More of Spring

This video was the very first day of spring & it just keeps getting busier out here. Happily, God has providentially granted us rain almost every other day so we don't have to spend too much time watering the gardens. Victor has a little "guerrila garden" up the hill w/ his special low-acid Mr. Stripey tomatoes & cukes he wants for pickles. It's up on the mountain somewhere secret. I found some potatoes sprouting up from last year & he asked for one. I handed it over & he tucked it in his black Tonka truck w/ shovel & disappeared.



Mike& I are having a "potato-off". I'm trying them in a tire tower & he's built a potato tower out of old shipping crates. We've used these crates for everything.



Who will grow the most? I found spouts coming up in the garden that I missed last harvest & he bought some from Lowes. Stay tuned...



We have at least one rat in the hayloft. I've actually seen it while up there & occasionally we find dead babies in the goat run that V & C like to feed to the chickens. Sometimes it feels like Lord of the Flies around here. In preparation for the goatlings birth Mike gave the goat shed a thorough mucking & found it! He blocked it in w/ cinderblocks & shot I won't say how many times. His trophy that the chickens wouldn't touch:



There's another one at least, I can hear it squeaking in the mornings when I'm doing chicken chores. Mike was getting water & saw a tail disappear over the roof. I saw a ratty whiskery pink nose peeking from the side of the slab in the chicken shed. These rats put me in mind of Garth Williams drawings of Templeton after he'd gorged himself. Salt & Pepper mindlessly leads her 10 babies (1 died) in there & I just know 1 will get taken out by the rat.



Here is Annie, still not having babies. I've just about decided she isn't pregnant. But wait!



Victor & Charlotte have taken them!



No, I found them this morning. Annie looked gaunt & there was a big spread of birth slime on the floor which I tossed w/ the rake & strawed over. It was quiet though so just thought she had lost a freaky mucous plug but there were the 2 little bucklings, one stuck under a pallet. They were shivering & it was fairly cool & overcast so I brought them in for an hour or so until the sun came out. Annie was starving so I took her to the front & fed her a goodly chunk of grain, alfalfa & a box of raisens. Unhappily through my negligence the white goat got a bath.



I had been running back & forth all morning misplacing things trying to figure out how to promote bonding while not dying of chill & running off of 2 cups of coffee w/out breakfast. Mike was at school. Victor was so good about holding the brown goat until his legs & the goat fell asleep so I said he might lay him on the towel in the tub & leave him. I was finishing up clothes & Miranda came out & proudly announced that she had "I shompoo baby doat!" Mike (who was back from school & making us breakfast) exchanged a look & went to see little white goat was covered w/ pink conditioner. I gave it a very warm rinse off in the laundry sink which as a detachable nozzle w/ shower option. He seemed to like it. But whatever special bonding smell that was on him got washed off. Annie shows fairly strong signs of rejecting him. She milks great & I'm getting enough to put in a bottle to feed him so we'll see if he makes it or not. We think it's funny how they're ears are half Nubian half La Mancha.





Well, it's a long day & I'm beat. It looks like we've got unexpected midnight feedings to do. We're thankful for all of the new life, & wisdom we've been given in the first short weeks of the season. Oh yeah, I also made my first batch of saurkraut. I followed Joannes directions implicitly so go check out her blog & pictures on how to make it if you'd like to. I used the rubber handle of a hammer to pound w/.

Root Cellar Progress

I have a difficult time updating projects as they go on. There is nothing inherently wrong w/ that, but the point of this blog is to keep friends & family posted as to what is going on & when. I just tend to wait until it's all put together & look pretty. So I apologize for not being current. Here is my new desktop picture of Mike looking super manly after COMPLETING THE ROOT CELLAR DIGOUT! He's holding the actual tools used to perform this feat.

He's about 5'10". BDU's are the best work clothes.

My uncle Cecil & our neighbor putting up forms in preparation of pouring the footer.

Our neighbor has a cement mixer & helped w/ a lot of the magic.

He's also the only one we know who knows how to lay block. I think Mike has it figured out now. You can never know too many things.

We're actually much further but that's all that's uploaded. Thanks to good neighbors, visiting family & church family for all of the help in this project.

Hair History, Thoughts & Tutorial

So, to start out & get up close & personal, I'm just going to put this out here & take your bad opinion on it। I don't wash my hair every day. Or every other day or even every 3rd day. That might not sound like love to you but hold on. Now, if I've been working in unrelenting sun & am absolutely soaked, then yes, I'll wash it, but I do it the old-timey way & generally wash it on Sat. so as to be fresh for church. Am I backwards? A hillbilly? I might be, but let me also say my hair has never been as healthy & less split on the ends than right now. Let me take a moment up front to clear my mother of this habit; if you know her then you'll know that she couldn't raise me this way. :)

A conversation I heard between my grandma & her friend Sister Fletcher (Pentecostal sister, not catholic. "Brother" & "Sister" replaced all of the misters & missus' at the church I grew up in.) stuck w/ me, marveling that all the young girls of today washed their hair every day. When grandma grew up, it was once a week, & they washed it w/ Tide, at that. Why did daily hair washing come about? I suspect advertising & photography in the glossy magazines & then television.

The Hegelian Dialectic was at work, changing the meaning of words. Oily & dirty at one time were not synonymous but Herbal Essences can't make money off of you if you're satisfied w/ your looks. Check out this article I found on keeping the hair pretty from 100 years ago. It urges in the strongest possible lady like terms of the times to not wash your hair oftener than every 3 weeks. In fact just do a google search of hair washing habits 100 years ago, it's just a completely opposite standard today.

For my part I've had oily hair all of my life। I was never made to feel that this was a good thing. Women of color can go weeks w/out hair washing & actually buy oils to put in their hair & they look great; sadly, from what I've read on other forums, a lot of them get looks & comments on the negative side when they go natural. Let a white person skip a hair wash & they're a dirty hippie. 12 hours w/out a wash for me & my hair would be begin to try to replace it's sebum. I now get the same amount of oiliness 4 days w/out a wash. And after that it's just starting.

It took a year (for me, I've read of some people being adjusted in as little as a month) to re-calibrate my sebum production by simply not washing it & the ol' 100 strokes w/ a boar bristle brush trick. No, it doesn't make your hair grow but it was at one time acknowledged as very beneficial to distribute the oils from your scalp down to the tips of your hair. Your hair needs the oil to protect itself. If it got dirty you could rinse the dirt off of the hair & the dirt would slide right off of the oil protected strands.

A headcovering while working also serves to keep hair clean. There is nothing but dirt here & we hope to make it our living. Now, if I'm in the sun, a straw hat hangs on the door to clap on on my way out, when I'm working in the shade I prefer a snood. A snood is eminently practical, especially w/ dirt flying from root cellar construction, or mucking the goat shed or getting the muck into the garden. Panicked chickens can't get their claws tangled. Miranda throwing flour on my head when I'm baking & she's at the counter & I'm cleaning one of her messes off of the floor all stays out of my hair. I've been very happy w/ Devorah's, her wide headbands too.

Since I do cover & wash occasionally, I am always on the look out for a new hairstyle because I do like to play w/ hair. I'm the person who was always trying to figure out how to put in Victory rolls & Marcel curves before styling products (rats, pins & sugar water) came about. This one I found is called Amish Braids, so you know it's good for wearing a headcovering. It's also very comfortable to sleep in. I had a 5 year old guest/model & I think her hair had not been washed in 2 days, it held really well.

Here's the halfway point, you can see all 3 sections.

Braid the top third.

Divide the middle section into 2 strands leaving the top braid to act as the middle strand.
It's a thicker more knobbly braid now.
And repeat for the last bit using the knobbly braid for the middle strand. You should have 2 braidzillas.
Now the tuck; there is a little gap that ought to be big enough for you to get 2 fingers under. Hook your fingers under & pass the tail of the braid through pulling it tight.

Like so.
And repeat for the other side. Much longer hair can be passed through the top gaps making another X. Maybe you can make another pass w/ super long hair.
Now cover it & get to work! This style is comfortable to sleep in (for me) & I can keep it up for about 3 days before I have to tighten it. I generally don't wear it all week as I like to give my hair a rest & a brush but if it's a busy time I'll tighten it for another day or so. And by tighten I just mean re braid the tails to pick back up the wispies.

Update on Oddments

Other things of note over here besides the quest for food:

1. The root cellar is completely dug out. I've got pictures but not uploaded. We're awaiting funds to buy some block.

2. My mom & her friend came to visit, it was nice. Mom bought us tires & gave me her beautiful old buffet, I've also got un-uploaded pictures of it. Thanks mom!

3. Miranda is weaned! I did so want to take it to 2 years but at 18 months I changed my mind. The cuddling was becoming more painful than anything & I was no longer able to purchase sleep w/ the nursing, so she's a big girl even saying "Pee pee" or "poo poo" sometimes when she needs to go. I feel myself at a loss because she is a big girl & I've not got a baby anywhere in sight.

4. Our school year is in full swing, tweaking as we go. Another post to come.

5. I am off of Facebook. As little as I posted it was still a time thief. I would be on & do what needed to be done in internet-land & instead of doing what needed to be done in real life I would go & read people. I kind of felt like a voyeur & had a false sense of friendship w/ people I didn't know & am no closer to my family or people I knew 20 years ago. There's a reason we no longer keep in touch & it's exhausting to think of maintaining a relationship w/ everyone I've ever met. So, if you want to talk send an email, I'll give out contact info.

6. I am on Earthineer, a social networking site for people setting out or into homesteading/ self sufficiency/urban chicken & bee keepers, etc.

We've been watching more tv, some good stuff.

V & C get 2 episodes of Liberty's Kids on Saturdays provided they've not watched anything else during the week. They just finished Common Sense.

Kid History is HILARIOUS. We all get some belly laughs, to the point of tears.

Tales from the Green Vally is an Off Off-Grid show showing a working farm back in the 1600's. We like those types & I was excited just now to see "Victorian Farm" "Edwardian Farm", "Tudor House" "1700's Minnesota Frontiersman House" & "The Wartime Garden". I love youtube! We're up to the March episode.

I found this 30 min. movie last night & felt sick watching it when not a single young person interviewed had any idea who Hitler was. It expanded into what the effects of that are; I do think it would be beneficial for everyone to see it & highly recommend it.

Critter Gifts

I briefly mentioned chickens in an earlier post; here's the expansion. My brother in law was very kind & gave us 2 chickens. We didn't have a coop for them for quite awhile so they lived in our camper shell after their week long mountain adventure. I caught Miss Pretty Hen in the goat shed when she came down 2 days later scratching around & shut Mr. Rooster in 5 days later into the camper after watching him from the kitchen door. He finally followed her calls & just walked in, a very anti-climatic end to the daily search & chase.


Mr. Rooster:

And Miss Pretty Hen. That is her personal laying basket. An egg appears like magic every day! My egg purchases are down 50%.

Then Mike got busy (again) & built an aviary out of his fairly new tool shed.


I had slightly suspicioned that the toolshed would be turned into a chicken coop but I didn't want to dishearten him as he was so pleased to have a woodshed. You can't have too many sheds & we're kind of going into animal condo's here.
However, the wonderful lady who came over & showed us all of the wild edibles had just seeded her grass & wanted to get rid of her flock as they were eating the seed. Our flock increased nearly 10 fold.

There are Buffs, Banty's, Aracauna's, a Japanese something w/ pretty blackish green feathers, a Silky, others, we've nearly 20 in all. Mr. Rooster did the funniest courtship dance/ display w/ every new arrival, hopping on 1 leg w/ 1 wing spread at a time. The noise level increases by the week & we are glad to have it so, but the "peaceful country" is a misconception, especially at 4:30 in the morning.
These are Aracuana eggs over from my brother in law's.


We keep them in the pantry. There is no earthly good reason to keep fresh eggs in the refrigerator. They'll stay in the nest for over a week to collect a large enough clutch before the hen goes broody (if she does). They have a special coating to seal in the freshness (developing chick) that is lost if they are washed which is why the eggs ought not to be washed. That super large egg? A Buff/Aracuana mix that for some reason or other is named Lady Gaga. I need to ask about that; I heard it mentioned when a bunch of soldiers acted out one of her songs & google overwhelms you when you search the name; this is such a sweet older lady, surely she can't know who is behind that name.

Anyway, Lady Gaga the chicken is a beautiful light gold color, lighter than the other Buffs & they are the head hens. Miss Pretty Hen seems depressed w/ their arrival & I feel badly for her. Her & Mr. Rooster had been free ranging the whole time but we've been keeping them in to get used to the other chickens who've not free ranged & as their arrival was staggered in 3 separate trips, their release date keeps getting pushed back. We plan to let them all out on Mon. to scratch & do their chicken things & we'll see how well Mr. Rooster handles his charge. I've a suspicion he'll have them all roost in the laurel rather than the coop, but we'll see.
We are so thankful to God for moving the neighbors hearts towards us allowing this further step of independence away from Factory Food & to rely on Him & also to my brother & sister in law (again) for being in place w/ a head start to show us the ropes.

The Newest Addition...

...is not a baby.
Victor is asking for a new baby already, Mike told him that when he was able to take over all of my chores & Miranda was a bit bigger, he would pray a special prayer to make that come about, but really, we need physical labor done around here right now & he won't let me work if I'm carrying.

We were listening to Michael Bunkers new radio show & he was reading a chapter out of his new book, Modern Religious Idols. I think it was chapter 8, The Idol of Feminization. Mike had never heard a Bunker rant before & it got him pumped up & mannish feeling; he declared he was going to dig a hole tomorrow! And he did. So I present: our root cellar.

When I say "our root cellar" I mean the very beginnings, I'll update as allowed, DV. Here Mike & Victor are breaking ground on site. It's right above my summer kitchen & all of my fruit bushes are down to the left. Though it does face south there is a mountain directly in front of it to block all of the afternoon sun, besides a bunch of shady trees.
Now, I have not dug a hole since digging my hasty fighting position during basic training in Ft. Sill. I was 18 then & had only a small utility shovel. I think it was early October, & I'd been there since the beginning of Aug., long enough for me to decide to never live in Ok. (Sorry Okies.) I've mentioned our special dirt before & it is just clay all of the way down so far, which is fine except we've had a very wet spring. Man , it's a workout.

Mike & I were in a digging mood about a week before this, w/ a conversation that went something like this: "Hey, how deep did you want the ditch in the goat shed?" "6 inches."

I started digging around the concrete pad & he jumped up to help & then recruited Victor to start filling buckets of gravel from the drive. Something he did NOT want to do. So I offered to pay him as it was above & beyond his regular chores. He consented warily & then Mike told him that if he spent his earnings on tools then he would match him in price. We had a french drain in about 2 hours.

Mike & Victor went to Ace a few days later & returned w/ a real untility shovel; $7.00 for Victor & the root cellar commenced. I get to swing the pick ax; I do shovel but I prefer the pick ax for its more immediate result. Here is about 3 days worth of work. It is not 3 consecutive days, or even one 12 hour day, but here & there between storms w/ a day or 2 to dry out & lighten up. Neither of us want an injury & his back goes out for the seemingly smallest reasons.

I had some fun which I probably ought not to have had. To pass the digging time I told V & C that there was a monster egg down below ready to wreak havoc on our county & it was up to us to dig down fast enough & far enough to reach it & save the town. There was so much speculation & older B horror movies are a regular thing at our house; they got into it much more than I thought they would & Charlotte had a nightmare, so I gave them an ending.
Victor has conjectured that a baby dragon hatched out of its egg during a storm & was crushed by a river of dirt wherewith our present day hill formed over it. Charlotte finds it plausible & I'm hoping the whole thing will just die. Our other between semesters project is (are?) chickens.

Garden Update

This might be one of the least attractive parts of food production, but certainly it's one of the most necessary & money saving. May I present the humble yet noble compost heap! Back in Va. we had one of those cool & jazzy compost makers that cost a ton, but it was basically a black bottomless trashcan. Our current system is less polished, but it works as well as our previous neighborhood association friendly container while producing WAY more. You just can't beat manure.
Emptying the kitchen compost pail is Charlotte's daily task & is a beginner chore for our house at around 2.5 years. I turn the pile every 3 months or so because I'm lazy & the gardens get a blanket of it in the fall & immediately after I've harvested something.


This is some kind of volunteer that has sprung up around the compost pile. I haven't figure it out yet, but so far the goats are leaving it alone.


Here's the bulk of it. It's mostly just a little kitchen garden, we've got 1 square of beans, 4 of garlic, 2 potatoes, 2 strawberries, a seriously struggling square of spinach, a square in which I keep planting new things that never appear & the the entire southern end is for vining crops, also not yet out. I've also planted some carrots, peppers & echinacea, DV, they'll appear w/ all of the rain we're receiving. 4 tomatoes are in the earth boxes at the foot of the garden. We're really hoping to keep ahead of the horn worms this year.


A close-up of the strawberries. This is our second year w/ them, the goats got at them twice last year so our harvest was minimal. They've sent out some runners, new crowns & they're still not worth the space I've given them, we've gotten more than last year already. I hope to be able to clear some land by the stream & transplant them down there if I can prevent a raccoon buffet, which brings me to my next personal project:


Clearing land. There is just so much of it to be done, I kind of just have been shoving it on the back burner. I got this much done in 2-3 of Miranda's nap times; I worked until I needed the chainsaw, which Mike very obligingly did. They're so dangerous, I won't touch one. This plot I had intended for sweet potatoes. It's a race to see who will be done first, slipping sweet potatoes, or bearing strawberries? The soil is good, fluffy & acidic, so we'll see.


Here are my sweet potatoes waiting patiently. 2 didn't make it & grew moldy, the rest are holding on. I have since read that January is the time to start slips, but as they are a heat loving plant, I'm sure I would just kill them doing that, my winter sink area temperature is in the low 60's, unless I'm cooking in there. Their companion is a basil, that needs to be outside before I pluck him to death. The african violet is a full time resident.


Rootlets! Proof of life! I've read that you can get 50 slips from one sweet potato half, I'm hoping this is true. I've got 4 left & they're putting out purplish leaves as well. I have no idea what kind of sweet potatoes (or what the regular potatoes) are, #10 all purpose potato & whatever sweet potatoes Aldi's sells.


Here is a cool tree stump on the way to my next plot. It was cooler as a tree, but still neat how it holds on:



And here is the next land plot to clear. Either the sweet potatoes, strawberries, carrots or maybe a melon will go down here. It depends on whatever is ready first. I've gotten a good bit of it done, but I need to drag the whole pile I threw over the stream to the burn/ or split pile before Mike comes w/ the chain saw so we don't start a forest fire.

My project is on halt because Mike has needed some help building a chicken house & we've commenced on the root cellar. After digging for a couple of hours I don''t feel like clearing, especially in our present humidity. We woke up at 5:30 to escape the worst of it & have cooked out the last 2 days to keep the heat out of the house. It is 9:00 & I AM BEAT. Good night, all.

April Critters

It has been a BUSY week here. We've got extra family in which means more suppers, outings, visiting & just more back & forth than is generally usual. V & C are having such a good time w/ their grandma & uncle; I get lonely & miss them, but she's only here for another week before we haveto go back to normal. They've been staying over there twice a week or so, the librarian & store clerks are thinking I've ax murdered them or something, they've not been in town much at all these 6 weeks last. Mike & I are planning an Off Off-Grid experiment in the next week or so for spring break. He asked me if I would rather dig a root cellar or flip the breaker? I'm trying to persuade him to do both; w/ the switch flipped it's unlikely that we'll be spending as much time as we do on the internet. He countered that he would really enjoy a shower after 2 or 3 days of digging which I can completely understand. I do plan on helping though & was thinking that maybe we could go swim in the lake or creek afterwards. The lake is at a park w/ grills so we could cook there. I don't know, just thinking out loud. I'll try & record it in long hand & post the highlights. Cooking full time outside is a daunting idea for me, simplification in everything. Less clothing changes, less side dishes, more planning ahead. I think we're just going to sink a cooler into our stream for cold stuff. Our whole front yard & fire pit is fenced in & doing anything will mean doing it w/ curious goats trying to help...but really badly. Which brings me to our newest blessings... Sam. I don't have picture loaded or even taken yet in some cases but Sam is our 6 month old Labrador Retriever. (Did you know Labs originate from Newfoundland & not Labrador?) Sam is trained to fetch & sit though he needs some practice. He is a very sweet puppy w/ loads of energy & very affectionate. He keeps the goats on their toes (actually the culvert) as he likes to run & though he was a beautiful dog, since he discovered the stream on the 3rd day he's a pretty muddy mess & needs a brushing often. The front is starting to resemble a rodeo ground. Buck was somewhat useful the other day. She came in & settled down deliberately in front of the woodstove, but not on the tile to stay cool as she ususally does. She stared at the stove, not twitchy or concerned but definitly not moving either, Miranda bear crawling & Charlotte running didn't send her under the bed. After about 2 hours it was unsettling me & I told Mike she was sick or something. He thought to amuse her & opened the stove door & she was in the stove as fast as Tom Tildrum. He gabbed her fur & an Eastern Bluebird flew out right in his face freaking him out. This is the very same bird that the great state of Missouri has claimed, though I'm not sure why. Mo. is smack dab in the middle of the country. He flew around all crazy & got himself wedged between the kitchen window screen & glass. I ran out to get the ladder as the window is a good 12' high & the screens are only removeable from the outside. He chirped furiously as he made his escape to some neighboring tree. We also received 2 chickens but they flew out of the carrier before we even had them & took off up the mountain. I chased them for a good 45 min. on the 70 degree slope covered w/ loggers detritus trying to flush them out of the laurel but to no avail. They slept out the first night. I finally caught the hen the next day; she was roosting on the goats fence & I got her cornered inside. It's true what is said concerning chickens hanging upside down by their feet, it does hypnotize them. Does that sound weird? I started to type "It's true what they say about chickens, etc." but who is "they"? So I made it more awkward in order to be proper; I dislike what "they" say whenever they've not been identified. The rooster is still out there crowing up the mountain somewhere, if he doesn't come down tomorrow we're going on a chicken hunt if some critter hasn't gotten to him yet. We had a fairly strong storm w/ tornado warnings & everything pass through. Ice cube size hail but we were out at one of those family suppers. I had planted 5 fruit bushes not 3 hours before we left I'm curious to go out & inspect them but it's dark time & still lightning-y. Church tomorrow; we've spent the last year going through 1st Timothy, verse by verse. A 5 or 6 weeks series on marriage is going on & we're enjoying it immensly. Mike is going to give out our copy of Surviving Off Off-Grid to the pastor, he enjoys having his worldview challenged & arguing. I've read it twice & we plan on buying as we are able on April 15th.

Spring Update

We've been sick this last week, but thankfully only on the gloomy blah days. It is wonderful to be healthy & working in the warm sunshine. I'm a day behind on everything this week but nothing has gone up in flames, so we're good.

Mike has started reading Surviving Off Off-Grid & we're having some serious conversations in fun. Training days for instance. We'd like to flip the breaker switch for a couple of days & see what we encounter & put a system in place to deal w/ it. We were thinking of putting a system for water in front of our culvert but while mucking out the goat shed I realized that there's probably a lot of run off that could potentially be harmful. I started to bring it up but he finished my sentence before it was out so we hope to find a different solution.

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Mike has put up a new shed & turned the old shed into our new woodshed. He's anxious to get one hilly area cut & split so we can bulldoze it flat & plant a bit of pasture or orchard. Maybe chickens could run there too? We'd like to make a chicken tractor & find out. It's kind of like a lean-to & he's packed it full.

Here's the back view...

And I thought his closure very cleverly contrived. The shells don't snag the bungee cords like nails do.

We are actively searching for a billy goat. Annie is so big & getting more muscle-y looking every week. Abigail was a runt & though she is bigger I think we're going to hold off on breeding her until next year.

We had dentist appointments yesterday. Victors 6 year molars are poking through though he's just 5 & none of his front teeth are loose. The dentist was a goodly portion of our tax return & the cheapest one around. I think he specializes in pulling teeth. The guy in the room next to us was getting a tooth pulled. A rough looking couple in the waiting room were also there for teeth pulling. My sister in law had had an abscess & needed teeth pulled, she referred him to us.

This was the oldest dentist I've ever seen, easily 70. He worked fast & mercilessly & our teeth lightened several shades under his care. He used a very old dental unit & as I listened to the receptionist type I realized I was hearing the clacking of type-writer keys. He very satisfactorily told us that we would all have teeth in our heads for a very long time, barring accidents & that we weren't plaque traps. Hooray!

To Apron or Not to Apron

My favorite house keeping blogger is back so I'm on a domesticity/ housecleaning spurt, please bear w/ me. One of the topics that came on the discussion board was aprons. I don't wear one all day. In fact, mine all look pretty frumpy, but I do have an apron for my different "house stations". The one that gets the most use hands down is my clothespin apron, it comes off & on several times a day & lives on the washer.

My previous clothespin bag was a black purse that I received for a x-mas gift back in 8th grade when I began my goth spurt from my aunt. We've come a long way, yes Aunt S-? It dry rotted last year & wasn't really conducive to this line's placement for some reason. I received this vintage pillow case to practice my machine stitching when I was learning how to sew so I picked out all of the many black practice seams, closed up the open side, cut out some pockets & bias tape & added a waist band. I love it! It holds a lot of clothespins.


By the by, Victor is my photographer; 5 is like a magical age! They can do everything over night. He greatly prefers silly & ghastly faces, so that may be a lot of what you see here for awhile.

This is my yard apron, denim & linen, very sturdy. It is some 70's pattern. I will never make a gathered denim skirt again. I love the pockets though.


It keeps the white hair off of you & any flying muck. A must on rainy days.

This is my cooking apron, I don't use it too often. It's the scalloped reversible from The Paisley Pincushion. It's a bread day & this is my baking side, lighter for flour.

And the sauce side. I made like 7 of these in a row, mine & Charlottes were the first & I put on all of our pockets wrong, but it does the job!

The back view. You can see the crossover straps better on Charlotte's & also where I sewed her pockets on the back instead. Hers is the same denim/ linen combo as my yard apron.

I'm wearing a denim shirt today, it doesn't show up too well but this is my canning apron. This was actually a denim jumper of the potato sack kind. It worked good for maternity; in the later months I would put the jumper on first & then a pretty top, so as to look like a skirt. Mike hated it unless I was actually showing/ pregnant. When we moved here I had 3 people say to me in 1 town day, "Oh, you must homeschool." I cut a strip out of the middle & added a strip of my diminishing linen stash for a waist band. It doesn't match, but it is serviceable.

Back view.

I like this one best; maybe since it was originally a dress the straps don't slip down. But, there is my stash, show yours if you've got them.