Things We Did This Week

I thought I would show you a little Cork Oak Tree that my husband
grew from a acorn. In the fall when we went to our towns Central Park
they have these lovely giant, old Cork Oak trees. Since my husband loves
growing trees from seed, he collected them and did all the internet said to do
to get a tree from an acorn. He went out Saturday and there was all of these
little trees. He is so excited.

This is his other project and he is growing mushrooms.
The manure had to mold like this so he has been really excited
waiting for all of the steps to happen.

This is my flop of the week. I decided to make soap.
I had all of my fats, and lye and everything ready to go.
I got my scale out to measure everything, and the battery was
dead in my scale. I looked and looked finally came up with a battery.
I measured out my lye, and my water. I took both outside
to mix. I went back in the house to get my fats melted.
got that part done, and I started looking for my candy thermometer.
Which I never did find. So I used a meat thermometer instead, which
isn't real exact. It is supposed to be 98 to 95 degrees when you add the lye.
I went outside and my lye was 160 so I ran a sink of cold water and
set the jar inside the sink and the water and came back in the house.
My fats ( Crisco, Olive oil, Coconut oil) were about 140 as well.
I decided I would get on and read some blogs. I was gone a while I guess.
I took the temperature of my lye and fats and they wouldn't register. So
I thought, well that looks good. Poured my lye into my fats and stirred, for
30 minutes.

It was time for me to take my son to piano lessons so I just poured the not soap
into the box I prepared.

I cleaned off a shelf and very carefully put it in the pantry.
So that is where it sits. I figure if it doesn't get hard into soap
in a couple of weeks, I will have very nice hand soap. I forgot
how much I love the smell of home made soap. It smells so clean.
It was a good refresher course.


I also finished this today. I am glad I got it finished before
Valentines Day. This is from Betty at PrimitiveBetty's.
I don't know if I would have ever had the courage to start
doing counted cross stitch again if not for her sweet little patterns.
I just wanted to share some of the things we have been doing around,
"the farm," this week.
Have a lovely weekend.
~Kim~