Imbolc seed starting
Every spring, my heart gets a bumpin’ and a Jumpin’ to start seeds for my garden. Where I live, my last frost is around the first week of May, so February/March is a good time to start seeds—first with cool season crops which can withstand a frost when transplanted and second priority, things like tomatoes, peppers, and eggplants that you want to give a little head start. You don’t really need to start any quick growing things like cucurbits (pumpkins) or beans or corn. The three sisters do very well direct seeded (planted directly in the ground soil) after last frost. Now, of course, nobody controls the weather, so last frost is iffy. Sometimes it can’t be helped and your entire young garden can get wiped out. Plan for this with backup starts if you’re starting seeds—extra seedlings make for wonderful gifts to friends, family, and neighbors. The first things I do to prepare for the garden can really be done in any order. I want to make sure I organize my garden shed, seed starting supplies, and my gardening go bag for my car where I keep my gloves, spades, pliers, some wire, snips, and loppers. Gotta be prepared. This step can also be done when wrapping up in the fall but if you didn’t get to it, try to complete this before the next season starts. Second, I plan out my garden vision by visually drawing a map of my gardens. I have two—the Cozy Cottage garden at home, and my community garden plot at the Floyd’s Fork of Beckley creek park. I like to make a distinction between spring and summer gardens. You can plant in succession through the season, starting with cool season, frost-tolerant crops like broccoli or lettuce, and moving on to corn squash and beans for the summer, when your beans die off or become unproductive, maybe plant some more! Carrots grown and harvested? Plant more! Fall comes and you can break out the cool season crops again, followed by a cover crop, and taDa, you’ve made the most of your year. The third preparatory activity for my ideal path to my spring garden is to assess the seed collection situation. Do you have what you need? Do you need more? Seed catalogues can be quite enticing. My advice? If you have the funds, go nuts. You can save your seeds smartly and not have to buy any next year. Or, as Jess from Roots And Refuge proposed in 2023, get friends and split your order. Split your seed packets when they come in. Do you really need 30 tomato plants of a single variety in your year this year? Some people do. Assess appropriately. If you’ve never gardened before, buy a packet of seeds, “check some out” from a seed library for free, or ask a friend for some, and try 5 plants if you can have 5 5-gallon-bucket type containers, or say, 7 square feet (for space in between plants) of tilled ground soil. Note: do not consume produce grown in treated ground. Heartbreaking realization for some but really, treat your bodies with care. If you treat your yard, try container gardening on your porch because poison is poison for weeds, bugs, rodents AND you. So now we are prepared. You can start your seeds at any time, but if you want to be extra enthusiastic about it, you can make it more magical by tapping into green witch magic. Some people plant with a biodynamic calendar. The calendar lets you know which days the stars align best for starting your plants. To actually start, you do need a few materials. Seed starting trays (one with holes in the bottom for drainage that sits inside of another with no holes in the bottom), good quality potting soil, seeds, grow lights, and optionally heat mats. I also like to add in my list of things I need, is a cat-free or animal and kid free area that gets good ventilation and isn’t hard to maneuver in. You want to make it an accessible spot, somewhere you’re gonna see your little plants and remember to care for them, and somewhere they will be secure with no risk to topple. The trays are not very quick to topple if you have them on a flat surface. Pro tip, if you have a bunch of little individual pots, you can load them into a tray to move them easier. While actually starting the seeds, you can add magic to the mundane by reciting prayers, mantras, blessing your seed trays, sprinkling holy water, saving the area, reading a tarot card, playing soothing music or singing to your plants, and making offerings. You can continue offering these blessings as the plants grow. Remember to follow the seed packet directions for starting. Some seeds are tiny, so it’s hard to isolate them in the cells, but just do your best to only get 3 or four tiny seeds or one bigger seed in each cell or tiny pot. Is that everything? Let me know what steps you do that I missed, and don’t forget to just have fun. I’ll write more blogs with pretty photos of my seed starting this year, as well as how to care for seedlings, types of watering, and later on in May, transplanting into the outdoor garden!! Blessings on your seed starting this year!!
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Today I’m preparing for the pagan holiday Imbolc, the Christian holiday Candlemass
There are a lot of different traditions associated with this holiday (as well as a few of what I like to call “sidekick holidays”). ((And I think we can all agree that the chief sidekick holiday IS Groundhog Day.)) Imbolc is celebrated Feb 1-3 as the halfway point between solstice (shortest day of the year) and spring equinox! For people who follow the stars and moon in any way, this is meaningful. Almost, shall we say, ✨magical✨ In the Christian churches, this holiday is the purification of the Virgin Mary, and on these days and the Sundays surrounding either side of the 1-3rd of February, people would bring all their candles for the year, to be blessed. They would bless the light. This was important—think of it today as being grateful for the abundance of lightbulbs we are blessed with in our houses, recognizing our good fortune to have energy, and hopefully be able to pay for it all. Back then, this was their light, and in a world more spiritually awakened and undeniably “enchanted”, people were very thankful for this light. thankful to their gods, spirits, angels, and saints. Life, as it is now, but moreso in the past, was not promised. Life was lived in passion. We can live with said passion in every circumstance, timelessly. I don’t mean loving everything about your unique life, your journey, but more that we can live courageously and with purpose. We can honor our journeys and use them to inform how we take control of our futures, in any (and hopefully every) way we can. In conclusion of that rambling mess, Bless the damn lights 😂 For me, I plan to bring this tradition into my day by making some candles, lighting some candles. I plan to do a little ceremony to bless the finished candles by anointing them with epsom salt water from base to wick away from my body, for purification, and then again with earth water from wick to base toward my heart to draw in the energy of the natural world. I don’t know yet if I will repeat any mantras or chants, but I did write some intentions. Imbolc is not the pagan New Year (although the lunar New Year will be coming up!) and it is actually a minor holiday. However, Imbolc is traditionally meant to indicate a fresh start. It’s a great time to start learning new skills, and I have two new skills I really hope to focus on. They go together. The first is setting intentions. I think the first time I remember noticing that word was in a yoga class “what is your intention for this practice?” It, to me, has seemed so simple. Flexibility, breathing, hamstrings. Stuff like that, right? Well, yes, but there are also other, deeper ways to practice setting an intention. I read a book for my book club, Cord Magic, which delved deeper into intentions. Brandy Williams writes that intentions are positive, and do not allow “negative bias” to seep in. We inherently think in terms of what could go wrong. However, our fears of that can shape how we go about whatever it is we’re setting an intention for, her example being driving a car. The car will not crash. I think of this in my own life as “how much worry is useful” in each circumstance. Maybe some worry will help you acknowledge that focus is important while driving. But if you start catastrophizing, that can be paralyzing and or agonizing. Not a good mindset to drive a car AND can actually be the SOURCE of problems that wouldn’t have arisen, had you let go of excess worry and relaxed. Proceed thoughtfully, but do not dwell. It only drains you. So, stop being negative, and envision goodness and ease, and allow yourself to receive these blessings as they enter your life. Intentions, to me, seem like a cross between affirmations and manifesting, just with the caveat that you have to meet the universe halfway. You do your work and trust that what you intend will come to fruition. I also struggled to understand affirmations (a lot of learning about mental health is informing how I think I want to raise my future kids). To me, intentions, affirmations, manifesting, believing, and actually DOING the work. One of the things I love about my mental healthcare is that my support system also cares about and discusses our spiritual health. Spirituality is obviously one tool for connecting with and maintaining our mental health. The second skill I’d like to practice is cord magic. I plan to use my intentions to create a few cords to tie knots with for energy magic. Actually, I was thinking I would be interested in making some Inkle woven bands to tie in knots. They are basically woven ribbons, and I feel all of the same qualities are there as with “cords”, just the type of creative act is different. I plan to do a deep dive into this when I actually go about doing it. (I’m gonna round up allllll the Imbolc traditions at the end of my article!) The next tradition of Imbolc is dairy and fertility. The February moon is called the Quickening moon, a fertility moon. The Quickening refers to when the baby begins to move within the womb. Imbolc actually means “in the belly”, and is often the start of lambing season. Sheep were often traditionally bred to lamb before cows calved, and in the hunger months, their milk was precious for the babies and for the shepherds and their families. This year the moon is a half moon, waxing, or getting bigger, during Imbolc. The moon, in my feminine experience, is about fertility always. It’s cyclical nature so similar to mine. I am not in a season of procreation currently, so I’m not connecting with that magic this year, but it is magical to consider this and meditate upon it. Milk and dairy are one of the many many physical signs of fertility. Cooking with them is an Imbolc tradition. I plan on making butter, mozarella, buttermilk, buttermilk pancakes, quiche and who the heck knows what else. It’s a fiesta and I’m extra so let’s get it on. Another sheep-related practice I’m bringing into my celebration is washing wool, fiber prep, and spinning on my spinning wheels. Can you believe that? Me? Spinning wool? Nahhhhh Yes. So expect a fiber blog soon! Another crafty tradition for the holiday is creating St Brigid crosses (a woven swastika with earthen reeds) and placing them over doors and windows for protection. The tradition of this and its shape in the weaving is an ancient Celtic tradition. I’m thinking I’ll try making one! Then, there are other little details I have for sort of intentionally, spiritually decorating. I count “smudging” or incense as decorating—it’s decorating with a scent and an energy. Cleaning my body and anointing myself with my tallow body balm—a natural, local, humanely processed and home-refined fat with great healing properties. Somewhere I saw that one tradition was making corn husk dolls, and I’m low key interested in doing that. Slight interest there, I have some ideas. I’m also thinking I’ll make some river birch firewood bundles. Birch is the tree spirit of Brigid (oh, PS Brigid is the goddess/Saint/real actual person who Imbolc is associated with). And possibly have a bonfire. Idk it’s wet out so…. Finally, for me it is an important and sacred time when I put my phone away. I’m going to try to make sure I get more of this time as a regular part of my life. So this Friday I’m gonna have a go at having some of this time. I feel like this is a part of my Imbolc Sabaat Round up: look at the sky; make, bless, and burn candles; set intentions and work cord magic; cooking with dairy; meditating upon the concept of fertility; wool, Brigid’s crosses, and corn husk dolls; smudging, bonfire, cleanse, anoint, decorate, put my phone away and celebrate the sacred. Are you going to do any of these traditions? Today in my continued celebration of the pagan holiday Imbolc, I share with you this year’s article on my reading of Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-Centered Sustainable Practices. The wheel of the year refers to the 8 traditional Pagan holidays, starting with Yule in December, the shortest day of the year, and finishing with Samhain or todays Hallow’s Eve. Paganism, the way I live it, is a way to live in sacred connection with the Earth around me, honor it, care for it, and in return recieve its blessings and bounty. This is expressed in my daily life in innumerable ways including gardening, and using reusable bags at the grocery store.
The author, Dana O’Driscoll, takes on the wheel of the year in different focuses, and the focus of Imbolc is in Reskilling. O’Driscoll writes in this chapter of Oak Knowledge, or as she puts it “The knowledge of root and stem, seed and growth, balance and restoration” (49). She writes about Feeling that she has no heritage, and I also feel that as a citizen of the United States. I think we can agree that this is an interesting country. We’re out of place in this world a diaspora of happenstance. As human beings we are born into randomness of time, place, and circumstance, but in the United States in the years, say, 2015-present….. that’s a really bizarre era of humanity (as a whole). It genuinely makes me wonder, are we cut-off from our nature as human beings? Some have suggested we are evolved past our old knowledge and the skills associated with it, to the point where these skills and this knowledge is not only foreign to us, but are unrealistic as a part of our modern daily life. Immediately spinning yarn comes to mind for me. Spinning yarn is an ancient skill. Adam and Eve realized they were naked and wanted clothes. Cavewomen twisted plant fibres together into cordage for rope, string, and eventually, cloth. Women through the ages have spun and spun and spun. And now, machines do it to the point where it would be ridiculous to conceive of anyone on the planet having need to ever spin again. Machines do it. Machines do it for plastic fibres like Acrylic and polyester, and for natural fibres such as merino wool and cotton. The machines do it fast, uniform, (arguably) durably, and without need or desire to be paid. What, then, is the purpose of a modern-day spinner? I got one word, “Principle”. I do it on principle. I value the work of my ancestors and do not see it as beneath me, unimportant, or even outdated. Those clothes that are handspun, are just as functional as machine-made clothes, the main difference is that the human-made clothes have a soul. They have fingerprints left on them. They have random hairs from the maker accidentally knitted into them. I’m not saying machine-made items aren’t special, but I am saying “modern machine-made garments should not be the standard for which we judge quality.” I think we all have a piece of clothing that comes to mind when you hear the phrase “disposable clothing”, and no, I don’t just mean the underwear that got thrown away. That shirt the washer ate. Those pants that ripped by the end of the night. That supposed cool, leather jacket that just crumbled at the seams after a season of wear. If you had the privilege to get rid of that item, would you throw it or donate it? Would you ever buy a piece of clothing specifically to fix it and wear it? That wasn’t a question in the old days, and today still isn’t for millions, if not billions, of people. People in poverty, people in war, migrants, your own neighbors, even folks reading this. But I won’t speak for them as I DO have the privilege to just get new clothes. If my coat doesn’t fit, I can go buy a new one. If I threw up on my shoes, I’d probably throw them away and get new ones. That’s a luxury. So why do I spin? I value it as a traditional skill. I am utilizing my privilege of being able to spin for fun, beauty, work, and my own wardrobe, and delighting in it. Delighting in the motion that every single generation before my grandmother’s, and many other current cultures, have partaken in. I am not so naïve as to not see a value in knowing it. Such is true of many other skills we have lain aside in our modern lifestyles… O’Driscoll writes of the industrialized world as a “frenzy of fast-paced, consumerist living, where knowledge and craft are replaced by efficiency and product” (49). If the knowledge is outsourceable to machines, it is redundant for humans to know it, let alone be skilled at it. It is only acceptable to practice unnecessary skills if one is especially “talented” or “good” at them. How many times have we as a society told that shitty artist to get a real job? Something they can depend on. Ahem. We live in a society where creation itself is now not merely a human task. I’m not talking about producing product. I’m talking about content, art, and even mimicking life itself. We all know it now, so, say it with me, “AI”. I think we can all agree—if we’ve seen an AI hand or any other artificially generated weirdness—AI is a shitty artist. But we don’t tell it to get a real job. We inherently trust that “if it keeps working on it, it’ll get better at it.” We don’t inherently trust people like that. Are we betraying the miracle of our divine creation and our own possibilities in the names of laziness disguised as speed and ingenuity. I create because I value my own potential. I create because of a drive to live radically, to create with wild abandonment. Create to the level of your privileges, create outside of the bounds of privilege. Follow along this week for more on my celebration of Imbolc! Later this week I’ll be doing some seed starting ceremonies and will continue with my reading. I’ll also be doing a tutorial video on making candles and some other fun recipes! Blessings! —AugustLee Happy Candlemas Sunday my folks! This morning Momma and I watched the Church of England’s fully BSL interpreted weekly service on YouTube, and we have also been getting in the mood for the traditional Druidic Pagan holiday of Imbolc, Feb 1-2 2024. As part of my preparation, I have been rereading the Imbolc section of what I refer to as my modern Pagan Guidebook, Sacred Actions: Living the Wheel of the Year through Earth-centered Sustainable Practices. Last year it was my first book in my book club, and ended up being the only book 😂 what’s more, I didn’t do write ups for all of it anyhow. This year I’m making space in my life to include it alongside what I have planned already, so today I thought it would be fitting to reshare last year’s book club article on Imbolc. Enjoy! Imbolc
This is the holiday which has just passed this early February, and the season we have entered. The season of learning. “With the dawning of industrialization and consumerism, we’ve lost many skills and much knowledge; this is the loss of our human heritage of interacting and living with the land: the knowledge of root and stem, seed and growth, balance and restoration […] the lost ancestral knowledge isn’t just about how growing one’s own food or making one’s own medicine; it is also about how to work with each other, about how to build communities, how to raise barns, how to learn and grow. We live in those fragments.” (49) Sing it to the rooftops! I feel the traditional ecological knowledge from Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass coming into tune. I feel my wildcraft Appalachian roots reaching out into deep water to drink heartily from this river of wealth that knowledge of skills is. I have to follow this path, where she goes I will go, and I will follow her where she leads. O’Driscoll writes about this type of knowledge as Deep “oak knowledge”, to call each animal and plant by its right name, to know how to draft the fiber. To know what it means to provide for and feed a whole family. To know what makes your best friend laugh. These things have a rich value I will not let go of. I think a lot about the practicality of my creations. One thing I don’t do very much that I love is embroidery. I don’t see as much value in things that will only be decorations, they’re just not practical, so how can I justify spending my limited time on things like that? Maybe for the simple reason that they are beautiful and I love making them. O’Driscoll writes that, “Reskilling is about gaining the skills to live more regeneratively, which means being able to provide at least a few of the basic needs for ourselves, our families, and our communities. The broader reskilling movement is concerned with skills that help feed ourselves, clothe ourselves, provide daily functional items for ourselves from local materials, entertain ourselves, deal with our waste, keep ourselves healthy, create sustainable living Spaces, keep ourselves sheltered and warm, and create our own useful arts and crafts.” (53-54) Homesteading encompasses a lot more than just growing your own food, it is a whole life, and I am starting with the areas available in my life to grow from. This season’s ritual builds upon the first by examining your journey and what you will need to start growing, learning-wise. She writes about learning the history of your home place, library magic, and creating spiritual practices out of physical acts—can these be seasonal too? In all, I really enjoyed this first section of Sacred Actions, it was very inspiring especially for planning my year out and making room for the sacred. I hope you all enjoyed my insights—getting it all onto the blog has been a trick as it kept deleting during the upload process. Please feel free to write about your thoughts on this book, what you’re reading, or homesteading topics in general. Blessings blessings! August Lee 2023 Roundup
2023 was a banner year for me in my production of art for my small business and personal projects. I had several contests I made entries for, and won 25 ribbons, including a few first place wins (two of which were at the KY State Fair). I also took part in the worldwide fiber arts event, the Tour de Fleece, and knit, crocheted, and spun my little heart out. After the State Fair, I took a rest before working on my Wool of the Week hand washed, hand spun, hand dyed, hand knit Breed Study sweater project, and my handmade Christmas. In all, I completed what I am declaring as 230 separate projects (the projects that were not separate were the “batch projects”). A lot of the batch projects were things I did for my farmers market booth. Now, as I went through my project list, I found one that was missing from the state fair that I did not list, so listed it, bringing 229 to 230–although…. At the end of the year I was quite physically ill which made me a little delirious… and yet still continued work work working… and there may have been one or two breeds of yarn that I spun that I did not record. So between 230-232 projects for 2023. I did not push myself to complete a certain number of projects this year. In fact, lots of people asked me how I did that many projects. Well, first of all, it is one of my jobs, though I do fill in the cracks with other gig work to make it all work. So, like any professional, I take my job seriously. Not only did I make all of these projects, but I felt most of them required substantial effort and showcased much of what I would call my best professional works. I joked this year, with all the Barbie hoopla, I was Professional Knitter Barbie, but now I’m owning it. I am a professional fiber artist. Sometimes I feel weird calling what I do “crafting”. There is a difference in our cultural understanding of modern day crafts and modern day arts. Most modern American people, I gather, would think of kids crafts when one mentions “crafts”. Crafts sounds cheesy and cheap, dinky, silly, and ultimately pointless. The term craft really describes “a type of artistic skill”, and related to what professional skill you were known for. But I am choosing to embrace the term “crafting” as part of my professional title. My top crafting categories this year were natural and acid dye (42), knitting (41 projects), and spinning (51-54 skeins). (NOTE: I am counting FINISHED projects; unfinished projects, no matter how close to being finished, were NOT COUNTED.) This matters a lot when you put 6 full weeks of work into something that does not count in the “finished” list. *cough YO-YO Quilt *cough 😂 I started my year creating a line of naturally dyed fabrics, and did some sewing projects with them. I ended it during skein after skein of my hand spun yarn for the Wool of the Week breed study sweater project. I entered 42 projects into the Kentucky State Fair, 5 into the KY Sheep and Fiber Festival contest, and 4 into the Southeastern Animal Fiber Fair Fiber Arts Contest. My ribbon I was most proud of was my first place in Hand Spun Yarn Garment in the KY State Fair. As for my favorite project…. I’ll never be able to pick! I was thrilled to have completed my first sweater this year! I took a class to learn the theory and fit, did a few mini versions, did a few baby versions, and finally completed one in acrylic. Did I follow a pattern? Nope… did I end up with what I thought I would? Nope! Do I like it? Nope!!! I LOVE it!!! I learned a lot with it, and am overall very happy. Are there things I will do differently? Yes, I will not start off by saying: I have to just make the biggest size ever. Then, the collar is big… it makes for a very stylish sweater, however, not the most practical sweater. I still wear it every day 😂 it’s acrylic so whatever! I knit five adult pairs of socks and have worked up the courage to just go ahead and wear them with shoes and darn the holes as needed. Also, learned about using a thicker yarn for the toe where it gets the holes duh. One of my goals this year was to use what I make. Every time I leave the house now, I hear Dennis Feinstein in my head saying “woah woah woah, boys, let’s scent up” with the perfume from Parks and Rec—except for me I say “suit up” and I go choose what accessories I’m gonna wear. By the end of the year, I organized my outerwear dresser to have my top half-drawer being the manufactured goods accessories, then the entire second drawer being my hand knit accessories. (Reminder, I just knit my first sweater this year—garments are sweaters, shirts, pants, skirts etc; socks, gloves, scarves, hats, and shawls are accessories.) ((So it gives me ideas for what items I NEED to make for myself in the future)). I also wanted to use the yarn I make. I made 53ish skeins of yarn this year (and more that were commercially milled yarn that I dyed), I can’t just have 53 finished yarns and just be like yup I make yarn. You have to do something with it. So, I wove with it. I wove with one of the yarns I was proudest of ever making, my Neon Shinjuku Beehive art yarn. I still have some work to do to make the projects I used that for be finished to a suitable state… because that was one of the projects I actually wasn’t super happy with. I try not to settle for anything less than my best with my projects, because when I think about my projects, I think about, plan for, and strive to create a project that I and or others will love for its entire (hopefully long) life of use, and won’t just not feel bad about casually throwing it away one day. I want to create things it would be offensive and sad to get rid of. This doesn’t mean that everything I make has to be awarded the blue ribbon, but that everything I make, I feel like I did my best work of my own skill, and will be happy with as previously stated. I use good quality materials, and usually take as much time as I need. When I say that I didn’t stress myself to get this many projects done, that’s not exactly true. I did stress myself occasionally. I strive every day to put forth good quality, beautiful art. I plan out a blue zillion projects. Shoot for that moon, and land among those stars. Last year I completed 96 projects. That’s a lot. Even though it was a lot, I felt bad I didn’t get to 100. Was I even trying to get to a specific number? No. But people are always hoping they could have done more. Even if they’re Uber proud of what they’ve done, there’s always that one thing they could have also done but just didn’t complete all the way yet, or decided it wasn’t actually necessary but it would have been cool tho. Like this year, I’m not chuffed about the amount of work I got done. There’s a lot of stuff though that I actually had hoped to get to but just didn’t have time for. Some big stuff. A lot of stuff. It was completely unrealistic the amount of dreams I had planned, and it did end in a dramatic physical illness that I neglected to take action on because I thought there were things and people more important. You have to take care of yourself in the end. After I admitted I wasn’t well, I gave myself the rest of the year to recover, and have extended that grace into the new year. After the successes of last year, I feel like I can allow myself to focus my talents more while knowing that I’m in my stride. I know that I create good work. If I work hard, I can do great things. With that I feel ready to officially start my 2024 production year. Let the crafting begin! Hws Im so thrilled and honored to announce that this April, I will be demonstrating the ancient art of Spinning wool into yarn as well as vending at the 2024 Women’s Homestead Society Festival in Dickson, TN! This will be my first event with my revamped business model and I’m anxiously excited to see how it all goes! What you can expect from me is my best work. I am proud of my products I have for sale: hand spun, hand dyed, artisan wool yarn; hand knit, premium wool, skin-soft baby socks; drop spindles and test wool; hand knit hats and fingerless gloves in Kentucky Women’s Wool; local tallow cosmetics; a smorgasbord of colorful Inkle woven straps used in a variety of finished products like camera straps, binocular straps, purse straps, etc; and more! As of today, I am closing commissions to prepare for the event, but don’t worry, you can always email me and we’ll see when I can schedule your commission! Please share any of my content to get the word out, you are so appreciated! And if you’re interested in TICKETS, @womenshomesteadsociety on Instagram! Thank you, always for your support!
—August Lee As a special random treat I’m sharing three minutes from 2023! Liminal: Adjective,
I feel like I’ve been in a heat twist as we say in my home, The Cozy Cottage 😵💫… (Save, it HAS been in the single digits and 10’s for multiple days in the past weeks and finally got up into the 40’s yesterday… and now the rain which upsettingly has also brought Ants. My website was down for a while here due to a subscription mishap, but thankfully I got it all sorted… my goodness that was frightening… Sadly, I’ve been dealing with strife in my personal life and physical health, and naïvely not foreseeing the adjustment time with a new kitten in the house… it has been a time. Heat twist all made sluggish in this blustery cold.
Things that have been bringing me joy, stability, stillness, and hope lately:
Pluto
Yesterday we welcomed a new member to our family, a new P for our pod! Pea Pluto came home with me from the Animal Care Society yesterday, and sat in the carrier for Persie and Possum to sniff and say welcome. Only one hiss from Possum, and we unzipped the soft carrier, and let her hop out. Immediately momma scooped her up and snuggled her. We brought her in to the master bath and set up a blanket fort for her and me. The garden witch has a new, black kitten! We explored the house, sniffed the big cats, tested sharing the space, and even played! Persephone was not impressed then very impressed by Pluto’s courage when she chased after Persie, and chased her back. Pluto ran into her and halted on her front feet lifting her back feet up like a skunk! It was adorable. My chest is all scratched up from her teenie tiny needle-sharp claws but I’m so so happy with her and excited for the days to come and the play about to happen in our house. Long awaited days have come! This year, I’ve been getting fresh raw milk, for my dog. Actually, mostly just cream, to make butter. But I just asked my girl over the holidays if she could spare two gallons for me to try making cheese with. The first batch, my sister and I used with this recipe, and a liquid rennet. We watered down the rennet (which I didn’t think the recipe meant but Josie thought it did mean), which may have not been the right step, but the milk was five days old at that day. We used this fabric square to drain the whey out, and the cheese had a cheese taste and cream cheese consistency. We tried to stretch it in heat, but it disentigrated. We stored it in whey but it got gooey. We had some on bread and it was buttery and creamy. Into our next pot of two day old milk we put undiluted liquid rennet and set the milk for 15 minutes (the first batch we set for 55). It cut lovely, as I hoped it would! Curds and whey It became easy to separate the curds from the whey, and was easy to stretch in the heated whey. I heated the whey to 150F instead of 170, and heated the cheese to 125 to stretch due to impatience 😂) Stored in water,
Baked on pizza! |
Quilt Update!
IronweedDisco Chicken of Love
sTate fair ready!seed starting 2019ky state fair quiltWHOTH Embroideryseashell casTleswhoth blanketedible goodnessAuthorA sustainability major at U of L, beginning farmer, crafter, and writer. Archives
April 2024
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