Homesteading

Retirement has given me the time to try many new to me, but ancient arts/crafts.  Upon notification that I was to become a grandmother, I dug out some knitting needles and refreshed on a long abandoned art, making baby sweaters, soakers, and shirts, all from organic undyed baby soft wool and cotton.  The next 8 years have allowed me to produce dozens of sweaters from tiny to men's,  half a dozen or so baby blankets, scores of hats and scarves, four Christmas stockings and several pair of socks.  This love of fiber urged me to dig out the sewing machine and make a couple of machine quilted baby blankets and a Christmas stocking.  Though I dearly love quilts and all of our beds are spread with them, making quilts really hasn't grabbed my interest, yet.

  Handling yarn, did interest me in the fibers I was knitting and drove me to investigate spinning, first with a drop spindle and this summer with a newly acquired, but nearly 50 year old spinning wheel and falling in love with another ancient art.
From the time I was a teen, I have loved digging in the dirt, gardening with my Dad, later having anything from a few potted tomatoes to a small city garden at most of our homes.  Here in the mountains, on our 30 acre farm, the garden is substantial and organic and there are a few young fruit trees added to the products we grow.

  This garden, the fruit trees, wild and cultivated berries have gotten me canning, making jelly, pickles and sauces to preserve this garden goodness for the cold non productive winter months.

  Recently, I have toyed with the idea of making soap as well.  Not wanting to get too involved, nor spend too much money until I tried it and saw if I enjoyed it, I purchased only a single mold and a few pounds of a high quality soap base that I could heat, scent with essential oils, dye with natural dyes from tumeric, cinnamon, lavender and a few other spices.  I think I am hooked.  I am about to embark on making my own soap from fats and lye.  Of course, I can  buy good quality homemade soap from the local craft fairs and weekly from the farmer's market, but it is expensive, I don't always care for the available scents and I didn't have a hand in its making.

Back when our children were small, I taught myself to make baskets.  Several of the ones that I made are still used to haul produce in from the garden, to store yarn and to decorate the kitchen area of our log home.  These baskets were all made from reed purchased for caning and basket making or from kits, but with the easy availability of grape and other vines, I have considered refreshing those skills and making a few storage baskets for the root cellar from the vines on our property with the ribs from flexible twigs.
These ancient arts have long appealed to me, along with a few I haven't tried, it is a great feeling and sense of accomplishment to use products from our land and my hands.