Spinning up a Blank Palate

Things have slowed way down in the garden and the weather has turned cold and blustery outside, so I have had more time to devote to fiber crafts lately.  After I finished the few orders that I had for Christmas gifts, I turned my attentions to spinning up more yarn from my collection of fiber.  I had about a pound of a bamboo/merino roving that I have been wanting to work on, so I got it out and spun it up.

This is the raw fiber processed into an organized ball of roving.  This is the easiest way to work with fiber, though some people like the pre-processing steps, I think they are time consuming so I prefer to skip the processing steps and get straight to spinning.  

This is the roving spun into a single strand of yarn, better known as a single ply.  I combine two single strands by plying them together, or by spinning them together with the opposite twist of how they were spun as singles.  The twisting of the fibers helps them hold together and then this forms a yarn, in this case a two ply yarn.  If I added more plies it would increase the thickness of the yarn.

After getting a spool filled with the yarn, I transfer the yarn to my home made niddy noddy. 

 This allows me to measure my yarn's length and keep it organized when I wrap it into a skein.

This particular spool of yarn came out to about 205 yards or 616 feet.

This skein of yarn is now ready for anything that I want to do with it.  It is a blank slate for dying it any color that I want, or crocheting or knitting it into any shape that I can imagine.  The possibilities are limitless.

Winter's Grand Entrance

The weather has been mild the past few days and there has been only dustings of snow over the past few weeks.  Last night all of that changed.  It has been very windy, but warm all day yesterday.  Clouds came rolling in over the plateau to the west and rain came and went all afternoon.  Even as the sun sank, the temps hovered in the 40's.  Sometime just after midnight, the rain went from blustery sprinkles to a full on downpour and the winds howled from the west, driving sheets of rain sideways across the countryside.  Then the temperature dropped and the sheets of rain became thick swirls of heavy wet snowflakes that stuck to everything they touched.  My doors are covered in a crust of ice and outside the world is coated with a layer of heavy, icy snow.  This morning the snow has stopped, though the wind is still busy scouring the countryside.  We didn't end up with a ton of snow in this semi arid area, but the change in scenery is beautiful.  I love nothing more that waking up after a snow storm and just enjoying the untouched beauty of freshly fallen snow.

The garden is most definitely down for the season and the chickens are all tucked in under their hoop house.  I might let them out later to explore the snow if they want, but I think they are appreciating the protection from the elements today.  They are still happily laying plenty of eggs for me and seem quite content, though maybe a little bored.  I will have to throw them some scratch next time I go out to give them something to do.

The hoop house that I have my overwintering lettuce and spinach in didn't fare the storm too badly. I think I will still be able to salvage it in the spring when the world thaws out again.

 The pea trellis didn't stand up to the storm well, but it wasn't really meant to be used into this kind of weather.  It was a makeshift trellis anyway, but I hope to reuse it in the spring after I reinforce it better.

This year's first real snowstorm has made it's grand appearance and things are finally starting to feel like winter around here.  I suppose it is appropriate weather for the winter solstice.  I will enjoy the snow while it lasts since I know that it never stays long down in this little valley. 

Fresh Salad in December!

There are very few things more satisfying than harvesting fresh salad fixings from the backyard in December.  In fact, I am amazed that I can harvest anything at all since it has been so chilly here over the past few weeks.  Today was a little over freezing so I decided that it would be a good time to peek inside the low hoop tunnel where I have a bed of lettuce and spinach planted.  I was pleasantly surprised to find some very happy looking spinach plants under the plastic.  The lettuce didn't fare as well, but at least I still had something to show for my effort.

In a nearby bed I also had another secret harvest hidden.  When I planted my brussel sprouts this spring I planted a row of carrots on each side of them.  All summer the carrots grew under the canopy of brussel sprouts, but now the plants had wilted back, revealing the carrot tops beneath.  I took my shovel and carefully lifted a few from the ground.  They weren't very large, but they sure were sweet!

 I washed them up and then sliced them into a bed of torn spinach.  While I was preparing the salad, I set some fresh eggs on to boil and picked through what was left of the last tomato harvest.  The pickings were slim, but I managed to find a small handful of still edible tomatoes that I washed and sliced and added to the salad .  When it was all said and done I had a delicious winter lunch all picked straight out of my backyard.  You would be hard pressed to find food fresher than this anywhere else.

Now that was a satisfying lunch!

Baby and Toddler Hats

Today I finished working on a couple more presents for Christmas.  I have the weekend to myself, so I am doing my best to tie up all my loose ends before the holiday gets here.  Today this meant spending a few hours crocheting mini hats for kids.

This one is for a little girl that lives in one of the coldest towns in the state.  I hope it keeps her nice and warm this winter.

This one is for a baby boy who is celebrating his first Christmas this year.  He is only a few months old, so I made the hat pretty small.  I haven't made very many tiny hats, so it was hard to guess just how big I should make it, but I like the way it turned out.  I hope that even if it doesn't fit that it is just a little big, so he can grow into it in the next few months.

Eagle Valley Views

There is a nice little hike not too far from my house where I tend to go in the winter since it is easily accessible in most weather.  We had a little dusting of snow a few days ago and I decided to hike up to see the view.  The hike itself winds through a little slot canyon with slick rock sections alternating with loose rocks as the trail climbs in elevation.  It is a well worn trail and the footing can be tricky in places, but I just take my time and pay attention to where I put my feet.  Eagle Valley trail meets with Sunset trail at a T- intersection.  Sunset trail winds over the hills to the south and the views of the valley from up here are breathtaking.

Dry Creek Hike

Now that the weather has begun to act like winter, my hikes are now limited to just the local areas in the valley where it is warmer and drier than the high peaks to the south and the mesa to the north.  In my opinion this really is the best time of the year to hike in these valleys because there is no snow to contend with and the weather is generally sunny, but cool.  These local hikes would be torture in the summer, just because of how hot it can be, but they are still pretty places to go explore.

A friend of mine told me about this hike, with the highlight being some petroglyphs on a large boulder not too far into the hike.  For the most part the hike is pretty easy winding down a small valley that follows a seasonal creek.  There are short sections of oak forest that are nice to walk through in their dappled shade.  I went early in the day after a good cold night and was able to catch the frost in the forest before it evaporated away.

The sides of the valley rose steeply on either side and many birds made thier homes on the side of this cliff.

There were a number of interesting rocks that had been carved by wind and time along the path that I was hiking.  Some looked like they had been chewed up from the inside out, proving that not even rocks can stand up to the strength of the high deset wind.

The boulder with the petroglyphs was probably very impressive at one point, but I was dissapointed to find it nearly ruined by modern graffitti and bullet holes.  There were still a few original native pictures carved into the stone thankfully, but I wonder how long it will be before they too are lost to the winds of time.

After the petroglyphs, I followed the trail farther down the valley.  Gradually the trail began to rise in elevation and the valley seemed to come to a point at a low peak. 

At this point I had already been hiking for a good hour and a half, so here I decided to take a break and have a snack on the trail.  The silence was perfect and only broken occasionally by the sound of flocks of small birds twittering down the valley, or the hawk lazily circling overhead.

When I turned to head back, the Cimmarons were just coming into view across the way to the east.  I find it amazing that such great views are so easy to come by in this area of the country.  It seems that no matter which way I turn, there are views as far as the eye can see.  Perhaps I pay more attention to them since I came from an area that had nothing but flatness and houses for as far as the eye could see.  It sure makes me happy that I get to live here.

Cabbage Harvest

The temperatures around here have been dipping into the teens at night and my standing bed of cabbage was beginning to look a little sad.  They had formed nice heads, but I was waiting to harvest so I could make a little more room in the freezer.  I had to change my plans though because this is the time of year that I will allow the chickens free range in the garden to help fertilize and stir up the soil in the beds.  Things had been fine until yesterday.  They decided that they really love red cabbage and pecked off half of the heads before I realized what they were up to.

I decided that the red cabbages were too far gone to be worth saving, but they hadn't made a move on the green cabbages yet, so I got to work harvesting.  There were only three to harvest, but I had to use a hatchet to chop through their thick, frozen stems.  I trimmed off the loose leaves and left them in the bed to become mulch.  The heads I brought inside to thaw so I could process them properly.

One of the heads was huge and weighed in at 4lbs 5.4oz.  The other two heads were about average sized and weighed in at 2lbs 5 oz and 1lb 14oz respectively.  I will wash them thoroughly and then blanch and freeze them for future use. I am looking forward to using my home grown cabbage on St. Patricks Day next year! 

Tucking in Garden Beds for Winter

It is now December and most of the garden beds are in a state of dormancy.  I still have brussel sprouts and cabbages out in a couple of the beds, but I will need to harvest those before too long.  I am just waiting to see how much room I have left in the freezer after I get the half a pig I have been working all summer for.  In the mean time they can hang out in the garden as they don't seem to mind the cold weather at all.  I also have a bed of lettuce and spinach that are covered by a low hoop tunnel that also seem quite happy despite the freezing nights here.

The other beds are all in different stages of getting ready for spring.  Since the temps have still been decent during the day, I have been working on preparing the beds for next spring as best I can.  Preparing the beds usually involves removing the crop residue from the previous crops and then spading the beds to remove as many weeds as possible.  I made the mistake of mulching with hay this spring, and most of my beds have some very vigorus clover and plantains taking them over.  I hope that by digging them all out, I can get a head start on next years weed control.  The next step after turning the beds over is to add organic matter to the beds.  Right now I don't have any access to horse manure like I did in the spring, but I have plenty of full bags of leaves to mulch into my garden beds.  I spread a thick layer of leaves over each spaded bed, then use a hoe to thoroughly mix the soil and the leaves in the bed.  The leaves will decompose over the winter and help to fluff up the soil for spring crops.  Once the leaves are mixed in well, I level the bed and then cover it again with another thick layer of leaves.  This cover layer will help hold any moisture in the soil and protect the surface soils from blowing away in the windy, dry winter here.

I still have at least four main beds left to turn over and mulch, but if they have to wait until spring it isn't a big deal.  The three beds should be enough for me to start my early spring crops in, so I am happy that most of the prep work is finished.  Planting days will hopefully be as simple as pulling back the mulch and tucking in some seeds.  Until then, these beds will simply spend the winter digesting their fallen leaves and making more soil.

A Few More Hats for My Collection

With not much to do outside and the weather getting colder, I have been spending my days off busily crocheting.  This set of hats may become gifts for friends, or just be added to my sales collection that I am accumulating for a craft fair.  These are made from regular store bought yarns, but the mixture of colors came out well, and they are soft and warm.

I really like making the hats with the ear warmers because I really think they make a difference, especially on cold and windy days.  The braids do double duty as a decoration and are useful for snugging the ear warmers down over ears if you tie them under your chin.  Keeps the wind out great!

Bottling the Sweet Plum Wine

It has been over a month since I racked the plum wine.  I finally had a chance to clean all the bottles that I had saved so I would be ready to bottle this batch of wine.  The first step was to sterilize them all with boiling water.  I simple heat up water in my tea kettle and pour it into each bottle and let it sit for a couple minutes before emptying.  I set them up to dry on a clean towel and then prepared my set up for bottling.  One by one I filled the bottles using a siphon hose to transfer the wine from the large glass carboy to the bottles.  Once I was done, I used a turkey baster to even out the amounts of wine in the top of each bottle - leaving room for a cork.  Then one by one I used my cork press to cork each bottle.  I filled a total of 22 bottles plus a half gallon growler bottle with this beautiful and delicious sweet plum wine.

  

I think that this amount of wine is a pretty good return on a box of plums, a packet of yeast, and a couple of bags of sugar.  I think the total cost came in around $45 which translates to just a little over $2 a bottle.  Not a bad price for a tasty and colorful homemade bottle of wine.