What Joy in a Trip to the Library!

I've been stressing a lot lately. Just life stuff, things that get under your skin and settle in the muscles in your neck. I'm not good with change, and while I'm actually coping quite nicely with the move, the new area, and all the re-adjusting that comes with it, occasionally I get caught up and find myself in a funk.

Today I went to the Post to mail some packages, roving and bottle openers. And while this is almost an everyday trip for me, today I really saw the beauty around me. I popped one of my favorite CD's in the player, The Village Soundtrack, the violin is amazing. It's sort of a dark track, but somehow inspirational.

It's cloudy today, but the sun peaks out occasionally. It was moving in windy glimmers across the golden corn fields.  Three black turkey vultures soared overhead and cast a a shadow with their large spanning wings.

The drive to our Post is almost entirely dirt winding roads. And I LOVE winding dirt roads. I pass an old cemetery, a small bridge over a creek with silvery blue minnows,  beautiful rolling acres of corn, a small herd of large black cows that lick their noses and swish their tails as I drive by. Then there's the Orchard. You know you're getting close when you pass the bee supers. A tiny skyline of white painted boxes and each one a corner cluster of the pretty little bees, hovering in almost blurry streaks. Then the rows of apple trees, and peach trees, and the large brown pumpkin patch with all its orange globes dotting the square.

I passed a tractor today. A large red one, the driver waved. Then I saw something really cool. The field down the road was harvesting corn and they were filling a great big semi full of feed corn. The name Geiglers was on the side. It occurred to me that that is the family feed store where we've been buying our hay and feed, and that our animals would be eating that corn.

I entered the quaint town of Hartland and dropped my packages off at the Post. On the way home I passed The Music Hall, where we'll be seeing our "date night" play this Friday. The Museum with the large loom, that I would just LOVE to get my hands on and the library. It's an old three brick story building built into a hill with a winding sidewalk and arched white windows.

I stopped in to get a couple books. Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking, and Animal Vegetable Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver. I've been missing reading in the evening. The last book I finished was Goat Song by Brad Kessler. One of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. I fell in love with goats all over again, and this time, in an even more passionate level. He helped me to understand our herd dynamic, and relate to the behaviors, personality, language and hormonal drives of a goat. Not to mention the impact that pastoral animals have had on our civilization, socialization, religion, language, traditions and food. Good read!!!

When I got home there was a wheel of goat cheese that I ordered for Zach for his birthday in July! It had been on back order for 3 months, along with a jar of onion and balsamic vinegar jam. 

I don't know where this post is going, I just felt inspired to share. And perhaps this post is more of a reminder to myself, that there are so many blessing, if I just take the time to see them. 

New Products!

Been so busy, finishing up fall projects, taking advantage of the last few beautiful days here in Michigan before winter starts to blow. It's been hard to find time to get myself in front of the computer to blog, but one good thing is that Zach and I have been in such a creative spirit lately. I have tons of stuff to share, videos, photos, new products that we've been working on, just need to hanker down and post it all. Here are some of our latest creations hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoyed making them. All of our products are for sale in our Etsy Shop 

Amber Whiskey in Oak Barrels Roving
4 oz hand dyed roving Mohair/Angora blend. Beautiful mix of rusts, deep oranges, chestnut browns and a rosey pink. Perfect for spinning or felting.

Simple Railroad Bottle Opener
Lets the railroad spike speak for itself, this simple design can be personalized easily.

Oak Leaf and Acorn Scarf Pin
Shown here with our own knitted hand spun yarn. Takes an ordinary scarf and makes it extraordinary. Works on any knitted item, scarfs, sweaters, purses, etc. Makes a great gift!

Hand Spun, Hand Dyed Yarn, Rusty Tinsel
Our natural yarn dyed a deep rust, plied with a tinsel string. Looks earthy with a bit of luster.

Hand Spun, Hand Dyed Yarn, Straw Into Gold
Another tinsel yarn this one is in shades of gold and olive, plied with a copper tinsel string.

Mine Spike Twisted Key Chain.
This key chain is made from a recycled mine spike, the hand forged twist makes it a mini piece of art.

Popcorn!

Our neighbor, who is steadily climbing the charts as one of the coolest people I know, took Zach back in his fields yesterday to gather a wheel barrel full of corn! He also gave us three huge bunches of cornstalks.

But not just any corn stalks, their popcorn stalks! It's so cool. You can let them dry and just pop them right off the cob.

He showed us how to tie the large bunches with twine to dry. I thought they looked so pretty I hung a bunch up on our sun porch.

The popcorn has a smooth, round, harder kernel with tiny points on each one.

Feed corn that he also gave us.

Here's the two varieties side by side. The feed corn has the more square kernels with a small dent in each one where it's starting to dry. The Popcorn is shinier and slightly orange in color. I'll let you know how it goes after they dry and we pop one.

Community Chickens Post, Let's Grow Something Beautiful!

Check out my latest Community Chickens Post Let's Grow Something Beautiful.

Collecting Black Walnuts

In the front yard we have a big beautiful Black Walnut Tree that has produced TONS of walnuts this year.

This isn't even half of them. I'll keep you posted as we go through the process of...well... processing them into edible nuts. I'm also excited to use them to make natural dyes to color the roving. I'll keep you posted on that as well.