Forbidden Woolery yarn club June 2012 shipment

I signed up for the 3-month yarn club that was offered on ForbiddenWoolery.com.  What can I say, I love her stuff and I've never been disappointed.

The June shipment was "Gum Drops" in the Pride base.  There are sparkles but just enough that they catch your eye.  I'm petting the skein right now.  It's very soft.  The yarn is 75% superwash Merino; 20 percent nylon and the stuff that makes the sparkles.  

I'm thinking it will either become a scarf or a hat.  I have the 101 patterns for sock yarns book.  I will be looking through that and maybe looking out on the internet.

Early June in my garden

This year we decided to start working in the garden early.  Last year I think we started working in the garden around Memorial Day.  This year, thanks to the mild winter in my area, the garden could be worked mid-April. We worked the soil in the big garden a couple of times and planted crops that could be planted as soon as the soil could be worked:  Lettuce, beets, snap peas and onions.

Last year we decided to put a strawberry patch in.  It was a losing battle unfortunately.  We didn't properly prep the area and the weeds were too much to keep in check.  Not to mention trying to keep the baby strawberry plants in some sort of order.  They went all over and were rooting where they weren't supposed to.  At the beginning of this year we decided that we were not going to keep the patch and plowed it under when we roto-tilled.  We felt really bad about tilling all those plants under after doing our best to nurture them last year.

Well, when we started working the garden soil a second time we found baby strawberry plants growing. We just could *not* turn under the plants after they made it through one roto-tilling.  It was decided that we were indeed meant to have a strawberry patch of sorts.

So we started looking through and picking out the plants and my hubby made me a 3 foot by 5 foot raised bed in the area I call the "grotto".   We saved 25 strawberry plants out of the original 50 that we purchased.

There are strawberries growing!  We may not get many this year, which is fine.  I think this is the beginning of something beautiful/

One of the other things we decided to plant again was potatoes.  Last year we didn't really plan to plant potatoes and when we got some seed taters I just kind of dug a whole and threw them in the ground and said "sink or swim". It was towards the end of the when I was planting stuff, already getting hot and I was feeling weary. I had pretty much tried to get everything done in one weekend and really burned myself out.

We did get some potatoes but certainly nothing to really brag about.  They were the size of peanuts.  Great for soup but not much else. In fact, my MIL made a fabulous soup last fall with all kinds of fresh veggies from the garden.

This year, hubby made a planter box for me in the grotto.  We cut up some taters that were starting to grow and we planted them.

This picture doesn't do the plants justice.  The plants really took off.  They are a very healthy green and are almost ready for their first hilling.

A true first for this year is grape vines.  We purchased four grape vines.  Three "King of the North" and one "Concord".  The picture below is one of the King of the North vines.  I'm super pumped.  The grape vines seem to really like it out there.  We purchased the vines at our local Menard's and they were grown in Wisconsin. 

A lot of the seedlings that we planted in mid-May have sprouted and are starting to grow.  I'm not done planted seeds yet.  I'm trying to do the successive planting so that I have a crops come at different times. I have a feeling that we aren't done finding places to plant stuff either.   At some point I'd like to pick out a spot for a little herb patch and get the area ready for next year if nothing else.

One thing I planted last year was Mesculan mix lettuce.  It's a quick growing lettuce, having a growing time of 28 days or so.  Last year it grew much faster than I was expecting it to and it flowered -- alot.  I now have that lettuce growing ALL OVER.  In my driveway, out by the main road, down the trail -- it's everywhere.  I never would have dreamed it would turn into a weed of sorts.

Waxing cheese for the first time

About six weeks ago DH and I decided to try our hand at cheese waxing.

If you are a member of Sam's Club or one of the other warehouse clubs then you now how cheap cheese can be when its purchased in bulk.

DH did some research and purchased some cheese wax from an online cheese making supplier.  Once we received the cheese wax, we purchased 20 pounds (yes, I said 20) of cheese and set about our fun project.

Cheese wax is a special type of wax.  It's pliable, like rubber, but it will break and crack if you handle waxed cheese roughly.  You CANNOT use candle wax for waxing cheese.  Candle wax is brittle, will easily  break and let microbes live on the cheese and you can get something that is similar to botulism.

To wax cheese you need a double boiler. You must be willing to dedicate the double boiler to the cheese wax.  It's also helpful to store any unused wax in the pot.   A natural bristle brush for brushing the wax onto the cheese  is also needed.   Once the cheese wax has been melted and brought to a certain temperature (use a candy thermometer to get wax up to temp) you are ready to wax your cheese.

DH cut up the 20 pounds of cheese into more manageable-sized bricks.  When the wax was up to temp, we dipped each brick, up to half-way.  The cheese was set aside to cool, on the side that hadn't been dipped in wax.  When both sides of the cheese are dipped, you get to use your brush and brush wax onto the cheese and make sure all the cracks and crevices are filled in.  

After we waxed the cheese, it was stored in the fridge overnight. Once the cheese wax is on the cheese and cooled, no pin holes or anything, you can store the cheese unrefrigerated.  How cool is that?  

We haven't had the chance to try out any of the "aged" cheese yet.  It was decided that we would let it sit for a few months before seeing how it tastes.  According to one of the websites DH read, cheese can be stored this way for 10-25 years.  

New book - Unwind

A week or so ago I was on GoodReads and I was looking at random books lists trying to find books that are similar to the Hunger Games trilogy. Someone recommended the book 'Unwind,' saying that the book isn't mentioned too much on the books lists but is worth checking out.

Oh wow!

I started reading Unwind tonite and it has blown my mind already.

The gist of the story is that there was a second civil war in the U.S. and what came out of it was the Bill of Life which states life cannot be harmed or destroyed from conception to the age of 13. After a child turns 13 and until the age of 18 they can be 'unwound,' essentially organ harvesting.

There is a spin on this however. Life is not ending, it's just continuing on in a different form.

I have a feeling this book is going to impact my life in some way.

The book is following the paths of three teens who are on their way to the harvest camps to be unwound for different reasons. I'm eager to continue reading this book and see what ultimately happens.

I think the cold finally hit us

Up in my area we have been enjoying some really mild weather for this time of year. It's so mild that I have got the gardening bug. I can't officially start anything until middle March or April. To placate myself I've been reading my gardening books and hitting my local Menard's and getting ready for the garden season

But now ... Now, the weather has changed it's now cold. I don't want to leave the house.

Oh well. ...

On the spinning front: I'm still spinning the fiber I started back in early January. It's lovely fiber. I'm just not in a spinning mood. It's been pretty slow going.

Knitting: I have knit two hats that are 2 x 2 ribbing. I can't believe I decided it was a good idea to make two of those at the same time. Ugh! They turned out pretty nice though.

Would have pics but I don't know where one of them is.

I also finished my sons birthday gift. I made him a Bullet Bill from Mario Bros. I'm not too happy with how it turned out so I doubt I will be posting pics any time soon for that.

Crochet: I have done nothing. That's bad for me since I'm still so new to it. I'm forgetting some of the stitches.

I've been doing some more reading. I got "One for the Money" from the library and I read that within 5 hours. It was a pretty good read. I laughed out loud a few times as well.

On the Kindle finished "Desperate Housedogs." A book in the cozy mystery genre. That was an enjoyable read as well. I'm eager to see how this series continues.

January went fairly quick for me. I have a feeling February will go just as fast.

My first real crochet FO

In my stash I had some Red Heart green yarn. Decided I would use it to make a 'real' crocheted item. A friend found this pattern for me over on LionBrand. Paint the Town scarf, was a pretty easy pattern for me to figure out. Before I knew it, I had used up all my yarn. That was a bummer because the scarf is only long enough for a child.

First FO of the year

I forgot to post the yellow socks.

Now that I look at them, the color really blends into my floor.

Yup, nothing fancy. They are pretty warm. Which is nice now that the weather finally changed and it's cold outside.

I don't really have anything on the needles right now. I am kind of working on a gift for my son's birthday by I hit a part in the pattern that I'm trying to figure out. So it's off to the side right now.

I've done a scant bit of spinning. Two nights ago I started navajo-plying a bobbin.

No real crochet. I'm still practicing the basic stitches with left over dishcloth yarn. A square was finally made from single crochet that I kept the same number of stitches and the sides are reasonable straight. I'm pretty pumped about that. Now I feel I can try my hand at the next stitch.