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25/8/2020 0 Comments

Singer 127 - winding the bobbin

The following was published in my old blog, Trampled by Geese 2011
Hidden underneath a shiny silver face plate is a shuttle and bobbin. These magical treasures are what makes the sewing machine stitch lock in place. Two threads, one on top, one beneath, working together to make sewing happen. What could be more wonderful than that?
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4/8/2020 1 Comment

It's Laundry Day!

Now that the grass has turned a disgusting shade of brown and summer has arrived with a vengeance, we're entering the next stage of water conservation on the farm.  No water on the garden unless it is reclaimed water. 

Most of the year, I've been using reclaimed water from washing wool or dying.  However, at this time of year, it's no longer sustainable to be using water in crafting every week.  We need to reserve water for human and livestock needs first.  Although I am expecting to get an indigo vat going this year as it doesn't require as much water as regular dyeing.  

Usually, I let the garden die, but this year, I'm feeling food insecure, so I want to get some winter crops planted to see us through the cold months.  For this, I'll need to find water.  What necessary household activities can I reclaim water from?  
beatty washing machine
vintage Beatty washing machine and inspection crew

That's where this vintage washing machine comes in!  


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14/7/2020 0 Comments

Carding Cotton - a pictorial tutorial

A quick series of images to show the process of transforming a cotton boll into a puni ready to spin.
first published on my old blog Trampled by Geese in 2015
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Leave a comment if you want me to make a video or more in-depth tutorial on working with cotton.
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3/7/2020 2 Comments

Planning the greenhouse upgrade

​We have two little greenhouses; old cracked glass things just tall enough to have to stoop and a footprint of 8 foot by 10.  They are cute as buttons and really, for the amount of hot stuff we eat, it should be enough.

Some years I plant my seedlings in the soil, and they grow like stink.  Other years, like this year, I do everything right - I amend the soil with various manner, let the chickens in over winter to eat all the bugs, do all the thing - and everything fails.  This year's peppers were planted with care after the last risk of frost, on a cloudy day.  The next day the sun came out and scorched the poor little seedlings.  The day after, it was nearly frost.  

But that's the way our weather goes - hot during the day, cold during the night.  And these tropical plants (mostly hot peppers) don't seem to thrive in these conditions.  

Some years it works, but this year, it's been a dismal failure!
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23/6/2020 0 Comments

Some thoughts on weavers - and why we can sometimes seem cold to the uninitiated

Can I borrow your toothbrush?
Not A toothbrush. YOUR toothbrush.  
The one you use at least twice a day (and hopefully more). I’ll bring it back tonight, or at least by next week... or soon...ish. Soon-ish. I promise. I know it’s your only toothbrush and you don’t have a chance to go out and get another one because it was a super-deluxe toothbrush you spent years of your life finding the perfect one to fit the shape of your mouth. You don’t mind if I borrow it, right?

It may seem like an unusual request and an even odder analogy to weaving. As a new weaver, I had trouble understanding that silence that invaded the room every time someone asked to borrow (or even touch) a weaving tool. Nearly 20 years later, I’m starting to understand what that bated-breath moment was and why weavers can seem incredibly cold on the idea. And yet...

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16/6/2020 5 Comments

How to wash wool!

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​Washing wool is a lot easier than it seems. The hardest part is finding a place for it to dry as it can take a couple of days, even in the sun. Wool can hold up to 30% of its weight in moisture without feeling damp, so it is essential to make sure it's extra dry before stashing it away.

As much as I love geeking out about this sort of thing, I'm going to keep this tutorial simple. You don't need to know the exact temperature lanolin and sunit melt at nor the .... any of those things.  For most of human history, people didn't know all this stuff.  But they managed to wash wool anyway, and so can you.

The following is suitable for most fleeces and even alpaca, llama, goat, and bunny fibre.  It's good to test if your fibre felts easily.  You can find this out by agitating a small handful underwater to see if it sticks together.  If it does, be gentler with your fibre than I was with mine or use a method that will reduce the amount of movement within the fibre.




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13/6/2020

Crowing Hen Farm COVID-19 Safety Plan

In compliance with the ORDER OF THE [British Columbian] PROVINCIAL HEALTH OFFICER (Pursuant to Sections, 30, 31, 32 and 39 (3) Public Health Act, S.B.C. 2008) Workplace COVID-19 Safety Plans;

Here are the steps that my company, Crowing Hen Farm, is taking to avoid the spread of COVID-19 in the workplace:
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Llama says:
Avoid All Humans!
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  • Avoid all humans.
  • If one must interact with a human, stay at least 2-meters away from the strange human.
  • I'm the owner and only worker here.  I'm going to keep on working alone. If I need to import extra labour like feeding The Guard Llama, I will source that labour from within my household.  
  • When outside help comes to the farm, like for sheering the sheep, we implement a 6-yard policy: no one is to go within 6-yards of the non-household-human.  It is essential to keep the people who care for our animals healthy and not endanger them in any way even if we probably don't have the virus.
  • I panic bought handsoap, disinfectant, and even hand-sanitizer from a local company made from locally distilled alcohol.  And now I have to use it up so I'm doing far more cleaning than I ever wanted to.
  • I am now ordering our beer online from the local brewery (and if you ever want to purchase some for me, ESB is my favourite!  Just say it's for Raven, they know who I am.). 
  • I am no longer doing pickup and drop off orders until further notice.  Mail order only.
  • To that end, I have released Tommy, the Attack Llama and his supporting troops, The Geese, to prevent unscheduled visitors from entering the property.  
  • Reduced trips to the post office to no more than twice a week. 
  • Sanitize my hands before and after being in the post office and after going anywhere humans might go.  Who am I kidding?  I'm washing my hands every half hour during the day because it gives me some measure of comfort and the illusion that I have control over the situation.

9/6/2020 0 Comments

Making a deposit to your seed bank - defeat the weeds at their own game!

In every handful of soil, sleeps thousands of enemies; The seeds of weeds that, given the slightest moment of inattention, will gleefully smother all your hard work.  But what if there was a way to turn your enemies superpower against them?

A weed is just a plant that is growing unrequested.  And the thing about weeds is that they are just so good at growing.  They outgrow and smother just about any domestic plant.  The weeds have the advantage, they have been growing and reproducing in this garden for generations.  Through natural selection, the weeds have adapted to thrive in these conditions — clever little fellas.


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tomato weed growing among the chard
​As the weeds grow and reproduce, they create a seed bank in the soil.   This is like a savings account of weed seeds that they can draw upon for future generations.  Some seeds will stay dormant for over 100 years, waiting for their moment.  No matter how many weeds we kill this year, there are always more seeds in the savings account.

We can fight this seed bank with chickens, chemicals, fire, heat, cold, all sorts of things - but weeds are tricky and have evolved over the years to survive all of these torments.  Let's face it, weeds are smarter than us and always will be.

It's time to start playing the weeds' game - And Win!​
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2/6/2020 0 Comments

How to ship a carded batt?

I want to know the best way to ship carded wool batts so that the fibres stay lofty and easy to draft.  So I did some experiments.
A batt is the result of preparing the fibre on a drum carder.  It can be a giant drum carder like they have in a fibre mill, or a tiny one like mine.  Not that I mind tiny.  To me, it's just the right amount for what I'm doing now and I'm hoping my carding adventures will earn my way towards a bigger, better, bolder machine.  
wild drum carder
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26/5/2020 0 Comments

reviving my etsy shop

To be brutally honest, I never paid much attention to my Etsy shop.  It's there if people buy stuff, that's cool.  I might go through a phase once or twice a year where I take more photos and list stuff, but over the last 13 years, the number of hours I've put into improving my shop is pitiful.  Until this year, most of my sales have been wholesale, but with the uncertainty ahead and being stuck at home on the farm, I finally had the time and the need to increase my Etsy sales.
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