Which Fabric?

Before I decide to repaint the walls in the living room, I thought I'd sew up some new cushion covers first.  I figured a pop of colour might make me feel better about the space.

Unsurprisingly, I couldn't find anything locally so off to Etsy I go.  Here's are my choices so far, I just need to pick one.

I didn't spend much time searching but that's all I could find. There didn't seem to be much variety in orange fabrics. Thoughts or recommendations?

Kids and a Cat

It was sunny and breezy today so we went outside for a quick photo shoot.  Just some pic of the kids and our cat.

Brassicas

We originally transplanted over a hundred brassicas into our vegetable garden.  Very few survived.  It was more than a little disappointing.  Still, I am quite impressed by how well the survivors faired.  We have lots of kohlrabi, a dozen or so green cabbages, a couple of broccoli and a a veg I've never grown before.

Cheddar cauliflower! How cool is that?

Selling the Goats

We're seriously considering getting a cow.  Here's the ad.  Pass it along.

No Wonder...

...the pigs are growing slowly.  The turkeys have been eating all their food.

It was massive!

This a turkey's crop. It's where they store their food in preparation for digestion.  Clearly despite my not feeding them, they weren't starving.  We now have four free range turkeys in the freezer.  

Friday Bullets

• Was going to post a picture of the monster that is a turkey's crop but alas my camera cord is missing.
• I will kill these pigs with my bare hands.  What am I supposed to fence them with?!  I'm going to cry over this, I can feel it coming.
• I need a bigger freezer.  
• Anyone want to buy some duck?  Already butchered!
• Zucchini bread is good.  Still have lots of zucchini.
• We have cucumbers, kohlrabi, chard and turnips for sale.
• I'll never plant blue potatoes again.  Waste of space.
• Where can I buy warm winter clothes in natural fibers online?  LL Bean is fab but the estimated duties was $150 for my wishlist.
• I'm attempting to knit a skirt.  Increasing stitches is horrible. Knitting isn't supposed to be this difficult is it?
• Two more episodes of the Mad Man and His Box!

I am Fickle

I fully admit to being extremely fickle.  It's an inherited trait.

When we were looking for a house to buy I wanted to go smaller.  We didn't have much choice in houses so we bought this one even though it was bigger.  So, it's not entirely surprising that I find myself looking at houses again.  Earth covered hobbit houses to be exact.

Like this one.

Of course Limey is not on board at all and is currently going with "we're not moving again ever" as his mantra.   My wish to live in a smaller house is rooted in my need for a cozy environment.  With that in mind, I need some ideas on how to make it cozier in here.   The living room already has heavy curtains, an area rug, wooly throws and pillows but with the light blue on the walls it still feels too breezy.  I like the wall colour but I thinking about painting the ceiling a dark blue.

Thoughts on that?

Here's the living room.

New pillows, brown curtains and throws have been added since this photo.

What do you think?  Dark blue ceiling?

Just a Wee Bit Stressed

The pigs got out again tonight.  This time they have completely destroyed the electric fence in one corner of the yard.  Unfortunately they chose to break out in the cover of darkness.  Our flashlights aren't recharging and the oil lamps aren't giving off enough light.  Limey managed to rewire but now he can't find his tool to tighten it (too dark).  He's going to attempt to clean up the barn and lock them in there.

The bigger problem is that they no longer seem to care about the electric fence.   Tomorrow is Sunday and the feed store is closed and it's the only place we know of that sells barbed wire which we now hope to keep the pigs in with.   Home Hardware doesn't carry it in the store and I know of nowhere else to get it.  We can't keep them in the barn long term and clearly they are going to keep breaking out of the paddock.

I don't think I'm going to sleep until the fence gets properly sorted out.  I can't wait until this growing season is over.

Friday Bullets

• We have 120 misc birds that will be leaving us before winter.  Can't wait to downsize.
• Lost another turkey.  Did the pigs eat him?  Will be butchering the remainder this week.
• Sweltering yesterday, freezing today.
• Homeschool is going great!  
• 24 hour allergy meds are great!  Allergy season is worse this year.
• Watching pigs eat a pot full of cooked chicken feet is slightly off-putting.
• Still canning.  Haven't got to the chard yet. 
• So many tomatoes!  Please ripen on the vine!
• Had extremely weird dream last night.  I was invisible unless the colour pink touched me.  The baddies wore pink gloves kind of like the men of blue.
• Anyone need some sage?  I have lots.
• Stocking the freezer with milk.  Goats will be freshening soon.
• Cider Fest this weekend!  Unfortunately  we will not be attending.

Happy weekend!

Laying Hens for Sale

 Check out my ad for laying hens.

http://novascotia.kijiji.ca/c-pets-livestock-for-sale-Flock-of-Young-Laying-Hens-W0QQAdIdZ313893778

Spacey Wacey but Not Timey Wimey

Dd1 has been studying the solar system over the past week as a part of her geography curriculum.  We read lots of books and watched some cool videos about space.  She also completed her very first lapbook.  Lapbooking is very popular so I thought I'd give it a go.  I'm glad we did because she really loves her new book.

The beautiful cover.

The interior is jam-packed with information.

Once it got dark we set up our dusty telescope for a little viewing.  We tried to find the Pinwheel galaxy supernova but the moon just kept getting brighter, making it impossible to see.  As there are no planets up yet, we turned the scope to the moon.  A full moon makes the least spectacular photo.  When it's just a crescent you get a nicer view of the craters.  Tonight's moon was good practice for using my camera with the telescope.  I definitely need to get an adapter for it so I don't have to try and line the camera up with the scope's lens. 

Not quite as sharp as it was in person.

I'm going to go back out in a bit to try and get a shot of Jupiter.

Update;   Could not get a clear photo of Jupiter but I could see it well enough with it's moons.  Got another closer shot of the moon.  A bit fuzzy but it'll do.

Still Flowering

My flower garden is still chugging away.  Some stuff has died like the sunflowers but despite being a bit weedy it's looking fairly decent.

Here are my faves right now.

This white mallow is quickly becoming a favourite annual. I usually plant the pink but I find the white more eye-catching. Next year I'm going to plant it all around my coral rose.

My Autumn Joy sedum is huge.  I liked it before when it was just green but now I'm loving the pink.

I was supposed to stick to a pastel theme after being inspired by a gorgeous garden  I saw online.  Unfortunately, I have the tendency to ignore my own rules which is how this bright coneflower found it's way in to my garden.

Taking a Break

I need a break from all this canning and fall cleanup. Today I'm just going to lay on the floor all day and play with the kids. Well, at least in between paranoid trips to the kitchen window to make sure that crazy hawk doesn't come back.

Not Quite Jelly

I tried to make red pepper and garlic jelly the other day.  I seem to have an issue with jellies because no matter what I do they just don't fully gel.  The first go resulted in syrup.  I reprocessed the batch and it ended up a bit thicker.  Oh well, it'll still be yummy poured over baked brie.

My pantry is filling up quite nicely. It's a bit of a mess though and I'm hoping we can reno it over the winter.

Next on my canning agenda is stock and chard.

Our First Nature Study

For our nature study today, we took a walk around the perimeter of our property. We saw some trails in our field where the deer have been foraging and several dust baths that the partridge and pheasants have been using. Our best find however was this;

It's a Black and Yellow Agriope orb spider.  I love the pattern on it.  It looks like someone with a beehive glaring out at me.  See the hands on the hips?  The spider was quite large at about 1.5" long. 

Now that we're back inside the kids are going to submit an entry into their little natural journals.   Did anyone else start "school" today?  How did it go?

Red is the New Green

I canned 32 jars of beans today.  Although my first go at pressure canning went smoothly enough, I am a little concerned with the results.

The beans and the water have a rusty tinge.  I did not find much on Google. There was one mention of some chemical reaction when raw packing but my first batch was hot packed and it did the same thing.   I couldn't find any info on whether or not they are still edible.

Any idea what the story is here?

This Week's Job

Wish me luck!