wants the card to be a little fancy, I think I’ll make sure to glitz it up for her. 

20160921_214648_resized

And for the noodle soup? Well it was gone the next day 🙂 

 

Posted in Cards, Family | Comments Off on Good trade

Where did this week go?

Posted on September 17, 2016 by farm2011

I just realized that I haven’t posted all week! Holy smokes you’d think I was on vacation or something.

Well that wasn’t the case. I was working on getting ready for a show that I was in on Friday and Saturday. The good thing is that I did have some of the soap made ahead of time and wrapped. The bad thing is that I didn’t have the new soaps wrapped that I had made a couple of weeks ago.

But no big deal, I knew that if I only had to wrap half of what I did the last time I was in a show, it wouldn’t be so bad.

So I was thinking that all I have to do is print off some of the soap labels and I could even be ready a couple of days early. That would be great!

Yea, not so much! See I have a my old laptop in the scrap book room that I print from because the printer is fairly old and the driver for the printer is on the laptop. Now no big deal right? I just have to start up the computer and I’ll be done in no time.

So I turned on the laptop and it made the right noise that it usually does, and then the sound changed. Odd. So I left it run for a little while with it’s black screen on and nothing changed. OK, not good.

Then I tried again and turned it off and turned it on again but I only had a black screen to deal with and it wasn’t making any progress at all.

Well this was Wednesday night and I kept telling myself just don’t panic. I might have pulled off this ‘don’t panic’ look on the outside .. but inside I was dying! For the last resort I left it run all night to see if maybe it was trying to update some software or something. But in the morning it had still a black screen.

And since it was older than 3 years (I was told by customer service any printer older than 3 years is really outdated!) and it wasn’t really compatible with my MacBook Air – I headed to town after work to pick out a new one.

I was on a time crunch so I picked one out within minutes and turned the car around and headed home to continue to get ready for Friday. Going to Waterloo tonight was so not on my schedule!

But guess what? My first chance to sync it with my computer was early on Friday morning and it worked! SCORE! It was around 2:30 in the morning of my show and it was pretty risky to be doing this at this time, but since I make my own soap labels – well I didn’t have a chance for much else. I did have a master copy of the common ones that I needed to wrap so that was really helpful. After the soap was wrapped and a couple of signs made, I actually got a couple hours of sleep before I had to get up again.fb_img_1474013065491

I drug along quite a few more things to decorate my booth this year and I kinda dug how it looked. I pulled out a very old desk that was literally in our milk house for more years that I know.

Everyone wanted to check it out

Everyone wanted to check it out

It was in there so long, no one really knew when we put it in there or where it really came from. I’m sticking to the story that it was an old desk that my dad had on the farm in one of the sheds, but for some reason I’m the only one who’s thinking this. Well it doesn’t really matter because it didn’t look too bad at all once it was literally washed with lysol and then rinsed off after that. I then used about 1/3 of a bottle of lemon oil on it and just like that she’s looking good again. 20160914_183903But you have to be very careful when you move it. The wood on the bottom of the desk is so rotten, if you push the desk without lifting it up, well you leave a trail of wood pieces behind.

Even my old chicken feeder turned out good for a booth prop. I quickly ran to our ditch and pulled handful of weeds out and then grabbed some peacock feathers and shoved them in it quick before I left for the day. I had to laugh when some of the customers said that it really looked nice. Too funny! And where is it now? Well it’s on my porch and guess what? It does look kind of nice 20160915_163816

And how did the show go? Well the show went very well and I have to admit it was easier this time because I knew what to expect. I was very pleased with the amount that I sold these past two days and I was surprised that I had run of out a couple of kinds that I had brought along.20160916_113747

I also tried really hard to not walk around before it started to look at what other vendors had to sell, because I knew that I would love most or all of it. So when I went to stop in and say hi at some friends that were there, I saw this really cool tin cupboard that was just screaming for me to buy it. I decided to wait to see if it was there after the two days and then I’d go back and see if I should buy it. Well of course it was still there and I bought it. But the coolest thing is that it reminded me of a cupboard that my Grandma had and I found out later that my Mom said that she had one just like it on our farm. Yup, what a great thing to buy. Now I’m not sure what I’m actually going to do with it, but I bet that I’ll figure out something.fb_img_1474149508562

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on Where did this week go?

What did we do today?

Posted on September 11, 2016 by farm2011

You know that you might need to get out and do something more exciting when you’re trying to figure out just what in the world did you do today and you can only come up with doing more laundry and going to the discount store!

Well like I said that I started the day with some laundry. Now wouldn’t you think if there was just two of us in the house that we seriously would run out of laundry soon? But it was the first thing that I did when I got up and I only had a couple of loads left from yesterday. 

Daryl spent most of the day outside working on equipment. He said something about fixing some tractor lights, grabbed the tractor manual,  and then he went back outside again. Honestly I have no idea if he got them fixed or not?

As for me? Well I finally took the plunge and made my Facebook page for Squeaky Windmill Soaps live for others to see… and I about freaked when I did it! I literally made the page public and in about 15 (?) seconds I got a message about someone wanting to order some soap. 

PANIC!

But this really is a good thing and honestly pretty cool that someone likes my soap. 

The first time that I made the page public and when people started to like the page, I got so nervous about the whole thing that I turned it right back off. OK, I’m so not ready for the show ‘Shark Tank’ am I?  

But now that it is live, it’s a good thing. And I’m able to say where I’ll be selling my soap at vendor shows and it’ll really come in handy. Too bad I didn’t do it earlier 🙂

So if you’re bored and looking for more soap stuff, check out the Facebook page – Squeaky Windmill soaps & more. I promise I won’t freak out if you make a comment or two. 

Posted in Farming, Soap | Comments Off on What did we do today?

Catching up on Saturday stuff

Posted on September 10, 2016 by farm2011

Today I wanted to catch up on some stuff around the house so I got an early start on laundry. As you know, I like doing laundry so this wasn’t a big deal at all for me to start this in the first thing in the morning. There’s something kinda soothing with having the washing machine going while I’m in the house. 

With that said, I also wanted to see if I can be successful in making some bath bombs. The last time I tried – well it was not good. But it was my first time in trying, so I decided to give it another shot. I’m in a vendor show next week and was hoping to have a bath display there along with my soap. 

And do you know what? There is more than just bath bombs that fizz in your tub. There are Bubble Bath Bombs that not only fizz but leave bubbles behind and there are also Bath Truffles. Bath Truffles also fizz in your tub but then have more hydrating oils in them like shea butter and cocoa butter for your skin. OK, I seriously just want to make something that doesn’t fall apart at this point! 

So while Daryl was working outside cleaning up the cow yard after all the rain, dscn9148I decided that I’d make a lilac bath bomb and then some smaller Aloe extract bubble bath bombs with a fresh Crisp Cotton fragrance. (try to say that 5 times !) 🙂

With my ingredients in front of me and my laptop for the instructions, here I go…. again. 

Guess what? It worked! 

The larger balls held together and the smaller bubble bath bombs also came out of the molds. Who would have known? But the real kicker is if they are still together in the morning. Time will definitely tell if I’m successful with this project. 20160910_150025_resized

And the whole time while I was working on the bath stuff in the kitchen – the aroma was very confusing. Why? Well I was so sick of this one turkey that I bought on sale taking up space in my freezer, that I decided that it was going to be on our menu for dinner today. So I had lavender, crisp cotton, and turkey smells today all hanging out in our house this morning. Not bad… just confusing. dscn9147

The turkey turned out fantastic and Daryl was wondering just what in the world was going on?  I mean we had turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn, peas, lettuce salad with fresh tomatoes, and jello with oranges in it topped with whipped cream for dinner today. He was a happy guy and who knew that all I needed to do is to clean out my freezer!

The photo of the day is that of our gravel road. With all the water and flooding that’s been happening lately, our roads have been taking a beating! Check it out20160910_092307_resized

Posted in Farming, In the kitchen, Picture of the day | Comments Off on Catching up on Saturday stuff

SCORE !!

Posted on September 9, 2016 by farm2011

That’s right – SCORE!

And now you’re probably thinking to yourself – ‘now what happened’ right? 

Well it might not be a big thing for some people, but it was a big thing for me. Last night I ran in the 5k in one of our local towns and I WON my age group. I can’t remember if there was 9 or 11 in our group and I came in first.  Yup, I did it. 

Did I have to work for it? Oh my gosh yes!

All during the day it was raining, raining, and then raining some more. And not only was it raining but with over 5 inches of rain within a short amount of time there was also a lot of flooding going onbagain. I knew the guy who was organizing the race and he said that they were going to have it unless it started to lightening. OK, I’m going to go for it. 

So I planned my day. I had enough food to feed a family of four at work I swear. I ended up eating 6 times before the race.  But I didn’t want to be hungry and putter out on the course so I just kept eating. 

Next thing was to plan to drink enough water. And was I successful? I think maybe too successful. I usually try to drink around a gallon of water a day and I think I might have exceeded it. 

So I had enough food and water in me, now what should I wear? It was still lightly raining when I got into the car to leave, so I was wearing cropped spandex pants, tank top with a short sleeved shirt over it,  and had a long sleeved shirt with me. I was ready and I was prepared! 

Once I got to the town to pick up my running tag, I found out that I really drank too much water throughout the day (I picked up another bottle for the way there) and I made a bee line to the grocery stores bathroom. Now with my banner on, I was getting kinda cold and decided to put on my long sleeve shirt. Whew! That felt better. OK, now I was getting hot – so back to the car and switched into my t-shirt again with just minutes to spare before the race started. 

With Johnny Cash playing on my iPod and with myself saying over and over in my head that I can do this – we were soon off. I felt really good running and thought – hey this isn’t that bad and maybe I will place for a medal which was my goal for the night. 

As the track went around the town and back into the fields, I wasn’t watching and I found myself ankle deep in water. So not cool. But I kept going and still was feeling pretty good. I kept a good pace and then when we hit the last mile I thought to myself – keep going, keep going. I even passed a couple of guys which felt pretty awesome.  Usually people with baby strollers pass me 🙂

Then it happened. Out of the corner of my eye I saw this green shirt beside me. I tried to be nonchalant and glanced over. OH NO!! She looked about my age. Well there was no way I was going to let her pass me even if  it would make me puke in public! So I picked up the pace… and so did she. OK, here we go… she was bringing it! 

So I picked up the pace again and at this time I was just trying to keep breathing and thinking BEAT THIS GIRL, BEAT THIS GIRL!  (did I ever tell you that I’m a little competitive? ) 

As we came to the last corner she was a little bit behind me which was good and now to the final stretch. I gave it my all and so did she. I think she might also had been a little competitive you think? I could hear her feet behind me and no idea how close she actually was until I crossed over the finish line. She was literally right behind me! I beat her by only 1 second. But did I beat her? Yes I did! Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!! 

My goal is always to try to be at 30 minutes or less and this race was 30 minutes 18 seconds. Now would I like to have those 19 seconds taken off? You bet. But that will have to be another time. 

And when they gave out the awards, my name was called for being in first place. The lady right behind me? Well she was in my age group and she got second. 

Check it out! 20160910_064055_resized20160909_195349_resized

Posted in Projects completed | Comments Off on SCORE !!