Fall Inspired Gourds

I was looking at some fall photos the other day and became inspired by the pictures of the gourds.I pulled out the felting board and got to work.

I was showing Tim one of them and he was not impressed because he thought it was a real gourd, he was surprised when I told him the were made from scraps of wool and alpaca! They will be available at our next shows coming up. Just some fall inspired fun!

Angora Wool Goodness!

Tawny (shown) and Mr Fluffer have been more than generous with their wool. The summer requires shearing every 6 weeks so they can stay cool and be tolerant of the warm weather.

We have close to a pound just from Tawny who is not even a year old!

So, with all we had I decided to wash it and set it to dry. It is currently drying and will be mixed into some batts for spinning. I absolutely love their wool and find it the softest fiber on the planet!!!

Nothing says fall like Mulling Spices! Yum!

As I prepare for fair season, I am trying to add new and different things to my table! I was going through some bags and came across some great mini bale jars. I had some spices, I dried up some orange peels, crushed some nutmeg, broke down some cinnamon sticks, added some allspice and cloves, instant mulling spices!!!

I bottled them up, added a muslin bag and a tag. Needless to say they would make a great gift and my house smells amazing too!

It's Fair Season!!!

This fall we will not be hosting any Open Houses, instead we will be off to do some fairs! We are changing it up as my skills move towards primitive and colonial interest. Starting this weekend we will be at:

**The Woodbury Historical Society's Annual Colonial Fair, at the Hurd House in scenic Woodbury, CT on September 14 for noon to 5

**Stratford Historical Society's Colonial Fair to mark their 375th anniversary in historic Straftord, CT on September 20 and 21, both days, 9 to 5, all day.
**McLaughlin Vineyard in Sandy Hook, Ct. from 12 to 5 on September 27.
**Meigs Point Nature Center's Farm Festival, Farm, Fishing and History Fair, Boston Post Road, Madison, CT on October 4 & 5 from 9 to 5 both days.

We are looking forward to meeting new people and enjoying fall via the fair way!!!

The girls deliver!!!

As beekeeping season is winding down, the harvest is on! The girls have delivered in a big way this year! We have comb honey as well as honey!

Capped and ready to go to the fairs! A bounty indeed! Thanks girls!!

The Super Healer-Jewelweed Salve

This is Jewelweed, that weed that pops up all over the yard this time of year. Nature has provided this plant as one of the most amazing healing plant. It is amazing for poison ivy, bee stings and other types of ailments. I have been staring and staring at it all summer. The honeybees have been all over it, so as the nectar source and the flowers are dropping off I decided it was time to make a salve.

I gathered a generous amount throughout our property. I figured it should be collected in different areas to assure a strong tincture.

It was boiled and allowed to sit overnight to allow the healing properties to be extracted from the plants. Then strained to a dark green extract.

Our own beesax from our bees was added to the extract

Here is a great picture of our beeswax from our "girls". It is just amazing!

Jewelweed extract is a bit strong so I choose to add some essential oils of Orange, Lavender and Tea Tree as ell as Vitamin E to act as a preservative. I looked up a couple of recipes for this salve but choose to combine a few to make the way it should be.

After being poured into tins and allowed to cool, it is ready to begin healing!!!

How do you beard when it's hot???

This morning I went up to feed the chickens and noticed the hives were "bearding" due to the heat. This was Kisha's hives idea of a "beard", they are clustered and cooling off.

Hive #1 was the funniest, as I looked at this one I thought they were all saying "don't touch me"! These girls are spread out it seems like quite a few of them are out.

Hive #3 are out but clustered with many bees trying to cool off too!

and Hive #4, which is our biggest hive seem to have less bees out trying to cool but their beard seems to have bees on top of each other. It is muggy and hot here in Connecticut with showers expected today. These girls need to get their umbrella ready!

Our new farm sign!

Special thanks to our friend Jim who made and gifted a new sign for the farm! It was hung up some time ago and I just got around to posting this!