December has been an eventful month, not necessarily easy but full of learning and new experiences. It has been almost 6 months since we moved here and things are coming along, one project after another. Earlier in the month we got established with a local large animal vet who turned out to be quite helpful. Little did we know a few days later our ever spirited, 8 month old Oberhasli goat, Poppy, would once again try to escape the pasture by jumping the fence, resulting in a fractured front leg. Very traumatic indeed for me (my high hopes of breeding her in the next month were shatterered) although Poppy remained stoic. Definately a learning experience watching the vet. I have to say that even though we don't have immediate access to prescription drugs, if this was to ever happen again I think I would be capable of taking care of it. The whole process entailed shooting her up with vallium, setting her leg straight and then creating a splint with padding and PVC pipe held in place with duck tape. (I learned to give my first shot which is a big deal for me!) Poppy is doing well, it's been almost 2 weeks and she's getting a series of homeopathic remedies to speed her recovery. Now to work on the fencing...
Winter Solstice and Wool
Tuesday we had a wonderfully successful needle felting class here with 7 homeschoolers ages 6-11. The children learned how to create wool felted dolls inspired by the Waldorf tradition. I was so impressed by their attention span. They were able to work for almost 3 hours straight, some even forgoing their lunch break to keep the creativity flowing.
Soap from Scratch
After curing for 30 some days, our first batch of homemade soap came out terrific! My friend Rachel, of Dog Island Farm, http://www.dogislandfarm.com, and her roomate Jeanette came through, we had so much fun. We used a great recipe from Kim Flottum's, The Backyard Beekeeeper that includes coconut oil, palm oil, beeswax, lye, and distilled h2o, with essential oils of tangerine and sweet orange-yummy! Next attempt will be homemade laundry soap.
After curing for 30 some days, our first batch of homemade soap came out terrific! My friend Rachel, of Dog Island Farm, http://www.dogislandfarm.com, and her roomate Jeanette came through, we had so much fun. We used a great recipe from Kim Flottum's, The Backyard Beekeeeper that includes coconut oil, palm oil, beeswax, lye, and distilled h2o, with essential oils of tangerine and sweet orange-yummy! Next attempt will be homemade laundry soap.
The soap is so yummy!
ReplyDeleteOh! I was just thinking about felting the other day. And since we made soap together it seems super appropriate. I saw a woman this past summer felting wool around the outside of soaps, which created their own little built in washcloths. Maybe we should get together and try doing this together. Where do you get your felting wool?