Break from Crafting

Even crafting fun has to come to a (temporary) end sometimes...so I can do other things like BUILD!  (My other favorite activity.)  Today I cut apart the privacy fence that separates the back yard from the front, and built a little double gate out of two crib ends.  I don't have any hinges, and will have to wait til I get some money to buy some; I will also buy some kind of paint to help weather proof it. 

Even though it's not done, I like it!

This is what it looked like before.

That's our Border Collie, Mary Jane.  She's a real scaredy cat.  She's not scared of Timmy at all though.  We got her from the pound nearly a year ago.

And this is me. I get pretty hot and sweaty and covered in sawdust when I build. It's not my favorite condition, but it sure gets things done!

Love to all!  <3

Felting for Orphans

Some days I feel like the Little Red Hen!  I bought some Angora goats for the fiber (of course), learned to shear them (thank you Denise!), figured out how to wash the fleece, experimented with the dyeing process, and began felting, a skill new to me.

Here's what I've done so far... it's not much.  :D

The general idea is that I am going to try and sell these (or rather, trade them for a $10 tax deductible donation to Elias' adoption fund).  What do you think?  Would YOU buy one?  I'm not asking you to, just to say whether you would.  :D

When you see the picture of the little guy would it make you more likely to donate? Look:

How can you resist such darlingness?!

:D  I'm off to school.  (College for grown ups is exhausting!)

Me and My Blue Bucket

Yesterday I washed most of my remaining Angora fiber, nearly the entire fleece, in the washing machine.  It worked well to get it sort of creamy colored, but it didn't remove the vegetation from the hairs.  I am really struggling with that portion of the process.  Help!

This is what it looked like after washing it. Nice and clean looking...except for all the pine needles and leaves and such!

 Then me and my blue bucket mixed up some dye (ok the bucket was for the soda ash soak before dyeing.)
Look at that pretty burgundy color!  I was really hoping if I mixed the lime with the red I'd get a more orange look as I'm going for felting pumpkins first.  But if it stayed this color, I'd be very happy with it!



Placing it on the paper towel (with plastic under it to prevent counter stains) is kinda gross.

 I started rinsing it but ewww! It really looks like... brains. Until I got it done!  And now look!  Too bad I didn't want PINK and a very light limey color!

Ok, now what.  Hmm.  Well, off to dry it, and then maybe on my NEXT day off, I can card some of it.  I hope people will buy pink and lime pumpkins to support special needs orphans in Russia!  <3

A lot going on

Happy Weekend Y'all!

Feels a little more and more like fall every week here. This week our highs are in the eighties, but I hear that by along about Thursday the highs will be only in the 60's. That ought to usher in the "Giving Season" quite nicely and maybe help me get a jump start into making things to sell.

I've been pondering for some time on what I could make to sell that would bring in income not just for Ruby Lane Farm but also for my little orphan, Elias. There is a little boy in Russia that I would just about give anything to be able to bring home and live with us. He is four years old, has Down's Syndrome, and I swear he looks just like Timmy at that age.

Baby Elias

Handsome nearly grown up Timmy.












So I'm trying to figure out what kind of craft I can make to sell that will bring in some money towards Elias' adoption fund.  This is not my fund, mind you, just monies that go straight to Reeces Rainbow, the agency that handles the adoptions for the Down's Syndrome Russian babies.  I am leaning toward felted animals to give away for a 100% tax deductible gift of $10. 

Any thoughts?  Course, I have to learn to felt first, but I've completed all the other steps on this journey so far...

1. buy an Angora goat 
2. learn to shear
3. wash the resulting fiber
4. and card it.... now I'm up to 

• Learn to Dye Angora fiber (mohair)
• Learn to Felt
• Find a way to market said product
• and make a WHOLE BUNCH of felted animals!

Support a Russian Orphan with Special Needs this Christmas Season!

Me and My Blue Bucket

Some of the fun things I've done since we moved here to the new and improved Ruby Lane Farm World Headquarters are repairs.  I had a very wobbly mailbox, and it was set into some sort of metal spike which really was not doing the trick.  To fix it, I pulled out the post and spike, dug a hole with my trusty post-hole diggers and dropped in some cement.  I reset the post, and voila!  No more wobble and shake.  I bet the post man loves it.

I wonder if he likes the new (ahem) much lower height... something I didn't think of when resetting the post INTO the ground as opposed to atop the stake.

Heh heh.
Well, he hasn't said anything YET.

Then I decided we needed a rabbit pen because Nellie was all squished in that little wee cage in which we moved her.  Since the fellows who were helping me move sort of fell down on the job and did not get but one load of stuff, we lost out on a lot of the outdoor structures I had built previously for both chickens and rabbits. I looked around to see what we had on hand, as I didn't want to have to buy anything from the hardware/lumber stores. Here's what I came up with.

The plants were set in front of the door because I didn't have it hinged yet.  And this worked well - til it rained.  Then I added inside a little box to go under the ineffective tin roof. How cute!

But as it turned out, the little shelter was not nearly so cute as it was a stepping stone to freedom for Nellie. 

Little twit.

I'll show you more projects either completed or in process next blog.
Thanks for listening!
Love love.

Shame On Me!

It's been nearly a YEAR since I hit up my blog?  I'm blushing in shame.

In my defense, a LOT has happened this year!  Let me outline the highlights.

• We moved in December of 2010 (to a place that turned out not to be great.)
• We got two dogs from the shelter (they're still happy!)
• We bartered for a goat in milk (she's still in milk)
• We bartered for a mess of chickens (they are JUST starting to lay for me) AND we hatched some from our original three that were given to us when we moved in
• I did a lot of building around the place (fences, shelters, movable pens, milking stanchions)
• We had a huge garden/labor of love which all died in the drought (oh so sad!)
• I stayed sick at that house a LOT (combination of putrid cat urine permeating the house and tension due to the owner's daughter who lived across the street and made my life tense)
• I bought two goats for fiber and was given a rabbit for the same
• I moved again (to a place that is turning out to be absolutely lovely)
• I started school (more pre-reqs toward a degree, some of it online, some on campus)
• I got a job outside the home (care-taking)
• And I started getting counseling.

Now, am I forgiven?  Because that is  A LOT of goings-on!

I promise to update you more as to specifics on nearly all of it if you're interested... just now I have to go do chores!
Ciao!

Gratitude Came to a Halt

Well, I couldn't do it. I'll have to start again, maybe when I'm not starting a new job, trying to move, getting ready for Christmas.  :(

It's not that I'm not grateful, I am. It's that I'm allowing all the above stuff to come between me and being disciplined enough to gratefully blog each day for thirty days. Maybe I should practice blogging straight for thirty days before attempting to earn the gratitude badge.  :(

Eh.

Gratitude Day Fourteen

Tonight I am ever so grateful for the things that we take for granted that make housekeeping so much easier. Electricity for light, for the computer, for the tv that keeps me company and the radio that accompanies Tim, propane gas for cooking and heating, running water that I can use to wash my dishes and my clothes and my body.... If we were living a hundred years ago, I would be trying to clean up supper dishes by oil lamp, heating with a fireplace or wood stove, and not looking forward to washing my clothes by hand tomorrow.

Life IS a lot easier with all these conveniences.
When I talk about wanting to get back to basics, make my own soap, milk a goat for family consumption, grow a garden to put up my own food, it's not because I want things to be more difficult, or have a lack of appreciation for the conveniences of today, but rather because I want my family to eat healthfully, to live in health, I don't want to forget times gone by, nor the sacrifices our forerunners made for us, and sometimes it's just more fun to do things in an old-fashioned manner.

<And today was a lot better, after I had a nap. lol>

Gratitude Day Thirteen

Today I am really really grateful for the internet. Actually, not a day goes by that I'm not grateful for that and the power necessary to run the thing. It is my delicate string-line to sanity.

Most days I feel pretty decent and pretty well connected, but there are those days and sometimes days in a row, in which I do not feel well connected; I feel off-kilter and decidedly off balance, and the internet allows me to touch base with friends, loved ones, complete strangers, even, and this helps me to balance my emotions once again.

Today is turning into one of those slightly sideways days, and tonight (it's past 10pm) I'm really glad it's just almost over, and tomorrow's another day.

Gratitude Day Twelve

<This is a bit of a cheat because I just posted last night's gratitude, but as I mentioned, I had a friend over til way late, so I'm just now posting for both today and yesterday!>

I woke up this morning in a lot of pain. Part of it, surely, was the fact that I had overdone it yesterday, and gone to bed quite late...close to 1am.  It's 8:33 right now as I write this, and I'm in bed. That's more normal for me! lol  Another thing that is not normal for me is to feel much gratitude at all for modern medicine, but without it, I would not be able to hobble into the bathroom in search of ibuprofen first thing in the morning to help me feel better, or at 3pm to find the bottle of Excedrin migraine, and experience relief.

The problem I have is that I believe that most of my daily dose of pain is brought on by modern food production and preservation methods, so I find it rather difficult to be grateful for the medicines that are so affordable and close at hand because I feel I caused the pain myself, or we, as a society, did.

Still and all, I need to be grateful for these things, and more cautious with my body, what I put into it, to what I expose it, and then perhaps I will need fewer modern meds.  Wouldn't it be NICE to be able to go search out a willow tree and harvest a little old-fashioned aspirin when one had a headache? But wouldn't it also be a bother to have to go down to the creek with the harvesting tool and basket in order to get a little remedy?  I mean, it's super nice to walk into my bathroom (which I'm grateful is indoors!) and just pick up a bottle and swallow a pill; whether or not I caused the pain in the first place, whether the cure is worse than the cause, those are debates best saved for another day.

In Gratitude,
Rebecca at Ruby Lane

Gratitude Day Eleven

Last night when I went to bed I was thinking about Timmy and what a neat kid he is.

Yesterday I cooked him some scrambled eggs and sliced up some sausage to go with them.  Normally he won't eat eggs, but we've gone gluten free, recently, and so anytime he can get me to cook for him, he's eating!  Anyway, when I brought the pan over to him and starting scooping sausage into his bowl, I asked him how many. He said, "More."  I kept scooping.  And scooping. And scooping. (There were two links cut up.) I kept thinking at any point he would say, "That's enough." But he never did. I got to the last three and with each one he said 'more' til I did the last one and then he said, "That's enough."

I laughed so hard I thought I'd cry.
I don't know why certain things hit my funny bone like that, but he's such a straight guy that his sense of humor nearly always catches me off guard.

I'm very grateful for Timmy.

<This was last night's post.  I had unexpected company, and we talked til past midnight when she finally went home, so I did not post last night! Shame on me...>

Gratitude Day Ten

I'm bound-n-determined to be grateful for 30 consecutive days whether I feel like it or NOT!

LOL

Today I am grateful I didn't have to spend all day in pain like I spent all last night. I went to bed with a headache, which rapidly turned into a migraine, and I was unable to pinpoint its cause.  In the night I got up and took some Excedrin Migraine and two Aleve thinking that if my neck muscles could relax I'd be feeling better, and in the night my head somehow began to feel better. All day today I have felt as though I'm on the verge of a headache, though not like it was last night. Plus I've been super tired... could it be from taking two Aleve at some early hour of the morning? Very possible.  I get really tired when I take Aleve or Benadryl.

I took the day off. Normally I would push myself to do things I know I should do, such as finish cleaning up the apartment and repaint those walls... but I was just so exhausted from the move, the stress, the concern over money, that I just could hardly move. I took the day off.  Tomorrow, however, will be another thing entirely.  I have to get back over there and finish cleaning so that I can paint so that I can get (hopefully) our deposit back!

It's the only time in... YEARS that I have stayed my entire length of the contract, given appropriate notice and left the place clean and tidy. Now normally, I do leave a place clean and tidy, but I don't always stay as long as I think I will, and I certainly don't always give notice... I really believe my gypsy lifestyle has a lot to do with being bi-polar. Not an excuse; just sayin'.

So this time I did, and I'm very content within myself that I did what I was supposed to do, and that makes me feel good inside.  Now, to get on with really stretching out and living, in our new lovely home!!

Gratitude Day Nine

I skipped a couple days. Actually, I didn't so much skip, as miss.  I missed a couple days... BUT in my defense, I didn't actually have internet during those days because we were moving!

Now Ruby Lane Farm has a home! And for this I am grateful!!!
:D

I'm grateful for the additional SPACE we have here!
I'm grateful for the animal pens that are already in place here!
I'm grateful for the cats that already live here because it means we do not have a pet deposit, but there are pets available to us!
I'm grateful that Timmy is already settled in and seems so happy to be here!

All this and much more!
:)

So, as you can see, no shortage of gratitude here!
Happy Holidays!
Rebecca

Gratitude Day Six

Tired. So tired.
I am already this tired and haven't yet started moving!

I've been packing. And cleaning, here and at the new house.

Gratitude for the day:  Finances! Grateful I don't have to be gone from my home for 9 hours a day to earn an income. Grateful I get to stay home and do the things I love. Money is tight, but it is not non-existent, and I'm grateful for the Lord's provision!

And now I'm going to bed. :)

Gratitude Day Five

When I forget to be gratefully aware, I find myself easily bored, or when that comes to full term, depressed.

Today I was not grateful for anything. I just went about my day doing a whole lot of little sewing projects, irritated because I have no money (due to mismanagement) to buy the next round of things that will help those projects continue. For instance, I finished up a bunch of little stuff toys, but can't stuff them because I don't have money for gas to get to the fabric store or money to buy the stuffing.

I made Tim's pj's, but have no money for buttons.
So I wait.
I don't wait well. I don't do "in the meantime" well.  But I live so much of my life IN the meantime you'd think it would be old hat. It's not.

So today I am having to look a little deeper for gratitude and I came up with a couple.  First, it's a good temperature in my house... and cold outside. I have lights and the ability to use my electric appliances because my Pay As You Go account for electricity did not run out before the end of the month.  I will have more money in a few days, and my power did not get shut off. That's awesome.

I'm grateful I live alone (or with Timmy who really doesn't care) because no man I know would enjoy it as COLD in my house as I like it.  :)  That's all for now. I'm going to go eat some oatmeal, and be grateful for it.

Nocturnal arboreal herbivorous marsupials

Tim and I are watching some cartoon on tv.


"You do know about koalas don't you?

No.

Well, they're nocturnal arboreal herbivorous marsupials.

Americana please!

Oh. They're tree hugging, leaf eaters, and the ladies carry their young in pouches, mostly awake at night.

OH. HIPPIES."

So from now on, the penguins call the koalas "hippies".  ROFL

This just hit my funny bone.  :D

Gratitude Day Four

Today as I am packing up my apartment and watching The Marty Stuart Show on RFDtv, I am grateful for the peace that fills my heart in Jesus.

Gratitude Day Three

Today I am most grateful for my sewing machine. I remember last year I desperately needed one to make Christmas gifts, and this year I'm burning it up making Christmas gifts.

Also, I recently made a historical costume, a civil war era day dress, and was ever so glad to not be hand stitching it!  So I'm also grateful for electricity.  :)

Gratitude Day Two

Today my depression lifted. It's not because of anything anyone said or did or anything I did or thought...I think it might be as simple as a change in the weather. I didn't know a Northern was blowing in, although I knew the forecast called for somewhat lowered temps...from 82*F to about 78*F...it's 55*F now, though!

I love the cooler weather. Even rainy, I love it because it's cooler. I don't even mind rain, a lot or a little, as long as it's not humid after. Hot and humid is the norm here and we've had a long hot summer.  Even with the onset of fall we've had only two small breaks in the heat, so for this I am grateful.

Grateful for the weather change, and grateful for the lift of depression. These two things combined make me feel energetic and joyous. I have all kinds of craft and sewing and decorating ideas cluttering my thoughts, each vying for more attention than the next thought coming even more quickly on its heels. If I am slipping into mania, it's not full blown, it's only mild, and if indeed it is mania, we'll see a certain rush of activity that cannot even be stemmed by simple exhaustion.

Excellent timing, in fact, since we are now counting down to move day.  Six days to go!