Darn it!

I am not picky about many things. But one of the things of which I am a snob is socks.  Yes, socks.

I was not always this way. I used to plain, white, cotton wear socks until there was little more than a few threads.  My toes stuck out at the top while my heals stuck out too. It honestly just didn't bother me.

Then I met J.  It was summer so socks were not a concern. As winter took over, my feet were always cold, with or without holes in my socks. J just looked at me and shook his head. He told me to wear wool socks. Wool socks? I had never seen them at Wal-Mart or Target. Where would I find said socks? He seemed baffled that I had never owned wool socks. I was shocked by his bafflement. Seriously, where are these wool socks?  In eighteen years, I had neither owned a pair nor known where to purchase them.

At the time J's mother, S, owned a store that sold high-end outdoor clothing.  For Christmas, I got wool socks. (And long underwear that were polyester which I found out is very important in choosing "longies" as I call them now.)  I was hooked! Now all my generic cotton socks seemed like little more than anemic impersonations of socks.

Fast forward a few years, and all those wool socks have holes in them just like my cotton socks.  J had always brought them to S who some how fixed them.  It was time to learn, and it proved to be easier than I thought.

1. Start with a sock with a hole in it.

2. Get a darning mushroom. If you are like most people living in 2016, you don't have one. That's ok; you can use many things. I use a mason jar. You just need something cylindrical that won't lose its shape when you apply pressure. You will also need yarn and a darning (tapestry) needle.

3. Insert the mushroom (or whatever you chose) into the sock turned inside out. 

                                       

4. Thread the needle and start to weave it into the sock. You will want to start next to the hole, not in the middle of it. 

5. For the next step, I used a different color for visual ease. Do they same thing in the opposite direction, weaving the yarn into the yarn already there. 

                                    

6. When I am done with that, I like to stitch a circle around your work area. Once I get back to the starting spot, I weave in and out of the stitches. 

                                       

7. Turn the sock the correct way and enjoy!

   

                                      

In Defense of Clutter

Many of the blogs and books I read are about people (some families, some couples, some singles) who are city mice trying moving to the sticks to become country mice.  I love to read about their adventures, accomplishments, projects, and mishaps.

One of the more common, if not the most common, project to do downsize.  People look around their home and think, "Do you really need all these things?" Honestly, no. People don't NEED much, but many things make our lives easier.

Our home is big, about 1700 sq. ft. without the 900 sq. ft.  basement.  We also have a garage that I think is a two car, but J insists that it's a 3 car.  He thinks if he didn't have all his wood and tools in there, it would fit 3 cars. I have my doubts. We also own a pole barn referred to as "the shed." It's a lot of space, and we use all of it.

My best friend, SC, has never seen my home. I have never seen hers either. We live 1000 miles apart. She  likes clean lines and clear counter tops so even though she has 2400 sq. ft. she often wants more space just so things don't feel so cluttered.  She has often asked me, "What do you have to put in all that space?"

Well a lot. We have 5 people in our home.  J's oldest son no longer lives here, but when he did, it was a household of 6. And we have taken in the some friends in time of need.

I also watch my friends' children in the summer. I have enough bikes for everyone who comes to our to play. I think we have 12. They are of varying sizes from toddler tricycle to adults bicycles and one (my) adult tricycle. We also have one of those bike trailers that little kids ride in. We don't just look at all our stuff. We use it.

People often come to home unprepared for outdoor play.  Have no fear: I have what you need!
*Some friends drove 400 miles to visit us and discovered their daughter only had nice shoes to wear. She also had no swim suit and it was summer. I had both.
*A group of friends came to play in winter. Not all had all the necessary clothes. I had plenty of extras.
*My friend's son outgrew his rain boots mid-season.  She came over and we went shopping in my basement. She found what she wanted and didn't need to spend $25 on new boots. She also didn't have to scour the thrift stores in our area to find rain boots size 8. I loaned them to her until her son out grows them. Then she will return them to me, and I will use them for the little girl I babysit.

That list could be almost endless.

Many of the men in my family (husband, dad, brother-in-law) do construction for a living.  They often build or remodel houses for people who are well off. They are the kind of people who simply get new appliances because the ones they have are old. They still work, but they are old.  We take them and store them in the shed.

When the oven that came with our home started to not hold temperature well, I simply went to the shed and got a different one. When the washing machine started to not spin well, out to the shed I went to get another one.

This past summer, we raised meat chickens. I was pretty excited. Butchering time came around, and I made mistakes and quickly corrected them. I learned to make pate and found out it is delicious! (Seriously, I hate liver, but if one simply adds enough butter and garlic, it's pretty good.)

Sadly, when cooking time came around, we were all disappointed. The birds were all tough and stringy. The solution? Cook them all in crock pot and can all the meat. So that is what I did.  I lined one of my counter tops with my large but short crock pots and cooked them.  When they were done, I pulled the meat off the bones and put it in a reused ice cream pail and put it in the fridge.  Then I took the bones and put them in tall crock pots, added water, and let that cook for a day or so to make delicious stock. I continued this process until all the chickens were cooked.

Once they were all cooked, it was canning day. My canner holds 20 pints at once.  This held most of the chicken.  In all I got 24 pints of chicken ready to eat. Then I canned the stock.  On it's own, it looked pretty anemic so I decided to cook it until it reduced to about 50% of what I started with. Now it looks so much better.

Why do I mention this in post about clutter? Well, most people couldn't do what I did because they only have one or two crock pots. I have 13. That seems ridiculous to most people. Not to me. I use them. I do have two that are the same size, but most vary in size and shape. They also vary in cooking  temps. I even have small owns that I use as air fresheners.

At this moment, I am cooking chicken bones in a tall, green vintage crock pot to make stock. In a tall white one I have a pork bone cooking also to make stock. In a shorter white crock pot, I have a (nitrate and nitrite free) ham cooking for dinner. In an oblong silver crock pot I got as a wedding gift, I have two beef bones cooking to make bone marrow custard (I have never made this recipe and am very excited about it). And a tiny one giving off the smell of Thieves Oil.

It might be trendy right now to downsize and purge, but I will stick to having all the things I (and my friends) need.

Fish Stock

Once of the many things I make and can is fish stock. I had been making it for a few years before I read a few cook books that have recipes for fish stock.  Although I don't add any spices or herbs to it, I felt pretty fancy for figuring out a recipe on my own.

Start with fresh fish. These happen to be crappies caught today by J.

Fillet them and they will look like this.

Remove the guts. If  you have birds, cats, or dogs, they will enjoy the treats. Other animals probably will too, but we have birds and cats. Also, I suppose you could save the livers to make pate, but they are so tiny, it would take too long to get enough to make it. But if you happen to have a lot of fresh foods (say, if you are on a very successful fish trip), it might be worth it. 

Take this whole part and either boil it now or put in a bag.  To that bag, add the skins and ribs. 

Put the bag in the freezer until you have enough to make stock. I usually use an old tortilla bag (I have never made a good home made tortilla); when it's full I put the scrap in a spaghetti pot. Fill it with water and boil. I tend to boil it for at least an hour. Strain it. Use it immediately, freeze it, or can it. I can it and use it to make fish chowder. 

To be honest, this will make your house stink. If you can make it outside, I highly recommend it.  I don't have an out door kitchen; so I usually make apology brownies when it's all done. 

Fillets. 

Cook, freeze, or can the fillets. 

Laundry Soap

I have read countless recipes for home made soaps of all kinds and have wanted to make soap for some time.  I was very nervous about using lye. I am very klutzy and worried I would get chemical burns or blind myself.

My first attempt at soap was a complete failure. I tried a crock pot recipe and nothing happened. 

On my second attempt, I actually made soap. Granted, I don't like it, but I made soap. I made it so long ago, I don't remember the recipe I used.  It doesn't matter since I don't like. I think I used beef tallow as the fat. I added no scent, but it has a mild scent. It's pretty soft, too soft to grate. 

For over a year, I have looked at this soap wondering what to do with it.  Finally I got the idea to make my own laundry soap out of it.  Google to the rescue again!  Compare and contrast. Compare and contrast. Once again, I decided to make my own recipe. 

I chopped up some soap and weighed it, 8.7 0z, 247 g. 

I added it to  a pot.

I added two quarts of water, heated it up, and stirred. 

Once the soap dissolved, I didn't like the texture. It was too thin. Chop chop chop.  Weigh, 6.1 oz./173 g. Add. Mix. Wait.  This time I walked away too long and it boiled. 

While I was away, I got a 5 gallon bucket and scrubbed it out. I filled it about 30-40% full with hot water,  added a box of borax, and mixed it all up. I poured the soap-water mixture into the bucket and stirred again.  Hopefully, this works. I will report back once I do laundry. 

Breastmilk Lotion

I had been having some skin issues and mentioned it to a friend for whom I babysit. She jokingly said, "Too bad you still don't have any breastmilk."  She was referring to her breastmilk that I kept for her daughter.

I said, "Actually, I do." She thought it was odd that I kept the breastmilk after he daughter was weened, but she also knows I hate to get rid of things that have value. She suggested I use that. Why hadn't I thought of that? I don't know. It's very strange that I hadn't since I used my breastmilk while I was lactating on my dry skin.

So last night, I jumped on the internet and googled "breastmilk lotion."  I found a few recipes.  I had some ingredients from each recipe, but I never had fall the ingredients for any of them.  I compared them and made up my own recipe.

1/4 c. cocoa butter
6 oz. breast milk
1 T. safflower oil

Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the process. I generally don't take pictures of what I do so it taking some getting used to.

I thawed the breast milk. I cut off a chunk of cocoa butter and put it in a double boiler. I wanted 1/4 cup and didn't have enough in there. So I added more. I got what I wanted and added it to the milk. I used an immersion blender to mix them together and put it in the fridge. About an hour later, I checked it. I still had chunks of cocoa butter in it  making it not smooth. I added 1 T. of safflower oil and returned it to the fridge.

The first thing I did this morning was try it. It is very thin for a lotion especially a homemade lotion which are usually very thick and too heavy for my face.  This is perfect.  It smells like a delicious chocolate. I put some on my face. I love it. I love it. I love it.