*ready, set, come on 27 degrees

Our Goats are ready.

They are set.

Come on 27 degree temps, they can handle it! (I hope)

 When last at the community thrift store in our little town, I chose three sweater type tops for our goats winter sleepers.  Two of the tree night shirts turned out rather nicely, I have to make a new one for Neffie tomorrow, but for now she is wearing the one that doesn't fit as well as I would like.

This particular shirt didn't work so well because of the neckline.   The serger made this job easy but a sewing machine would do the job nicely as well. I think our goats are going to be very grateful for their "goat coats" over the next few days. We are supposed to have 27 degrees for several nights in a row with much milder temps during the day.

Bodie say's good night, sleep tight!

*saponification taking place

Lemongrass & Lavender blend

I am a soap maker, bet you didn't know that, did you? I haven't made soap in a year or more.  I love to create great recipes by pairing up different oils for a great bubbly lather and wonderful cleansing abilities.  I have had oils that I needed to mix with some caustic soda for some time now to replenish our personal supply as well as selling.  When I had my store open, All Natural Body Soaps, I was making soap every few months.  I have missed it!

Orange & Clove blend with pulverized orange peel

This one smelled like food when we first poured it in the mold to set.  The whole house smelled delicious! 

 

Franziska and I had a great time working on several things that needed to be done. She was just the motivator I needed to get the soap made, not to mention both she and I were out of soap!  A few weeks ago, I bought my first soap in about 5 years.  I hated having to purchase commercially made soap. It took me numerous  trips to the store (and washing with shampoo) before I put several bars into my shopping cart. 

I am not sure if I can wait the allotted time before use!  I make cold-process soap therefore we have to wait for it to go through a curing process before the lye has completely neutralized for safe use.  

~Lynnie

*fall harvest at Erilyn

Henry went inside and got the sickle that we purchased at an antique shop a long time ago. We were simply breaking the ears off our our corn stalks. Well, we are never SIMPLY doing anything around here. The sickle made the job so much more enjoyable.

We did not get corn planted in the spring, but decided to give late fall sweet corn a try.  We did pretty good. A lot of the cobs were still immature, but not a waste at all. 

It wasn't a waste because both the goats and the chickens were grateful! 

Today when we came in from the garden we brought 4 large broccoli heads, tons of late sweet corn, more banana and hot peppers than I know what to do with as well as a basket of winter squash. 

Tonight for dinner we enjoyed some creamed corn straight from the garden.  My mother makes some of T. H. E. best  creamed corn you will ever eat - this came no where near as good as hers, but it was still good.  We will be able to have several meals from the corn crop from this fall.   I finally got all of those onions planted as well.

If you remember earlier this week I was sharing with you about a quilt that I have been working on.   I had hoped to get the top completed by Wednesday, but is still sitting where I left it.  I have had some migraine headaches lately which pretty much put me in a state of doing nothing but resting in a quite, cool dark room.    I am feeling much better now and I will be sewing this weekend!

*an unlikely friendship

You know those cartoons you see where the cat's are always after the birds? Well, I suppose our cats and our neighbor's cats are just way too domesticated.  This is a common occurrence in the chicken coop here at Erilyn! Our next door neighbor has a cat that practically lives inside the chicken coop as well.  Zeke is one of the sweetest cats you can ever meet. He means no harm to anything, least of all a ripe mouse.   When we go out to make sure the hens are all inside the coop before we lock the doors, we have to make sure Zeke is not locked in too.  Isn't he adorable?