Happy Birthday, Beth!

It's hard to believe that you're 20 years old already.  Just 20 years ago I was holding you in the hospital.  You were so little, my miracle baby.  You're still a miracle. You've grown into a beautiful woman of God.  I feel so blessed that God has allowed me to be your mother.  Walk in His ways, seek His will, and love those that He puts in your path.
I love you.

Fantastic Foraging

This afternoon was spent in the woods.  Jenny(the dog), and I, went in search of a new blueberry patch.  We found a small patch loaded with green berries, but we found a lot more than that.  We found a couple new rasberry patches with a lot of berries.  We pulled some wild ginger root.  We found a patch of wild hops.  And we found a patch of green dewberries.  What a glorious day. Oh, I forgot to mention the hazelnut bushes.  These new treasures are marked in my mind and we'll be going back in a few days to check on the blueberries and dewberries.  I'm thinking that there may still be more treasures on that back forty and once I get my energy back, we'll go and do some more exploring.
Thank you, Lord.
From Glory Farm

A New Record

Our chickens are very prolific.  Every year they hatch out oodles of new chicks. We have a few to sell, a few to butcher and a few replacement hens. This year we have 38 new members in our flock...so far.  We still have two hens setting and a duck.  (Our ducks hatch out the chicken eggs, too.  They want to be moms.)

Two days ago, we had a hen hatch out a total of 16 new chicks.  That's a record for us.  She's just a little bantam cross, so how did she set on all of those eggs???

We've taken 9 of them and put them in the brooder.  She keeps misplacing them.  :)  She still has 7 with her.

I only count six here, but one must be on the other side.

The little chicks are hers.  The bigger ones were abandoned by someone else.  We have a lot of people wanting chickens this year.  Things are working out well.  What a blessing.

Another Installment of Redneck Living

What do your children do when they have friends over?  Ours went pigeon hunting.  We are over run with pigeons in the barn and they're making a mess.  So...
Stepping outside in the early morning, this is what I encountered...

An offering?  Supper?  I love those kids.

Plants to Dye For

photo from eHow-sumac

I'm going to try and utilize more of the plants that are growing around here for dying my fiber.  I've tried beets before and onion skins, but I'm going to do some experimenting.  We have a lot of plants that are dye plants.
These are the colors using alum as a mordant and dying wool.

For yellow dyes-
yellow yarrow
goldenrod
tansy
black-eyed susan
sunflowers
dandelion
dock

Blue dye
Woad-I guess it grows wild around here, I'm going to go out foraging and see what I can find.
blueberries

Brown dye
Red Sumac berries
tea

Apricot-Orange dye
jewelweed
carrots

green-
lamb's quarters
carrot tops
spinach
queen anne's lace

There are more, but most fall under the yellow/gold dye catagory.  These are just some of the things that I have in the field, gardens, or woods that can be used as dyestuffs. 
If you want to know if a plant has color, place it on a newspaper, put a piece of muslin over it and pound it with a hammer.  If the juice of the plant leaves color, you can give it a try.  I'm going to try huckleberries.  I'm hoping to get a nice purple hue.  I wonder if you could get a pink from rasberries??

So much to try, so little time.