Herbal Cough Syrup

 At least once a year someone in the house gets a cold or the flu. It was me this year and I've been fighting the miserable thing all week. I prefer to use herbs to help lessen the symptoms rather than bought cold remedies. When I started coughing I got busy making a new batch of my cough syrup. We think it works as well as anything we have bought. One of the most important ingredients is the inner bark from the black cherry tree. I dug around in the cabinet we keep such things in and came up with all the ingredients except the cherry bark. Apparently I neglected to gather more when the last batch was used up. I should be thankful that it was the cherry bark I didn't have because I can gather that even though it is winter. If it had been any of the other ingredients I wouldn't have been able to find them now. It has been cold enough that the bark is frozen tight on the trees. I got around that by cutting a small branch and bringing it in to thaw. Once it had warmed up enough I pealed off strips of it's very aromatic bark. If you have the right tree, the inner bark should have a strong scent of bitter almond. Only the inner bark is used so the bark needs to be cleaned. Cherry bark is fairly easy to separate the inner bark from the outer. The pic shows me using a knife to peel off the outer bark. I will be bottling up my concoction today. It does take a few days to make it and of course I am just about over my cold, or at least I hope I am! The recipe is on the recipe page if you want to see what I put in it.
 Please be assured that this is not medical advice and you go see your doctor before doing anything radical like making your own herbal medicine.

Re purposing Old Knives

Having finally gotten most of the tasks I needed to get done out of the way, I have started on some other fun projects. I look for old knives at thrift shops and yard sales to recycle into other uses. I look for old carbon steel knives rather than stainless. The stainless steel is much harder to rework by hand.The top knife in the pic is one I cut down to hunting knife size and rehandled. I cut down and epoxy-ed the front leg bone from a deer for the handle and made the sheath from some scrap leather. The sheath is not much to look at but it does it's job.  The bottom knife is another I am going to cut down. It has a nice bone handle on it and is from a old meat carving set. I have no use for it as is but after it is cut down it will be very useful as a skinning knife since I can shape it to have a long belly curve.This one has very high carbon steel which is easy to test for. If you touch high carbon steel to a grinding stone and watch the sparks, it will tell you a lot about the steel. High carbon steel will throw very bright, almost white, sparks and they will bloom, or branch into multiple sparks. Don't stay on the grinding stone very long though or you will pull the temper out of the edge.I do not use any power tools on these so I don't have that worry. I start by putting the blade in a vise, aligned on the mark, with the part I want to keep below the jaws. I then wrap a piece of leather around the blade and strike it with a hammer. A carbon steel blade will snap right off at the vise. If necessary, I take several more small "bites" off the blade to get it fairly close to my desired shape. Make sure you wrap something around that blade, the piece that breaks off will be very sharp and will leave at a high rate of speed! After that it is just a matter of filing away at it until you have it nicely contoured. Once it matches the shape you want, start filing the blade to attain a thinner cutting edge and point. If you are after looks as well as function you will need to use progressively finer grades of sanding paper to get that mirror finish.  A lot of these old kitchen and chef knives have great steel in them, this is a great way to reuse them.
On a different note, I've been cracking nuts, black walnuts and hazelnuts, for Ann's holiday baking. Ann posted a recipe for one of the treats she made this year, Black Walnut Spread. I would call it nutella but that name is copyrighted of course. If you like that product you will love Ann's version. Scroll to the bottom of the Recipe page to see it.

Hand Made Cordage

I love learning new skills but more than that I love actually using the skill to make something useful. Making cordage from foraged materials is one such skill I acquired in the last few years. The light colored fiber and cord on the right is from a shrub we call "leather wood" but I a not sure if that is it's correct name.It is definitely leather like and so flexible that you can actually tie the limbs in a knot. The fiber to the left is the inner bark of' basswood'or 'little leaf linden'. It is one of the best foragable fibers in our area.Both of these fibers need to be collected in early summer or late spring when there is plenty of sap to allow the bark to be removed easily. Of course pulling off the bark will kill the tree so I pick one tree or shrub ,cut it down , take every bit of bark I can, and use the tree for firewood. This will provide fiber for a lot of projects. The basswood inner bark is made up of multiple thin layers that can be separated as is the leather wood bark to a lesser extent. The fiber can be used 'as is' but is much more useful as cordage. I could show you how to make cordage in a few minutes but I am not so sure about telling you how to do it! Starting with two strands of slightly damp fiber, the fist strand is given a clockwise twist.Strand one is now brought over strand two in a counterclockwise direction and strand two is twisted clockwise. Each strand is twisted clockwise in it's turn as the two strands are twisted around each other in the opposite counter clockwise) direction. It is much easier than that sounds. The opposite twist keep it from unraveling and is the basis of most rope and cordage Some people twist the fiber by rolling on their thigh with the palm of the hand. That method is very fast, several feet a minute can be made. I have not mastered that method and use my fingers to twist the fiber, I make a few inches a minute. A caution to any men who might try the thigh method, do not try it while wearing shorts unless you were wanting to remove those leg hairs anyway!

Wolf Track

I went for a walk yesterday and saw lots of animal tracks including these wolf tracks. The knife next to it is 3 1/2 inches long so you can gauge the size of it.We had several inches of snow on the ground and then light rain which made very soft mushy snow. That was Sunday and it got cold again that night preserving these tracks. There were all sorts of different tracks but it is hard to get clear pictures of them. I saw squirrel, snowshoe rabbit, partridge, weasel, fox, and deer tracks  plus the wolf tracks. There seems to be a lot of snowshoe rabbits this year.

They make lots of runs which they tend to move about on so they are very easy to snare if you are hungry for rabbit stew. Here is the track of a nice size whitetail deer. I wish this one had been around during deer hunting season! We have mostly chicken and pork in our freezer, a little venison would add some variety. I went for my walk to see if the swamp has frozen hard enough to allow me to bring in some of the firewood that is on the other side. It seems fairly solid except for the creek itself which has only very thin ice right now.

  I have about a half dozen little piles like this one I would like to get home. A lot of this wood is dry black ash. Black Ash makes a very nice fuel for the cook stove.These small pieces will make the quick, hot, fire you want to fry things on the cook stove. I have  mostly larger wood now so I have to do a lot of splitting to provide Ann with wood to cook with. Big pieces are great to maintain a even fire over night but you need small wood to fry your eggs!

Another Road Trip

We made a short road trip Sunday to visit one of the premier llama breeders in our area.It was a rare opportunity to talk with someone who has been in the business of raising llamas for over thirty years in this area. We spent a very pleasant three hours conversing and admiring his barn full of llamas and  alpacas. The reason for our visit was to obtain some of the fiber from this award winning herd. We brought home half a van full so Ann has been sorting and checking it all out. The pic is some gorgeous pure black.

 I didn't know we would get the chance to see his herd and didn't have my camera with me. He had one pen with a dozen or so baby llamas that were being weaned from their moms and one new baby with her mom that was only two days old. It is hard to imagine anything cuter than those baby llamas, which by the way, are called "cria'.
 It will take a week or so to get all this fiber sorted out and graded but it will be worth the effort to be able to offer such high quality fiber to our customers. I plan on doing a longer  post on this breeder soon so I'll save the rest till then.

Drum Carder

This is Ann's drum carder. It is made by Ashford from New Zealand and has been very dependable. Other than an occasional drop of oil and semiannual cleaning the fuzz out of the bearings it has required no maintenance. Very well made and more importantly, very well engineered. When too much fuzz builds up around the shafts and starts fouling the bearings partially dismantling is necessary to clear the bearings. I remove the hand crank by taking off the lock nut and threading it off. I then remove five screws that hold on the handle side.

Both of the drums can then be slide off their shaft allowing you to clean out the fuzz. Ann attempted to card some alpaca fiber yesterday. If a person was very careful and watched that tuffs of that very, very fine fiber didn't go wandering down in among the shafts it would probably work fine. If you don't watch carefully your drum carder is soon so tightly bound up that you can barely turn the handle. That results in the carder looking like it does in the second pic.About a third of that fuzz pile shown was jammed around the shafts. As I said, this is a well engineered piece of equipment so 15 minutes was all it took to get it back in business.Ann's spinning wheel is also an Ashford . I would recommend their products based on our experience with these two items.

On a unrelated note, here are a couple pair of mittens Ann's sister knit for us with some of Ann's llama yarn. Warm and soft.Thanks, Mary!

Llama and Alpaca Fence

I have been plug'in away at getting a enclosure done near our cabin. Ann wanted to have the llamas and alpacas closer than their former area which was a 1/2 mile walk. We were lucky at a auction earlier this year and bought several rolls of wire at a good price so I had most of the materials. I did cut some black ash posts for my corners. This is two strand twisted wire, not barbed. I stretched it as tightly as I could and ran six strands. I managed to come up with enough steel "t" posts for most of the line posts. I plan on adding a hot wire yet so the critters

don't get in the habit of pushing between the wires to get the greener grass on the other side! Here is a pic of the old corral. It was made entirely with poles we cut on the site. It gave good service for over six years so I have no complaints. We added the orange bale twine when we had goat kids in it and they would just walk right through. I will be salvaging whatever I can for fire wood. The new fence is in a different area so I will tear this down and then build a new fence around this area.

This pic is along the other side. This is the edge of a old railroad bed. It was tough going to get the post driven in. I need to add a few post between the ones I have in. They will be used to maintain the wire spacing. This pen will be used for llamas,alpacas and our pony. There are a few mature trees I will protect by putting some light wire netting around them to prevent chewing on the bark. Some of the smaller trees I will leave and see what happens. The alder and willow brush will get pulled out next spring. I will frost seed some clover yet this year.

Ann reassuring the critters after the move. They all lead well so that is how she brought them back to the cabin. All of them like carrots so that is our treat of choice. We will only leave the halters on until every one is comfortable with their new pen. If we did have to catch someone it is nice to have a halter to grab on to. They get their hay outside unless the weather is nasty. They have a nice snug shed to get into if they want to and we feed them there in bad weather.

Another pic of the critters. They all get along although there is a definite preference for the company of their own kind. Alpacas stay with the other alpacas and llamas do the same. Our pony , Sam, tries to be nice and groom the alpacas as he would another horse but the alpacas don't appreciate it!

Rose Hips

This is a wild food that is still available, rose hips.The fruit of the rose, call hips ,are high in vitamin C and make a very pleasant tasting tea. They tend to stay on the plant well into the winter unless eaten by the birds. This year that is a likely occurrence since most wild fruits that usually are present all winter are gone already. Rose hips are more seed than fruit but they can be used to make jelly as well as tea. Some roses have much larger fruit than others. There are several named cultivars available from nurseries that produce huge amounts of large hips. You often see these around homes and they present a chance for a little urban foraging. Most people are happy, if a bit baffled, to let you pick them from their plants. If you are picking the hips for tea, split them in half, discard the seeds, and dry the remaining thin shell of fruit. A nice addition to your collection of wild foraged teas, Free Food...Yeah!

More Hand Hewn Beams

There has been lots of interest in my previous post about hand hewn beams so when I started my latest project I took lots of pics. This first one just shows how I cut down to the chalk line to get a flat surface. If you haven't read the old post I start out by using a spirit level to mark each end after stabilizing the log, then chalk a line down each side connecting the level marks. I came up with a better method of holding the log steady while marking it. It is imperative that the log does not move while it is being marked.

I made three of these. I nailed a pair of them onto blocks of firewood to raise the log up to a comfortable working height while marking and sawing. I use the third one to stabilize the log while I am chipping down to my mark with the adz. They are quick and easy to make and really work well. If you do make them keep the nails straight up and down or they will bend when you slam the log down to stabilize it.

Here is a pic that shows the log on the holder. They made keeping the log steady while marking and cutting easy. I needed six beams for  floor joist on this project so it was well worth the few minutes it took to make them. I just used a common nail for the holding spikes but a hard nail would probably be better as these bend if they hit a knot. I did slam the log down pretty good to make sure it didn't move.

Since this shed is being built on a pair of recycled power line poles I didn't need the other side to be flat other than where they set onto the poles.I flipped the log over after flattening one side and marked another line parallel to the flattened sign. I checked the small end of each log to establish a minimum thickness that all my logs could meet. In my case that was four inches.  Sometimes logs will warp after one side has been chipped off. There is not much to do about it but chipping off the opposite side might help. I had one warp but I just made another and will use the warped one for something else.

Here is another view of the notches I put on the bottom.
And here a couple pics of the one log I needed square on one side. I used a carpenters square to mark a right angle on both ends. I made the chalk mark down the top first and then made the square mark and then connected the marks on the bottom.

I then turned the log on it's side and sawed down to the marks the same as the first side. This one came out with a slight twist. This is usually caused buy the chalk line being off somehow ;either because the end level lines don't match because something moved, or the chalk line was thrown off by hitting some obstruction such as a knot that protrudes. Regardless of the cause it is a problem that can be corrected. After figuring out which side is off and where it is off, chalk another line to straighten it up and rechip it to the new line.

                                       
If you don't have a chain saw you can use whatever you have. I used this bow saw for some of my cuts.

Road Trip Wednesday

Here are two of our recent additions to the homestead, a pair of Huacaya Alpacas . They were the reason for our 6 hour road trip to eastern Wisconsin today. The one facing me is the female, Maybell and the one that has his back to me is the male, Goldie. The llamas who were next door all came in to meet their soon to be pasture mates. We now have five alpacas. I will try to get some better pics of the whole herd soon. It was a nice day for a drive and we haven't been to the eastern part of the state very often.

Here is a pic of me with the Green Bay part of Lake Michigan behind me. You can just make out dark patchs on the horizon, that is the Door Peninsula  We were out on a breakwater near the Oconto WI. harbor. The wind was very,very refreshing! We did not spend much time sight seeing since we were expected to pick up the alpacas. I did snap a few pics , Ann next to a anchor display and a Bald Eagle.
We hope we will be able to explore that part of the state a little more this coming summer.

Not sure who looks colder,Ann or the eagle!

Still Busy

Here is a pic of something a bit unusual, a triple yoke egg. We have a pullet that is just starting to lay and she gives us double yoke eggs all the time. This was a surprise as I have never seen a triple yoke egg before. The pullet is apparently into" less packaging".
 Holidays are great and I really enjoyed Thanksgiving but they sure do wreck your daily routine. Sunday we took our son Dane back to school, he was home for a few days. That used up most of  Sunday so today was catch up day. Back on the fire wood making detail, haul in some water, switch some batteries around etc.

 We had some brightly colored visitors at the feeder not long ago. These are Evening Grosbeaks. For some reason we don't get them at our feeder very often. There were a dozen or so here for a couple hours and that was it. I was hoping they would stay around for a while.
 We want to have the llamas and alpacas a little closer to home for the winter so we have a rush project now. We are building a large fenced area plus a "corral" area for them to spend the winter in.The rush part comes in because we have to get in all the posts before the ground freezes to deep. The frost is only a inch or so thick right now but that could change fast if it gets colder. We started cutting posts today and will start driving some in tomorrow. I thought things were going to slow down a bit but not yet I guess.

Mud Oven Thanksgiving.

With the unusually high temperatures we had for the last few days,it seemed like a good time to use our mud oven for some of our Thanksgiving Day meal and avoid having the house be 95 degrees when our guests arrived. Ann started a batch of bread Wedenseday evening and I got busy firing the mud oven. The real key to success is having fire wood that is absolutely dry. Mine was not as dry as it should have been which means I had to fire longer to get the heat up there. We had to keep the bread dough a little cool until I had the oven hot enough.

It only took me about a extra half hour and then the bread went in. As you can see it came out just fine. By the time the bread was done the oven temperature had dropped back to about 275F. so I started firing again while Ann got the turkey ready to go in. We did check before hand to make sure the pan would fit, it was close but do -able. I fired with some nice small wood which was a little drier and was able to slide the turkey in to a 450F. oven about 9:00 pm. Soon after it was off to bed .
  Next morning a trip straight out to the oven was in order. I was glad to see the temp. was still over 250F. When I opened the outer door I was greeted by the very nice aroma of roast turkey. I popped out the inner door and peeked in, every thing looked good.I slide out the pan and Ann lifted off the cover. A beautiful golden brown bird rested inside. Horay, Thanksgiving dinner was on track!
 Ann did her usual fantastic job of cooking and put a great spread on the table as our family gathered here with us.

Other than the turkey most of the meal was grown here on the homestead. We would have butchered  our own turkey but he is a three year old tom so we thought we would buy a younger one.
 We were going to bake the pies in the mud oven to but it needed to be brought back up to a higher temp and we were running out of time. They went in the cook stove oven and came out great also. The best part of having dinner at your house is that you have the left overs!

Has any one ever complained about leftover pumpkin pie? I'm not.

Herbal Medicine

Quite time is slowly approaching here on the farm. Still doing a little cleaning up in the gardens since we don't have any snow yet. We butchered hogs a couple weeks ago and I just got done curing and smoking the hams and bacon yesterday. Fire wood is a every day job right now, the wood shed isn't as full as I'd like yet. I have a few building projects on my schedule and I'll be doing some more hand hewn beams for those next week.
 Ann and I have both been interested in medicinal plants for decades. While we seem more in tune with the wild edibles now, we have a hard time passing up medicinal herbs without harvesting a little. This pic shows a few we pick every year. Heal-All, Yarrow, and St. Johns Wort are nice to have on hand and Wild Bergamot makes a nice tasting tea.There are dozens of others we keep on hand, Red Clover Blossoms, Mullein, Boneset, and all the mints. I use the inner bark from the black cherry tree in my cough syrup, I will be gathering some of that soon. We gathered some Usnea , a lichen that is widely used medicinally, last weekend. We have some Chaga and Turkey Tail on hand so we are good there.
 Every one has to decide for themselves weather there is any benefit to using these herbs. We certainly are not going to abandon antibiotics to treat infections or give up western medicine for surgery. I think being involved in herbal medicine makes a person more aware of what is going on with your own body, that can only be good for you.

Pump Leather

no.1

We use a small pitcher pump like this one to pump water from a cistern. It is a inexpensive pump for jobs like that. It is made entirely from cast iron with the exception of one part, the pump leather. Amazingly enough the pump leather is made of...wait for it.. leather! So, we have a piece of wet leather rubbing up and down in a cast iron cylinder, needless to say ,this part needs replacement every so often.Replacing it is a relativity easy job, the entire top is held on by one big set screw. Loosen that up and the assembly shown in the pic comes right off. The piston portion of this is easily removed by simply turning the piston shaft so that the handle is disconnected and then pulling it down through the cap.

This pic shows the piston portion taken apart. Right to left you have the piston with the shaft,the intake valve, the old pump leather, and the pump leather retainer. This retainer is threaded into the bottom of the piston and removing it is the most difficult part of the job. I clamp the piston in a vise and use a hammer and punch to gently tap it until it loosens. If you have another pump leather you now place it on the piston, slide the intake valve back in place, and screw the retainer back on. Note that ,"if you have another pump leather", I didn't.

I did have some nice thick cow hide leather however. That would be that tannish circle in the previous pic.This pic shows that piece of leather placed where you would put the pump leather. To make this into a pump leather it needs to be cup shaped so that as the piston starts to lift the water the side of the cup flare out and create a seal against the sides of the cylinder. Getting the leather to assume that shape is as easy as boiling water.

Once you have a pan of water boiling, immerse the piston with the soon to be pump leather into it. It will soon curl up around the sides of the piston. While it is still hot ,slide it into the pump cylinder and leave it cool.

You should end up with something like this, a pump leather! Please note, it WILL NOT  last as long as a bought pump leather.It will also not cost you $12.00 which is what they want for one at the only place around here that has them and is 50 miles away.

DIY Fiber Tumbler

Here are some pics of my homemade fiber tumbler. If  I compare my cost to the prices I see for similar machines, I saved somewhere between $1000.00 to $3000.00 building my own! To be fair that doesn't count labor or the materials I had and didn't have to buy specifically for this project.The materials I bought were; one 4x8 sheet of 5/8 plywood, 4- 2x2-8 ft. long, 4- 2x4-8 ft. long, and some nails. This stuff cost me about $92.00. I had on hand; 12 ft. of 1 inch hexagon wire, what we call poultry netting, some metal pallet banding,two bearings for

the drum, two other small shafts with bearings and pulley, three used v-belts, and a old used electric motor. This pic shows the arrangement of pulleys and belts to reduce the speed of the drum.The motor runs at 1725 rpm. and the drum turns about 26 times per minute. There is about a 67/1 ratio between the motor and the drum speed. This seems just about right, the fiber is carried up and drops just a little past top dead center. The arrangement of the pulleys allows an increase in tension on the motor to be transmitted to all belts thus keeping them all from slipping. This drum is 36 inches wide which was determined by the fact that the wire I had was that width. The ends are 48 inches across from point to point of the panels. A 2x2 goes across at each point. The door is framed with 2x2 also and fits between the frame 2x2s. I used the old pallet banding over the edges of the wire to help secure it to the edge of the plywood and also to cover the edges of the wire on the door. I used the term bearing very loosely , one of them is merely a hardwood block that is impregnated with used motor oil.

Here is a pic of  the inside of the tumbler, note the three large pole barn nail 'fingers' that help fluff up the fiber. There are 15 of these, somewhat randomly placed so that none line up with each other exactly.The door is held in on one end by two pins that align with holes in the door frame. Two short bolts thread into metal inserts to hold the other end.This allows the door to be completely removed so it is not in the way when removing fiber from the tumbler.The fiber shown in the drum is from Sandy, our guard llama.

Here is another view of the pulley setup. I will put a guard over the pulleys and we will give it a coat of varnish . Then all I have to do is find room to house it!

Our First Alpaca

Here is a pic of one of our new critters. He is an alpaca, Ann has named him"Charmin", he is squeezable soft, for those who remember that commercial. We will be getting two more alpacas later this month.

Charmin was sheared earlier this year , this style of clip is called a blanket cut. It is amazing how soft and lustrous their fleece is. We have raised Shetland sheep, they have a very fine, soft fleece and the llamas have even softer fleece but neither compares to the softness of the alpaca fleece. Ann is chomping at the bit to get some of it to the spinning wheel. We acquired several fleeces a couple of weeks ago and she is itching to get them processed. I am building a tumbler which should speed up our processing quite a bit.

Here is Sandy, our guard llama. He has been doing guard duty with several calves and some goats for several months. Those have all been sold or moved to other pasture so Sandy was getting lonesome. He accepted Charmin as his new ward right off. When I walked out to snap this pic of Charmin he was quick to get in between us. He is not aggressive towards people he recognizes but he definitely wanted to see if I belonged in his pasture. Dogs and any other critter he doesn't recognize are advised to detour around his bailiwick.

Dye With KOOL-ADE

Here is an article Ann wrote a few years ago.

KOOL-AID WOOL
     

           For years I owned Shetland sheep, and had all the beautiful naturally colored wool that I wanted. That is if I just wanted white, grays, browns, or blacks, or mix, or blend of any or all these colors. I was happy to spin with these beautiful colors for a long time. But just like anything else your passion wants to grow.
       One afternoon at my spinning group, one of the gal's brought up the subject of dyeing their yarn. I though why would I want to dye my beautiful wool that is already colored, I'm ahead of the game, right?  But the more I thought about it, the more I liked the possibilities that dyeing could open up. I could have reds, yellows, greens, blues, or a blend of both natural colors and dyed, I could have the rainbow at my fingertips.
       So to start to learn how to dye, I  wanted to start  with a simple dye. It had to be a dye that I could get easy, work with easy, and easy to understand, then I heard about dyeing with Kool-aid.  Anyone that has had children and has given them Kool-aid knows how hard it is to remove Kool-aid from little hands and mouths.
             
            Getting started is fairly easy, you will need to choose your fiber. Kool-aid only works on natural fibers: wool, mohair, llama, alpaca, cotton, your hair, [  green for St. Patties Day]. It doesn't work  on  synthetics. You do not have to use just white fiber. Because I have a wide variety of natural colored wool to choose from, I can choose to dye just white yarn or, dye gray yarn with grape or, blue raspberry to get an heather or steel blue. Put black cherry on dark brown to get a mahogany color, mix your colors, just let your imagination go.
    It doesn't  matter if you dye spun yarn, unspun fiber, or even commercial yarns. If you are going to use your colored yarn on a project, make sure that you dye enough yarn to complete it, other wise it can be a little difficult to get the same results if you run out when your are almost done with your project.

           While you are gathering up your equipment that you will need for dyeing , put you fiber, or yarn in hot water to soak for about 20 minutes . The fiber will take up the color better and more even when it is wet, but if you want to dye your yarn dry that is o.k., dry yarn does not soak up the dye evenly, so you may get mottled yarn. Dry fiber will even out when you card and spin it, also un spun fiber will not look as bright until it is spun.
         There are 3 ways to do kool-aid dyeing, the first is the stove top method, second, the microwave, and third, the kid friendly way using the sun. What you will need to dye, one ounce of fiber or yarn loosely tied into skeins, one package of unsweetened kool-aid per ounce of fiber, water, stainless steel or enamel pot, microwave safe dish, or gallon zip-lock bag, depending on your method of dyeing, long handled wooded spoon, rubber gloves, and your heat source. So lets get started dyeing.

         With the stove top method,  you first need to bring about 2 quarts of water just to boiling, add your unsweetened kool-aid, stir to mix throughly. Now take your fiber and  squeeze out the excess water, remember that your fiber is hot so be careful, now add your fiber to the dye pot. You will not need a mordant with kool-aid, as it is acidic enough on it's own.
          Gently squeeze the fiber with your spoon to make sure that the dye gets into all of the fiber. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. The neat thing about dyeing with kool-aid, is that when you are done dyeing, your dye water will run clear, no color will be left in the water.  Turn off the heat and let the mixture cool to room temp. Now take your fiber out of the pot and squeezing out the excess water, rinse fiber in water the same temp. as the dye pot water, and hang to air dry.

         The microwave method, You will need, 1 gallon size zip-loch bag, 1 pyrex dish, and a colander.  While your fiber is soaking in warm water, mix up your kool-aid dye, one package of kool-aid to 2 quarts of cool water.  Put this mix into your plastic bag, take and squeeze  the excess water out of your fiber, than add the fiber to your kool-aid bag.
         Squeeze your fiber, gently, in the bag to distribute the dye evenly to all the fiber. Place the bag in your pyrex dish, put it in the microwave, and microwave for 2-3 minutes on high. Let it rest 2 minutes, you can squish the bag again to make sure the dye is evenly distributed.
        Now carefully check to see if the liquid is colorless : Caution- when checking your fiber, be careful when you are opening your bag, as steam will escape from the top of the bag. Do not put your face or hands over the top of the bag. If the liquid is not clear put it back into the microwave for another 2 minutes, let it rest 2 more minutes. Do this until you dye water is clear. Now take your bag and dump the fiber into a colander to drain, squeeze out excess water, and  rinse with water the same temp. as the dye water, squeeze out excess water, and hang to air dry.
         The last method, sun dyeing, is a kid friendly method. You will need 1 or more children,  1 gallon zip-lock bag, 2 quarts of cool water,  one package kool-aid, one ounce of fiber per child, and the sun. Put your 2 quarts of  cool water and kool-aid into the bag close, and squish together to mix. Place the fiber onto the bag close removing excess air from the bag, and close, squish again to distribute the dye evenly through out the fiber.
         Take outside and put in a sunny place. Let the bag sit several hours, or all day if possible. Let the bag cool, take the fiber out and rinse in water of the same temp., squeeze out excess water, and hang to air dry.

         Now if you want to get a little more bold with your dyeing, get 2 one quart jars, one 9x13 cake pan, one large plastic bag, warm water, 1 ounce of wool, 2 different colors of dyes, make sure that the colors you choose will go together,[ like red and blue will make purple, yellow and blue will make green].
        Place your quart jars into the 9x13 cake pan, fill with warm water, add your kool-aid, one color per jar, and stir, now put  your pre-moistened fiber, into the quart jars, one end to each jar. Now carefully side pan with jars, into the plastic bag and close,[this to keep the fiber from drying out while the dye is taking], now wait.
        The colors will wick up the fiber on each end, and come together in the middle, that is why you need 2 colors that go together. Take the  jars out of the bag and remove fiber, rinse your fiber, and hang to air dry. You will have tie-dyed fiber.

           You can also use food dye that you get in the grocery store to dye your fiber. Just a couple  drops of coloring into 2 quarts of water, and ¼ cup vinegar per batch to acidify  your dye pot. Also try Easter egg dye, it is the same as with food dye, add ¼ cup a vinegar per batch, follow the steps as with the kool-aid.
          Let you imagination go, and you'll be delighted in what beautifully dyed fiber that you can make. At first I thought that I would not like dyeing my beautiful naturally colored wool, but now that I have tried, I  love dyeing my wool. Now I am trying natural plant dyes that I can find in my area, or am able to grow in my garden.

               

             
       
   

             

Drop Spindle

Last week we acquired an alpaca to fill out our fiber herd and we will be getting two more later in the  month. On top of that we were also very fortunate in receiving a large quantity of alpaca and llama fiber in the form of raw fleeces. All that fancy fiber got me thinking about how the fiber was used and processed back in the llama/alpaca homelands in the Andes. I'm afraid I don't really know much on the subject other than a little about the original fiber spinning tool, the drop spindle. Anyone interested in the fiber arts should learn to use this basic tool. I have seen many pictures of women in that region spinning with a spindle while going about their business. I have certainly never gotten to that level of expertise but I can make some yarn, even if it is a bit lumpy! Drop spindles are reasonably priced and learning to use one is a fun activity.  If you have a little time making your own is not difficult either. You can make them as plain or as fancy as you would like.We sold these at one time and will be doing so again at some point along with fiber to spin. Until then check them out on the web, needless to say, there are thousands of sites about them.

One New Arrival

Here is Sam, one of two recent additions to our homestead. Sam came to us from a local auction that Ann went to. With the extremely high hay prices in our area due to the drought, 'hobby' type animals are not worth much at auction. Ann bought this little guy for $10.00! While he is no show animal and does have some conformation problems, he was to nice to pass up. He is very docile, leads well, picks up his feet, and trailers easily. He is only two years old, so has a long life in front of him. The grand kids all approved.

A pony cart is now on the shopping list as well as a saddle for him. He carried his own hay back to the cabin with two bags set over his back. I think he will easily earn his keep around here.
I finally got my elder flower wine bottled one day last week. It needs a little time in the cellar to mellow out now but should be good by Yule. I'll be testing it at any rate! Not quite as good as last years but I think it will improve as it ages. Since we robbed the bees last week I can now start a batch of mead.

Here is a shot of our late afternoon sky a week or so ago. I heard that they had a bad dust storm out in the Dakotas which causes the cool color here. Bad for them, scenic for us.