Guess what I’ve been doing?

Posted on November 5, 2016 by farm2011

Well if you guessed I’ve been to some far off exotic land laying in the sun – you are wrong! 

I got this delivery the other day and that means only one thing 20161103_155244_resized

It means that it’s soap making time! These two boxes hold 10 gallons of oil. Now maybe that’s not a common thing on your porch, but for me? Yea, it’s becoming more and more common.

So I cut up a couple of batches to dry and then the one thing that I’ve been working on is to try to come up with a patchouli fragranced soap that doesn’t smell too powerful but still has a nice enough fragrance. I am working on this for a potential customer that might want to use them for their wedding. With that in mind, I’ve also been trying out different sizes of bars for her. I guess we’ll see what she thinks, but I think it would be pretty cool to supply her with the soap for the wedding so I hope it will work for her.  

Then I also spent some time behind the steering wheel of the truck to pick up my display at the barn where the vendor show was last week. The farm was a little easier to find this time, but it’s just crazy how the landscape changes just within 60 miles or so. 

By our farm the land is really flat and the roads go North to South and East to West.If you are traveling East of us and about 60 miles you’d be lucky to find these types of roads. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern to their roads other than they are curvy and really hilly. These roads would be great if you would have an older car and a couple of your friends with you for the day – just saying …

I stopped on my way back and wanted to take a picture of the landscape. In the summer it’s so nice and green, but with the harvest now almost completed, the fields are anything but pretty. 20161105_122157_resizedI had to laugh because when I decided to stop, I had to drive up the way a little more because there was a dead fox on the side of the road and I didn’t want anyone to think that I was stopping to pick it up or anything. Now seriously I don’t know why I was so worried about that because why would I do that? But I pulled up way away from it and finally got the picture. But to be totally honest, I really wanted to go back and check out that fox! 

Now to bring my soap and display home and unload it into the house. I’m really digging this display case for this type of show. It’s something that I can lug around by myself and the person who put on the show said that it worked well. 

 

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on Guess what I’ve been doing?

Our house is quiet

Posted on November 1, 2016 by farm2011

It’s odd isn’t it how your house can be so busy and the next day it’s so quiet?

Well that’s how our house is today after all the kids left and I guess it’s time for us to get back into a routine ourselves. 

I laughed when I was outside earlier and the dogs were just walking around not sure what was going on. I think they get more attention in one of the weekends that the kids are home than probably in a week with just Daryl and I. And the best part of this whole gig is that no one scolds them even if they have cockle-burrs matted in their fur and everything!

So I noticed with the farm is a little quieter that the dogs have gone back to watching bald eagles fly over our farm and then barking and barking at the birds to show them that this farm belongs to them. They look a little foolish barking as they are running through the yard, but they seem not to mind who’s watching. As for the birds, yea I’m not sure what they’re thinking 🙂

20161031_175306_resized

 

Posted in Family, Our dogs | Comments Off on Our house is quiet

Making Soap with Kelcie

Posted on October 31, 2016 by farm2011

Today Kelcie and I decided to make some bath fizzys and some soap. 

Now the hardest part of making soap is literally trying to figure out just what you want the final soap to look like, I mean there is about a million designs and colors that you can do and then you have to figure out what you want the soap to smell like. Whew! It’s just a lot of decisions to make!  

Kelcie decided to try her hand at some Peppermint soap and it turned out great!  We wanted to get it done so she could take it home with her to New York to finish curing there. I really think she’s going to have the best smelling luggage in the whole airport. 

So check out her soap – now all she has to do is to give it a name. 20161031_172153_resized

We also made some bath fizzys and I found out in the past that there is a little trick to doing this, but it didn’t take Kelcie long to get the hang of it. 20161031_170316_resized

And into the luggage those went also. I’m thinking that not only her luggage was going to smell really good – I’m guessing the airplane too! 🙂

Posted in Soap | 2 Comments

Full House

Posted on October 31, 2016 by farm2011

With the wedding this weekend we’ve had a full house with all the kids home and it’s been great. And what better time to try out my new grill. 

And this isn’t just any old ordinary grill – it’s a grill that I’ve been eye spying since .. well since around June.

See in the early Spring I was having the worst time with our old grill and also convincing others that it didn’t work. Well finally it just plain gave out and I was determined to buy our next grill when it went on sale.

Now I realize that if the people at our local discount store was watching the cameras, they would see me come into the store and walk to the barbecues in the back. I’d check out the prices and then see how many tags were left just in case they were getting low. OK, I’ve been doing this for quite sometime and finally when they went on the second round of clearance, well I finally gave in. 

So like I said what better time to try it out than with the kids all home. Well my sister swears that our family has a genetic trait that says that you have to cook about 3 times more food when you have company than you really need. And I kept that tradition. We had literally a huge baking platter that held 4 T Bone steaks and then 2 Ribeye steaks. And I even had 2 more T Bones that I ended up not using in the fridge. Well needless to say that once everyone had a round of steak, mashed potatoes, corn, pumpkin roll, and apple dessert, well we had 2 large steaks that were barbecued left over. But was it good? Oh Yea! I love my new barbecue! And I really like it because I didn’t have to put it together, the kids did for me.

I think tomorrow we’ll have barbecued brats!

Posted in Family, In the kitchen | Comments Off on Full House

There’s a wedding today!

Posted on October 29, 2016 by farm2011

We had a family wedding today and who would have thought that a day at the end of October would have been so perfect? 

So before the wedding, we all hurried up and got dressed and headed to the park to take a few family pictures. Now having 6 people get ready in our house is somewhat of a challenge but we did it and even made it out of the house on time. 

We took quite a few pictures and I’m sure glad that we were able to get that done and once we got the boys out of the monkey barrel we were off to the wedding. Some things never change does it?dsc_0869

The wedding ceremony was beautiful and you couldn’t have asked for it go any better. One of the coolest things is that after the service and when we were all standing outside, out of the blue sky came a beautiful upside down rainbow shining right above the church. Now how often have you seen an upside down (or smiling) rainbow? See rainbows play a big part in the brides family because when her dad died, the next day over their house in the blue sky with no clouds around was an upside down rainbow. Now there would be no reason for a rainbow either time unless it was a sign that her dad was OK and was still with them. The crowd was all quite standing outside the church just literally looking up at the sky, and after the guests all gave their best wishes to the bride, the rainbow just melted away in the blue sky. So very cool! Now even if you don’t believe in signs, I think these upside down rainbows would make a believer out of most everyone. dsc_0880

And then off to the reception and dance. These two fine couples were on our table and what a perfect day we all had!20161029_183057_resized20161029_182957_resized

 

Posted in Family | Comments Off on There’s a wedding today!

Friday – Family Day

Posted on October 28, 2016 by farm2011

We are planning on having a great weekend! Why you ask? Well because all the kids will be home tonight! Awesome right?

Kyle and Kelcie flew in this morning and Daryl took off to pick them up at the airport, while William and Jude are coming home later tonight. We are all meeting up at a restaurant in town for supper. 

After that, well some of them are heading to our school’s football game and the rest is going to go home with me. 

The house is full of shoes by the front door, laundry piles by the washing machine, coats and jackets everywhere, and a whole lot of laughter in the house.     Life is good. 

Posted in Family | Comments Off on Friday – Family Day

In the kitchen

Posted on October 26, 2016 by farm2011

When someone says that they spend a lot of time in their kitchen, well I don’t doubt them at all. But I think I truly could match anyone who says this because I know that I spend a LOT of time in our kitchen! 

What was I doing tonight? 

Well first things first. I needed to get some more tomatoes put away. 20161026_192008_resizedThese are the tomatoes that my brother gave me that their kids picked before the first frost. I’ve froze a couple of batches before and that was my plan for these also. But with a twist. 

A girl at work says that she just literally throws her tomatoes in a bag and freezes them with the skins on and all. Then when she takes them out to thaw, she runs them under hot water in the sink and the skin just falls off. 

It sounds kinda too good to be true don’t you think? 

Well, I’m going to give it a try, so I packaged up two bags and into the freezer they went. 20161026_192652_resized

Then I wanted to finish up the display for the Vendor show this weekend. I’m sure glad that I bought this cabinet this summer because it really works perfect! I’ve got around 230 bars of soap in it. 20161026_195606_resizedCrazy right? It sure doesn’t look like that many even to me and I was even the one who loaded it. So tomorrow I’ll bring it to the Barn Event and hopefully it won’t take me too long to set up. I’ll probably take me longer to drive there and then drive back to our farm.  It’s about a two hour drive back and forth – so I for sure don’t want to forget anything!

And then guess what else I was doing tonight? I did 5 loads of laundry. You know I think my Mom was right – I really do a lot of laundry for only two people living here. But I wanted to get all the bedding washed because the kids were all coming home this weekend. I didn’t use the my new vinegar softener trick on their sheets because… well because I think our bedding smells a little bit too vinegary to me. 

Posted in Gardening, In the kitchen, Soap | Comments Off on In the kitchen

Just thinking while I was wrapping soap

Posted on October 25, 2016 by farm2011

I’ve got another Vendor show coming up this weekend and that means that I need to get some soap wrapped up and my display ready. 20161025_191959_resized

It’s funny because I was thinking tonight about the show and what I need to do different this time because we’ve got a family wedding on Saturday so I won’t be going to the show at all. Then I remembered my goal for this year. My goal was to do one vendor show to check it off my ‘bucket list’ 

Well this is my 4th one this year and I would have never have guessed that I would be doing that many in all my whole life! Seriously 4 shows? Maybe it doesn’t sound so much to you, but it kinda does to me. 

And do I regret doing all those shows? Not at all. The first one I was so nervous and showed up when they were literally unlocking the doors! 🙂 I had about 1 1/2 hours to kill before the show started. Yea, just a little bit too early with a whole lot of nerves.

The second one was a little better and I got to see even more how this whole process goes down. 

And by the third one? Well shoot, I was wearing a half apron to put my money in and wasn’t nervous at all. 

So tonight while I was wrapping soap I was wondering what next year will bring? Will I expand my line with new products? Will I branch out to new distributors? Or will I stop making soap all together? Who knows right? 

But I do know one thing. It’s almost 1:00 am and I’ve just finished getting all the soap wrapped up. Whew! I think this is the part where you know that maybe your’e doing this because you like it and not because you know that you’ll only get a few hours of sleep before the alarm goes off for your ‘real job’. 

 

Posted in Soap | Comments Off on Just thinking while I was wrapping soap

Painting – one last time this year

Posted on October 24, 2016 by farm2011

I know that the weather is supposed to turn so I really wanted to get some more painting done before it gets too cold. If I remember right your’e not supposed to paint outside if it’s less than 40 degrees at night. OK, so it’s supposed to get down to 38 tonight – but seriously who’s calibrating the thermometers? 

So I beat it home after work and put on my painting clothes. I need to get this job done and be heading to town for a meeting that started at 6:30. Now even I knew that this was going to be close! 

Well I literally ran to get the ladder and set up by the shed. I was a little worried because Daryl piled some old wood on the same side, but I only had to move a couple of boards to get my ladder situated so that wasn’t a problem. 

Next to mix up the paint. This job shouldn’t be rushed, but it seriously played on my patience tonight! 

OK, so I had my paintbrush, my ice cream pail full of paint, and my paint scraper. I was ready! 

I started on the east side of the shed and when all the cows came over I wasn’t too worried. I mean quite some time ago I was painting very high on the barn on the top of the extension ladder and the bull at that time (who never liked me for some reason) came over and started to push on the ladder. Luckily I was able to grab on the barn and keep myself from falling over. But Ed? Ed our bull wouldn’t do that. Well anyway I was sure hoping he wouldn’t anyway not tonight. I was on a schedule! 

I did find out though that Ed doesn’t like it when I would use the brush side of the paint scraper. See I would close my eyes and then go above my head and go back and forth to get all the paint chips off. I was scraping as I would go just to save time. Now how did I know that Ed didn’t like this noise? Well he would go to the dirt pile in the cow yard and then start rubbing his head back and forth on the dirt and then start kicking up dirt as if he wanted to fight. 

Yup, I got the hint. I would only use the scraper part from now on. 

I didn’t want to take any breaks and when I’d run (yes literally run) to the barn for more paint I would check on the time. It was so close and I knew it was probably my last chance to get this painting done for the year. And luck was on my side because I was able to get everything done that I wanted with about 10 minutes to spare before my meeting in town. SCORE!! 

I ran to the house and quick grabbed a hand brush to get the visible paint off my hands and face, threw on a sweatshirt and some sweatpants  and then off to the meeting I went. 

When I got home after the meeting, I took a long hot bath with a couple of bath fizzys to help get the paint off. Oh yea, while I was also soaking in the tub I also had a beer to celebrate a job well done 🙂

Here are the photos from tonight. I had some trouble with Scarlet thinking that the she needed to be in the picture. Dang kids! 

Before picture of the cattle shed

Before picture of the cattle shed

The after picture of the cattle shed ...with Scarlet

The after picture of the cattle shed …with trying not to let  Scarlet overtake the picture

Posted in Projects completed | Comments Off on Painting – one last time this year

Sunday – corn is done and more painting is going on!

Posted on October 23, 2016 by farm2011

Daryl was able to finish up with the corn tonight! Whooohooo!! 

Now you really don’t want to be done because that means that this is the amount that you will be able to sell later. But in my opinion it’s sometimes a good thing because it’s a lot of long hours and hard work,  and you have to be done sometime right?  

So like I said, the corn is done and now to start chopping stalks. 

And what did I do while Daryl was out in the field today? Well I got up early and started to get some things organized around the house. I’m putting together a vendor display for an upcoming General Store that is happening this coming weekend. I’ll have to deliver my display later this week and I don’t want to forget anything. The best part of this vendor show is that I don’t have to be at the store to sell my soap which is the winning ticket if you ask me. I still have some soap to wrap and then put price tags on everything. It shouldn’t take too long, well I hope not anyway.

So my plan today was not to be in the house any later than 10:00 so I hurried up with my soap stuff and then headed out for the day. Yes, literally the day.

Today was a painting day. If you remember yesterday I had a brand new 5 gallon pail of white paint in the car and I wanted to see how much I could us of it today.

The first stop was the shed that needed a little love. I started with scraping the wood and man it was so hot out that I was just sweating in my short sleeve shirt. So into the house I go and put on a tank top. Well now the bugs come. I had more flies, asian beetles, and wasps by me so back to the house and I doused myself with lavender. OK, that worked and back to painting. Now here comes the No See Ums. (no idea if that’s actually how to spell this bug or if it’s actually the right name) Well I found out that I was good with the lavender for the rest of the bugs but these little guys – didn’t care at all. They were biting me so bad that I had to look if I was getting stung by the wasps! Now back to the house and when I found a can of bug spray I sprayed myself until my skin just glistened. I hate to even use bug spray but in this case – it’s just too bad that I don’t like it because I was being eaten alive.

Well I hurried with my painting on the south side and when I moved to the other side of the shed the bugs weren’t so bad. Whew!

I had such a good and productive day today. I got two sides of the white painted on the first shed, some trim,door and foundation painted on the Roadhouse, the east side of the old milk house painted along with the trim on the north and south sid, I painted one side of a fence, and then I painted our house foundation. The hardest thing to paint is our house foundation. See our house is around 120 (?) years old and most of the foundation is large stones with concrete in between. Yea, not so much fun to paint at all.  But it was a good job done so I’m happy. Sore… but happy.

I laughed when I went into the house tonight wearing a sweatshirt. I started out with a short sleeved shirt, went to a tank top, went back to a short sleeved shirt, and then ended up with a sweatshirt. It was nice when you were out of the wind, but had to keep putting more clothes on if you were anywhere near where the wind would hit you.

 

Now I would like to have one more day to paint a couple more sheds – but I guess we’ll see if that’s going to happen or not this year.

And what am I doing now? Well it’s late and I’ve got my pink reindeer jammies on and I am headed to bed. With being out side almost all day today in the wind – well I’m exhausted.

Check out my before and after pictures on one of the sheds that I painted white on today20161023_113528_resized20161023_131245_resized

Posted in Farming, Projects completed | Comments Off on Sunday – corn is done and more painting is going on!