Harvest journal meets fiber journal: the butternut

Michael has been extracting the garage from the woods. In the process we get firewood. One of the trees trying to eat the outbuildings was a butternut. Butternut, the tree, produces a nut akin to a walnut, only richer, and, like a walnut, also can be used as a source of natural dye. Or at least that is what a book my mother gifted me says.  

The book wasn't clear on whether one uses the bark or inner bark, so I am running an experiment and have two dye batches in the making.  

Making use of warm weather to peel bark.  

I have found it important to strip bark soon after wood is cut. Otherwise, it doesn't want to come off. There are two levels to bark: the brown stuff you see and then a soft(er) layer underneath. 

Sharp knives help! 

Inner bark stains on contact with the air.  

I took my pots of bark, covered them with water, and let them set overnight. Then I boiled the bark for two hours. Our entire house smelled like a floral, nutty version of maple syrup and Irene's persistent cough ceased for the afternoon. (We try to keep a humidifier going, but have a hard time keeping the air moist enough for her).  I'd try this again just to breath in that soft, sweet steam!  

We strained the liquid away from the bark and tossed the bark back into the woods. Michael hiked the pots of bark water (dye?!?) down into the basement to keep them cool until I have sufficient wool to start dyeing. 

The inner bark only is on the top.  

I'm cleaning a fleece (Blue Faced Leister) I purchased last spring and hope to have sufficient wool to experiment with soon. Mordants (chemicals that help dye stay fast to fiber) have come in the mail. Now to organize a space to do the dyeing!  Stay posted! 

Blessings journal: after 30 years we may be getting the hang of this

Highs in the 50s has the tree buds swelling and wild birds singing. We took advantage of the continued sun and warmth to give Michael his quarterly haircut. 

Michael, handsome if frowzy 

Michael, tidied and trimmed

I think he has been to an actual barber maybe once in the past 30 years...when he had an interview and I was in trial. Otherwise he insists that I really do much better than a barber. Humph. I think he just likes me. 

Which is good, since I think he's pretty swell too. 

A friend asked what we were going to do to celebrate our anniversary.  I told her that Michael is an anti-romantic, and so we weren't doing anything "special."  She initially thought that was unfortunate, until I explained that romantics make a big deal out of occasions, whereas anti-romantics make sure that every day is a reaffirmation of love. He gets me coffee every morning, we read the news together, discuss it, and exchange thoughts and kisses as we work throughout the day until it's night and I'm handing him his towel as he steps out of the shower.  We plan gardens and excursions and building projects and maintenance tactics...not always together physically but close in purpose and intent.  We hope to keep getting better at this marriage thing. 

Birthday Jounal: Celebrating those boys with beards

Lincoln has nothing over Michael when it comes to facial hair.  

My favorite nose nest: by every evening it has trapped the freshness of frozen air mixed with subtle undertones of wood smoke.  

I remember when Michael couldn't grow a beard...which was when he wasn't a white wizard. There are advantages to age!   

Every candle represents a decade...and keeps the fire marshal happy.  

Michael was born in the Year of the Rooster on the Chinese zodiac calendar. 

Arthur, the black runner hen, is Michael's favorite duck.  

We like our roosters, but we love our ducks. They are messy, noisy, cautious, clannish, joyful creatures. 

The trees are growing thicker, the birds are beginning to sing, spring is around the corner and I can think of no better occasion than Michael's (and Honest Abe's) birthday(s) to celebrate. 

Birthday journal: helping Auntie Harriette celebrate 98 years

January...not much happening.  February, however, begins with Auntie Harriette's birthday.  A great excuse to celebrate!  This year, she couldn't decide whether she wanted a chocolate or vanilla cake, and so asked for a little of both.   

Harriette, looking pleased after having doused her candles.

There were fewer people this year, perhaps because we need better contact information for friends from her church and the myriad cousins that live near and far.  Or it could be that more cousins have retired and were in sunnier climes.  Regardless, Harriette had a good time. 

And she got her choice of cake!  (She didn't say no to the pie, either....)

Soap journal: fat, lye, and saponification

I am a delicate flower, who needs careful tending. Good thing I found Michael, the Renaissance Boy (or junior chemist). My skin and commercial scents haven't gotten along for ages, so Michael learned how to make soap about 20 years ago. 

Day 2

Soap is fundamentally fat or oil mixed with a base. The type of base will affect the character of the soap. Lye (sodium hydroxide) mixed with water ( add bases to water as you oughta---otherwise it explodes!) will make harder soap. Potassium hydroxide (the stuff you get from wood ash) will make a soft soap. There is a hot process and cold process. Michael prefers cold process. 

The process keeps working for a couple of weeks.  

The saponification process yields glycerin. In commercial processes, they separate the glycerin and use it in moisturizers and other products. Home made soap retains the glycerin and helps keep my skin from getting dry. 

Our soap aging box. It's the same box (lined with plastic) the original oil/fat/lye mixture spends its first day or two while hardening. The trick is slicing it before it gets too hard.  

Good clean fun.  

Season journal: honoring the old in celebrating the new

Small altar altered

New Year's Day is a good time for reflection. A friend asked what the strangest thing in my house was. This is a difficult question to answer when one has gopher tails and deer ears in the freezer. Next year I will have to take my new tails in for the bounty, rather than just think about it. The deer ears are required in case a DNR agent comes by to confirm that the venison in those same freezers match the ears with their recorded tags. I suppose the 2014 ears can be tossed...if I can unearth them. This reminds me: I need to clean all the freezers while the cold weather holds. 

Paper bags full of feathers might qualify. But probably not, once put together with the nearby card stock.  

My vision of holiday greetings  

Most of the odd items found in my household relate to ongoing projects: shells and driftwood for making jewelry; roots and minerals for dying wool; sacks of fleece; soap  making chemicals, branches from fruit trees waiting to be made into buttons...pity the person who has to sort through any of this without the vision that led to its initial retention. 

Occasionally, the detritus gathered never had an ulterior purpose.  

Sculpture made by wood ants

Which brings me back to the first photo:  the items in my house that tend to disturb those who take time to notice them are the bones. Life in the country brings you closer, on a daily basis, to both life and death. One is necessary to the other and both deserve to be remembered and honored.  

Physical objects help us to remember, as well as to honor. 

Detail of a tapestry included in the Marin Luther Exhibit currently at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts.  

We become absorbed in thinking that cataclysmic current events will change things forever as if this a bad thing. Remembering Martin Luther's act of pinning his 95 theses to that church door 500 years ago...and what vast changes accompanied this act, gives both context and comfort.  Yes, a lot of destruction. Yes, more growth. Yes, a lot of pain and also beauty.

In honor and remembrance of all that came before, as well as in celebration of all that will follow, I share with you the smallest icons: bare bones. 

Fiber journal: warm and fuzzy for the thunderstorms we are having today--Christmas 2016

Oh, the weather outside is frightful... 

It is now 4 hours later and still thundering and lightning and freezing 

Luckily, we are all safe where we need to be. And with warm feet! 

Great whites and orcas! 

We don't get out much and so coming up with gift ideas is sometimes difficult. I had seen the shark slippers posted on FB, and so looked up the pattern. The pattern called for Red Heart synthetic yarn. My grandmother used to make slippers out of Red Heart. Your feet get stinky. Wool is so much better because its antibacterial properties keep your feet AND nose happy!  Finding sufficient yardage in vaguely the correct weight was challenging. I had to change the stitch count to accommodate the different yarn weights. Then I could only find enough gray wool for three pairs...which is why one set became orcas.   

I gave them bigger teeth than the pattern called for. The pattern teeth were fine for the orcas.  

Someday I will think of these things earlier. This year, I began on December 7th. Each pair took me approximately 16 hours to make...and that is without potty breaks.  Michael took over all other household chores (except tamale making) while I stitched away.    I also did some reading while stitching...until I ran out of transcripts. 

Michael has been baking...again.  

Dinner was a success. Our 10 pound broiler fed 11 people...and there are leftovers. Aunt Harriette graced us with her presence once again. We are looking forward to celebrating her 98th birthday in February. In the meantime, warm wishes to all.  

Livestock Journal- The Augean Stables

The past week was the first week of real winter with overnight temperatures down to -24°F and daytime highs only in the low single digits and windchill temps to -45°F.  During the coldest of those days neither duck nor chicken came outside, not even once.  Would you?  But now that we are past the Winter Solstice and are headed into spring and Real Winter has for the moment disappeared with highs of 40°F above zero it was important to clean out the Duck Manger because ducks are messy, dirty, play in water, poop anywhere creatures....two days of inside all the time ducks leaves the Manger a solid frozen ducky mat.  When it is this cold I just add 3 or 4 inches of straw over the top every other day so that my ducks don't freeze to the floor....So with the coming of Spring yesterday I threw open the doors and windows and shooshed all the ducks into the sunshine.....

Shooshed ducks

and went about with wheelbarrow and hay fork and snow shovel (you gotta get to the compost heap somehow) and in about 3 hours managed to get the floor in the Manger back down to mostly dirt

Dirt! 

and leaving the door and window open finally got the interior defrosted (8 days of frozen duckbreath had frost on the walls an inch thick)

The cold week of weather cut egg production in half for both the ducks and the chickens making everyotherday ducks and chickens out of them.

Winter compost heap

Poolside

When the weather is not brutal cold the ducks spend most of their time in the sunshine by the pool.   They are good creatures these ducks.  We likes them.

Season journal: happy solstice!

Four days ago we were graced with 6" of snow. As my daughter and her husband were coming to make tamales, Michael and I hustled out and started shoveling the driveway.  

That's Michael way down at the other end.  

We got it mostly cleared after a couple of hours of steady shoveling. What we lack in capitalization we make up with muscle. It keeps us healthy!  Good thing we got the snow moved, as the next day (Sunday) brought sub-zero weather.  I think it got down to -23°.

Today, the shortest day of the year, saw a high of 42°.  

Warm, but still snowy. 

The leghorns froze their combs a bit, but otherwise it looks like the birds survived without serious injury.

In celebration of the warm weather, Michael shooshed the ducks out of their Mansion and cleaned house. But that is a post for another day. Today, I just enjoyed having sunshine and balmy weather to go out and walk around in.  

Livestock journal: extreme cold weather

We have been treated to a Siberian Express for the last week or so, which means we have been lucky to have highs is the single digits. We are toasty enough with our ability to heat with wood (very important as the electricity went out recently), but caring for our birds has become challenging.  We are happy we have both a chicken coop and a Duck Mansion.  

The cheerful chicken coop.  

Keeping the birds out of the wind allows their feathers to keep them warm. Even with 14° below overnight, they maintained coop temperature at about 20° above. Strength in numbers!

Poofy chickens

The ducks get to looking pretty bedraggled when they don't have access to open water. We usually have a tub outside for them, but the hard cold can freeze their feet and maim them.  

Cuddling in a corner  

The Duck Mansion maintains its heat about as well as the coop, which means our birds won't freeze, but their water buckets do. In normal cold weather, Michael breaks the skin of ice in the mornings and fills the buckets with warm water. In really cold weather, this doesn't work as well due to the fact that the water nipples freeze and don't thaw well. To cure this, Michael made extra water buckets.  

After drilling holes, the nipples are glued in place with Shoe Goop, or its moral equivalence, which can take the flexibility of the plastic, is water tight, and isn't poisonous to the birds.  

This way, we bring in one set of buckets to thaw overnight and start ice-free in the mornings. More hot water in the afternoon keeps the birds with access to unfrozen water during waking hours.  

We have noticed a decrease in egg production during the very cold weather, but it may also be linked to the fact that we are down to about 8 hours of natural light...and less on cloudy days.   

Abi and Ani eggs.  

Michael does the majority of bird care in the winter, although I do run half of the morning bucket brigade.  It keeps the floors from getting too covered in snow,  

I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. It took 20 years of living in northern climes before having the ground turn white didn't come as a shock. Cold weather requires planning and preparation, for ourselves as well as our livestock.  Here's to keeping warm and drinking water! 

Weather journal: winter has arrived!

The weather predictors had forecast an early, cold, and snowy winter. We had a dusting for opening day of deer season, but then it warmed up again. We got rain rather than snow.  

A green and gray December 1st  

We awoke this morning to 3" on the ground and a possibility of more.  

This represents about 4 cords of wood  

We have been behind in cutting wood due to construction duties, and so bought a cord of wood yesterday. Got it moved and stacked. Just under the wire...whew!   

Our ducks come out to play whether the weather is sunny or not. The chickens prefer to cuddle in their coops.  

Abi and Ani sharing their nest

We haul water to the birds, with me on the inside and Michael on the outside, by way of a bucket brigade. We gather eggs throughout the day to avoid having them freeze. Egg yolks gel when they freeze and do not liquify again upon defrosting. You can freeze eggs, but you have to scramble them first. Things I never thought I'd need to know!

Harvest journal: 5 out of 8 is more than enough

Today is the last day of firearm deer hunting season here in Western Wisconsin, but in truth we all stopped hunting on Day 2. By that time, out of the 8 deer we had licenses for between the 4 of us hunting on our land, 5 tags were filled. Brother Johnny took his two deer back to Minnesota with him, and we processed son-in-law Nick's buck for him, sending him back to Iowa with 52 pounds of tenderloin, roasts, stew meat and hamburger. 

Grinding the last of the hamburger.  

That left us with 2 deer to take care of ourselves. And here is how we did it: 

Michael was in charge of outdoors operations (and I do mean the kind that requires sharp cutting instruments!) while I did the inside work. After a deer is shot and field dressed, we hang it up by the neck and place a board or stick inside the cavity so that cold air can circulate and cool down the meat. This prevents spoilage. 

"Field dressing" means opening the deer from sternum to the pubis, cutting through the bony girdle so that the hips can splay. You cut through the trachea and the hide around the anus and take out all the viscera, saving the heart and liver in the zip lock bag you have thoughtfully stored in your pocket for such an occasion. Then you get to drag your deer from the woods up to the house. If you are lucky, your hunting partner helps out with this bit. When you've caught your breath, you register the deer, which happened on-line this year. 

Last year, we didn't get to process our deer immediately, and the weather turned very cold. This made getting the hide off the deer a major effort involving blow-driers and gymnastics. Vowing to avoid the problem this year, Michael skinned the deer, quartered them and then hung the quarters in the garage, where we had made space. He would then cart in a joint to me inside.  

Once inside, I took meat off the bones and cut fat and excess connective tissue from the meat. I then cut the meat into steaks, stew meat, roasts, meat to grind into hamburger, and thin-sliced the hearts and took the membrane off the livers before slicing them up.  

We can process one deer in a day, if we work 10 hours in a day. This includes taking time out to re-sharpen knives, and drink the occasional cup of coffee, but meals extend the day.

Our favorite field dressing knife: fixed blade drop point

Good knives are very important to this process.  

From left to right: chef knife, skinner, boner.  

Having a grinding attachment for our mixer is also a huge labor saver. We pile hamburger trimmings on cookie sheets lined with waxed paper and let the meat become semi-frozen before grinding it. This lets the grinder cut the sinews rather than have them get wound up in the grinder. We save the hamburger grinding for after dinner (about the time it takes to super chill the meat), at which time Michael puts the meat through the grinder twice, and I weigh and package the hamburger. Then I get to find the space in our freezer to store it!   

Last year we ended up with 65 pounds of processed meat. This year we have 84 pounds of venison in our freezer. The difference may be in the size of the deer, but also the loss of meat due to the super cold weather.  

Last year the neighbor who rents our land had hay planted. This year he planted corn. This fall has been a lot warmer than last fall. Whatever the factors, the bucks this year had noticibly more fat on them than in years past. They also all had broken antlers. As a final oddity, the single doe we harvested was still lactating. That is a sample size of one, which is meaningless. Yet, observing differences, such as increased competition (all those broken antlers) and increased resources (more high-calorie food and warm weather) is fascinating. 

Thanksgiving journal: thankful every day

Another beautiful morning in Western Wisconsin  

A friend sent a message this morning: " What if you woke up today with only the things you were thankful for yesterday?"   I did, and do, every day. But some days it is good to be extra thankful. We made dinner for family close enough to drive- and had 9 at our table. Aunt Harriette, who is 97, graced us with her company. 

We have had so many good meals in Harriette's kitchen, we will never even the score.  

We share a meal with Irene every day, and we are very thankful as otherwise we grow lax in our cooking efforts.  

Our own personal imp! 

Michael's brother Johnny and his family, and our daughter Artemis and her husband Matt all came to enjoy the fruitfulness of this land. One of our 10 pound broilers fed everyone, with leftovers. Potatoes, squash, carrots, and kale from the garden rounded out the menu. The stuffing had wild mushrooms, onions, garlic, and venison heart. Plum and pumpkin, also from the backyard, made into pie. 

Michael is now gently snoring by my side. Tomorrow we tackle another project. Waking up every day by Michael's side, working on something new, and falling into an exhausted heap at the end of the day is indeed cause to celebrate. 

Harvest journal: 3 down, 5 to go

The snow came last night, just in time for opening day.  

A brief period of sun and blue sky.  Those are snow clouds on the horizon.  

Michael got a nickel and a kiss for harvesting the first deer, a big doe, at about 8:30 am. She was still lactating, which is unusual for this time of year. Brother Johnny shot two young bucks at about 2:30 pm. I saw 3 does at about 10:30 am, but they were faster than I was. 

My only successful shot: photographing my stand companion  

The wind in the trees reminded me of the rhythm and crash of waves on a sandy strand, a gathering roar followed by a sustained hiss.  It took a good dinner (thanks Irene!) and a hot shower to begin to thaw my toes. Even so, I look forward to sitting in the woods again tomorrow, doing my best to substitute for a wolf.  

Fiber journal: wrapping some of my favorite people in warmth

Auntie Harriette and Irene have been shivery lately, and real cold weather hasn't even hit yet. I had a long car ride this past weekend, which allowed me to finish a couple of projects I began in September. I had a variety of yarns I had spun in times past that went together well for Irene's wrap. 

A sunset shawl for Irene. It should leave her hands free for her crochet projects.  

I began spinning the llama fleece shortly after being gifted it during thenRiver Ramble (thanks Betty!), but it took me a while to spin sufficient yarn to make a decent sized shawl, which takes about as much yarn as a vest--in the 600 yard range.  

I customized Harriette's as she is always worried that her favorite things will walk out her door and won't return...a hazard of living in an assisted care facility.  

It is fluffy and warm!  The edging I spun on a wheel gifted to me this past March (thanks Melissa!) with roving hand dyed at Ine Lupine fiber center in Bangor, Maine (thanks Jody!).  

This should work better than the bed sheet Harriette wrapped herself in last time we visited.  

Spinning and dying my own yarn slows down my output, but it gives me the opportunity to make beautiful and warm clothes for those who need them within my sparse budget. I can hardly wait until I have more work space and fiber time!  Michael has been pulling wire in the addition while I finished the shawls. We begin installing insulation as soon as deer season is over. 

Construction journal: furnace (mostly) finished!

We started our furnace project for the addition about 3 weeks ago. We received a bid from a professional furnace installation company that came to $12,000. We decided to go it alone, using the furnace in the existing house as a template where the instructions that came with our furnace (bought on EBay) were a bit opaque. The first major step was cutting a hole in the side of our new $1200 furnace

Michael, the intrepid!  Date: October 24th. 

We couldn't find a hot or cold air plenum (this project has expanded my vocabulary), so Michael ordered custom made ones, again through EBay. 

Cold air out the side. Hot air out the top. Duct work to get cold air returned to furnace started.  

We had to plan where to put hot and cold air vents in the floor, and then figure out how to get ducts to those areas without interfering with future plumbing and keeping register covers from high traffic areas. 

Our first hot air duct! 

I managed to get the holes in the floor to be square with the world...and just the right size so the covers don't rattle around too much.  

I chose pretty covers for Irene's area. She likes them! 

We could do about 2 of these in a day...and we were working hard!  We did take a couple of days to get the PVC pipes installed (to vent to the outside) , and another day to get a gas line into the furnace. 

Almost done!  Still needs a thermostat and condensate pump attached, but those are relatively minor projects.  

We were also slowed down a bit because we kept miscounting needed parts and so had to go to the store every three days or so. We also had to take a day out, move the young ducks up from the pond to their winter quarters, and harvest the last two "extra" drakes. We put the last duct (not duck) into the living room today. Yay!  I can get back to being a lawyer for a couple of hours!   

Foraging journal: oysters!

Mushrooms that is.  

Oysters like elms in our neck of the woods.  

While we were out cutting some dead wood, I noticed the above beauties. Whether due to the wet year (we are 8" above normal) or the warm autumn, we have oyster mushrooms in our woods. I checked a number of sources, cross checked any possible other poisonous look-alikes, and then took a spore print.  

Definitive lilac print (I couldn't get good color in the photo...but it was lilac!). 

I ate one or two slivers (temptation overtook me) and when nothing untoward occurred, we had them in the spaghetti sauce. In meatballs and gravy. In stir-fried vegetables. In chicken soup. They dried well and rehydrated marvelously. 

This made about three and a half quarts, dried.  

We will now keep our eyes open after first frost, which is closing season for most other wild edibles. 

Wildlife journal:owls!

A Northern Hawk Owl, to be precise.  

A day owl, not a night owl!   

Michael and I were out rambling around in the back of our land, seeking dead trees to harvest. We found a couple of trees...and this owl. She was right calm and allowed us to take her portrait. 

Who would think spring green would appear in the October woods? 

There are always surprises waiting for us in the woods. While we were out, we checked on my deer villa.  

An original Michael "Frank Lloyd" Hansen design.  

I stood in the deer highway to take this photo.  We then skirted the corn field to make a full circuit of our 40 acres.  

Rain and warm weather allowed this downed cob to sprout.  

I love walking through wood and field and sharing the mud with Michael.  

Planting journal: garlic all tucked in

I started planting garlic on October 15th. That was after spending a couple of days preparing the seed bed.  

The cloves poked in about 2" or so.  

I have a bit more space this year, so I planted 105 of each of my five varietals.  

French germinador

Rocambole  

German Red

I also have Siberian White and River Giant (which might be my personal favorite), but was too tired by the time I got to them to remember to take photos.  

I will finish mulching with straw once we go and buy more straw!   We will also mulch the carrots and should have fresh carrots well into December. 

When I started, the mulberry tree stood resplendent in fall foliage.  

Green gold! 

Today, we started our first fire in our wood burning stove, and the mulberry let down her tresses.  

All done.  

I think I finished planting just in time. Whew! 

Harvest journal: ground cherry heaven

We are now in the latter half of October here in Western Wisconsin and harvesting anything but corn or soybeans seems highly unlikely. But with out very wet year, we had a number of volunteer ground cherries magically appear. Sorting through the tall grass, we gathered about a cup and a half of fruit.  

Ground cherries are related to tomatillos.  

There are a number of ground cherry recipes on line (who knew?) and so I made a small batch of jam.  

A pint of flavor fantasy! 

This was well worth the effort. I now understand the enthusiasm for ground cherry jam. I will have to find some of the dropped fruit and try to plant some in the garden next year.