Away for a while

Well, I've been away for a while from here, but not really away.
 We've been looking at houses, and it is so time consuming, and stressful actually! Most houses are really expensive, and not realistically priced. But now is the first time we can afford to try to buy here. We've been saving up since we got here for a deposit, and it has taken a while due to only one salary, and five mouths to feed, transport, and clothe etc.

Anyway, hopefully things will settle down.

Renting is ok, but we don't seem to be getting anywhere, and we'd like a bit of our own land to grow food, and have some space.

Anyhow, back to looking at more listings.....

Thomas is shorn

Today the shearer came over to clip Thomas. The weather has been so bad recently that we jumped at the chance in between the rain.

I was hoping he'd use hand shears so I could learn, but he was in a rush and used the electric clippers. He was so fast! I couldn't follow at all.

So here it is....

With all the rain the wool is dirty from mud, but so nice!

And here is Thomas, very tiny looking now...

And a bit sore too...

He had 4 chunks of skin removed where his neck wrinkles. It made me feel so funny inside to see big gaping holes in him.

Apparently they heal really fast.

He also has a nick on his bottom. Ouch!

I'm going to do it myself next time. Even if I only get a few bits off at once it doesn't matter.

I think he looks a bit like a rabbit now.

I sorted out the best wool - all white, long staple, mainly from his sides, back, and neck area. The second sort of grade which has a stain on it from his grease (? is it I'm not sure), and then the rubbish that is very dirty, or short, or rough from his legs.

I weighed it, and there is 600g of brilliant stuff, and 300g of not best, and only a small amount of rubbish.

Thank you Thomas!!

I gave a wool sample a hard couple of pulls, to see if there was a defect such as a break in it, and it is just perfect. Which it should be really, as I think he's had a very happy time here with lots of food and love. But it was nice to see that his wool reflected that!

Now I need to look through some patterns so our little girl can have the Thomas jumper of her dreams!

I like the idea of aran jumpers, but I've never knitted a cable, so I might wait to get some patterns and advice from the ladies at spinning group.

Bye for now!

A Cardigan for me!

So I thought I'd share the progress of a project I'm in the middle of.

Its a cardigan just for me! 

I'm using some merino I bought when I started spinning, in a natural silver color. It was really cheap, a third of the price of any other merino roving I've ever seen, so being naive, I thought it was a bargain, and now regret it, as the wool is full of bits, and broken bits of wool, and it will therefore pill badly, but I'm still going to use it.

My wheel I love so much!

So far I have the back panel, and two front panels, and a tiny bit of a sleeve...

And just look at that button! Just perfect against the silver wool is a deep rich colored tree. I can't wait to sew them on! ( From Mystic Orb on etsy ).

I'm going to join up the panels, then attempt to follow the drops pattern 116-1 from revelry to do a cool yoke.

I've never knit a colored pattern before, so this could be great, or really frustrating, we'll see...

Anyway, I need to go and spin some more wool...

Bye for now!

Baby carrots

Today we had a few hours without rain, so I went outside to thin the carrots.
 I don't really like to pull up perfectly good plants, but it is really necessary to get nice big carrots at the end.

I gave them a wash, and lovingly topped and tailed them, and oh my! they were tasty with a pot of humus.

Considering all the rain we've had, they had a really strong flavor.

Yum!

What? Just soap?

That was what one of my friends exclaimed when she called in and I was just in the middle of cleaning.

She thinks I'm mad.

I use soap to clean with. Not just me, but the bathroom, clothes, floor, lots of things. 

Well actually I also use some vinegar, and sometimes essential oils too. But yes I use soap!

After I had our first child a program me came on the TV called how clean is your house, and it must have been on in the early evening when the baby had just gone to bed, and Edward wasn't back home yet.

It was nice easy watching TV, just two cleaning ladies going into peoples dirty houses and showing them how to clean, and it was great!

They used lots of lemons, white vinegar, soap, and hardly any bleach.

Just having had a beautiful fresh life delivered, the last thing I wanted was to squirt chemicals all over the place. They always make me cough, so a baby !!!

And since then I mostly use just soap.

I just shave a bit of soap off a block ( I avoid the soap made with palm oil ) pour on some hot water to dissolve it, and away I go...

I used to grate a block to store it for ease of use, but the amount of times I've dropped the tub of shavings is embarrassing, so I decided dropping a block of soap was less of a disaster.

I decided soap flake washing powder was too expensive.

And what do you know? It cleans things!!! The shower was a revelation, because the amount of ads there are for shower cleaners makes you think showers are impossibly filthy, but soap cleans showers too.

For my laundry I use soap, then I pour some vinegar in the fabric conditioner part to soften the clothes, and also to kill any mould spores etc, as we live in a damp area, and can get mould and mildew.
For bed sheets I also put in a couple of drops of lavender oil.

Sparkly!!

I'd recommend this book, loads of tips for everything, stains, smells, everything.

Quite an entertaining read too.

As to my friend, I think she'll stick to her "eco friendly" palm oil based expensive stuff, wrapped in plastic  for now, but maybe one day she'll run out, try plain old soap, and be amazed!!

Unexpected present request!

Our youngest was five at the beginning of December, and we asked him what he'd like as a birthday gift..
He has friends with lots of gizmos, he has plenty of toys at home, and I was hoping he wouldn't decide to want a computer type thing or some sort of nonsense, as he just wouldn't get it. But to my surprise, and Daddy's, and everyone really, he said he wanted a goldfish.

I thought, as adverts etc can lead you to believe, that no child ever wants anything so simple, or cheap (!) as a fish anymore..Don't they all want leap pads, or tiny computer things? Shops, magazines, adverts think so, but no. This little boy of ours wanted a goldfish.

So over the passing weeks, I casually asked if he still wanted a goldfish, and the answer was always the same - yes please Mamam!

So here is Macky Telescope. I have no idea why that is his name, in fact I'm always surprised at our children's names for things ( Walrus the doll for example ).

He loves his fish. He feeds it, and shares some of the food with his elder siblings to feed it too. He holds the tube as I empty some of the water out, he just really likes his fish.

Apparently they can live for thirty years. I quite like the idea of that! A cool friend indeed.

Garlic Harvest Time

Today was the first day in ages that it didn't rain.

Thomas the sheep sat on a bit of the garlic patch last week, and with all the rain, the rest of the patch started to fall over, so we decided to harvest them in the good weather.

I was so pleased to see so many large bulbs!

Two years ago I bought the garlic from the garden centre ( very expensive, and extremely tiny bulbs ), and planted the lot. Last year I saved the large cloves from the large bulbs to plant, and we ate the rest, and ran out! This year our garlic is all our own, all organic and chemical free just as it should be! And I think we have enough this year to save lots to plant, and still not run out.

Braiding the bulbs to hang to cure and dry.

Thank you good soil! There were so many worms in this patch of earth, they must have loved the soil too. 

I planted the cloves in pure compost from our heap which I laid on top of the soil after chopping up most of the weeds.

We ended up with 9, 4' braids, and several little braids done by the children.

Now all I need is space to hang it.