Making Soap

Soapmaking is must know on the long list of "something from nothing's". A basic soap consists of three basic household ingredients: rendered fat (from cooking), lye (from wood ash), and water. I have always been afraid of using the Lye because of the caustic nature but after a conversation with my Grandma and a story of a traveling soap maker who would come through town once a year during the depression to make soap for the family, I felt compelled to learn. 

So far I have had no fails at the process and I am creating my own calculated recipes.

First batch basic in my hand crafted soap box. 

Curing

Rendered lard recipe old fashion soap

Colorant use

Wildcrafting herbal poison ivy relief soap. My own recipe.

Sweet orange

Patchouli 

Teaching my children the chemistry and process

They want to create.

Peppermint and lavender

Soon my Etsy site will be flooded with soap. I have also had offers with a couple of Venders to make custom soap for the holiday season. We'll see what happens.

Garden update

Garden update

Beautiful flowers

For the first year in this garden  I am convinced raised beds and biodynamics as well as permaculture practice are the way to go. I started all my own seeds using heirlooms and my father in laws saved seeds. I do feel I should have started my seeds earlier. 

So far our major success is in flowers, sauce tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and winter squashes.

Weekending 4-24-16

Bees arrived last Friday

Bees arrived last Friday and there is already honey and pollen in the Hive!

I love Spring!!

Monday Night Enchilada Bake

Enchilada Bake

22 seconds prep time.... hahah

What you need:

1 lb. cooked Chicken

1 large onion chopped

2 cups enchilada sauce (home canned preferred)

2 cups Salsa Verde

1 can black beans

1 cup sour cream

12 organic corn tortillas 

1/2 cup Mexican shredded cheese blend

Layer it up in a heavy iron pot with a lid and place it a heating oven until it reaches 400 degrees F

Then I turn off the oven and let it slow cook for 3hrs until dinner time. 

Coop Design

Coop Designs from LillyZoo to the Now

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Big North East Snow: Jonas

Winter Storm Jonas 

brought lots of good memories and snow

Spinning by the fire

Ant playing with his toys

Amazing 3:30am full moon glow

Same picture in the middle of the night with the driveway lights on.

Full moon on the breast of the new fallen snow.

Out door fun

lots of sledding

Ice Skating Rink on the Patio

Salvaged 2x12s Screwed together and wait for the cold

weather

Add a layer of Dr. Shrink boat rap plastic and fill with water and wait for ice.

Let the skating begin...

A New Habitat and Memories for Us

The convo pit

The kitchen

The family room

Whats not to love about the new habitat...

We really love this space.

Now why did we give up the farm?  Our beautiful old dream house farm at Hillside...

This girl... our oldest  AKA #1 

We were a homeschooling family in a close knit Waldorf community at Hillside.  Our oldest decided she needed to go to school. That is a choice she wanted to make. We had to honor that choice. The school system in the district we resided in is in severe turmoil and by severe I mean it. We were overloaded on property taxes and couldn't afford to send all our children to the wonderful local Waldorf school.  So began the search for a large property and great schools. Boy we found it! A Mid-century Mod home with a lot of character and a secluded property backing up to 600 acres of preserved public land. Rad hunting land! 

There is enough property for us to farm, keep sheep, bees, rabbits and chickens and continue to homeschool and send #1 to school.  Win win for everyone right?  However this move has been very difficult. I don't like moving... I miss my farm house and so does our #2 to the point of depression. We miss all that we had built there. We miss the community and friends of that non-media life. We miss the other of inhabitants of the house. We miss how the land spoke to us and we miss our rhythm of our home.  We have not quite gotten that again in the new house. I guess it will take time. 

I do love a great number of new things in our new house and as we turn this place into a LillyZoo again I will be posting here at the MidCentury Farm. We have many projects and life events ahead of us. For almost a year we have making new memories here.