Well, so much for a monthly post. So much has been happening at the Zeke's house these past couple of months time has just gotten away from me. A wedding took up a good part of the spring. And our final offspring is out of the nest. Speaking of nests, we finally made it to the farm in April to open for the season and look what we found!
Bluebirds have nested in one of our Gilbertson houses! We put four of them out last year and the bluebirds inspected them but did not nest in them.
Also found out that we are going to have another Grandchild in December so naturally the baby knitting has begun! I started with an Elizabeth Zimmerman Baby Surprise Sweater knit out of Noro Silk Garden Sock weight yarn on a size 1 needle. This should be the perfect size for a newborn!
In February, I made my first ever batch of homemade lard and lye soap. It didn't set, so I re-batched it adding a little more lye and it turned out beautifully!
I grated the entire 5 pounds, adding some borax and washing soda, along with some lavender essential oil to kill the lardy scent, then put it in canning jars for laundry soap. This was the only type of soap I remember my grandmother using. She always had an ice-cream pail with a bar of lye soap and a grater sitting by the washer.
I've started my Christmas knitting already, hopefully I won't fall behind schedule, but there are so many projects I'd like to cast on as well!
More later!
