winter continues to whip the barren fields frozen and bare. only a thin crust of hard snow crusts over the land, broken only by the sharp stalks of corn stubble and an occassional patch of brown earth.
the snowmobiles fell silent weeks ago, their trails mostly unusable.
at night the coyotes scream gleeful morning wails, quickly moving across the valley floor as they hunt for mice who have no snow to tunnel in.
i suppose we should be thankful that the plowing bill wont be too dreadful this year and i know that it's too soon to write the whole winter off yet but there's something unsettling about a winter without snow.
this isn't to say that it's been warmer than normal, merely dry, and windy with a rawness that strips the breath from your lungs and burns your eyes.
the return of the sun has brought the return of the eggs as all life moves full circle, or egg shaped, around again. we have to check the nests frequently to keep the eggs from freezing but even with the occassional eggsicle now and then we are gathering quite a few each day.
our seeds have arrived and anticipation of spring sets in full force. it looks to be a good year. more on the garden plans to come...
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
hallelujah! nais is dead!
hallelujah!!! check this out!
i can't think of a better way to celebrate bee in the balm's 100th post on this little blog in the great white northern frontier.
i can't think of a better way to celebrate bee in the balm's 100th post on this little blog in the great white northern frontier.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Friday, January 22, 2010
i can't believe it's butter...
who would have thought that the secret to great, sculpted arms is butter?
there was a thick layer of rich, heavy cream on top of our half gallon jar of raw jersey milk and somehow i managed to not gulp it down like melted unflavored ben and jerry's.
making butter is ridiculously easy. i started out using these instructions.
i put around 8 ounces of cream in a 12 ounce canning jar, screwed the lid on tight, and started shaking, shaking, shaking.
first nothing happened, it just got a little bubbly.
then it got foamy like whipped cream.
finally, the sound of the sloshing changed and a big lump of butter shook back and forth in the jar. success!
in all it took around 15 minutes or so with a lot of vigorous shaking.
then i poured off all the liquid (real buttermilk) and shook the butter lump some more to beat out more buttermilk.
using icy cold water i carefully washed the butter and rolled it into a neat ball. if i wanted to add salt i probably would have done it here.
voila, butter. pure yellow butter.
now all i need is some fresh baked bread.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Monday, January 18, 2010
please help haiti!
Sunday, January 17, 2010
awoken
a small brown bat awakened by the rumble of sun softened snow slipping from the roof. drowsy, and shaking in the cold wind he climbs the screen door only to fall and creep away into a more protected corner.
it only takes two or three winter wakings to use a small brown bat's energy reserves up and cause him to perish.
not to mention white nose syndrome wiping out whole colonies!
so far this little guy's ok but i don't have a lot of hope he'll make it till spring in his chosen hibernation spot.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
believe it or not, dyeing wool with kool-aid of all things.
yes, kool-aid dyeing!
i found great instructions here and here and just had to try it out for myself.
at just a quarter a packet it is a cheap option for coloring yarn and while after looking at the ingredients i wouldn't exactly call it nontoxic there are people out there who actually drink this junk which is more than anyone can say about some other dyes on the market.
even worse, some people even let their kids drink it! as i was contemplating the potential tonal qualities of kiwi chaos, extreme grape explosion, and mystery berry a woman with a cart full of young children stocked up on strawberry surprise.
anyway, kool-aid makes a great range of bright colors to work with.
these are my first two batches using the 2 ply merino wool i've been spinning on my drop spindle. i call these ones cherry cream swirl (black cherry flavor) and ice falls (blue raspberry lemonade and lemonade).
cherry cream swirl shows just how much variation in tone you can get by diluting the drink mix with more or less water. i initially immersed the entire hank of yarn in a strong batch of black cherry flavor, about a cup of water to one packet. i then partially rinsed a section of the hank to a lighter pink and redunked the other end into the dye to make it darker.
while i do like the subtlety of ice falls it does show how with the lighter colors you may need to use more than one packet to get a bolder color. this batch was dyed first in blue raspberry lemonade and then again in regular lemonade and shows a huge range of colors. it reminds me of how mineral rich springs dripping down rock cliffs in the adirondacks freeze into frozen waterfalls of blues and soft greens.
to set the color i used a mason jar in a double boiler technique. it doesn't seem possible, but after 20 minutes or so at less then a simmer the dye really does turn clear letting you know it's done.
so far i'm thrilled with this technique and am excited to see what else i can create.
i found great instructions here and here and just had to try it out for myself.
at just a quarter a packet it is a cheap option for coloring yarn and while after looking at the ingredients i wouldn't exactly call it nontoxic there are people out there who actually drink this junk which is more than anyone can say about some other dyes on the market.
even worse, some people even let their kids drink it! as i was contemplating the potential tonal qualities of kiwi chaos, extreme grape explosion, and mystery berry a woman with a cart full of young children stocked up on strawberry surprise.
anyway, kool-aid makes a great range of bright colors to work with.
these are my first two batches using the 2 ply merino wool i've been spinning on my drop spindle. i call these ones cherry cream swirl (black cherry flavor) and ice falls (blue raspberry lemonade and lemonade).
cherry cream swirl shows just how much variation in tone you can get by diluting the drink mix with more or less water. i initially immersed the entire hank of yarn in a strong batch of black cherry flavor, about a cup of water to one packet. i then partially rinsed a section of the hank to a lighter pink and redunked the other end into the dye to make it darker.
while i do like the subtlety of ice falls it does show how with the lighter colors you may need to use more than one packet to get a bolder color. this batch was dyed first in blue raspberry lemonade and then again in regular lemonade and shows a huge range of colors. it reminds me of how mineral rich springs dripping down rock cliffs in the adirondacks freeze into frozen waterfalls of blues and soft greens.
to set the color i used a mason jar in a double boiler technique. it doesn't seem possible, but after 20 minutes or so at less then a simmer the dye really does turn clear letting you know it's done.
so far i'm thrilled with this technique and am excited to see what else i can create.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
