Differing tastes

My husband is a purist.

He likes his eggs fried, over easy. A little salt, a little pepper and maybe a piece of toast to sop up the yolk.

I made some mint chutney the other day from the Nourishing Traditions cookbook and when it was ready for refrigeration, I tasted a little. It was very, very salty. It was salty enough I thought for a moment that it was inedible. But under the salt was a lovely mint and nut flavor coming through so I kept it.

This morning I decided I wanted an extra boost of protein for my breakfast and scrambled a couple of organic eggs in lard (how daring for me!) and dressed the plate by topping the eggs with a teaspoon of the mint chutney and a tiny dab of butter. I put a small square of raw cheese on the side and cut up an apple to go with it. It was yummy, just yummy.

I made the same thing for Ken when he got up. He was not impressed. He ate it all, but insisted he likes his eggs plain.

Busy morning

I woke up this a.m. at 5. This is my normal waking time.

I got up and had a cup of coffee with stevia. I'm avoiding the artificial sweeteners as much as I can. I grew stevia about two years ago in the herb garden, harvested the leaves, dried them and was overwhelmed with the sweetness. I kept a jar of whole leaves thinking that I hated to waste them, but did not touch them again. Now, I know to grind the leaves with a mortar and pestle and use just a half a pinch to sweeten coffee and tea.

I looked over the list of things recommended at the workshop we attended at Wise Traditions on Monday. I made a batch of Crispy Pecans already this week by soaking raw pecans in salt water overnight. I put them in the food dryer on Friday morning before I left for work and when I got home I had two cups of wonderful snacking nuts. So, this morning I put on two cups of raw almonds and two cups of raw sunflower seeds on to soak this morning with salted water. Tonight, before I go to bed, I'll put them in the food dryer.

I also started a batch of fermented catsup this morning as I already had the ingredients.

Then I took out two eggs to go room temperature for mayonnaise. While I had the eggs out, I put three in water to bring to a boil for coddled eggs for my breakfast. Then I warmed up some raw milk to try my hand at yoghurt again. Ken picked up some yoghurt starter for me in Kilmarnock yesterday at Higher Health Foods. So while the milk was coming up to 110 degrees, I pulled out the oats and put them on to soak for my oatmeal breakfast over the coming week. I make one big batch and reheat what I need each day.

So, I got the yoghurt going and decided to see about dinner. I found some pork ribs in the freezer. Not organic or even pasture fed, but meat. I put that into the crockpot with an onion, some blackberry vinegar (from some blackberry mead that went a bit too long), sea salt, a glob of my catsup (not fermented yet, but would not fit in the jar set to ferment), and some water. I put the crockpot on the lowest, longest setting and anticipate it coming out in shreds at dinner time.

While I was in the freezer, I also found some organic whole wheat flour and smelt flour. I pulled those out and discovered a gallon bag of frozen blackberries. So I got out about 2 cups of blackberries and plan to make something wonderful with yoghurt cream cheese (from the first store bought batch that I made Tuesday evening).

I also started a batch of sourdough bread from the sour dough starter I made before leaving for the conference last week.

So here it is, 8:30 a.m. and I have eaten my breakfast, cleaned up my kitchen, am drinking my second cup of coffee and waiting for the bread to rise. I go the the Tavern for the Spinners and Weavers Guild today from 10 until 4. When I get home, supper will almost be ready. I will likely stop at the store and pick up some organic salad greens.

I have some sweet potatoes that will be lovely for a side dish. The bread will be ready for the oven and all will be right with the world.

I am off to make my mayonnaise now. Wish me luck.

Finding food for healing

I am feeling much better.

I was formally introduced to the Weston A Price Foundation last weekend when my friend, Angel, took me (and a couple of others) to the W.A.P.F. Conference in Philadelphia.

I ate like I was starved all weekend. The first night before the conference we all ate out at a really nice place near the conference center. The price tag was a bit insane but the food was very refined, delicious and beautifully presented. Little did I know at that time, we would be eating like Kings and Queens at the groaning board all weekend long.

The theme was "The Politics of Food" and I felt oddly proud to be a Virginian as we were well represented.

The first day I felt like I was cheating. Everything I heard the first day seemed completely counter to everything I'd ever learned or lived. I could hear my mother's voice saying that I would get fat if I ate fat; and here were all these people telling me that I NEED to eat fat in order to be healthy. I had always been taught that the healthiest diet was low fat and might be vegetarian.

When I attended an all-day series of sessions in which the speaker, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, reviewed study after study done in Europe that de-bunks the whole low fat, high carb U.S.D.A. food recommendations, my ears really pricked up. She talked about bowel problems and memory problems and circulation problems and autism and learning issues, hyperactivity and attention deficit and epilepsy and a host of other health problems including cancer. She talked about leaky gut syndrome and she made a very solid case against low fat/high carb diets. She also pointed out that in addition to low fat/high carb diets, we are also dying from poisons like plastic, GMO foods and over medicated meat animals.

Two things stood out: The French eat very well and are some of the healthiest and long lived people in the world. The same can be said of primitive peoples. Both of these groups eat high fat, high meat and low carbs. Both groups also eat fruits and vegetables but limit their grain intake. Both groups also eat fermented and pickled foods. Soy is avoided unless well fermented and aged. All refined sugars are avoided. Plastic is avoided or is unheard of.

I already knew that over pasteurizing ourselves lowers our immune systems. We have become so bacteria phobic we can no longer fight off even basic germs and more and more micro-organisms are mutating and becoming immune themselves to anti-bacterial soaps and antibiotics.

I also already knew that there were serious side effects from antibiotics including allergic reactions, rampant yeast infections and other problems including disruption of digestion and elimination. I have never trusted our government's assurances that vaccinations were safe.
I know that almost all pharmaceuticals have side effects and can point to both my parents who suffered from damages caused by long-term use. Plastics I know can leach out of wrappings and into our foods and fill us with toxins.

Dr. Campbell McBride recommended the GAPS Diet to help heal the gut. Most remarkable about this diet was the central position of RAW milk.

In all of my 51 years I have never had the opportunity to drink raw milk. It's delicious!

I was skeptical until the end of the weekend after eating all their foods (prepared in abundance and served buffet style to the 2000+ people in attendance at the conference.) . As the days past, my ever present hunger decreased. By Monday I was surprised when they let us go for lunch. I was not feeling sluggish, grumpy or desperate for food even though I had eaten a very light and early breakfast and we did not go to lunch until 12:30 p.m. Driving home that night I did not get hungry again until nearly 8 p.m. and then I was fully content with a piece of cheese and an organic apple and some vinegar water with a little raw honey.

But let me back up a day or two... I was also introduced to raw cheese, fermented vegetables, raw butter and caster oil! After the second day I noticed that my digestion was smoother with minimal farting, smooth defecation-- unusual when I'm traveling as I have always been a sufferer of hemorrhoids and constipation despite lots of water, high fiber and an otherwise "healthy" diet. My doctor's solution after examining my diet and declaring it perfect, was to give me stool softeners. They helped, but who wants to do that? Now, for two days I had eaten a LOT of cheese and milk and fat. Yes, there were nuts, fruits and veggies as well, but very little fiber in the form of cereals and breads. I expected to be bloated, plugged and miserable. And there was none of that.

I began to look around and realized that most of the conference attendees were of two groups... new to this program and seeking a solution to their health problems or folks who had been following this way of life with raw milk, slow foods and organic sources for nutrient dense meals. Everyone I saw there who had been on this path for any length of time was calm, moved gracefully and was alert, intelligent and their weight was perfect for their height. Their children were well behaved, calm and beautiful.

I came home enthused, excited and ready to help my family move away from the poisons we had been eating and incorporating into our lives real food.

When I returned to work on Tuesday EVERYONE in my office wanted to know what had happened to me. I was calm, I was focused. I could remember things! Let me tell you, this is really remarkable.

I also lost 2 pounds from the previous week.

By Wednesday I could go up the stairs without my knees screaming at me. By Thursday the swelling in my sinuses had reduced around my nose.

By Friday morning I'd lost another pound.

I'm eating real butter, whole raw milk, meat fat, ghee, coconut oil, whole sour cream, whole cream cheese, cod liver oil, sauerkraut, meat, fresh fruit, raw honey, and eggs. All of it is organic. What I am not eating is cereal and only one or so slice of bread a day. I have eliminated soy altogether.

I do not crave sugar at all. I don't want cookies, cake or chocolate. I am satisfied when I eat my food.

Seems utterly crazy... but what if it works? I'm going to find out.

Blue Ribbon!

I don't know why I'm so excited by this, but I won a blue ribbon at the Virginia State Fair!

I also won a red (second place)!

I won the blue for the "Spinner's Workbasket". For this entry, I spun up enough (plus a little) shetland fleece in heavy lace weight to complete Brandywine. I skeined up the yarn so it was pretty and labeled each skein with weight, yardage and date spun. I purchased the pattern and tucked it into a plastic sleeve protector. Found a nice rustic basket. I saved a few locks from the fleece and tied them together, added a circular knitting needle and finally knitted and tied on a swatch. Anyway everything went into the basket and I had it sitting in my house, ready to go, for about 6 months. Finally, off it went.

Now I want to knit the shawl and perhaps enter the completed project in next year's fair.

I won the red for a skein of sport weight yarn spun from Alice's fiber. It really is a pretty heathery grey and I'm working my way through the rest of her fleece. I was hoping I would have enough for a sweater, but it's looking a little shy of that. Perhaps a vest for a young, skinny person... This is her lamb fleece, so I want it to go to a special project. But I will have to wait and see how much actual yardage I get.

New Face

Back when I first started spinning, I saw a sweater that had been hand knitted. It was a yoked pullover sweater with an beautiful stranded pattern in the yoke and was made up of three or four natural colors of fleece. It looked sort of like this. I have always coveted that sweater.

Then, one year at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, in the contests someone had entered a gorgeous sweater of just that type -- all handspun.

Then I started raising a few sheep. I started out with two, added a third then lost one. But three was the original goal. If I were to fence my ENTIRE yard, I could easily do five, but I really would be divorced and probably broke as well.

Alice and Jerry have two different colors. Alice is pretty evenly white and grey with a few patches that are darker and a few that are almost pure white. Jerry is white and light brown. As a lamb he was a chestnut color but that faded and he has only a few small chestnut spots left. Both have beautiful fleeces.

But I really wanted a dark colored, non-fading Shetland.

And last year I met Katherine Davidson of Potosi Sheep Farm near Lancaster, PA. We talked about sheep. I talked about wanting a non-fading lamb. She told me she might have one and for a very reasonable price since her daughter was in a town near me, she would be willing to even deliver it. So, we struck a verbal deal. She would bring me a little black wether named Ohno as soon as he was weaned.

I think he weaned in June. That was just about the same time the East Coast began cooking under weeks of drought and 100+ degree temperatures. It was not safe to transport a lamb in the back of a pickup in these conditions so we put it off.

Finally, yesterday, there was a break in the weather. It cooled down to a pseudo comfortable 88 and Ohno began is trip to me in a dog crate in the back of a pickup.

He arrived safely and immediately got an ear tag.

Katherine and family were running late at this point and were supposed to be meeting family halfway across the state in the other direction and not realizing how far East my house really was, were now about 2 1/2 hours late. I paid her, we agreed to exchange the rest of the shot record and information by email later, and off they went.

And Ohno got to meet his new sheep family. As I feared, Alice and Jerry were very rude. I know it is sheep behavior to put the new guy in his place and establish who is dominate to whom in a flock, but when Jerry nearly squashed him by jumping on him, I pulled Jerry out and put him back in the larger pasture. When Alice started beating him up too, I pull her out and left Ohno in the adjoining pasture and let them talk to each other through the fence. Both had food, water and shelter, so I wasn't too worried.

Just before dark, I put Alice back in with Ohno so he would not be alone over night. He was a gentleman, kept his distance, gave her space and she did not bother him over much. They did not sleep together, but seemed okay.

So, this a.m. I put Jerry back in. He immediately started abusing Ohno again. And he is much rougher than Alice. And once he got Ohno down, he would not stop, so I grabbed Ohno up, put him in the big pasture and left Alice and Jerry in the little one for now. I will later put Alice in the big pasture and leave Jerry until later this evening. I may need to figure out a way to provide Ohno with a "safe house" some where he can get into for protection that the others cannot. He is half their size right now. But he would have to figure out quickly not to venture to far from home base. I will have to think on this a bit.

Clearly, they will need supervised play time for a while. I just hope eventually, they will all adjust. I also hope the adjustment is sooner, rather than later.

I think I got it!

Deb and I took at class at Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival in May on Longdraw spinning from Maggie Casey.

I could not get it. I struggled. I just could not seem to get the hang of it.

I'd give it a go every once in a while, but the singles would be too fragile or uneven or just full of lumps. I was sad.

Today, however, while alone at the Tavern, I was spinning the final four ounces of the purple and green fiber from the Barefoot Spinner that I purchased two years ago at the MS&W. I had started with 2 pounds of the stuff. I've been spinning it fairly bulky. I've been working on it for months! I was bored.

Instead of pulling off a piece and spinning from that, I started spinning from the end of the ball itself. Suddenly, it started to flow and I spun the last three ounces completely as long draw. No breaking, no weirdness, just smooth sailing. And it went fast and it was fun.

Now I have to finish plying it and I'm done with the spinning!

The next job is to find the right pattern and knit a sweater!

Since it is 103 degrees today (heat index somewhere around 107), I'm not really trying to start knitting a sweater today. I am working on a baby bonnet, a knitted doll, a hand-spun scarf for my dad, Tom's sock (one is finished), and a lace shawl.

Alice and Jerry appear to be adapting pretty well to the heat. How, I do not know. They move VERY slowly during the day and lay in the shade a lot, but I'm not seeing them pant or even breathe very hard. They have about 2 or 3 inches of insulation on their bodies... but still!

Ken knows about OhNo now. He's not happy that I'm getting yet another sheep, but Ohno is a black lamb with little white rear socks and a white head. He's really cute. If the heat ever lets up, his current owner will deliver him from Pennsylvania.

Trees in the pasture

Jerry and Alice have managed to kill off all the trash trees in their pasture by girding them. They literally stripped the bark off of all the mimosas inside their enclosed area. All of these died over the winter and Ken and Matthew cut them down last week.

Fortunately, they have left the large plum tree alone (other than to eat every leaf within four feet of the ground. They also, surprisingly, left the little plum tree alone and it's now loaded with plums.

The sheep have also discovered how yummy the fallen fruit is to eat and gobble up every single fallen fruit. So I go out in the evening and pick the just barely ripe ones BEFORE they fall. I made the mistake of hand feeding some bug chewed ones to the sheep yesterday and Jerry thought that meant that all the fruit in my hand was for him.

And he jumped up on me with his 75 pounds backing some sharp edged hooves trying to get to the little plumbs in my hands. He didn't cut me as I had recently trimmed said hooves, but he sure put a nasty bruise on my thigh. Bugger!

He sure didn't get any more fruit from me. I'll tie him up the next time I go fruit picking.

The new game, which is also a way of training him to respect me, is to run at them making crazy animal noises. They run! And wow, they are really fast! They race around the whole pasture and come right back for another play with the "monster". I can almost hear them giggling like little kids as they fly past on a round. We play until they are panting a little. Gives them some exercise and gives me a smile.

They still come at me like fuzzy vaccuum cleaners when I have animal cookies, or other treats and a quick snag of a front leg and I can do whatever I need to so with them. I'm very pleased with how tame they have become.

I've noticed that on Alice's front sides (where we did need to shear), her rise came later than the rest of her (which is why we needed to shear) and there are little clumps about an inch long that are sort of matted out on the ends. I'm pulling these off as I can. She doesn't seem to mind much so long I as I don't ask her to stand still very long. That way I will have a nice "clean" fleece from her next year without a bunch of garbage left overs from last year. She will have a very wavy fleece next year.

Jerry does not appear to have any rise at all other than on his belly and butt. I'm just pulling those off from time to time when a lock is really dragging.

Neglectful and seeking a solution

I have been terribly neglectful of my blog. I need to get better at adding updates.

I think I get intimidated by the desire to add photos, but I find it difficult and awkward to add them as I have to first go take pictures, then bring the camera to the computer, find and plug in the cable and finally get them to upload which tends to be a hit or miss operation.

I could certainly leave out the pictures, but then it is just an on-line journal.

I confess that Ravelry makes tracking my knitting projects much easier. But it does not do a really great job of spinning and weaving. Weavolution, if I used it, could probably handle the weaving. So that leaves the spinning.

There is also the matter of the sheep. This does seem to be the best spot to track the adventures of shepherding.

I've been busy doing life chores for a change.

I've started tasking myself with small jobs in order to make a dent in the big picture when it comes to the house. For example, while I wait for a cup of coffee in the microwave for two minutes, I unload the dishwasher... or at least as much of it I can get done in 2 minutes. While waiting for the kettle to boil so I can make instant oatmeal in the morning, I may load the dishwasher or chip some ice from the inside of my ancient chest deep freezer. This morning, I cleared off the windowsill in front of one window and washed it, then decided while it was clear, to wash the one window over it.

I also replaced the paper in the bottom of the silverware drawer and wiped down the inside of the drawer while I was at it. Lots of mice droppings in there in the very back. Sort of scary. Glad I cleaned it.

Tomorrow or later this afternoon, I will put away the dishes in the draining board and then wash the windowsill and window that the drainboard blocks. Later this week I might wash out a veggie drawer in the fridge or clean off one rack.

But each day, I am trying to find one or two jobs that need to be done in the kitchen that does not take a lot of time, that I can accomplish. Then I will get Ken or Matthew to do the big stuff -- like scrub the floor or clean the oven.

For me, I think the secret is not to let myself get overwhelmed. It's also about not becoming resentful about how quickly the house becomes dirty and how there is a need over and over again, to clean it.

2010 Shearing done

For the most part, anyway. We have a bit of trimming to do on Jerry and I want to smooth out Alice's shoulders, but I am now looking at washing two nice fleeces.

Here is Jerry before:

Jerry after:

Yeah, we need to shear about 998 more sheep to get good at this, but I do see progress from shearing I attempted on two other sheep in the last two years. Most importantly, Jerry survived and only got one small knick. I have few second cuts and basically skirted as we went along and didn't put the nasty stuff in the bag at all.

Jerry's staple mid-side is about 8 inches.
Alice's staple mid-side is about 6 inches.

Jerry is heavier with lanolin than Alice's. When we weighed them both today after shearing in preparation for giving them CDT shots in the next couple of weeks, we learned that Alice actually outweighs Jerry. She is plumper.

I don't know what to call this method other than team shearing... old farts shearing might be more like it. In any case, eventually, both men ended up sitting on the ground and holding Jerry fore and aft and Deb and I completed the haircut.

Clearly, it resulted in a very ugly haircut as Alice literally beat the buggers out of Jerry for about 90 minutes. She just kept butting him and knocking him down. I don't know if she really didn't know who he was and was scared or if she finally realized he was actually the smaller sheep and decided to put him in his place.

To Roo or not to roo

Raising livestock for any reason requires patience. Unfortunately, I've never been a very patient person and waiting for the "harvest" of wool is really getting difficult. They will be a year old next month. It is time for them to give up their first crop.

I have waited, however, for two reasons: 1. I don't want my babies to freeze and this winter has been unusually harsh. I don't think we will actually see temps in the 50s an 60s consistently until April. Then it will need to come off or the sheep will be too hot. 2. I don't have shears and scissors just won't quite do the job.

So, I've been waiting.

I looked out the window yesterday and saw a great hunk of hair hanging down off of Alice. My first thought was that something was wrong and she had been injured in some way and part of her was hanging with the hair. So, I went out to take a closer look.

It seems she has started to roo a little bit. I pulled about 4 ounces off of her. Unfortunately, the stuff that came loose was the matted, clotted, dirty stuff near her arm pits and stomach. It was very interesting to see in those spots where she really was rooing, how the tips of the new coat is just intermingled with the old coat by about a quarter inch. She has about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch of new growth. And the new stuff under the old stuff where it did pull free, is lovely and white. I will probably never see her as clean again. I was a little afraid of pulling as I thought it would hurt her, but she just stood there quietly and let me yank on her.

Now I did learn that she is happier if I pull steadily and in the direction of the hair. But I still was nervous about hurting her. She let me know when I got to spot that was not loose yet. I did clip a little with a pair of Friskers... and kept the cut at the same level of the new growth just to see if it acted any differently. The cut end on her body does not curl the same as the rooed end. In the lock cut off, I don't really see much difference.

If she was to roo completely, she will look lovely and even all over with just a bit of curl in the new growth. But I'm not convinced that she will. Large swatches (particularly the parts of her fiber I really want) is still hanging on tight.

I honestly thought the fiber I collected off of her was too nasty to fool with as I knew there a lot of other lovely fluff on the rest of her just waiting. And it is the part that is normally skirted out due to tags and dirt. The length varies from 2 inches to 6 and the tips are stained still with the red of the Staunton area soil which is where she was born. I was very pleased to find very little vm in the fiber even though it is from the underside of her and should have been filled with the stuff.

Ken convinced me to wash it anyway and I set it in a colander in front of the heating vent to dry. While it still appeared to be hopelessly matted, when it was nice and dry, I worked with it on the hand cards a little and got some nice, very soft, grey and white rolags. The scratch factor is minimal.

I spun it up on a drop spindle and went with a little thicker weight than I normally do with Shetland. I also spun it as softly as I could. Then I wound it off onto the nostipine, made a 2 pull ball and plyed it back on itself. This very few yards was then knitted on US8 needles into a 3 inch swatch and came out to a very lovely worsted weight, worsted wool which is white flecked with bits of grey.

I'm really thinking sweater.

Jerry's fiber remains a mystery at this point. He's not showing any signs of rooing at all. Figures that Mr Hyperactive would be the one I will have to shear.

I can hardly wait to get my shears. I ordered some new ones yesterday.