Sit and Spin

Having fallen in love with crochet I have developed an addiction to all things yarn related.  A few years back one of my friends went with me to a fiber arts festival in Wisconsin.  This was the first time I had ever seen anyone actually spinning fiber into yarn.  It looked so easy.  The ladies were just sitting there gently moving the pedal(s) with their feet and feeding what seemed like an endless supply of fiber into the spinning wheel which made it magically turn into yarn.  They could even carry on conversations while they did it.  I was amazed at the variety of yarns that could be produced from this simple yet complex machine.  I wanted to try but I wasn't quite brave enough to learn how yet.

At this fiber festival they had many demonstrations.  You could learn how to sheer a sheep, wash the fiber, comb the fiber into roving, and how to spin the roving into yarn.  It was a crash course in sheeponomics.  I had never even heard of a fiber festival before I went to this one, but you better believe that I wanted to know more. 

Then I moved to Colorado.  I now lived in the country.  I drive past sheep nearly every day on my way to work.

 Fiber arts are nothing to sneeze at out here and if I was going to learn how, then this would be the place I was going to do it.  Luckily for me, I have an awesome boyfriend that actually got me what I wanted for Christmas that year - a spinning wheel.  It wasn't brand new or even top of the line, but I can tell you that it does indeed turn fiber into yarn.  He found it through talking to the nice ladies at the artisan co-op in town and she directed him to a nice lady with a used spinning wheel for a fairly cheap price.  She used to teach people how to spin and this wheel was one that had been used by many students.  It only needed a little oil and some love and before I knew it I had a real live working spinning wheel.  She even gave me a short lesson in spinning before we brought the wheel home.  What a deal!

Once we got it home I started to learn how hard it can be to turn fiber into yarn.  First of all, fiber in its purest form can be a little hard to find at the usual stores.  They don't sell roving just anywhere.  So I stopped in the artisan co-op and started chatting with the ladies there, and one of them told me she could sell me a small amount of roving to practice with.  I nearly jumped for joy when I got the roving. 

The most difficult part of spinning is getting your rhythm with the foot pedal and feeding the roving into the wheel.  As a beginner I had to have help to keep my wheel moving while my fingers were figuring out how fast to pinch and pull the fiber apart.  I've also learned that every type of fiber is different.  Some of them have long strands, some have short strands, some pull apart easily and some make clumps that don't want to separate.  Once I got a better feel for what I was doing I ordered some roving online.  I've decided that so far alpaca fiber is one of the easiest to work with.  It is also incredibly soft.  I've also learned that there are dozens of different varieties of sheep and all of them make a slightly different fiber.  Some are more course than others.  For the softest garments you want to use the finest fiber.  The thicker fibers are better used for things like heavy jackets and outerwear that isn't in direct contact with your skin.

The Perimeter Trail

There is a little town nestled in a high mountain valley about an hour south of our house.  This town has many trails that start there and branch off into the wilderness, but there is one that just goes around the town in a trail that is several hundred feet above the town.  There are several places that you can start this trail from, but in the end it just becomes a choice of wether you want to be hiking uphill or downhill by the end of your hike. 

On this trail there are several points of interest.  One of them is Box Canyon Falls.

 There is a bridge you can hike across that is at least 200 feet above the falls in a steep canyon.

 The bridge ends in a dark tunnel through the rock that opens to a part of the trail that has at least 300 steps carved into the rock.  I'm just going to say that between the altitude and the steps - this part of the hike is a challenge and I'm not in that bad of shape.

There is another part of the trail that takes you past what has been dubbed the Baby Bathtubs. There is a gentle waterfall that you can hike up in dry seasons that is nothing more than a series of shallow pools that drain into eachother. 

 

Another area that you can hike will take you to Cascade Falls.  If you are brave enough, you can climb up the semi steep rock walls and get behind the falls too.

 

 

The highest point of the trail has fantastic views!

 

 

 

 

All in all the trail is about 4 miles long, but with all the ups and downs we ended up taking many breaks.  To hike the whole trail took us about 4 hours - much longer than we thought a 4 mile trail would take.  

 

With a little pretraining this spring hiking shouldn't be as hard for us this year.  I think we are finally adjusting to hiking at altitude.  There are tons of places to hike around here and so many trails I want to see.  Hopefully I won't forget to bring the camera.

 

 

 

Its time for the Incubator

According to most of the things I have read online, Buff Orpington chickens are one of the most likely breeds to go broody.  Broody means that they want to incubate and hatch some eggs.  So I waited for one of mine to show signs of being broody.  Then I waited some more.  Apparently the chickens I have don't have the broody instinct and would much rather spend their days chasing grasshoppers and eating corn than hatching more baby chickens for me.  So I bought an incubator.

The plan was to wait until I was able to hatch out some of our own chicks and then make the second rooster into stew.  You see, he was a beautiful rooster and he was very good at doing what roosters do.  That is: crowing all day long every day starting at about 3 am, protecting his flock (aka attacking me), and making it with the ladies.  His was the life that most roosters could only dream of - and it was becoming our nightmare.  Let's just say that showing up sleep deprived to work bleeding from rooster gashes on your legs was getting old.  Not only that but he liked the ladies a little too much.  They were loosing feathers on their backs and some were so bad that they were quite bald from his mounting.  It was time for him to go.  So when the 12 eggs that I put in the incubator were just days from hatching and everything looked good the rooster met his end with as much grace and dignity as we could give him.

Then we discovered the truth behind the old saying: don't count your chickens before they hatch.  When hatching day came only 2 of the 12 eggs we had incubated hatched.  A third tried but didn't make it out of the shell.  I've read that you shouldn't help them get out because if they are too weak to make it out of the shell, they will be too weak to make it in a flock.  Twenty one days of turning eggs, and making sure the humidity was right and only two baby chickens to show for it.  Good thing they were cute!  We spent alot of time handling these chicks every day and it has definatly payed off.  As they grew into chickens they were never afraid of us and were pretty easy to catch compared to the ones that we got that were a month old. 

 

Seedling Progress

It's time to plant another round of seedlings this week and in keeping with the theme, I planted many of the same seeds that I did last time around. It's been about 2 weeks since I planted the first batch and almost everything has sprouted. There are a few stagglers, but I just keep the pots watered and keep waiting. 

 

The spinach were the first to come up, followed by a couple of the different lettuces I planted. 

 

 

Next to arrive were the tiny chamomile sprouts and about half of the brussel sprouts.

 

The very last to come up were the cumin, endive, and celery. 

 

 The only things I didn't plant this time were the chamomile and cumin.  I replaced those with a few echinacea purpurea.  I basically doubled my lettuce, spinach, celery, and brussel sprout starts for everything else.

Also a side note - after I removed the saran wrap cover from the paper towel roll planters, the thick white mold subsided.  It is still visible, but has definatley shrunk and none of the seedlings seem affected by it.  I guess now we can just wait to see if they hold up until the plants are big enough to go in the garden.  Just keeping my fingers crossed.

If you've got the time you can crochet just about anything

I think I was about seven the first time I tried to learn how to crochet.  My aunt and my grandmother used to sit in the living room together and crochet and talk for hours on end and it looked like something I could learn how to do.  So they sat me down and taught me how to crochet a chain out of yarn.  Did you know that you don't even need a crochet hook to make a chain?  I made an entire ball of yarn into one long crocheted chain.... and then I never crocheted again until I was in my twenties.

The second time I tried to learn how to crochet was when I was in college.  One of my friends was crocheting a blanket and I wanted to learn how.  She taught me a simple pattern and showed me how to make corners.  At first it seemed simple and the blanket grew quickly, but as the sides got longer, the time it took became longer as well.  Needless to say, I lost interest.  The blanket sat unfinished for two years before I picked it up again.  When it was done (when I gave up) it was only big enough to cover one person.

Since the blanket experience seemed so dull, I decided to go out and get a book to teach myself more.

 I learned how to read patterns and made several attempts at many patterns and learned that not all patterns are created equally.  Finally another of my friends showed me how to make a hat. 

There is not a hard and fast way to crochet a hat, just a basic rule to follow to make the top, then keep going until it is hat sized. After that I was hooked....literally. I have since made dozens of hats, some with matching scarves and mittens. It became my newest addiction. I even bought another book about crocheting. This one had lots of patterns and ideas for all sorts of things you could crochet. With my pattern book I also branched out and made several attempts at some cute tops though I still need to work on figuring out how to size things properly. 

I think this top is probably an extra small even though the pattern I used said it would make a large.  It's hard for me to breathe in this top and I'm tiny.  Maybe I just need to try a stretchier yarn for tops, or maybe a bigger hook. 

 

 

 

Goals in Self Sufficiency

I am a firm believer in having goals of all kinds.  My ultimate end goal at this point is to be as close to completely self sufficient as possible.  The biggest thing I need to make this happen is a 3-5 acre plot of farmable land with a water supply and no restrictions.  If I had that then I would darn near be in heaven.  After that I think the rest would just fall into place when I find time to make things happen.  Things like putting in an orchard, a large garden, a large chicken coop, and in the long run adding sheep and pigs.  (If you guessed I wanted to be a farmer then you guessed correctly!)

Keep in mind as you read this that none of these dreams materialized overnight.  Only by taking one small step at a time did the bigger picture come into view.  It may have started with wanting to live a more frugal life, but I have come to realize that it is difficult to talk the talk without walking the walk.  Now instead of wanting more and more I find myself wanting less and less.

The first modern convienence I learned to live without was a TV.  All the mindless programing that I watched for hours and hours gave way to finding better things to do with my time (and once the TV was gone I had alot of time!)  I began to read more books and learned how to do all sorts of things.  I learned to bake bread, make soap, raise chickens, make wine, spin yarn, and now I even know how to blog!  Learning those things only inspire me to go out in the world and learn even more.  Some day I hope to make my own cheese, shear my own sheep, and run my own small business doing all the things that I have come to love.

Do you have any long term goals that you want to share?  I think telling other people is the first step for making your dream a reality.

How our flock grew last year

There was no real plan in place when we got our first chickens.  We guessed about how many chickens would fit comfortably in our repurposed coop and took the plunge.  The six (then five)chickens seemed like a good fit and things were all good for that first year.

The following spring we had some friends stay with us for a couple weeks and in that time they bought us a gift...make that three gifts.....and they were baby chickens.  If I remember correctly two of them were welsummer chickens (the brown ones) and one was a black sex link chicken.  All three turned out to be hens - which is great - more eggs for everyone!

 Unfortunatly you can't just put baby chicks in with the big chickens.  The chicks would never survive the establishment of the pecking order (chickens can be brutal!), so while they grew up in their baby chicken brooder box we built a makeshift pen and coop right next to the original pen. 

The baby chicken coop was my attempt at making a broody box in case one of the original chickens decided that she wanted to hatch some eggs.  I made it using scrap lumber that our landlord gave us.  I think it only cost $10.00 and that was for the mesh sheet that made up the exercise portion of the box.

 

In any case, we had the pen servicable by the time the babies had learned how to escape from their brooder.

The next stage was to let the babies grow to their adult size in their safe and separate pen where the other chickens could see them and interact with them, but not hurt any of them.

Once they were big enough the babies were introduced into the main flock.  It took a couple weeks but they worked out all their differences and now happily sleep in the same coop at the big chickens.

Garden Projects

Over the next few weeks the garden will be getting geared up for spring.  I have to clean up the beds I didn't get to before it got too cold.  I need to spead compost this year on more beds than I did last year.  Hopefully my compost bin is finally ready.  Out here things tend to take awhile to compost because its so dry. 

I started turning over the beds I want to use for lettuce.  It seems early to me but the ground has dried out enough and it's been warm enough that the soil is workable.

 

Last year this bed attempted to grow sweet corn.  The 5 ears we actually ate from it were delicious.

 

 

 

 This is the bed I am planning to plant lettuce and spinach in.  I am hoping to do succesion plantings of these this year so we have a more constant supply of lettuce.  I attempted to do that last year by direct sowing the lettuce in the garden.  This year I am going to start seedlings indoor every couple weeks and transplant them outside when they get sturdy enough.  I'm actually hoping to plant some lettuce outside under a small hoop house by March 21st. 

 

 

Last year this was a busy bed.  It started out as an onion and garlic bed which was followed by plantings of carrots and radishes.  I added a thick layer of compost to it to make up for being used so heavily last year.

 

 

Celery is in it's future.  I hope the plants do better this year than they did last year.  Our total celery harvest from last year barely filled a half pint jar when it was dried. 

 

Well that was enough for one weekend.  Next round of warm weather we are going to rent a rototiller.  Gotta love the heavy machinery!

 

 

 

 

Bean Trellis

The first year we grew a garden out here I decided to try to grow pole beans.  My father had always grown bush beans when I was growing up and I always found that picking them seemed tedious because you were always bent over trying to find the beans.  So pole beans were my choice.  Having never grown pole beans before I had no idea how tall a pole bean would grow, so I planted them along my four foot garden fence - on both sides of the garden.  I had no idea what I had gotten myself into.  Those beans quickly grew as tall as the fence and then started to reach for the sky.  Unfortunatly they got too heavy for that and just started to hang over the fence.  At the very least the wall of beans was nice for shade when you were picking out in the sun, but that many beans meant that I had to pick them every night for about 2 hours after work.  At their peak we were getting about two gallon ziplocs full of beans every night.  By the end of that season I never wanted to pick another green bean again!

Last year I wanted to try something different.  My beans were going to go into a smaller bed this time around, but there was nothing to support the beans in the center of the garden.  My answer to this was a bean tunnel made from PVC pipes and some twine. 

To hold the pipes in place I pounded some 2 ft. rebar into the ground at four foot intervals.  The pipes slid over that and voila I had my basic framework.  It took a few rearrangements of the connecting pieces to make it all stay together, but you get the basic idea.  Now I had to give the beans something to climb up, so I drilled holes through the pipes at one foot intervals and wove the twine through them, basically making a large holed net.  The twine actually served two purposes - it gave the beans something to climb up and it helped to reinforce the pvc framework which was rather flimsy.  I was just glad that it could stand up to the wind that we get out here every spring. 

The trellis actually held up fairly well until the end of the season.  Again the monster beans had overgrown their trellis and thier weight was slowly but surely dragging the whole thing down to the ground.  By the end you could no longer walk through the tunnel and laying on your back picking beans is not quite as much fun as it sounds.  We had enough beans for the year, so near the end I kinda gave up on it and just let the whole thing collapse.  Maybe I will have better luck this year.....just need to build a sturdier trellis.

 

 

Chickens in the garden

Letting the chickens have free reign while the garden is sleeping keeps them highly entertained.  I love how they explore the whole yard, pecking and scratching as they do.  In early spring they "help" us as we turn over the garden beds.  You never know what tasty worms and grubs have been sleeping out of sight!

 In the summer they love to catch grasshoppers.  They will jump to get treats from your hand.  And when the others realize that there is a yummy snack to be had, they chase each other all over the yard to get it.

They also love to help themselves in the garden, so for the most part they are kept contained in that season.  As soon as the garden beds die back, they are let out again to help with clean up and spreading fertilizer (aka chicken poop).

 

 



Wine making

Last year I bought a wine making kit for my boyfriend for Christmas.  Having never made wine before we weren't quite sure what to expect with our first attempt. We decided to start with something simple so if we messed it up, we wouldn't be out a lot of money or effort, so Welch's grape juice wine is what we made.  I can't say that I remember the exact ingredients that we used but I think it went along the lines of grape juice (enough for 6 gallons), water, sugar, and wine yeast.  We decided not to use the Camden tablets or any other additives that web sites suggested because we just wanted to see if the basic process worked.

It all starts with mixing the grape juice, water, sugar and yeast in the fermentation bucket.  Once that is done it just needs to sit for about a week and bubble away.

The next step is to transfer the wine from the bucket into a glass carboy.  Thankfully the kit comes with a pump to make the job much easier and allows the sediment (aka yeast bodies and stuff) to remain at the bottom.  Once the wine was transferred we just corked it with the bubbler thing that allows gas to escape and put it in a dark, cool room until the bubbling stopped - which took about a month, maybe two.

Once we were sure that the fermentation had stopped it was time to transfer the wine into bottles.  We had saved a bunch of bottles over the months for just such an occasion.  First we had to sterilize the bottles by soaking them in a bleach solution and then rinsed them with hot water.  We set the clean bottles in the sun to dry.

Once the bottles were dry we filled them with our wine and corked them with a corker.  Without a corker I think it would be darn near impossible to get those things to fit inside the bottle! 

The finished product tasted a whole lot like wine, though maybe not as strong as some of the stuff you can find at the store.  For a red wine it was not as dry as they normally seem to be and was a bit sweeter than what you would expect.  This one batch of wine filled about 30 wine bottles which sounds like a lot, but once you start giving them away, it really isn't that much. 

 

A few weeks later we discovered that our fermentation may not have been finished - our wine became fizzy like champagne.  Either that or we used the wrong kind of yeast.  Thankfully we gave away and drank it fast enough that no bottles exploded on us (or anyone else).  Guess we have to do a little more research on how to tell when your wine is finished.

Hiking in Colorado

I have always adored going for long walks in the woods.  In Illinois I knew every trail in the nearby forest preserves and hiked them every chance I got.  Here are some pictures from the conservation area back home:

 

 

 

That place was fun to hike and beautiful in it's own right even though now it seems small to me.

Since moving to the mountains hikes have taken on a whole new meaning.  There are very few level places to hike.  You are always going either up or down.  You feel sore in ways that you never imagined were possible.  (Who knew you had muscles there?)  You learn that sometimes going up is much easier than coming down.

 

About five minutes behind our house is some BLM land with trails that can go down to the Gunnison River which sounds deceivingly simple.  This first problem we ran into was the roads to reach the trailhead.  The main roads through the BLM are decently maintained dirt roads that are passable by most vehicles on most days.  The roads to the trailheads are also dirt roads - one way tracks, not well maintained.  Some of them wind around steep cliffs and are strewn with boulders.  Needless to say my car won't make it to some of the trailheads.  One of the ones we can reach is Duncan trail.  Duncan trail is down hill almost all the way.  Getting down to the river really isn't that bad as long as you leave early enough on a summer day.

 

 

 

It's the getting back out thats hard.  It is all uphill from here.

 

 

If you leave too late in the day you should plan on taking many shade and water breaks on the way back.  The sun out here on a summer afternoon can be brutal.

 

What seeds I have planted this week

Last weekend marks the real start of seed planting for me.  I've planted four kinds of lettuce, celery, brussel sprouts, spinach, chamomile, and cumin.  The plan is to plant another batch of all of these in a few short weeks so I can attempt to lengthen my harvest times.  Lettuce tends to bolt in our hot, dry summer, so an early start is essential for them. Hopefully if the weather cooperates I will be able to plant them out under cover in about 4-6 weeks (as long as they all sprout).  I have a very limited amount of space for seed starting in my house, so rotating crops is a must if I want to fit them all in.

I am trying out the used paper towel roll idea for some of my seeds this year to see how it does. So far, the spinach and some of the lettuce have begun to sprout, but there is also a thick white mold growing on the outsides of all the rolls. I don't know if that will go away once I uncover them, but I hope it doesn't hurt the seedlings. I may have to rethink this idea.

The first of the spinach seedlings!

 

 

I am also worried that they won't hold up long enough to make it to planting outside.  On the plus side, maybe the mold means they are super biodegradable once they get out in the dirt - kinda like a peat pot - maybe better?