Tag Archives: Seasons

Halloween Socks!

Posted on October 18, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

Finally!

After casting these on a year ago, putting them down to finish other projects and waiting for substitute yarn to arrive, I finished them!

The sock on the left was finished last October. The one on the right……….

The pattern is Little Pumpkins, which was a joy to work. The yarn is Socks That Rock, mostly in colorway “Rocky Horror”. Mostly. Until I’d gotten halfway through the foot on the right sock and realized all that cabling meant I wasn’t going to have enough yarn to finish. After I died a little inside I checked the website to find that that colorway was on hiatus. BUT there was another colorway, “Go Beavs” that was pretty similar. Since it was only going to be the toe, really, I figured it would have to do, so I ordered it.

And proceeded to wait nearly a month for it to arrive.

They dye their yarn to order – which is lovely – except that I’ve seen Lauria and Susan and Tanya dye hundreds and hundreds of hanks of yarn and get them shipped out in less than 2 weeks. And with the clock ticking down towards Halloween I was becoming annoyed that my Halloween socks would yet again not be ready in time.

Then, miracle of miracles, it finally arrived yesterday, and was almost an exact match for color!

I did have some pooling in the foot at the end, but you know what? They’re done. And honestly, you can see the pumpkin design much better in the areas where the color is pooled rather than striped.

And did I mention they are DONE???

Now I can focus all of my knitterly attention on my Shepherd sweater.

In other seasonal news, the persimmon tree is fruiting!!!

Isn’t fall grand?

Tagged: Knitting, Seasons

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What To Do On Drizzly Fall Days

Posted on October 16, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

Cold, rainy days in the fall used to be my favorite weather, but since I’ve got livestock to care for I am less inclined to enjoy rain. This year especially! A nice overcast (but DRY) day is still nice, when you can build a fire and drink tea and do some knitting or reading.

This week has been quite a mix of cold and overcast, and cold and downpours. While going outside to feed the flock and check on everyone has been an exercise in misery and wetness, inside has been nice and cozy.

The fireplace saw its first use of the year, and we’ve been putting the apples to good use.

I’ve been peeling giant bowls full of them every day and throwing them in a giant pot with some fresh cider, plenty of cinnamon, brown sugar and cloves.

I let it cook slowly all day into a nice, dark, spicy applesauce. I don’t can it, though, because at the very end I throw in a stick of butter. It ends up tasting like pie. The kids love it, and I can never keep enough of it ready! When there does happen to be an excess, I freeze it.

Speaking of pie, there’s plenty of that going on as well.

It’s also the season for roasted chickens and homemade stock. I like to keep a pot of that simmering all day when it’s crappy out.

And of the house isn’t full enough of wonderful aromas and things to tempt the tastebuds, why not whip up some butter cookies with frosting?

I got the crow cookie cutter from King Arthur Flour, which is, incidentally, where I got the cookie recipe from as well ( I used vanilla instead of the fiori di sicilia).

Add some frosting and sprinkles (black sugar sprinkles!) and they’re festive for Halloween!

I used some mini cookie cutters to make some plain Halloween cookies for snacking as well.

The weather might not be great, but the house smells of chicken stock, cinnamon, apple and butter cookies. It’s warm by the fire and I’ve got some lovely yarn to play with. Time to put on Hocus Pocus and settle in.

Tagged: Farm, food, Seasons

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Fall Farm Prep

Posted on October 6, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

Although summer seems to have been hiding out here in October, the work of prepping the farm for winter has to continue.

We’ll soon be cleaning out all the chicken coops, spraying them down with cleaners and such and filling them full of fresh bedding.

The sweet potatoes will hopefully have survived the cruel summer and be harvested before long, after which time the pigs will be moved into the big back garden to till it all up and fertilize it for next spring.

The water tanks will be emptied and scrubbed of algae build-up and the tank heaters will be inspected to be sure they are in proper working order.

The front gardens will be tilled under and mulched.

The front and back decks will be scrubbed and re-stained, since the summer’s humidity and hard rains have brought on a nasty case of mildew.

The flock will be moved to a small paddock while the field gets seeded for spring.

And the flock itself……..well, that part’s already been done. The angora goats and black Border Leicesters have been sheared.

Emily came last weekend and took care of them for us while her little one frolicked with mine.

I love how worried they always look.

Emily also trims down their hooves for us.

The sun-bleached outer coat of wool falls away, revealing a much different color underneath.

Little Mr. Bates, awaiting his turn.

Roquefort, the handsome rapscallion.

Patmore and Darby snuggled afterwards.

All the black sheep look shiny and new after their haircuts; the white sheep are unsure what to make of them (they won’t get sheared until spring).

Hopefully we’ll be returning to more hospitable temperatures soon and we can resume the business of readying for winter.

You can’t ever be too prepared!

Tagged: Farm, Garden, Pets, Seasons

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School Kids

Posted on September 10, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

We have officially started school again and are working to settle into our routine. I’m still driving Maddie to her classes at the community college (I know! College student! It was a really, really hard year to get her caught back up to speed, but I’m proud to have gotten her to where she is), so it’s a bit hectic these days, but we’ll get it figured out. Maddie is waiting on some paperwork so she can get her license and then we’ll breathe a little easier. The good news is that we have Susan completely moved out of her old house, so soon our days (though they will shorten daylight-wise) will get simpler, quieter, cozier, school-i-er. Just the way I like them.

Oona is reading chapter books on her own now, which both amazes and delights me. I can’t believe how once the idea of reading “clicked” with her she really took off with it. Though she’s technically in first grade, last year we zoomed through the first half of her first grade books and are now working on the second half of them. (And thanks to Mad Libs she already knows the basic parts of speech). It really helps having big sisters to try and catch to!

We’ve written everyone’s duties on chalkboards so there’s no more “confusion” as to who is doing what every day. The only thing that changes is who dies the dishes from day to day.

Neve and Maddie help out with feeding the flock every day (I usually do mornings since I am up before everyone else, and I don’t like letting too much time pass without laying hands on everyone). Oona’s getting better at dishes, though there’s still some cleanup to be done after her just to be sure.

We’re ready for crisp days and chill nights, fires in the fireplace, applepicking and cozy sweaters. I hope it lingers this year; our favorite season always seems too short.

Tagged: Farm, Homeschooling, Seasons

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Dyeing Day

Posted on September 2, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

Yes, we are still cleaning out Susan’s old house. Mostly it’s all books now, so it should go fairly quickly and she will be all packed up.

This week we decided to take a few days off and have some fun. We spent a day out at Ikea (Neve and Maddie are smitten) and we spent a day dyeing yarn and hair.

While they were waiting, the girls put on socks and sprayed some pledge on the floors. Clean floors and worn-out kids is a great combination!

It took two tries to get Oona’s hair pink.

That’s the beauty of homeschool. My kids can have crazy hair.

Susan and I worked on the colors for share yarn (they turned out GORGEOUS!) while Maddie worked on the kids’ hair.

Neve wanted to be “ginger” so we put orange highlights in. Oona of course chose pink.

The colors are a demi-permanent, so they wash out after a few shampoos.

I have never seen Oona so patient as when she was waiting for the color to do its work.

More share color preview. The final color is sooooo much nicer and richer than this.

After the first attempt at Oona’s hair was a total bust we had Maddie try again a few days later. The result? A super happy Oona who couldn’t stop jumping up and down and exclaiming her love for her hair.

It’s adorable.

She’s decided today that she has vampire hair; hence the red on her chin (it’s fake blood).

Yes, my kids are already looking forward to Halloween, and for once I am starting to feel the excitement, too, because IT’S SEPTEMBER!!!!!!!!

Tagged: Homeschooling, Knitting, Seasons

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Late Summer Treats

Posted on August 26, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

If the Morning Glories are blooming everywhere,

and if there’s plenty of fresh basil waiting to be picked and made into pesto….

AND if that pesto is getting put into homemade ravioli….

then that must mean my birthday is just around the corner!

It’s well and truly closing in on my favorite time of year. Late summer and into fall is a glorious time, and even though I am a proper grown-up now I still do love my birthday.

Thankfully the basil came through the wet summer alright, if far less plentiful than normal. But there’s enough for pesto to fill little pockets of ravioli, and there’s enough to make some lovely of the cocktails that my friend Lisa introduced me to:

She muddled a good bunch of fresh basil with some simple syrup and fresh lime juice and shook it up with some lovely gin.

Best late summer cocktail ever, and perfect for an early September birthday!

Tagged: food, Garden, Seasons

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Beach Weekend 2013

Posted on August 5, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

Another beach weekend, come and gone! It’s amazing how you can look forward to something for so long and then have it be over in the blink of an eye.

We had lovely weather for the most part; a bit of rain in the evenings but nothing that interfered with lounging by the ocean. It’s wonderfully lucky that the ocean is close enough that we can drive there in just a few hours.

Sometimes it’s hard not to sit and stare at the ocean for hours; it’s peaceful and relaxing watching the waves come in and the boats go out.

First Landing State Park

We’re an adventurous group, though, so we did manage to take some time away from relaxing to take part in various fun activities. Our first morning out we went for a Stand-Up Paddle Boarding tour. It was our second year doing it and this time our guide was was incredibly enthusiastic and engaged with our surroundings. He showed us all the oysters and barnacles on the shore line and piers and pulled up a crab pot full of blue crab to let us see what they look like.

He took us into a lovely little cove where the water was calmer and showed us how to do yoga on our paddle boards in the water.

I tried a few poses (mostly child pose, table, cat and downward dog) but he wowed us by doing a headstand. On his paddle board. In the water. Without falling off.

I know. Amazing.

Of course my friend Diana did us all even prouder later when she rode the Slingshot at the amusement park. It’s basically a reverse bungee jump that shoots you 200 feet in the air. She’s pretty brave, that one.

Mostly, though we did what we enjoy doing every year: spending time together at the beach.

I’m not big on getting colored by the sun (I’m pretty fair skinned and skin cancer is more of a threat than I think most people realize), so I love that we always rent huge umbrellas and create ourselves a shade fortress from which to enjoy the ocean breeze. I had a book with me but honestly I barely looked at it. I was either involved in conversation or napping. Or looking forward to steamed clams for dinner.

Laura and Margie

Diana, Theresa, Jessie.

I really needed this recharge; summer is fading fast and before we know it school and related activities will be upon us again. Let’s squeeze every drop of summer goodness we can get!

Tagged: Seasons, Trips

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Trying to Find Summer

Posted on July 10, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

It’s been one heck of a rainy year. Virginia has always been infamous for its humidity, but this year takes the cake, as far as I am concerned, with rainfall and moisture in the air.

Not only is this bad news for the animals (wet and humid conditions are just what parasites need to thrive) but it has made it hard for us to really delve into it being, you know, summer.

Rain every day and thunder mean no swimming, no picnicking, no lounging about out on the deck. No leisurely evenings in the garden.

We’ve had so much rain that one day our bridge to the pasture was completely flooded over and there were rapids. We had flash flood warnings that lasted for days and days.

We have had a few glorious days since the Solstice, but they have been just that: few.

So now, we are determined to make it feel more like something we can enjoy. Summer has always been my least favorite season, so I’ve been doing my part to focus on all the good qualities of summer.

Like the food!

Fresh fruit pies, fresh caprese salad, corn on the cob. Anything on the grill. Basil pesto.

My garden is hurting from the rain (the soil never quite dries out, and everything is going yellow), so we have yet to enjoy a fresh garden tomato, but I spied some green balls out there today, so it’s not too far off!

We’ve also been enjoying the occasional fresh raspberries and wild blackberries.

The raspberries I planted last year; the wild blackberries are growing all over our property.

On rainy days I’ve been struggling to come up with fun and lazy activities to keep everyone happy. We play Uno, Scrabble and Mad Libs. We read easy and fun (in my case, trashy) books. We paint with watercolors. We do puzzles. We eat.

But sometimes, if we are very lucky, we get days where there is no thunder. When that happens, I get everyone into the pool. There is no better summer activity, and it wears them out like nothing else.

We’re still hoping for summer to have a lovely second act. In the meantime, we’re making the best of it however we can.

Tagged: Farm, food, Garden, Seasons

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Red, White, and Blue!

Posted on July 5, 2013 by WoolyMama | Comments Off

I hope you all had a lovely Independence Day!

We were lucky to be able to spend it with our friends and watch fireworks overlooking the lake from a private residence (no huge crowds to contend with!). The hosts even handed out Snickers ice cream bars to everyone – it really put our holiday over the top!

Aside from fresh baguettes with dipping oils and pasta salad, I brought these whacky red (or pink!), white and blue deviled eggs. To make them, I boiled my eggs, and once they were cool I peeled them. Then I soaked them in water with food coloring for two hours before slicing them and making the filling.

Our spot overlooking the lake. It was lovely!

Post – fireworks fun with sparklers. Jessie’s daughter Katie is Oona’s favorite person at the moment. Thankfully Katie is very patient, because Oona hung off her the ENTIRE time.

Then of course, there was Neve. She wore her “Dr. Who” tee shirt with the Union Jack on it because she claimed it was her only red, white and blue shirt. But she then proceeded to shout “The British should have won!” while we were on our way to the fireworks.

Oh, that kid.