Crafty Girl

This has been an exceedingly mild winter by my standards. Most days have been in the low 30s, we’ve had at least 3 major thaws and very little snow fall so far. It’s colder and snowier this week than it has been thus far and it’s not like we can say winter is over as we tend to get snow into May. Anyway, the weather has been very weird for northern Michigan.

I do, in fact, still knit. Just very slowly. I’m almost done with my Ribby Cardi. All the pieces are done and I’ve got it blocking right now. Just have to sew it together, make the collar, add the button bands and attach a zipper. Hmm, sounds like a lot.

We met another family in the area that feels the same as we do about farming and raising animals. We were looking for someone to butcher our meat chickens this summer and found the Bakers in Marion. They are way more sustainable than us. They have a great farm and raise lots of hogs (by lots, they might have 30 or 40 right about now), chickens, beef, etc. They have milk goats! The husband recently quit his off farm job and is doing custom butchering. What does it say about me that I am a little envious of their life? We’ve been out there a couple of times and always end up talking for hours.

We survived the holidays without serious mishap. The stomach flu has been going around and we’ve managed to escape that as well. We both felt like we were getting upset stomachs and broke out the raw ginger. That stuff rocks! No it doesn’t taste that good but it works for me. Maybe it’s all in my head.

With our recylcling and composting efforts we’ve reduced our weekly trash to one or two kitchen sized garbage bags. Not bad. I found the recycling center and was sad to discover that as far as plastic goes, they only accept #1 & #2 plastics. I’m also disappointed in the hair gel I use. They don’t label the bottle as to what type of plastic it is.

They hens are now laying at full capacity. We’re getting about 16 eggs a day. We need to find a profitable outlet! So far the excess eggs are going to friends and family, but it costs us about $9/week to feed them. But it is so worth it. They taste great!