Biding ado to 2016

2016 brought us the most amazing miracle, our 1st grand child, Scarlets Willow Sotir. Her birth was very eventful with an emergency contact section which scared us to death but they were both okay and that was what mattered.

She is an amazing child and fills our hearts with joy

The gang stayed the same, all are healthy and happy

I was able to share Scarlett with special people in my life

Our dear friend Kenny had a 4 organ transplant but is doing great wonderful now  

Our chickens over preformed keeping the farm going good as we focused much of our time on family

We added some new feathered friends 

Our bees started out fast and furious but that quickly turned to us having our worse season yet between fighting mold, varroe, hive beetles and the final straw was being wiped out by a bear for the first time in 8 years. This year was not a Charm! We will be back to it next year with a bear fence to start!

I got back to my soap making and teaching it

Tim and I took time out for family

Me and my daughter Brynn pumpkin picking before her and her brothers surprise party!

I channeled my colonial woman more often and explored my skills I  hearth cooking
(Photo credit: John Poole)

One of my goals this year was learning get the Great Wheel. Thanks to a wonderful woman I met named Fiona, I am on my way to learning It! However a few more lessons would be great!

Autumn the Wonder Dog continued to work hard at protecting the farm. We found out she can tree a bear in 5 seconds, run off a hawk and chase a fox down to retrieve a Chicken! We need to clone this girl!

We learned what a bear can do...

We added this sweet little blue eyed English Angora buck named "Frankie"

I found so much peace right here in  the woods. My job has me here a lot teaching kids about nature, kindness and how important the environment is. With the election it is now more important than ever to teach them, they are our future!!! 

      As we say farewell to 2016, we look forward to the new year as 2017 will have our family growing yet again with the birth of my nieces baby, a boy that I can't wait to spoil! Happy New Year to Everyone! Next year will be filled with new items, more yarns and new babies of all kinds so stay tuned!

All was not lost!

All was not lost to that pesky bear. As I was realizing we were going to loose to the bear, I pulled as many frames of honey as I could into a decaping tank, set it aside in the pantry and somewhat had forgotten about them until today.

 

I began uncapping the frames to reveal some beautiful honey.

This frame was taken after the bear had made the hive abscond. Sadly they had lots of capped honey as well as pollen stores as seen here in the picture above.

Curing soap with time

After many months of curing, 4 batches are ready to go! 8 pounds times 4 puts it in the park at around 32 pounds minus 2 pounds for evaporation so 30 pounds all together.
Four different scents which makes the whole house smell amazing!

Onto tagging and packaging.
As I posted this in realized how absent I have been on this blog. The holidays took hold this year and I am quite glad they are behind us now. They were wonderful as we spent them with our new granddaughter! Looking forward to the coming year and all it will have to offer!