Soap Making 2011

I did a soap making post a while back but I've never done an update on the recipe. So here we go.

Recipe:

In either ounces or grams, I use grams because I find it more precise and the math easier.

Water- 12 oz. or 366 g.
Lye NaOH- 5oz. or 143 g.
Coconut Oil- 12 oz. or 340 g.
Olive Oil- 12 oz. or 340 g.
Vegetable Oil (Crisco)- 10 oz. or 283 g. **

Combining temp: 120 degrees F
Time in mold: 48 hours

** I am aware of the destruction surrounding Palm oil which is the bulk of Crisco. I intend to change up this recipe and use mostly lard sourced from our local Farmer/Butcher. But I have to use up what I've purchased, thus the recipe above.

First thing I do is get my molds ready. I've used silicone cupcake molds, which work really well. But I just bought myself some no liner soap molds and I really want to try them out. 

I put all my fats into one big bowl and set it on the fire to melt and warm up. Takes a bit longer this way than heating it on the stove but this way's more fun. The olive oil I used in this recipe is infused with St. Johns Wort, which gives it that lovely red color and sweet smell. It should not effect the recipe other than imparting the awesomeness of SJW to the soap.


Now I get my lye and water ready. I read that lye will absorb water from the air so I don't get it out and pre-measured like I normally would. I do measure my water, using cold water from the tap and put it in the fridge to stay cool. After the lye is added to the water an intense chemical reaction takes place. The water went from 60*F to 180*F in a matter of seconds. Always ADD LYE to WATER. NEVER THE OTHER WAY AROUND! It can splash more and accidentally burn you.

Safety is really important! I use goggles and yellow rubber gloves. I didn't use to wear anything, because I'm young and invincible. But then I read a blog post from Deborah over at Antiquity Oaks about her adventures in the ER after getting the Lye/water mixture in her eye.  Needless to say I am convinced about safety and I now wear my oh so sexy goggles!

Ok back to soap... once the fats are nearly melted I'll go ahead and add the lye to water. The goal is to get both bowls (lye/water) and (fats) to the same temperature before combining them. As I said before, add lye to water. It will put off some serious vapors of which you don't want in your lungs. So I usually turn on the stove hood fan just before I put the lye in the water. I also cover my mouth with a towel just in case. Stir the lye/water until all the lye is dissolved. Then keep an eye on the temperature of both mixtures. The goal is 120*,  the lye/water will have to cool to 120 and the fats will have to warm up to 120. Once that happens pour lye/water mixture into fats bowl and mix. I use my little hand mixer which is super awesome for this task. I've also used a big kitchen mixer. Whatever works.

After about 2 minutes the soap will trace. Trace meaning to go from runny watery oil/water/lye to something more like pudding consistency. When the mixer moves the soap concoction should leave "trace" lines. Like running a spoon through pudding, you can see where the spoons been (does that make any sense?) Whatever.

So pour that gloppy soap thing into a mold. When I added the lye to fat it turned a horrid color of pea green. The really pretty red color imparted by the SJW turned green when the lye hit it. Which is fine because the soap should dry and cure out to be a softy green/yellow.

I added a small strip of parchment paper to my new mold. It isn't required but it should help me lift the soap out of the mold when it's done curing.

It has to be in the molds for 48 hours in order to have firmed up enough to handle. Also with these molds it forms an air lock so there is no getting it out before it's ready anyway.

This mold is a 3-4 pound size, molds come in many different sizes. This recipe fills one mold.

An Idea: the 52 week project

I came across a blog a few weeks ago where a gal took a picture per week and posted it. She called it her 52 week project. I think I'd like to do something similar. Lately I've been struggling with topics and I've been on a blogging hiatus. I read all my fellow bloggers though, faithfully. I just seem to have nothing to say. 
I wondered if this 52 week project would get me motivated again. Most people use the 52 wk. project to enhance their photography skills. I might use it to do a snapshot of what's going on around here. Not to say I wouldn't do regular posts too but this might keep me inspired.

We've made some changes around here, the blog for one and on the farm too, namely our new wood stove. I've done some sewing projects to make window quilts and have been learning to play the guitar too! I really used to hate winter but now I love it, whole weekends when planning happens instead of farming.

Onion Harvest

About half our onions tops started to flop over, a sure sign they are ready to come up. I knocked the rest over so the whole bed looked rather like one big onion blanket. I had turned the water off to each onion garden bed so they would be dry and the dirt would fall off easily, mud on onions is difficult. But then like mother nature is wont to do... it rained, totally unexpected and overnight.  Oh well, so we had to get the onions up now or the bottom ones covered by all the onion tops would rot. So away we went pitchforking and lifting the beauties out. I planted two full onion beds with the onions from Mr. H THANK YOU!!

Since the rain had ruined all my drying work, we had to set the beauties in the sun to cure for the day and get all the mud (which wasn't too much) off.

We lined them up along the garden fence, over the arbor, on the rim of 3 compost bins and 2 halved 55 gallon drums, plus one giant wheel barrow. About 1/4 to 1/2 will go into salsa making (provided we get any red tomatoes this year) and the rest of the onions will be for storage, or onion powder.  I even gave about 1/4 of the flat of onion starts  away to neighbor Kara and my Mom. Needless to say I HAVE ONIONS!!! YAHOO!!!

I waited a week or so to finish this post because I wanted to count how many onions we harvested, the total: 428 or roughly 140 lb. of onions. I braided about 1/4 of them and then trimmed the tops for the rest to be stored in burlap bags. It feels good to have put away that many. I have started making onion powder, I can only stand to do a little at a time because I cry so horribly when that many onions are cut up.

Life update

Well the new farm deal fell through, it's ok though since we are pretty content where we are now. When I could finally get the gal to tell me how much she wanted for her house/property, I about choked. Needless to say it was WAY TO HIGH, so we parted ways, I do wish her luck she is a very nice lady.

Since we are going to be here for at least another winter, I've decided to get a move on getting a generator connection. Right now we are totally grid tied and dependent. I would love a backup generator for some electricity, mostly just to run the freezers and possibly the furnace fan if we ever loose power for days on end. We have loads of "money" (read: meat/fruit/veggies) in freezer bags and were we to loose power saving that would be priority. All the dry and canned goods would be fine without electricity. Seeing hurricane Irene's devastation has made me even more jumpy in the prepping for emergencies department. Call me crazy but it makes me feel safer having 6-12 months of food for us and all our animals.

Jake and I would really love a wood stove, but that is going to be a much larger project that will take time. It may never happen at this house if we decide to move. So much of our desire for more land is garden and orchard space. However I am starting to think maybe along every fence I need to have an espaliered tree. Possibly redesign the front spiral and take advantage of space better. We'll see....

busy season

I've disappeared, I know... but I do have an excuse other than the summer cannery and garden mayham.

We might be moving.

About a month ago I was going to a garage sale, the property was awesome and the gal had a small sign on the side of the house that said (for sale by owner).  She gave me her card and told me to call back in a few weeks when she got the appraisal back. So in the mean time we've been getting our house ready for a possible sale. Our hope is to bridge loan, purchase that property, move all the livestock and sell this one.

I have had no time for blogging, between cleaning and staging this house on top of all the garden, canning, yard work, and livestock chores I've been swamped! But that is where we are.... once we know more and things slow down a bit I will post more regularly, or if I have exciting moving to our farm news!

Wild Food exploits

I love hunting for wild foods, I'm really new at it but I find it a ton of fun. Jake and I scouted out elderberry bushes and huckleberries this weekend. We didn't find any huckleberries, they are elusive and well guarded. As far as elderberries go, I was unsure if the shrub/tree down the block was one, but after our friends pointed them out when we were in Idaho I am convinced this and several across the street are elderberries.

This weekend we had a fair bit of thimbleberries and a few dewberries. Those are always good, but we can never harvest enough to put up. Maybe if we lived in an area they grew and could go harvest every few days, but they don't grow within 45 minutes of us, so it's a no go on the daily collecting.

The wild cherry tree across the field was torn down about 4 days before the berries were ripe enough to pick. Thank you construction project. Neighbor Kara and I were really sad, we cleaned that tree out last year.

I was able to get Saint Johns Wort while still in flower, I didn't get enough to dry for tea but I made a half gallon of SJW infused oil and a quart of SJW tincture. I did miss the nettles this year, but I am determined to get some next year!

I still need to find a mycophile. I've never tried exotic mushrooms (even store bought ones) so I'm not sure what ones I might like. My mushroom knowledge extends from white, crimini, to portobello, I'm real versed (insert sarcasm here.)

Garden pictures to come soon, I need to go outside with the camera.

She's Here!

This is my Country Living Grain Mill. Fresh flour loafs of bread here I come!

Livestock update 7-12-11

Well our new bee girls are doing well. They seem to want to build wax comb where they're not supposed too. Normally bee's won't attach comb onto the screen mesh of an inner cover,  some of our bee's haven't heard about that.

This is "dots" hive (yellow polka dots) they are doing the best out of all our hives. The neighboring hive "stripes" had a virgin queen, meaning she can't lay because she is unmated. Weather plays a crucial role in the queen being mated successfully. If it's too windy or raining she won't go on a mating flight. In short that's all the weather we've been having. We checked on Sunday 7-3 and she still had not been mated. But half way through the inspection TONS of bees went to the top boards put butts in the air started fanning their wings. A phenomenon not often seen, they were directing her home making sure she came back to the right hive. It's amazing how important her mating flight and her presents is to the hive. We didn't get a picture of it because of course we forgot the camera. But Peace Bee Farmer has a great picture and explanation of the mating flight. 

'Stripes' queen mating was confirmed on Sunday 7-10, her butt was twice as big as before and finally eggs are larva were seen! They will be our weakest hive since no queen meant no babies for the last month. Jake took a frame of capped brood from dots and put it inside stripes to give them a boost since 'dots' is kicking ass!

The chickens are doing good, each and every one of the Sussex's have gone broody. So our break broody method involves the dog kennel and a lot of patience. We put the broody girl on the side yard for the day locking the not broody girls in the chicken run. Then in the late evening we grab the broody girl and put her in the dog kennel with a roost. If she has any access to nesting material she will sit on it and be back at ground zero. This goes on for 3 days, by then she's broken broody and will just lay eggs. UGH! This is round two of the broody antics, every one has gone through it once, then we had about 3 weeks broody hen free and the cycle started over. Last night was the first time we've had two girls at once. They are only in the kennel at night when they sleep then get to enjoy the side yard and taunt the other girls all day. YEAH for heritage breeds raised by mothers not incubators! It really makes me wish I lived on property and could have a rooster then we'd have free baby chicks.

Side yard on the right. Chicken run on the left. Dog kennel (tan box) in the upper right. Silly girls.

Bunny pile! I split Big Mamma's first litter of 8 into two cages of 4. They are getting big. Tubbers is nearing the 5lb harvest weight. Likely they will reach weight by the end of July, then it's off to Camp Freezer. I am going to have Jacob build me a bunny tractor because transferring them back and forth from the pen to the cage is stressful.

This is Baby Doe's first litter of 4 they are really big! I think it has everything to do with being only 4 kits their was more milk to go around. Not sure.  One of the white spotty kids has splay leg the rear right looks like a seal flipper. The only way to fix it, is to hobble them. If it were a front leg it's easier for the bun to handle but being a back leg it's more stressful to cure. So far little spotty's had no issues and doesn't seem to mid it, so I'll just monitor it.

Big Mamma had another litter about 2.5 weeks ago. She had 9, but we lost 2 from Mamma squishing them on accident. One of her litter is a runt and is distinctly smaller (in front of bunny pile), think of an apricot vs. an orange. It's been doing fine though, I am just worried that the other bunz will beat it up. So far though eyes are open and everyone is getting along, they are in the adorable stage where their head is bigger than their body.

I know it seems like a ton of babies,  Mom asked me if we're going to have the freezer space for it. But if you think about it 5 lbs harvest weight means 2 lbs of meat but that 2 lbs also includes bones. So Big Mammas litter of 8 is only going to yield 16 lbs of meat and we don't intend to breed them in the dead of winter, we're stocking up now.

Everyone is good, busy but good.

Garden update 7-12-11

A lot has been going on even though the garden year is about 1.5 months behind.  I went outside and took some pictures of the whole crew (animals included, next post.) Here we go.....

A big THANK YOU! To Mr. & Mrs. H for these onions, they are going strong. I re-arranged my garden layout so I could plant the whole tray you gave me. (I still had to give some away to neighbor Kara and my Mom.)

Blue Podded Shelling peas, they have a red/pink flower similar to sweet peas. I haven't tried the pea pods yet because they aren't quite full, but soon. They sure are pretty, I hope they taste that way too.

We're trying elephant garlic this year. The leaf difference is amazing. Last year I harvested the garlic on the 10th of July. I have no idea when to do it this year, everything is so behind.

Another gift from my aforementioned onion heroes! Jerusalem Artichokes or sunchokes. I have never eaten them, they are my garden experiment "new veggie" for the year.

Tomatoes and beans. The `maters look really windswept and terrible, but they are going strong, after we get horrid winds they turn the leaf bottom side up and stay that way for a while. Not sure why and I can't find any web info about it... oh well they did the same thing last year too.

The clover has taken hold this year. Which is nice because it keeps the "grass" green but mainly we planted it for the bees, they love the flowers... just no grass walking barefoot or you might pay the price. I also grab handfuls of it for the bunz, they just love the clover.

Well here's the "3 sisters" patch. Knee high by the 4th of July my ass! Our spring was just too cold and overcast. The corn is finally taking off, the beans growing up it are reaching for the sky and the corn just can't keep up, beans are super fast growers though. My ground cover of moon&stars watermelon is about as big as my fist. About half of our squash plants are doing good the rest are grossly stunted. 

The front yard garden is going well, the perennials don't seem to mind at all. I've been amassing more herbs this year to fill out the garden. I am starting to learn more about herbs and using them in tinctures etc. so having more on hand is a bonus.

Over all it's been a rather suck pants year, because everything is late and all coming in at once. I've only had one snap pea harvest I think they are going to set pod and checkout all at the same time. UGH! Our spinach bolted early too not sure why because the kale is still doing fine.  Ah well, it's a learning year for sure.

Chive Blossom Vinegar

I love blogs, seriously awesome information can be found on blogs! I found a recipe for chive blossom vinegar. It goes like this: acquire vinegar (I used white wine) and fight some bees for chive blossoms. I don't mind saying I stole some from the side of a neighbors yard... come on they were infested with weeds and grass and looked like crap! I got some chive blossoms willingly from Neighbor Kara and Mom.

Next, wash chive blossoms and then get them as dry as possible (excess water will cloud the vinegar). They can be run through a salad spinner, I windmilled mine in a towel and then left them outside to dry out for about an hour.

Now stuff them in a jar and cover with acquired vinegar. I placed a plastic lid and a cup on top of the chives so they would stay under the vinegar.  This jar didn't have a lid so I made a make shift one with a plastic top a cloth towel and rubber band.

In about two weeks or when you like the smell and taste of the vinegar ( I suppose you could go up to 4 weeks) strain the blossoms out through a fine mesh to get every last scrap.

The vinegar will be a vibrant pink/red color and smell of garlicky chives! I've used it on salads this spring with awesome dressing results.

Apiary Expansion

I promised a long post and this one is sure going to be. Thursday of last week Jake and I drove 6 hours (round trip) to pick up some bees. We decided on 3 nuc's which are small pre-started hives for example:

A nuc (pronounced nuke) looks like this: Sometimes wood, though the ones we got were a waxed cardboard container with 5 frames of bees, brood, honey, pollen and a queen. A mini, already started, ready to go hive.

A box of bees looks like this: Roughly 3 pounds of bees and a queen. No babies, honey or any pre-started frames. (Below picture is from our bee install spring 2010)

So 3 nuc's, which means we'll now have 3 hives instead of just the one. Last year we had ordered 2 boxes of bee's but only one stayed, the other swarmed. But I digress...


The weather was lovely, much nicer than the weather we left back in Cheney. On our way we drove as close as I've ever come to commercial wind towers. Often they are quite a way's away on top of some distant hill top but instead we drove right by them.

The directions from Google were wrong but we only got lost once, and thankfully got it all figured out. The drive down was uneventful but coming back was nerve wracking. Our car has no trunk, so the girls were right there in the car with us. Trying to think ahead I brought a giant green rubermaid tub with us in which to place the nucs. Only one fit.
















The others were wrapped in 2 garbage sack's and a large blanket respectively.  Well of course some got out! How else would the adventure with 60,000+ bees in the back of an open car go!? Jacob spent about half of the trip with his bee jacket on. It's especially scary since I've never been stung and don't have any idea if I am allergic. Being in the middle of freaking nowhere with that many stinging creatures makes for lots of adrenaline. We only had to stop once just to adjust the blankets and tubs, and thankfully neither of us got stung.

We got home around 2:30pm jacked up and ready to get these girls out of the car. The install went smooth because it was mostly a matter of taking the frames out of the nuc and placing them into the hive.

All of the hives had a good population, we saw capped brood and lots of pollen. The only downside to buying bee's this way is the frames. The frames have a plastic foundation that dictates what size the bee's can make the cells, all our frames from last year are foundationless meaning we let the bee's draw out the comb as nature intended. We get smaller bee's but overall they are healthier.

This frame in the middle left side or upper right shows the foundation it's a yellow color. We intend to slowly faze these out, our girls go au naturel.

Our master beekeeper has a lab where he tests your bees from trachea mites to nosema, so we took samples. He needs 100 bees to test to get an average, collecting 100 writhing bees in a mason jar is no easy task. So Jim (master beekeeper) came up with the measurement, 1 inch of bees in the bottom of a mason jar roughly translates to 100 bees. So our 3 hives 100 test subjects are with Jim now and we should know something by early next week. Hopefully we'll get a clean bill of health.

We moved our bee yard to the back of the garden so that the hives will get more year round sun. It used to rest on the west side of the house which goes into shade around 2 pm. In the new location they'll get sun until roughly 6-7 pm. A considerable difference we hope helps in the long run. Jacob also redesigned and built some long Langstroth hive's, essentially all 20 frames of a traditional hive rest horizontally instead of rising vertically by stacking extra boxes on top. Similar to a top bar style hive, only with frames not just a top bar.

I went outside this afternoon and saw a major orientation flight in session. Orientation flights help the newly hatched or inside bee's figure out where there hive is in space and in relation to the sun. It's quiet impressive to watch.

See how they are all facing the hive, might need to make it bigger to tell. But regardless they are checking out the new digs. We also give our hives an address to help them locate the correct hive, so we've got "dots" and "stripes" hives. I know it doesn't look it in the picture but they face opposite directions. Dots faces east and stripes faces west. It's best if the hive faces east toward sunrise, but we didn't have the room to place them side by side.

Here's a video I took of orientation flights, it's only 40 seconds long.

Making Lard

I promise I'll do a bee update but with tons of pictures and videos it's a long story. However the girls are safely transported and enjoying their new digs.

Mom and I ordered a half-a-hog from Rocky Ridge Ranch. In a quest to use more of the hog than most people I asked for all the organ meat and all the fat to process into lard.  I know Lard, right? Ewww! Ok, but as fat's go it is the most like our own and so easily processed by our bodies. I have been thinking about trying to get the least processed and most gas efficient fats as possible. Turning fat into lard is really easy it turns out.

I got two of these bags of fat weighing roughly 4.5 lb.
















I cubed it and put the fat into a stock pot along with 1/2 c. of water. The water will evaporate and helps the fat not burn and stick to the bottom of the pot.

Left side hasn't been heated yet, the right side is about 15 minutes into melting.

Close up uncooked.

Close up 25 minutes into cooking. See how it just melts.

Almost done. The floaties are called crackles you can eat them, they are like crunchy skin and fat. At this stage they make a crackling sound, hence the name. A word of warning, don't leave the pot because it needs to be stirred frequently.  I thought they tasted similar to bacon but they are really greasy (go figure). I think they might be better with some salt? But I am not desperate for fats so maybe I'll give them to the dog....

I don't have a picture of the straining process since I was by myself, but I lined a wire mesh strainer with several layers of cheese cloth and poured the whole pot through it.  Then ended up with jars that looked like this.

I did have a fiasco with one jar breaking and spilling hot melted lard all over the counter and the floor, after much cursing I got it cleaned up. Ugh!

After about 4-5 hours of cooling it looks like this.

One of the pots I under cooked so the the crackles were a very light brown. The other I cooked until the crackles were a golden brown. The two different pots yielded different smelling lard. The undercooked crackles smells cleaner less like bacon and just like fat or butter. The other smells of bacon or meat maybe, in any case it has a smell. The bacon one I'll use for cooking everyday things, the clean smelling one I'll use in pie's and such (not that I make many pies, but still).

From the one bag of 4.5 lbs of fat I got roughly 3.5 pints of lard. I left expansion space because I wasn't sure if it needed it ( better to be safe than sorry) then I stuck them in the freezer. It should keep for a year+ in there.

I also intend to use the lard for soap making if I can get access to more of it.

Bee hope

Our little band of stragglers may get some sisters and a new monarch. I've found a comercial beekeeper who still has some nuc's left (nuc = bees, queen, and 5 frames of brood/honey, not a box of bee's like last time). However, he is outside of Walla Walla which is around a 3 hour drive one way for us. But. Worth. It.

We're thinking of expanding to 3 hives (provided he has that many), one on this farm and the other 2 on some friends property, just outside of Cheney.  Our scheduled pickup date is next Thursday the 9th.  I won't believe it or start celebrating until those girls are in the car!

Updates to follow....

The Colonies Death

Our bees are dead.

Not entirely but they are as good as dead. This weekend was the first time we had nice enough weather to do a hive check. Upon opening the hive it was clear we had a problem, not many bees.  When we installed our hive package it's roughly 3 lb. of bees or the size of a women's basket ball, somewhere in the neighborhood of 10,000 bee's. Now only about an orange/grapefruit size cluster remained, in numbers of maybe 800-1,000.

Our queen is dead. If we had known she was dead sooner we could have replaced her. But with so few bees in the hive they wouldn't live long enough for the next hatching if we did decide to get a new queen. At this point all we can do is watch the girls keep working while their numbers dwindle to nothing. We're not sure when the monarch died but obviously it was sudden and the girls didn't have time to make a replacement. Had we known back in April we could have prevented this, but the weather was to cold, wet or windy to open up and take a look.

The time to order a package of bees is February- mid-March. Package bee's are delivered April 18th roughly. No bee's for us this year.

Unless we can get a swarm which we are hopeful for, we put an ad on Craig*sList and with luck someone will call.

Bunz are getting big

I set up an outdoor pen for the babies and sometimes adults to play in. Although I noticed that the adults seem really nervous with big eyes and don't move for fear of "discovery" from the evil _________ (fill in the blank, what ever bunz are afraid of.) Since it was so stressful on the adults I've started just sticking to the babies for now.

The little guys don't have any fear of the great out doors or Kai (dog) for that matter. I'll get a video on the next nice day so ya'll can see how they "play" together. Regardless I always leave the green tub in the play pen so if they feel threatened they can run inside.

All 8 babies are in the tub, eyes were shut but my presence made them alert.  They still like to bunny pile which is adorable. I have nicknamed one of the dark brown babies "Tubbers" since it's SO much bigger than the other 7 kids. Obviously someone is a dinner hog.

Black Morel?

My Mom called me yesterday and said "I think I have a morel growing in my yard." This morning I went over and picked said mushroom, I would have to agree with her. It is, I think past good eating age since it's rather rubbery and has obviously been out of the ground for a while.

I've never been morel hunting or eaten them for that matter... since I don't know what I am looking for or really where to look at all. I digress, having done some research on morel's and false morel's I am pretty sure that this is a black morel... (all the pictures get bigger if you'd like a closer look)

The inside is hollow and the mushroom is all one piece (meaning cap and stem are one unit).  I am pretty sure that the only morel look alike is the false morel, but that should be squat and not hollow.  This mushroom stands about 5" tall but I realize morel size is subjective. So any shroomies out there? And if it is a morel.... seriously? It's all by itself in the bark next too my mother's house in the middle of the city.

What a weird spring.

Tater Babies

"The Husband" talking. One of my rare, bi-annual posts.

So last fall, the  "All Blues" (but more appropriately called All Purples) potatoes produced seed pods to my surprise. I've never seen a potato plant do that. The seeds pods were a sphere about the size of a quarter. Around November, I picked up a couple seed pods off the ground that looked to be starting to rot. I wanted to try and save the seeds over winter and plant them in the spring to see what happens.

Jen and I want to start saving seeds to save money but also to reduce our carbon footprint. The less we have shipped to us the better!

So I smashed the seed pods, strained the seeds out, dried the seeds, and put them in a jar on the counter.

About a week and a half ago, I noticed them on the counter and planted them. I covered them with about a quarter of an inch of soil and put them in the window. And to my surprise today, I saw this...

Three of them are growing!!!! I'm so proud I think I shed a tear! I think I threw in about 50 seeds in two small containers so I might have to thin them out. I'm pretty excited about it. I have no idea what will happen. Will they grow potatoes this year? Next year? I don't have a clue. So any input would be appreciated.

So I just had to gush about my new Tater Babies. I'm usually just contributing to the garden by helping Jen in any way I can. So this is my first adventure into growing something myself and of course I chose something totally weird like growing potatoes from seed.

So if this works out, maybe I'll post more than just twice this year!!!

Rabbit Nest Building

Our "baby doe" who is actually named Confetti but we don't call her that, was nest building yesterday. She is due to kindle any day now. This will be her first litter and her instincts so far have been really good. She just seemed so confused so I had to take a video of it. She keeps carrying around a mouth full of straw but she's just not sure what to do with it, or for that matter why she is carrying around straw in the first place.




Baby Doe figured it out a little while later and has since stopped nest building, but she was so cute I just had to share.

The babies are good, to them mom = jungle gym. Ches gets along so well with Kai(dog) that I wonder what would happen if I let them out together. Probably Ches would bite Kai and that would be the end of the happy friendship. Still, it's nice having a well trained dog who LOVES everything, accept the chickens they scare her (which is awesome and very funny!)

Double Rainbow on Mother's Day

I know I should've Posted this a week ago but seriously it's finally spring time and the chores are piling up! Anyway last weekend between rainstorms Jake and I were working on the front spiral garden when two giant rainbows appeared. I've posted a ton of videos as of late but guess what here comes one more..

Full double rainbow..


Ive never been able to see the end of a rainbow, it's always way off in the distance. But this time I was able to take a picture of the end.

It ends right there in the field across from our house. How Awesome Is That!?!? I went and looked but didn't find a pot of gold, I was hoping but maybe being able to see the end was my pot of gold?

Happy Spring everyone!(or Happy Fall for those at the other end of the beach ball) :-)

Tartine Bread

I saw this book at the library and picked it up, so far it seems pretty awesome but I haven't tried baking any of the bread recipes yet. But I did find a video that is rather mouth watering.

For the LOVE of bread....

Exploring Bunz

The babies are out of the nestbox now, at 3 weeks old the eyes are open and the squeakers are ready to explore. This video is really dark, since rabbits don't like the heat we have them under our deck, but it makes it really difficult to get a clear picture since the light is so dim. This was taken at 4 pm and totally bright out.... oh well we need a new camera.




Cuteness overload (baby in food dish):

The little squeakers like to climb in and eat the grain, right now they fit perfect inside it. I've seen several of them at it. The world is their jungle gym.