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Showing posts from 2012

whew...

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We have been without water for most of the day. :/     My younger child came home today from scout camp. Yeah!   We went to the hardware store to look at gutters to rig up a rainbarrel waterer for the chickens...Ideas came from places like here and here . We looked and will think about how to do this. My child's suggestion is to do a whole aquaponics system outside.   I did get some turned compost to the boxed garden to prep it for spring veggies!!  Chickens had their bedding turned today.   Christmas decorations were taken down and packed up and placed in tubs on the deck by the child for the hubby to put into the shed in the next few days.   We went to Mast General...did I mention I love this store?  I got two more wooden spoons. We need to season the wooden utensils with oil. I want to find a wooden ladle, like this one:   I did find and bought a wooden rainbow measuring scoop today. :)  It measures at 1/4 cp/scoop. Way cute!  I did not oil it fir

Stabilizing Joseph...

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About two years ago, my grandmother gave me a hand-carved, Olive wood manger scene for CHRISTmas. If you look closely at Joseph (on the right in the photo), he is standing slightly askew. Last year when I unpacked the manger scene to put it on the mantle, Joseph had detached from his base. I set him on the mantle and thought I would get back to him to reglue him down later. The issue was he was carved from the base piece and he had broken off from the base. He would have to be perfectly aligned back with his base to reattach him well. Needless to say, last CHRISTmas, I never got around to gluing him back in his proper spot. I packed the scene carefully away and thought I would get to it the next year, this year. I unpacked the scene this CHRISTmas and remembered about Joseph. We set the scene on the mantle and I thought once again I would get around to it. My child had reglued it for me at some time over the past week or so. Joseph is now attached, but standing not so

Foraging Pignolias and Cambium with the child...

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making almond butter with the child...

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  roast the almonds     put almonds in food processor         about the time you think you are really making no progress, you are almost there     put in jar   lid and label and refrigerate   end result...healthier almond butter spread with no additives or preservatives...i like it best on crackers and bagels!!

Ivory Soap Clouds

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fuzzy picture, but put bar of ivory soap in microwave...we put a paper towel under it so the soap would not be on the same placement as food might sometimes be...     somewhat hard to see, but beginning to heat up in microwave...           it has a slightly burned spot on each side of the original bar...notice how it is turned on its side now and it was lain flat originally...       it had a slightly spongy texture to it...it almost felt like angel food cake consistency...     it did have a air pocket inside of it when we broke it open. we discussed how heat causes chemical changes. we discussed air pockets and air escaping durign heat exchange. we discussed how it expanded and it changed the physical properties of the soap during the chemical change.    for the sections that still felt slightly soapy, the child used it when he took a shower to see if it still worked as soap. it did not.  it fell apart and disintegrated in the sh

making blueberry leather

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We used blueberries picked earlier this year...probably a good two pounds worth. Grind up fruit in processor. We used the Magic Bullet, as it is less to wash. We lined the pan with wax paper and I sprayed it with nonstick spray to be on the safe side. Spread processed fruit across pan. It should be left to dry and dehydrate. Due to weather conditions, I did put it in the oven at 100 degrees Fahrenheit to speed the dehydration process along. This is the leather at the end of the process. It had been flipped and allowed to dry on both sides. We broke it into pieces and put in a container to eat for snacks.

lintels and pillars and posts

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cedar to cedar to creek to post to cedar, by land and air and under, wires and pipes, lintels and pillars and posts, entries and exits, from cedar to cedar to creek to post to cedar, YHWH Jireh, send angels to my yard, YHWH Jireh, send angels to stand guard.  

Solar Mason Jar Lights!!

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    How to: