Hectic Heaven

first eggs of the season

We have gotten two beautiful brown eggs now... the ole girls are starting to go again... I dont use a light to force them to lay all winter... If I were smart I would cull a few old hens out every year and bring a few new pullets in.. then I would have eggs year around....but I dont so we have eggs from  march untill  octoberish..

I did some felting this weekend.. and some spinning and made some lotion bars and soap.... the flavors  were  Yuzu  a new one.. kind of citrusy, Blackberry sage, cucumber melon, Apple harvest and  a couple of logs of just plain old oatmeal.. I cannot seem to keep it on the shelf.... I tried something new with the lotion bar... shea, and hemp... ought to be good...  and since I had the  castor oil and beeswax out I made some "moose snot" for my brother, its a lube he likes to use for his blackpowder rifle. 

The felting I have been doing is mostly wet felting,  what you do is lay out a bat of about 3-5 layers of wool each layer going in opposite directions.. to make the bag I use a piece of plastick in the middle and fold the wool around it... getting it wet with hot soapy water... I work it with my fingers until I make a soft felt and as it gets tougher I rub it harder and  then I am able to open it up some and rub the insides... I use a rough mat to finish felting it... http://www.gfwsheep.com/flatfelt/flatfelt1.html  This is for a flat sheet of felt but it gives the general idea...I made a  wet felted sheet and  did some needle felting on it.. I had thought to use it as a throw rug but dont think its quite big enough.   The hearts in the corners were needled felted onto the background, the hearts in the center of the piece i lightly needle felted on a piece of foam then wet felted them into the background. 

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07:42, 2008-Mar-3 .. Posted by schatzila

What an interesting post....I had never heard of this thing about "felt"...so glad I stopped by.

Connie

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06:54, 2008-Mar-4 .. Posted by borderling

That's beautiful. How do you find time to do it all? I'm still trying to get the last shearing spun.
Love,
Rhonda

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06:20, 2008-Mar-6 .. Posted by countrylivin

Your felting project is beautiful!! Someday I want to try my hand at spinning but one homesteading project at a time for me :)