October Farewell...

I love Halloween but am always sad to see October end, it is by far my favorite month and time of the year! The change of the season, the cool weather, everything pumpkin and just a warm fuzzy feeling inside. We also have the chickens running around with their breast cancer aprons on. This October was so busy and it went by with the blink of an eye. So until next year, we'll see you again October!

These girls work for me!

 After harvesting the honey the girls made for us, the frames still have a bit of honey on them so we let them pick it dry...

 which nets a lot of beeswax! They do an amazing job cleaning up every drop of honey. They have a lot of visitors besides their fellow honeybees. They work hand and hand with yellow jackets, hornets and even flies. It's all done in harmony and is amazing to watch!

We even put the extractor and buckets out there and they cleaned it nice and left a pile of beeswax. We will strain and filter it and get some nice beeswax to make some lip balms and salves!

Bringing in the honey harvest!

 What a great harvest our bees blessed us with this year! We harvested over 350+ pounds. This frame was a drone frame that they had even drawn out.

 All the extracting equipment came out, the de-capping scraper, the seive strainers, the bottling bucket as well as the heated de-capper knife. Thiss help to open up the cells that have been capped by the bees and will allow the honey to be released.

 This is our extractor. She holds two frames of honey. It is a crank style but once you get it going, the honey flies off and hits the wall in strings of golden honey...

 at the base is the spout that allows the honey to drop down into a double drainer basket that catches any beeswax or pollen. It then drops into the bottling bucket.

 The jars are sterilized and ready for canning like little soldiers.

 With a funnel we fill the jars to exactly a half a pound or one pound honey. There are no plastic bear containers here!I have read numerous times it is very bad to store honey in plastic...

and voilà, the finished product brought to you by a miracle little insect, the honeybee! The golden sweet nectar of the gods, what an amazing miracle of nature!

Our numbers are up!

With all this moulting going on around here, egg production has been way down! All last week out of 25 hens, we were averaging 10 to 11 eggs a day. Moulting can be a painful and miserable process for a bird of any kind. I work with owls at my job and they go off food and are not happy during moulting. However, this is how feed is bought around here, through the sale of our eggs. So we are glad to see them growing back their feathers, looking like pretty girls again and our rooster looking manly again as well! He is currently sporting no tail feathers!

A Breast Cancer Yarn...

 In honor of October and Breat Cancer Awareness Month, I made this yarn thinking of all those who have lost someone, know someone fighting and to celebrate those who have won their fight!

It was spun on an Ashford Country Spinner wheel, thick and thin with a pink metallic thread ply over. It's a soft and lovely merino wool which will make something soft like maybe a hat! This along with many other yarns will be available at our Open House next weekend!

A Fiber Adventure!

 On Wednesday I was blessed to go on a fiber adventure to meet a retiring fiber artist. I would imagine that this will happen to all of us one day. Her health and interests have changed and she is moving on. She was destashing! We filled the back seat, front seat and bed of the truck...

 I was privileged to get dyed batts, dyed roving, prepared fleeces, raw fleeces, metallic threads, and more and more and more!

 Just a sampling of what was in some of the bags! I believe this may be Angora. Some are marked and some are not so I am calling them mystery bags.

 I was even blessed to get this swing arm picker! It is an incredible tool to pick and clean raw fibers. This may cut down on the use of the mill. She told me it can be very dangerous to use. I will open this to all my friends to use.

and a Yarn Swift! I have always wanted one and now I have one! I am sorting and going thru everything and will be gifting some of this over load of fiber goodness to some of my friends. Thank You Becky and best of luck in your continued adventures, I will use all your things in the greatest of respect!

Starting October out with a rescue...

Welcome October! My favorite time of the year. Cooler weather, that homey feel, pumpkins, apples, cider, hay, pumpkin picking, wood piles, the sound of the wood splitter, hoodies, country fairs, apple and pumpkin pie, knitting by the wood burning stove and just slowing down a bit! Both my children were born in October as well, it's truly my favorite time of year!
My day didn't go off as planned and took on a plan all it's own. Then I saw that a friend had found a chicken in a box left abandoned. We always have room for one more so she brought her up. She is skinny, her comb is a bit pale but we will fatten her up and she will be just fine! Welcome Sandy (our friend named her!)