Summer winding down; chicks, harvest, soaping, and a smidgen of quilting

The newest, and FINAL, chicks of the season joined us this past week.  

I had been peeking in on Mama daily seeing we didn't really know when she started sitting on her clutch of eggs.  Do you see the little guy tucked in right by her breast?  

Since the hatch, we've been trying to get an accurate count, but have simply decided to shrug and wait until we graduate Mama and chicks to a ground brooder, that way we'll count as we remove them from the brooder house. We THINK there are 12-14 in there, which brings our total number of chickens on the property to..........

Ummmmm.........

....

somewhere around 85-90.  LOL.  However, not all of them will spend the winter with us.  Many of the hatched chicks this year are roosters, and we simply don't need a whole lotta roosters around the property.  Two have already been claimed by a neighbor; we're hoping to find houses for others just as easily!

Goodness, WHERE to even start with this catchup...

Well, it IS breakfast time around here.  Hungry?  Paul shared an Apple Fritter recipe to my FB page a few weeks ago, so last weekend, I gave it a try.  Soooo yummy!  See the icing drip onto my thumb?  Yuppers, folks!  Finger-lickin' good! Recipe here.

And yes!  It is that time of year again;  the annual pollinating of Ragweed!

*whispering*  But crazy enough, I have not been overwhelmed with itchy eyes or runny nose this year.  Could it be that I'm finally growing out of this allergy????  Candace, on the other hand, continues to be miserable;  allergy medicines we've tried barely take the edge off.  

So that means I've been able to be in the garden without too much discomfort.  Yay!

The tomatoes are slowly starting to ripen; about 20 pounds harvested so far, with HUNDREDS of pounds yet to come.  No lie!  HUNDREDS!!!!!!  Holy tomatoes, batman!  I guess 78 plants will do that, huh?  LOL.....

One monster so far....

The excess basil from the Pesto making a few weeks ago has been drying and waiting for processing. 

It doesn't take much basil to fill a spice container, so we're reserving the rest to make some tomato-basil seasoning once we've dried some tomatoes.

A coffee filter worked great as a collection device and then again as a pour-spout, only after sifting out some larger stems by hand.

Coffee filters were also used to keep dirt from falling out of some pots that were used for my plant clippings.  

I find it quite cool watching the root systems grow!  I don't know what kind of houseplant this is, but it is SO easy to care for AND propagate!

Much of our living room has been taken over by plants, which doesn't bother me at all... sorta!  

An opportunity was given to me to add two more mini-greenhouses to my lot (thanks Karen!!!!), all in exchange for some homemade lotions and soaps.  

For now, the greenhouse plastic was set aside, and they are being used as organizational shelving for our (ever-growing) collection of plants.  Weird, maybe, but I can't help but smile when I look at the showcase of plants and photos!

Some more soaps have been added to the curing shelves:  Oatmeal, Milk and Honey, and Hazelnut coffee (my NEW favorite!!!!!)  I love walking through my curing room (which also happens to by my quilting room).  The smells are yummy, yummy, yummy!  What a fun adventure this has been this summer!

Caitlyn's Lemon yogurt "Energy" soap has been in the bathroom for the past couple of weeks.  After trying it out, I accepted that a simple recipe is truly sufficient to make a great bar of soap!  This was one of the first batches we made this summer:  70% olive oil and 30% coconut oil, and then some fragrance.  Quick and easy to mix up; lathers and bubbles wonderfully, and does its job!

The corn harvest has been underway for us for the past week, and two weeks ago, when visiting my parents, I allowed myself to kick back while waiting for the grilled corn.  (Hmmm... another picture with a glass of wine.... )

Have I mentioned how thankful I am for the help I get with the Fall harvests????

Amidst a harvest, when time doesn't allow for large time-consuming meals, it IS okay to simply place a jar of fresh salsa and a plate of fresh corn-on-the-cob on the table.  

We ARE finding time for fun and relaxing, too!
Last week, Paul and I finally buckled down and hired a crew to pour a 30x30 concrete slab, with intentions of using it as an "activity" area for the girls.  Basketball, volleyball, skating...

And....

....wait for it.....

I found a couple hours of time to work a little more on the Smith Mountain Morning quilt!  Hours 13 and 14 (no pic) were completed.

School schedules are almost back in full swing.  Cassie has made the starting lineup on the JV volleyball squad; I'm not sure who loves the sport more, her or me!  We're off to watch the Varsity play in their first tournament of the season in a little bit.  

The first day of school is Tuesday (9/1).  I think we're ready. ;)

Happy Saturday!

Caitlyn's Lemon Energy yogurt soap [CP Soap]

The craze of soap-making has spread to daughter #2.  Caitlyn had been eyeing up the stash of yogurts in the fridge, and hinted (heavily) about a soap made from lemon-chiffon yogurt.

Who was *I* to say no????

Using soapcalc.com, I kept the recipe small and simple!  

Also, towards the end, we swapped out the Lavender essential oil for "Energy" essential oil.

Prepping the yogurt/water mixture, she learned how to tare out a scale and how to toggle between pounds/ounces to grams.  All measurements were performed in grams.  This was an EXCELLENT opportunity to have a mathematical conversation about "precision measurement" (after all, 'precision' is one of the mathematical process standards) ;)

A VERY thin pouring was placed into ice cube trays;  she shares my (lack of) patience.  The thin pours should freeze quickly!  She was mixing as dinner was being prepared;  and we had all intensions of making up the soap after dinner, however... it just didn't happen. *shrug*

Directly after summer school the next day, we got to work!  She was allowed to mix the oils and measure out the fragrance, however I handled all of the mixing involving the lye.  Even still, she protected her eyes with the stylish sunglasses (since I was wearing the safety goggles), and wore a long-sleeved shirt.

Cassie and I had spent an hour or so shopping at St. Vincent's and at the dollar store earlier in the day.  We scored on a few items!

This lil' container seemed ideal to use as a soap mold (for only $0.65!).

Now that we've unmolded though... it wasn't such a huge hit afterall.  Perhaps I'll give it one more try and wait another 12-24 hours before unmolding?  It's rigid, and after some coaxing and prying, the soap released, leaving soap in the small indentations :(

Another score Cassie and I found was this little purple silicone baking mold -- $1.00.  It's a bit flimsy, but one of those drawer space-savers worked perfectly as a reinforcement.  

Little sister, Candace wanted to be part of the action as well, grabbed a couple of toothpicks in order to add some texture to the top.

This little batch is a great size to try out future sample additives and fragrances;  super simple with only two oils.  Will be saved for sure.